Book excerpt: "Initially this book was intended to raise awareness among health and public health professionals about what is known about the evolving understanding of the multifaceted and toxic nature of bullying, as a psychosocial stressor, linked to a wide range of morbidity and prevalent across social settings, along the lifespan and around the world. In this context this book was primarily aimed at fostering the role of health and public health practitioners in developing strategies for the prevention and detection of bullying and treatment of its associated health risks. The recognition, during the process of developing this book, that bullying is a type of maltreatment which may be associated with other forms of victimization, led me to go beyond the notion of bullying and explore the spectrum of maltreatment"--