The mission of the Center on Violence Against Women and Children (VAWC) at the Rutgers University School of Social Work is to strive to eliminate physical, sexual, and other forms of violence against women and children and the power imbalances that permit them. This mission is accomplished through the use of a collaborative approach that focuses…

As trusted health professionals in the school setting, school nurses are well positioned to identify students who may be victims of commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC). However, until recently this issue has been clouded by lack of awareness, stigma, and/or denial. Since nationally the average age of entry for girls into the…

Mexico is a multiethnic country with large groups of indigenous populations that experience disadvantages in education due to a quadruple burden of poverty, indigeneity, rurality, and gender. This policy brief proposes alternative practices for improving the educational opportunities for indigenous Maya girls living in the Yucatán peninsula in…

Objective: The purpose of this study was to identify common and unique risk factors for intimate partner violence (IPV) among young adults in relationships. Guided by two models of IPV, the same set of risk factors was used to examine outcomes of unidirectional (perpetration or victimization) and bidirectional (reciprocal) IPV separately for males…

This study examines the efficacy, as experienced by offenders with their victim, of self-protection strategies used in child sexual abuse cases. It also investigates whether the efficacy of self-protection varies according to victim characteristics. The sample consists of 94 adult offenders who sexually abused a single child and who agreed to…

In this article, Sioux Hall promotes using a strengths-based approach to examine the interruption of the intergenerational cycle of child abuse and explores the strategies that women who were abused by a parent as children used to raise their children without abuse. She documents the mothers' uses of strategies such as vowing to protect and…

Educator sexual misconduct has received increasing attention over the past decade. The attention has exposed a number of concerning issues, including a lack of formal research in the area and difficulties in recognizing and prosecuting cases. Public responses to high profile cases of sexual misconduct involving female teachers suggest that…

Objectives: Few studies have addressed the long-term consequences of adverse childhood experiences among women in Oceania, in particular among indigenous women. This paper aims to report prevalences of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and to asses the negative sexual health consequences in adulthood by comparing indigenous Kanak to non-Kanak women in…

Although male rape is being reported more often than before, the majority of rape victims continue to be women. Rape myths--false beliefs used mainly to shift the blame of rape from perpetrators to victims--are also prevalent in today's society and in many ways contribute toward the pervasiveness of rape. Despite this, there has been limited…

Objective: Studies examining psychological trauma or posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in ethnoracial or sexual minority groups are relatively few. The "Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology" recently published 4 articles (Balsam, Lehavot, Beadnall, & Circo, 2010; Harrington, Crowther, & Shipherd, 2010; Lester, Resick, Young-Xu, & Artz,…

According to data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, from 1991 to 2000, arrests of girls increased more (or decreased less) than arrests of boys for most types of offenses. By 2004, girls accounted for 30 percent of all juvenile arrests. However, questions remain about whether these trends reflect an actual increase in girls' delinquency or…

Objective: Shaken baby syndrome (SBS) is preventable; however, an estimated 21-74 per 100,000 children worldwide are victims annually. This study examined the effectiveness of an SBS prevention program in the US. Methods: A descriptive, secondary analysis of the Prevent Child Abuse Ohio (PCAO) "Love Me...Never Shake Me" SBS education program…

Objective: Research investigating the impact of child sexual abuse (CSA) in community samples of adolescents has been limited. This study aims to identify sexual abuse among ethnically diverse high school adolescents of both genders and evaluate their psycho-emotional consequences. Method: Through the use of self-report instruments, a sample of…

This multigenerational study empirically demonstrates the extent to which offspring whose parents experienced childhood abuse are at increased risk of being abused or neglected. Females with substantiated childhood sexual abuse and nonabused comparison females were assessed at six points spanning 18 years in a prospective, longitudinal study.…

Objectives:: This study aimed to explore factors relating to intention to participate in community child sexual abuse (CSA) prevention programs among Chinese adults in Hong Kong. Method:: A total of 1,606 Chinese adults (497 men and 1,109 women) were individually interviewed about their intention to participate in community CSA prevention…