Randolph and Tucker County, WV — Today, the West Virginia Child Advocacy Network (WVCAN) released its Statewide Data for the 2023 fiscal year (July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2023). The data in the report reflects service from West Virginia’s 21 Child Advocacy Centers (CACs) which provided official service to 46 of 55 counties in the state. A CAC provides a safe, child-friendly facility where child protection, criminal justice, and child treatment professionals work together to investigate abuse, hold offenders accountable, and help children heal.
During the year, CACs served 4,879 children – nearly a 10% increase in new children served in the last five years. Locally, the Randolph Tucker Children’s Advocacy Center saw 156 new children, which is 26% higher than last year.
Some of the highlights from the Randolph Tucker CAC’s report includes:
- 56% of the children served were there because of allegations of sexual abuse
- 7% of the children served were there because of allegations of drug endangerment, 2.3 times higher than the national average
- 42% of the children served by CACs were between the ages of 7-12 years
- 96% of alleged offenders were someone the child knew
- 58% of children are reported to have one or more disabilities
Randolph Tucker CAC works with community partners to support healing and justice for children and families who have been victimized. This year we are working to improve how we collect data regarding the impact of addiction so we can expand our support and response to this epidemic.
The report includes data on victim demographics, alleged offender demographics, reported vs. disclosed abuse, services performed, criminal justice response, and CAC income budget breakdown. The full statewide data report can be found at here.
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Randolph Tucker Children’s Advocacy Center. Empowering children. Restoring hope. Ending abuse.
West Virginia Child Advocacy Network (WVCAN) provides statewide leadership in the fight against child abuse while working side-by-side with the 21 Child Advocacy Centers throughout the state. WVCAN provides training, technical assistance, leadership, legislative and policy advocacy, and overall coordination to Child Advocacy Centers around the state. A CAC is a child-friendly facility in which child protection, criminal justice, and child treatment professionals work together to investigate abuse, hold offenders accountable, and help children heal. Rather than having a child taken from agency to agency to endure multiple interviews, the CAC model coordinated the response around the child for an effective, child-centered, healing process. As the statewide authority on multidisciplinary approaches to supporting child victims of abuse, WVCAN’s purpose is to empower local communities to provide comprehensive, coordinated, and compassionate services to victims of child abuse.
This document was prepared under a grant from the West Virginia Division of Administrative Services, Justice & Community Services Section. Points of view or opinions expressed in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the State of West Virginia Division of Administrative Services, Justice & Community Services Section or any entity of the Department of Justice.