Skip to main content

Resources

Polyvictimization Toolkit

Are You Assessing Your Clients for Polyvictimization?

Families rarely experience harm in a single, isolated way. Many caregivers and children live through multiple, overlapping forms of victimization - over over time, and often without ever naming it as such. Understanding the fill context of harm is a critical step toward healing. In partnership with Johns Hopkins, we created this toolkit as a healing-centered support for providers working alongside families impacted by polyvictimization. 

Available in English & Spanish, providers can use the guide and conversation cards as support tools. 

Tools Available

INSIDE THE TOOLKIT: 

The guide is a comprehensive 18-page digital booklet that is designed to be practical, flexible, and user-friendly. It can be used when preparing for a conversation, responding to a moment, or building long-term support plans. 

This project was informed by the research, resources and contributions of those who have advanced the field before us. We are grateful to all resources listed below, and encourage you to learn more. 

1. Turner HA, Ph.D., Shattuck A, Ph.D., Finkelhor D, Ph.D., Hamby S, Ph.D. Polyvictimization and youth violence exposure across contexts. Journal of adolescent health. 2016;58(2):208–214. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26598060/. doi: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2015.09.021.

2. Ogle CM, Caroline Harmon-Darrow, Fedina L, Nichols D, Mulford CF, Backes BL. Operational definitions of poly-victimization: A scoping review. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse. 2024;25(4):3360–3376. https://doi-org.proxy1.library.jhu.edu/10.1177/15248380241246522. doi: 10.1177/15248380241246522.

3. Ana RP, Telma CA. Risk factors of poly-victimization and the impact on delinquency in youth: A systematic review. Crime & Delinquency. 2024;70(9):2469–2487. https://doi.org/10.1177/00111287221148656. doi: 10.1177/00111287221148656.

4. DeHart DD, Moran R. Poly-victimization among girls in the justice system. Violence Against Women. 2015;21(3):291–312. https://doi-org.proxy1.library.jhu.edu/10.1177/1077801214568355. doi: 10.1177/1077801214568355.

5. Morlat PV, Alison L. Understanding “childhood poly-victimization” to help uncover abuse during child investigative interviewing: A systematic review. Frontiers in psychology. 2024;15:1395940. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/39351110. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1395940.

6. ChienTi Plummer Lee, Mersky J, Marsee I, Fuemmeler B. Childhood polyvictimization and marijuana use trajectories. Dev Psychopathol. 2022;34(1). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32958085/. doi: 10.1017/S0954579420000875.

7. Finkelhor D, Ormrod R, Turner H, Holt M. Pathways to poly-victimization. Child maltreatment. 2009;14(4):316–329. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1077559509347012. doi: 10.1177/1077559509347012.

8. Ford JD, Grasso DJ, Hawke J, Chapman JF. Poly-victimization among juvenile justice-involved youths. Child Abuse Negl. 2013;37(10):788–800. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0145213413000227. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2013.01.005.

9. Davis JP, Dworkin ER, Helton J, et al. Extending poly-victimization theory: Differential effects of adolescents’ experiences of victimization on substance use disorder diagnoses upon treatment entry. Child abuse & neglect. 2019;89:165–177. https://www.clinicalkey.com/#!/content/1-s2.0-S0145213419300298. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2019.01.009.

10. Turner HA, Finkelhor D, Ormrod R. Poly-victimization in a national sample of children and youth. Am J Prev Med. 2010;38(3):323–330. https://www-sciencedirect-com.proxy1.library.jhu.edu/science/article/pii/S0749379709008538. doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2009.11.012.

11. Feng J, Hsieh Y, Hwa H, Huang C, Wei H, Shen AC. Childhood poly-victimization and children’s health: A nationally representative study. Child Abuse & Neglect. 2019;91:88–94. https://www.clinicalkey.com/#!/content/1-s2.0-S0145213419300791. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2019.02.013.

12. Turner HA, Shattuck A, Finkelhor D, Hamby S. Effects of poly-victimization on adolescent social support, self-concept, and psychological distress. J Interpers Violence. 2017;32(5):755–780. https://doi-org.proxy1.library.jhu.edu/10.1177/0886260515586376. doi: 10.1177/0886260515586376.

13. Finkelhor D, Ormrod RK, Turner HA. Poly-victimization: A neglected component in child victimization. Child Abuse & Neglect. 2007;31(1):7–26. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0145213406003346. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2006.06.008.

14. Gibbs V, Hudson JL, Pellicano E. Poly-victimization of autistic adults: An investigation of individual-level correlates. Autism Research. 2023;16(12):2336–2349. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37737378/. doi: 10.1002/aur.3031.

15. Wolfe DA. Why polyvictimization matters. J Interpers Violence. 2018;33(5):832–837. https://doi-org.proxy1.library.jhu.edu/10.1177/0886260517752215. doi: 10.1177/0886260517752215.

16. Finkelhor D, Ormrod RK, Turner HA. Polyvictimization and trauma in a national longitudinal cohort. Dev Psychopathol. 2007;19(1). https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/polyvictimization-trauma-national-longitudinal/docview/201698758/se-2?accountid=11752.

17. Hamby S, Grych J. Tracing the threads of the web: The epidemiology of interconnections among forms of violence and victimization. In: The web of violence. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands; 2012:9–27. http://link.springer.com/10.1007/978-94-007-5596-3_2. 10.1007/978-94-007-5596-3_2.

18. Finkelhor D, Ormrod RK, Turner HA. The developmental epidemiology of childhood victimization. J Interpers Violence. 2009;24(5):711–731. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18467689/. doi: 10.1177/0886260508317185.

19. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. SAMHSA's concept of trauma and guidance for a trauma-informed approach. 2014. https://www.nctsn.org/sites/default/files/resources/resource-guide/samhsa_trauma.pdf.

20. Cusick J. Post-secondary peer support training curriculum subtitle: Including B.C.'s peer support standards of practice. ; 2022. https://opentextbc.ca/peersupport/chapter/samhsas-six-principles-of-trauma-informed-care/.

21. Concordia University St. Paul. The 6 principles of trauma-informed care. https://online.csp.edu/resources/article/principles-of-trauma-informed-care/. Updated 2025.

22. Snively E. 6 principles of trauma-informed care. Relias Web site. https://www.relias.com/blog/6-principles-of-trauma-informed-care. Updated 2026.

23. Safe Start Center, National Resource Center for Children’s Exposure to Violence, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). Children exposed to violence: Tips for staff and advocates working with children: Polyvictimization. 2011. https://www.ojp.gov/library/publications/children-exposed-violence-tips-staff-and-advocates-working-children.

  • Pinto-Cortez C, Pereda N, Álvarez-Lister MS. Child victimization and poly-victimization in a community sample of

adolescents in northern chile. Journal of aggression, maltreatment & trauma. 2018;27(9):983–1002. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10926771.2017.1410748. doi: 10.1080/10926771.2017.1410748.

  • Finkelhor D, Turner H, Ormrod R, et al. Children’s exposure to violence: A comprehensive national survey. Juvenille

Justice Bulletin: National Survey of Children’s Exposure to Violence Children’s Exposure to Violence. 2009. https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/227744.pdf.

five smiling children of diverse races and genders lying in the grass under the Georgia Center for Child Advocacy logo
For the Children

Our Impact in 2025

  • Forensic Interviews

    519

  • Adults Trained

    9, 480

  • Hours of Therapy

    2, 575

  • DeKalb County
  • Fulton County
  • CACGA
  • DHS
  • National Children's Alliance
    National Children's Alliance
  • DOJ
    DOJ
  • SAMHSA
    SAMHSA
© 2026 The Georgia Center for Child Advocacy
Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

  1. What Information Do We Collect? When you visit our website you may provide us with two types of information: personal information you knowingly choose to disclose that is collected on an individual basis and website use information collected on an aggregate basis as you and others browse our website.
  2. Personal Information You Choose to Provide We may request that you voluntarily supply us with personal information, including your email address, postal address, home or work telephone number and other personal information for such purposes as correspondence, placing an order, requesting an estimate, or participating in online surveys. If you choose to correspond with us through email, we may retain the content of your email messages together with your email address and our responses. We provide the same protections for these electronic communications that we employ in the maintenance of information received by mail and telephone.
  3. Website Use Information Similar to other websites, our site may utilize a standard technology called "cookies" (see explanation below, "What Are Cookies?") and web server logs to collect information about how our website is used. Information gathered through cookies and server logs may include the date and time of visits, the pages viewed, time spent at our website, and the sites visited just before and just after ours. This information is collected on an aggregate basis. None of this information is associated with you as an individual.
  4. How Do We Use the Information That You Provide to Us? Broadly speaking, we use personal information for purposes of administering our business activities, providing service and support and making available other products and services to our customers and prospective customers. Occasionally, we may also use the information we collect to notify you about important changes to our website, new services and special offers we think you will find valuable. The lists used to send you product and service offers are developed and managed under our traditional standards designed to safeguard the security and privacy of all personal information provided by our users. You may at any time to notify us of your desire not to receive these offers.
  5. What Are Cookies? Cookies are a feature of web browser software that allows web servers to recognize the computer used to access a website. Cookies are small pieces of data that are stored by a user's web browser on the user's hard drive. Cookies can remember what information a user accesses on one web page to simplify subsequent interactions with that website by the same user or to use the information to streamline the user's transactions on related web pages. This makes it easier for a user to move from web page to web page and to complete commercial transactions over the Internet. Cookies should make your online experience easier and more personalized.
  6. How Do We Use Information Collected From Cookies? We use website browser software tools such as cookies and web server logs to gather information about our website users' browsing activities, in order to constantly improve our website and better serve our users. This information assists us to design and arrange our web pages in the most user-friendly manner and to continually improve our website to better meet the needs of our users and prospective users. Cookies help us collect important business and technical statistics. The information in the cookies lets us trace the paths followed by users to our website as they move from one page to another. Web server logs allow us to count how many people visit our website and evaluate our website's visitor capacity. We do not use these technologies to capture your individual email address or any personally identifying information about you.
  7. Notice of New Services and Changes Occasionally, we may use the information we collect to notify you about important changes to our website, new services and special offers we think you will find valuable. As a user of our website, you will be given the opportunity to notify us of your desire not to receive these offers by clicking on a response box when you receive such an offer or by sending us an email request.
  8. How Do We Secure Information Transmissions? When you send confidential personal information to us on our website, a secure server software which we have licensed encrypts all information you input before it is sent to us. The information is scrambled en route and decoded once it reaches our website. Other email that you may send to us may not be secure unless we advise you that security measures will be in place prior to your transmitting the information. For that reason, we ask that you do not send confidential information such as Social Security, credit card, or account numbers to us through an unsecured email.
  9. How Do We Protect Your Information? Information Security -- We utilize encryption/security software to safeguard the confidentiality of personal information we collect from unauthorized access or disclosure and accidental loss, alteration or destruction. Evaluation of Information Protection Practices -- Periodically, our operations and business practices are reviewed for compliance with organization policies and procedures governing the security, confidentiality and quality of our information. Employee Access, Training and Expectations -- Our organization values, ethical standards, policies and practices are committed to the protection of user information. In general, our business practices limit employee access to confidential information, and limit the use and disclosure of such information to authorized persons, processes and transactions.
  10. How Can You Access and Correct Your Information? You may request access to all your personally identifiable information that we collect online and maintain in our database by emailing us using the contact form provided to you within the site structure of our website.
  11. Do We Disclose Information to Outside Parties? We may provide aggregate information about our customers, sales, website traffic patterns and related website information to our affiliates or reputable third parties, but this information will not include personally identifying data, except as otherwise provided in this privacy policy.
  12. What About Legally Compelled Disclosure of Information? We may disclose information when legally compelled to do so, in other words, when we, in good faith, believe that the law requires it or for the protection of our legal rights.
  13. Permission to Use of Materials The right to download and store or output the materials in our website is granted for the user's personal use only, and materials may not be reproduced in any edited form. Any other reproduction, transmission, performance, display or editing of these materials by any means mechanical or electronic without our express written permission is strictly prohibited. Users wishing to obtain permission to reprint or reproduce any materials appearing on this site may contact us directly.
Terms & Conditions

Terms & Conditions

Donation Refund Policy

We are grateful for your donation and support of our organization. If you have made an error in making your donation or change your mind about contributing to our organization please contact us. Refunds are returned using the original method of payment. If you made your donation by credit card, your refund will be credited to that same credit card.

Automated Recurring Donation Cancellation

Ongoing support is important to enabling projects to continue their work, so we encourage donors to continue to contribute to projects over time. But if you must cancel your recurring donation, please notify us.

Event Refunds

All ticket sales are considered final. Refunds are given on a case by case basis and need to be requested in writing to info@gacfca.org. Refunds will be given if an event is canceled by Georgia Center for Child Advocacy.

Powered by Firespring