Task Force on Children Exposed to Violence

The Justice Department announced the Attorney General’s Task Force on Children Exposed to Violence on October 13, 2011.

The Task Force was composed of 13 leading experts including practitioners, child and family advocates, academic experts, and licensed clinicians. Joe Torre, founder of the Joe Torre Safe at Home® Foundation, and a witness to domestic violence as a child himself, and Robert Listenbee, Jr., Chief of the Juvenile Unit of the Defender Association of Philadelphia, served as the Co-Chairs of the Task Force.

This Task Force was part of the Attorney General’s Defending Childhood Initiative, a project that addresses the epidemic levels of exposure to violence faced by our nation’s children. Based on the testimony at four public hearings, on comprehensive research, and on extensive input from experts, advocates, and impacted families and communities nationwide, the Defending Childhood Task Force issued a final report to the Attorney General presenting its findings and comprehensive policy recommendations in December 2012. The report serves as a blueprint for preventing children’s exposure to violence and for reducing the negative effects experienced by children exposed to violence across the United States.

Read the full Report of the Attorney General's National Task Force on
Children Exposed to Violence published December 12, 2012.