An exploratory study of juvenile orders of protection as a remedy for teen dating violence

This session will present overview findings, policy implications and practice recommendations from a mixed methods exploratory study on Juvenile Orders of Protection (OPs) as a remedy for dating violence. While an incresing number of states are expanding order of protection laws to allow young people to access them for dating violence,little has been known about their use and impact. Furthermore, while there has been extensive research on the use of OPs among adult victims, this study of all OPs taken out by teen victims of dating violence across New York State in 2009 and 2010 represents the first of its kind to examine protective orders involving juveniles for dating violence. The goal of the research is to increase our understanding of juvenile OPs by developing a comprehensive portrait of their use in New York State, documenting the extent and patterns of re-abuse when they are used, and exploring directly with teens their perspective on using OPs, barriers and facilitators to OP use, and recommendations for strengthening OPs to better meet the unique needs of youth. In this session, we will present the major quantitative findings on OPs (including the extent of use, who uses them, the types of abuse alleged, the rates of re-abuse, and characteristics that predict re-abuse) as well as in-depth qualitative findings from interviews and focus groups with a small sample of young women who have use OPs. The latter provides an important window on policy and practice recommendation for improving the process and impact of OPs.