Objective: To report different clinical presentation of child physical abuse and propose a method for classifying its severity as applied to a program that provides assistance for children and adolescents under risk in Curitiba, in Southern Brazil. Methods: The study comprised four phases: involvement and assessment of the implementation of the network that provides assistance for children and adolescents under risk; development of a method to classify abuse according to its severity level in childhood and adolescence; training health professionals to identify beforehand cases of abuse and how to apply the proposed classification method and to notify the authorities; analysis and interpretation of collected data. Results: 1,537 cases were notified in 2003 and 1,972 in 2004; 93% of them were considered as domestic abuse. In those cases of domestic abuse, in 2003 and 2004 respectively, negligence was reported in 40.7 and 61.7%; physical violence occurred in 35.1 and 26%, sexual abuse in 17.6 and 7.7% sexual abuse, and psychological stress in 6.6 and 4.6%. Gender was not significantly different among victimized subjects, but the main age interval among victims was five to nine years old. In 2003, severity was classified as mild in 8.2%, moderate in 41.8%, and severe 40%. In the following year, 33.9% of the cases were identified as mild, 35.4% as moderate, and 30.7% as severe. 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