[Perpetrators of child abuse].

The authors have deliberately left out the historical background. They have endeavoured to throw light on the personalities of beaten children's parents. This study has made use 31 records of psychiatric expertises. It confirms what a favourable background young age represents for the child victim of his parents' brutality, as well as a frustrating social economic background, alcoholism, and an unhappy childhood for the parents. It also demonstrates that, besides those determining factors, there exists in the parents a genuine psychopathology which legitimates a new therapeutic approach.