On March 29, 2018, President Donald J. Trump proclaimed April as National Child Abuse Prevention Month and called on all Americans to invest in the lives of our nation’s children.

Every day, far too many children across the country are exposed to physical, emotional, and/or sexual violence in their homes, schools, or communities. According to the OJJDP-sponsored 2014 National Survey of Children’s Exposure to Violence, nearly 61 percent of children surveyed had at least one form of direct exposure to violence, crime, or abuse in the past year. Ten percent of children had six or more direct exposures. Exposure to violence can cause children significant physical, mental, and emotional harm with long-term effects that can last well into adulthood.

Every April since 1983, communities across the country renew their commitment to ensuring the safety of children during National Child Abuse Prevention Month. OJJDP provides resources to support practitioners, researchers, and communities as they seek solutions to address child abuse and raise public awareness about the issue.

Through its Victims of Child Abuse Act programs, OJJDP provides support to children and families for the response to and healing of child abuse. The Office funds the development and expansion of children’s advocacy centers (CACs) nationwide and provides training and technical assistance for local CACs as well as child abuse professionals and prosecutors. Children’s advocacy centers coordinate the investigation and prosecution of child abuse cases and the treatment of victims using a proven multidisciplinary team approach. In 2017, 854 CACs served more than 334,000 children nationwide.

Protecting children has become more challenging with the prevalence of Internet access. OJJDP’s Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task force program helps state and local law enforcement agencies prevent, interdict, and investigate technology-facilitated child sexual exploitation and Internet crimes against children. Since the program’s inception in 1998, ICAC task forces have reviewed more than 775,000 complaints of alleged child sexual victimization. These investigations have led to the arrest of more than 83,000 individuals.

There are 61 ICAC task forces nationwide with at least 1 in each state. Each task force conducts Internet safety outreach to increase public awareness of and prevent online child exploitation. In the past year, the task forces made more than 12,600 presentations on Internet safety and educated approximately 1.4 million people about potential dangers on the Internet.

The Office supports additional initiatives to address child abuse, violence, and neglect. The following are a few examples of OJJDP’s work:

• The OJJDP-funded National Center for Missing & Exploited Children offers critical intervention and prevention services to families and supports federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies in cases involving missing and exploited children. The center’s 24-hour telephone hotline (800–THE–LOST, or 800–843–5678) has become the nation’s centralized reporting system for suspected child sexual exploitation.
• With OJJDP support, the Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs manages the AMBER Alert program, which issues media alerts on radio, television, highway signs, wireless devices, and social media when a law enforcement agency determines that a child has been abducted and is in imminent danger. The program is in its 22nd year of operation and, as of March 2018, has helped rescue 924 children.
• With support from OJJDP, the National Academies’ Institute of Medicine and National Research Council have developed comprehensive guides for victim service providers, legal professionals, and health care professionals who work with children who have experienced, or are at risk of experiencing, commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking. The guides are derived from the OJJDP-commissioned report, Confronting Commercial Sexual Exploitation and Sex Trafficking of Minors in the United States, which provides a comprehensive overview of the issues and recommendations for action.

Resources:

Visit the National Criminal Justice Reference Service and the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS’) National Child Abuse Prevention Month website to find the latest resources and outreach materials on engaging communities in the prevention of child abuse. HHS’ 2018 Prevention Resource Guide: Keeping Children Safe and Families Strong in Supportive Communities focuses on protective factors that build on family strengths to foster healthy child and youth development.

OJJDP’s Model Programs Guide provides comprehensive information and resources on risk factors, protective factors, and evidence-based strategies for assisting children and youth exposed to violence and victimization.

The Office’s Child Forensic Interviewing: Best Practices highlights evidence-based approaches to interviewing children in cases of alleged abuse.