Citation
Carter II, J.W. (2007), "Crimes Against Children Research Center", Policing: An International Journal, Vol. 30 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/pijpsm.2007.18130bag.001
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2007, Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Crimes Against Children Research Center
Crime committed against children is a subject that has received a great deal of media attention in recent years. With the development of the internet, fears and concerns about crimes targeting children increased dramatically. However, until recently, there have been few scholarly attempts to study crimes committed via the internet. Of the recent efforts to study internet crimes, one stands out, both in its comprehensiveness and in the availability of the findings. The Crimes against Children Research Center (CCRC), created in 1998, at the University of New Hampshire has conducted two national surveys of online youth, the results of both are available via their web site (www.unh.edu/ccrc/).
The first Youth Internet Safety Survey was launched in fall of 1999 and continued through the spring of 2000. The survey involved a phone survey of a nationally representative sample of America’s youth between the ages of 10 and 17 years. The second Youth Internet Survey was conducted five years later. The results of the two surveys are available on the CCRC’s web site, including publications concerning such topics as the prevalence of youth harassment online, the characteristics of online harassment considered distressing by online youth, children’s exposure to online pornography, the impact of internet use on children’s mental well-being, risk assessments and many others.
In addition to the published findings concerning the Youth Internet Safety Survey, the CCRC web site also offers links to resources concerning child victimization, such as tip-lines, contact information for children’s services agencies, links to relevant web sites and reports from various other studies with the CCRC has been, or is currently, involved.
With many police departments making the decision to form special internet investigation units, join task forces or to be a valuable resource for their community, there is certainly a demand for information concerning internet crime. For departments seeking such information, especially information concerning internet crimes against children, the CCRC web site will prove to be a valuable, if not essential, resource.
J.W. Carter IIUniversity of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, USA