IACP Working For You: Trauma-Informed Policing: Responding to Children Exposed to Violence

Millions of children and adolescents in the United States are exposed to violence as victims or witnesses in their homes, schools, and communities every year. Findings from the second National Survey of Children’s Exposure to Violence (NatSCEV II), conducted in 2011, revealed that more than half of the children in the United States have been exposed to or have witnessed violence, crime, and abuse, including domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking, school violence, community violence, or property victimization. Research also shows that the exposure to violence in childhood has significant immediate and longer-term emotional and physical consequences for those exposed.