National Survey of Children's Exposure to Violence

The National Survey of Children's Exposure to Violence (NatSCEV), sponsored by OJJDP and supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, provides the most comprehensive information available on the incidence and prevalence of children's exposure to violence.

NatSCEV is the first attempt to measure children's exposure to all types of violence in the home, school, and community across age groups from birth to age 17 and the first attempt to measure the cumulative exposure to violence over a child's lifetime. The reports of lifetime exposure indicate how certain types of exposure change and accumulate as a child grows up.

In interviews conducted by the University of New Hampshire's Crimes against Children Research Center between January and May 2008, researchers gathered data on both past-year and lifetime exposure to violence across a number of categories, including physical assault, bullying, sexual victimization, child maltreatment, dating violence, and witnessed and indirect victimization.

OJJDP is producing a series of publications to highlight the findings from NatSCEV. The following bulletins are available online:

• Children's Exposure to Violence: A Comprehensive National Survey
• Children's Exposure to Intimate Partner Violence and Other Family Violence
• Polyvictimization: Children's Exposure to Multiple Types of Violence, Crime, and Abuse
• Questions and Answers About the National Survey of Children's Exposure to Violence
• Child and Youth Victimization Known to Police, School, and Medical Authorities