Utah Children's Justice Center

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The Utah Children's Justice Center is a program of the Utah Attorney General's Office which operates 15 centers around the state of Utah. These centers coordinate investigation and prosecution of child abuse, especially child sexual abuse. They were created to provide a child friendly environment for interviews and exams of child victims as well as to provide support and centralized resource referrals to victim's families.

1 Services
2 Victim Assistance Mentor Program
3 Locations
4 External links

[edit] Services

Previous to the creation of the Utah CJC's, investigation of child abuse required minor victims to be interviewed by police, social services, medical personnel, psychologists and prosecutors. The primary function of the CJC is to provide facilities where children can feel more comfortable while completing one comprehensive interview. These interviews are completed in a home-like room which is monitored by video and audio feeds allowing representatives from all involved agencies to witness the interview. [1]

The children's justice center provides many secondary services. These include: [2]

Medical forensic exams
Mental health evaluations of the victim and non-offending family members
Tracking and monitoring of cases through the criminal justice system
Community education presentations
Victim treatment programs and group therapy sessions
Victim assistance mentors

[edit] Victim Assistance Mentor Program

One of the key services uniquely offered by the Children's Justice Centers is the Victim Assistance Mentor Program. This program pairs child victims with volunteers from the community who take them on weekly individual activities. The purpose of the program is to provide additional emotional support for the victims, increasing their feeling of selfworth and allowing them to establish a trusting relationship with adult members of the community. Volunteers in the program must undergo a thirty hour training course, a background check, and a psychiatric evaluation. Qualifying volunteers are then paired by their local center's Victim Assistance Coordinator with a child victim. The volunteer visits with the child weekly for six months. [3]