Measuring Prevalence and Youth Insights for Action
The Oregon Child Abuse Prevalence Study (OCAPS)
The Oregon Child Abuse Prevalence Study is designed to tap Oregon youths’ insights on violence prevention and resilience, and to measure and track rates of child abuse, neglect, and identity-based violence.
This – the first child abuse prevalence study of its kind in the U.S. – will help Oregonians to direct resources where they are most likely to be helpful, and to determine whether we are making progress toward a shared goal of safety and well-being for children and youth in our communities.
In 2022, CSAW was successful in securing $700,000 in support of a statewide representative prevalence study. In addition to prevalence, our design includes a youth voice component and innovative data dissemination plan in partnership with the School of Journalism that pairs raising awareness about this public health, human rights, and social justice problem with youth perspective on prevention.
OCAPS is a good way for students to say what they need to say when they otherwise can’t say it.
OCAPS Frequently Asked Questions
Learn more about the goals, administration, and safety considerations of the Oregon Child Abuse Prevalence Study.
In Oregon today we cannot reliably answer these questions:
Youth Felt Empowered and Supported
Of the students who took the survey:
Oregon policymakers and funders depend on child welfare report data to make key and costly policy and funding decisions.
Report rates do not reflect the actual prevalence of child abuse, only the incidents that happen to get reported. The drop in reports during the pandemic made it even clearer that reports to child welfare do not equal prevalence. OCAPS remedies this problem by getting information directly from the source.
OCAPS is the most comprehensive child abuse prevalence study in the U.S. - and was piloted successfully in 5 Lane County school districts in 2019.
Thank you. Child abuse and trauma will affect me and a lot of adolescents I know for the rest of our lives. It’s nice to be validated and know people are taking steps to prevent this.
