Preventing Adolescent Maltreatment: A Focus on Child Welfare, Juvenile Justice, and Sexual Exploitation

Abstract

Compared to young children, fewer resources have been devoted to examining the etiology and circumstances related to maltreatment experienced by adolescents. This is unfortunate given adolescents have been found to experience similar, and sometimes higher, rates of maltreatment. This chapter discusses the prevalence of adolescent maltreatment, explores the need to develop interventions and prevention strategies for adolescent maltreatment within alternative contexts, and identifies emerging strategies and necessary next steps for improving the collective response to adolescent maltreatment prevention. The authors focus specifically on how practices and policies within the child welfare, foster care, and juvenile justice systems, and the response to sexually exploited youth present opportunities for targeting and improving treatment and prevention efforts among adolescents.