Assessing for potential physical abuse is a fundamental task for those professionals undertaking assessments of parents involved in care proceedings. One tool developed to help assist in this endeavour is the Child Abuse Potential (CAP) Inventory (Milner, , ). The CAP Inventory provides an estimate of parental risk of child abuse and is one of the most widely used psychometric tools by psychologists in child protection settings. This review evaluates the psychometric properties of this measure and provides an overview of its potential uses, as well as its limitations. It concludes that there is evidence to support the validity and reliability of the CAP Inventory for use in care proceedings. Specifically, the review indicates that the CAP Inventory has good levels of reliability and validity (construct, content and concurrent). The only aspect of validity for which there is a lack of evidence is that of predictive validity and this is due to a dearth of prospective studies. Given the above, the practical, clinical and ethical implications for the use of the CAP Inventory in the assessment of parents involved in care proceedings are discussed. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. ‘There is evidence to support the validity and reliability of the CAP Inventory for use in care proceedings’ Key Practitioner Messages: The CAP Inventory is one of the most widely used tools in child protection settings. A critical evaluation revealed that the tool has strong psychometric properties. Practitioners can be confident in the validity and reliability of the CAP Inventory. The CAP Inventory is able to detect potentially abusive individuals in situations (such as parenting capacity assessments) where they are keen to present a positive (but misleading) impression of themselves.