Sexual and Non-sexual Violence Against Children and Youth: Continuing Conversations

A key, under-attended issue is sexual violence victimization among children and youth, and its contribution to trauma, in the context of non-sexual violence and other adverse childhood events. This Part II of special content explores important target ages (preschool), target systems (justice, military), and under-served groups (black males). Clearly, a fulsome view of the big "T" trauma events, are important alongside the small "t" trauma events that make for a potentiated traumatizing environment, and the developmental cascades that have sensitive periods at transition points (to school, into service systems). Going forward, a focus needs to be on supporting day-to-day resilience. Victims deserve our support and openness to ask the right questions, know we are prepared to hear all of their answers, and that we have safe, sensitive evidence-based professional outreach. While we are driven towards trauma-informed organizations and services, we are also mindful of the primary push towards prevention.