Agency: Attorney General

Line Item: Children's Justice Centers

Function

The Children's Justice Centers (CJCs) are homelike facilities where physically and sexually abused children can go to be interviewed before appearing in court as witnesses against their abusers. A multi-disciplinary team coordinates the interview process and assesses the needs of the children and their families for support services.

The program is designed to foster coordination among agencies and improve communication and services for victims. Staff tracks each child's case through the investigation, hearings, and completion of treatment. The home-like environment makes children feel safe, thereby enabling them to discuss the abuse. Transcripts are provided to assist agencies and prosecutors in building stronger cases.

Background

Children's Justice Centers are currently operating in the following counties: Cache, Carbon, Davis, Duchesne, Emery, Grand, Iron, Salt Lake, Sanpete, Sevier, Tooele, Uintah, Utah, Wasatch, Washington, and on shared between Weber and Morgan counties.

Statutory Authority

Statutory Authority governing Children's Justice Centers is found in UCA 67 Chapter 5b. The A.G. must administer the program and staff the Advisory Board on Children's Justice. Statutory goals include minimizing time and duplication of effort in helping abused children, facilitating the investigation of alleged offenses against children, conducting interviews of children and their families, obtaining reliable and admissible information, protecting the interest of the abused child, and others.

Intent Language

Under Section 63J-1-603 of the Utah Code, the Legislature intends that appropriations provided for the Attorney General - Children's Justice Centers in Item 13 Chapter 11 Laws of Utah not lapse at the close of fiscal year 2013.

Performance

The top three measures identified for this line item include, 1) Number of interviews conducted at childrens' justice centers, 2) Number of cases at childrens' justice centers, and 3) Number of children and families served by the childrens' justice centers. The Attorney General has provided an explanation for each of these measures below.

Interviews consist of a formal video and/or audio recorded interview conducted by a law enforcement officer, a CPS caseworker, or both, or a trained forensic interviewer, for the purposes of gathering information related to allegations of child physical and/or sexual abuse, or other crimes involving children where the child is a primary victim or a critical witness, such as in drug-related child endangerment cases.  Interviews may be conducted with primary victims and witnesses. This is a measure of the total work done by Children's Justice Centers throughout the State.

A case is the record of all information pertaining to the investigation of allegations of physical and/or sexual abuse perpetrated on one (1) primary victim by one or more suspects.  A case has only one (1) primary victim.  A case may have multiple allegations, suspects, secondary victims and/or witnesses.  Separate cases may be filed for distinct and unrelated episodes of abuse perpetrated on one primary victim. Number of cases is one indicator of the volume of work done by the Children's Justice Centers.

Children and families served includes the primary victim, secondary victim and others served as follows:

Primary victim: the victim of alleged physical and/or sexual abuse.

Secondary victim(s): individuals, generally related to the primary victim, who have been affected (victimized) by the alleged abuse perpetrated on a primary victim.  For example, a non-offending parent may be considered a secondary victim of the alleged abuse of their child.

Others served: indicates the number of people (eg, family members, etc) other than the primary victim, who receive direction intervention, interaction, referrals, and other direct assistance from CJC.  This number does not include the primary victim, but may include secondary victims and family members of the primary victim.  Does not include other persons who, while associated with the victim, are not directly served or assisted by the CJC.

Funding Detail

The Children's Justice Centers Line Item has only one program—the Children's Justice Centers Program. The greatest source of funding for this line item is the General Fund. Federal grants and dedicated credits also make up a portion of the program's funding.