Violence is a social and public health phenomenon, with greater exacerbation when it affects children, causing an impact on child development and a catastrophic impact on the behavior of an adult life. The purpose of this article is to characterizing by the scientific evidence child abuse on the brasilian scene. There was used the integrative literature review and, as a source of research, the databases Lilacs and Scielo from August 2013. Among the six identified publications showed negligence as the main type of violence, five discoursed that Male gender is the most affected gender and ten stated that the perpetrator is always a family member. Also in this heart, it becomes clear that the parents are the greatest perpetrators of violence against children, especially the mother as the most frequent aggressors. The results demonstrate the need to identify early all types of violence, especially the neglect, recognizing that there is no significant distinction of violence between the genders and sharing the family environment as the most conducive environment for the growth of violent events.