This updated book, first published in 1974, is even more pertinent today as busy, working parents often do not take time to predict perils to their children such as inadequate caregivers and lurking predators. Soman, a social worker, maintains that "Many of America's severe problems — crime, discontent, family breakdown, drug addiction — would have been considerably far less severe (and ameliorated to a large extent) if our society chose to put its money where its mouth is with the programs and plans that most directly affect the well-being of the population group known as the young.