Publications

This publication explores the intersection between childhood trauma and exposure to life-threatening experiences and the juvenile justice system, including facility exposure and continuous exposure to violence, experiences in juvenile court, and the trauma children experience when crossing over from child welfare to dual involvement in juvenile justice. 

Children, youth and young adults who are survivors of traumatic events during their formative years often encounter multiple human services and legal systems, requiring a linking of systems approach.  The authors highlight efforts in four jurisdictions that extend beyond the Linking Systems of Care demonstration project where there is successful linking two or more systems that serve victims of child maltreatment or family violence. 

The Office for Victims of Crime has released a Vicarious Trauma Toolkit (VTT).  The VTT is an OVC Training and Technical Assistance Center website that helps to support victim-serving agencies to address the occupational challenge of providing services to victims of crime and the vicarious trauma that staff experience by providing services. The toolkit is designed with tutorials and videos to help users learn about the toolkit and begin addressing the negative effects of vicarious trauma on staff and employees. The VVT is also supported by an OVC webinar series introducing the resource with expert speakers.

This toolkit publication is authored by Equal Justice USA and is intended to provide practical guidance to encourage community-based organizations to apply for Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) funds within their respective states.   The authors provide background on VOCA, how this federal grant-making program is structured, how to develop a working budget, and how to administer a VOCA grant once it is awarded. 

Tools included in the publication appendices include a self-assessment worksheet, and a series of sample administrative materials, such as VOCA request for proposal announcements, client tracking data items, confidentiality agreements and much more.

This is a brief article authored by the Linking Systems of Care, Co-Chair, Hon. Ramona Gonzalez that appears as the lead article in the ACES Too High News.  Judge Gonzalez introduces the LSC work through a lens of child abuse and neglect and the trauma endured by children who disclose maltreatment.

During National Crime Victims Week, 2018, members of the Linking Systems of Care Steering Committee published six essays embracing the theme Expand the Circle: Reach All Victims.

This publication presents the lessons learned during the Linking Systems of Care (LSC) national project.  The report introduces the LSC principles that the four LSC demonstration sites (Montana, Virginia, Illinois and Ohio) embarked upon implementing between January 1, 2015 and September 30, 2018, and is a valuable resource for other jurisdictions considering starting a project around the LSC Guiding Principles.

In addition to narrating the lessons learned, the report provides advice about additional considerations that the project's advisory commitee of national experts and its national training and technical assistance partners should examine moving forward.

Having a safe neighborhood is important for positive child and youth development. Neighborhoods that are unsafe are associated with high rates of infant mortality and low birthweight, juvenile delinquency, high school dropout, child abuse and neglect, and poor motor and social development among pre-school children. Conversely, children who live in highly supportive neighborhoods have positive outcomes such as stronger connections with family, peers and community, and greater participation in out-of-school time programs, volunteering, and religious services. Neighborhoods with high levels of crime are often densely populated, mixed use areas (businesses and residences in the same area), with concentrated poverty, a transient population, a high proportion of single-parent households, and dilapidated buildings. Children and adolescents living in neighborhoods characterized by crime or disorganization are more likely to become victims of violent crime and to perpetrate acts of violence. Children who witness crime and violence are more likely to experience social and emotional problems such as aggression, stress, and withdrawal, as well as delinquency and low school achievement.

Dating violence—being hit, slapped, or physically hurt by an intimate partner—can cause emotional and physical harm to both males and females, though females are more likely to report physical injury. Adolescents who report being victims of dating violence are at increased risk for low self-esteem, and are more likely to report poor emotional well-being, suicidal thoughts and attempts, risky sexual behaviors, pregnancy, cigarette smoking, and disordered eating. While males and females often report experiencing similar levels of dating violence, research has shown that dating violence by females is often defensive. Risk factors that are associated with violent teens include substance abuse, conflict and abuse in the home, harsh or inattentive parenting, antisocial and delinquent peers, and living in neighborhoods where crime and drug use are prevalent. Factors protective against teens becoming perpetrators of violence include warm, supportive relationships with parents or other adults, parental monitoring, commitment to school, and perceived penalties for doing something wrong.

Children are more likely to be exposed to violence and crime than adults are. An experience of violence can lead to lasting physical, mental, and emotional harm, whether the child is a direct victim or a witness. Children who are exposed to violence are more likely to suffer from attachment problems, regressive behavior, anxiety, and depression, and to have aggression and conduct problems. Other health-related problems, as well as academic and cognitive problems, delinquency, and involvement in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems, are also associated with experiences of violence. Even community violence that children do not directly witness has been shown to affect negatively children’s attentional abilities and cognitive performance.

Child maltreatment (a term that encompasses both abuse and neglect) is associated with physical injuries, delayed physical growth, and neurological damage.1 Child maltreatment is also associated with psychological and emotional problems, such as aggression, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder.2 In extreme cases, child abuse and neglect can lead to death. In 2014, approximately 1,546 children died as the result of abuse or neglect.3

The experience of events or conditions that cause inordinate stress to the maturing brain (and the associated neurological, immune-response, and hormone systems) can negatively affect development in childhood. Although stress exists on a continuum, and varies across individuals, situations, and ages, certain life experiences are typically accompanied by levels of biological stress that research has shown can be toxic.

Sexual identity and sex of sexual contacts can both be used to identify sexual minority youth. Significant health disparities exist between sexual minority and nonsexual minority youth. However, not enough is known about health-related behaviors that contribute to negative health outcomes among sexual minority youth and how the prevalence of these health-related behaviors compare with the prevalence of health-related behaviors among nonsexual minorities.

YRBSS data are used widely to compare the prevalence of health behaviors among subpopulations of students; assess trends in health behaviors over time; monitor progress toward achieving 21 national health objectives for Healthy People 2020 and one of the 26 leading health indicators; provide comparable state and large urban school district data; and help develop and evaluate school and community policies, programs, and practices designed to decrease health-risk behaviors and improve health outcomes among youth.

This table provides the leading cause of death by age group among injury deaths in the United States in 2015.

"In recent years, increased attention has been focused on children who may be affected by violence in the home, either as victims or as witnesses to domestic violence. The term domestic violence includes intimate partner violence, intrafamily violence, and domestic assault committed against an individual by someone with whom the victim has or had an intimate relationship. Research shows that even when children are not direct targets of violence in the home, they can be harmed by witnessing its occurrence."

Unhealthy relationships can start early and last a lifetime. Teens often think some behaviors, like teasing and name-calling, are a normal part of a relationship. However, these behaviors can become abusive and develop into more serious forms of violence.