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Child abuse

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In Focus: Drug Courts

Date Published
April 2022
Series
OJJDP In Focus
Publication Type
Report (Technical Assistance), Program/Project Description, Grants and Funding
Agencies
OJJDP

Children’s Advocacy Centers

Teens face in shadow

April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month.  Child abuse takes place in every part of the population and takes many forms.  Children suffer from neglect, endure physical and sexual abuse, are exploited by pornographers and sex traffickers, and become collateral victims of drug abuse and other types of maltreatment every single day in America.  Fortunately, Children’s Advocacy Centers (CACs) across the nation are providing critical...

Implementation Sites Project

Date Published
October 2019
Publication Type
Report (Technical Assistance), Report (Grant Sponsored), Program/Project Description
Agencies
OJJDP-Sponsored

OJJDP March/April 2019 News @ A Glance Video Message

April 2019

Caren Harp, OJJDP Administrator, March/April 2019 Video Message: Renewing our commitment to preventing the physical, emotional and sexual abuse of children. OJJDP partners with the Children's Bureau (CB), supports the National Children's Alliance SHINE campaign, offers webinars through its National Mentoring Resource Center, works with local child advocacy centers, Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) programs, and more to help free the nation's children from violence and neglect.  Video run time: 3:41 min.

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SMART Forges Partnerships to Manage Sex Offenders

people
Opening speakers at the 2019 National Symposium on Sex Offender Management and Accountability included (from left) Theresa Faris, Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes; John R. Lausch Jr., U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Dawn Doran, acting SMART Office Director; Stacie B. Harris, National Coordinator for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction, Department of Justice; and John F. Clark, President/CEO of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

On July 27, 1981, 6-year-old Adam Walsh entered a Florida department store with his mother. He was abducted by a stranger, and his remains were found two weeks later. The tragedy of the young boy's murder—a brutal crime that was never brought to trial—shocked the nation. His devastated family and supporters channeled their grief and anger in a positive way―to protect other children from sexual...

Visiting Our Partners at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children

NCMEC Visit
"I so appreciated getting a behind-the-scenes tour of NCMEC’s extraordinary operations to save children and am so proud of OJP’s long partnership with them." @missingkids -Katie Sullivan at NCMEC.

By Caren Harp, Administrator, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) is a critical partner to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), serving as a resource to help find missing children, reduce child sexual exploitation, and prevent child victimization. Since its founding in 1984, NCMEC has helped recover more than 296,000 missing children...

Gangs

There is no single definition of a gang, but there are a number of widely accepted criteria for classifying groups as gangs (Decker and Curry, 2003; Esbensen et al., 2001; Klein, 1995; Miller, 1992; Spergel, 1995). This review used the following criteria: (1) the group has three or more members, generally aged 12-24; (2) members share an identity, typically linked to a name and/or symbols...

Children Exposed to Violence

A study of a national sample of American children found that over the past year 60 percent were exposed to violence, crime, or abuse in their homes, schools, and communities. Almost 40 percent of American children were direct victims of 2 or more violent acts, and 1 in 10 were victims of violence 5 or more times. Children are more likely to be exposed to...