Frequently Asked Questions

Information on children found at methamphetamine labs can be found in the OVC publication, Children at Clandestine Methamphetamine Labs: Helping Meth's Youngest Victims.

The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) defines dating violence as violence committed by a person who is or has been in a social relationship of a romantic of intimate nature with the victim. The existence of such a relationship shall be determined based on a consideration of the following factors—

• the length of the relationship,
• the type of relationship, and
• the frequency of interaction between the persons involved in the relationship.

For additional information, visit the Intimate Partner Violence section of our site.

OVC offers a national events calendar that features events, including training, presentations, and seminars from organizations around the country. Visit our Events page to find training opportunities or add your own events.

Call 888-373-7888 (toll free) or text BeFree (233733) to the National Human Trafficking Hotline to report a tip, to connect with anti-trafficking services in your area, or to request training and technical assistance, general information, or specific anti-trafficking resources.

The National Human Trafficking Hotline is available to answer calls and texts from anywhere in the country, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every day of the year. It is operated and implemented by Polaris Project and funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Family members of homicide victims can find support groups in their area by contacting the National Organization of Parents Of Murdered Children, Inc. and The Compassionate Friends.

For additional information, visit the Homicide Victims/Co-Survivors Topic page on our website.

The rules on victim impact statements and victims' rights can vary from state to state. Visit the VictimLaw and the National Crime Victim Law Institute websites for information.

You may also visit a state, county, or local law library for legal research assistance.

Additional research assistance may be obtained through the Ask a Law Librarian page on the Library of Congress website.

PTSD, as defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, is a psychological reaction that occurs after experiencing a highly stressful event outside the range of normal human experience. PTS symptoms can happen without a full diagnosis of PTSD; the disorder is diagnosed when a number of the following PTS symptoms last longer than 1 month following a traumatic event:

• Re-experiencing or spontaneous memories and recurrent dreams of the traumatic event, flashbacks, or other intense or prolonged psychological distress.
• Avoidance of distressing memories, thoughts, feelings, or external reminders of the event.
• Negative cognitions and mood, including myriad feelings such as a persistent and distorted sense of blame of self or others, estrangement from others, markedly diminished interest in activities, and/or an inability to remember key aspects of the event.
• Arousal marked by aggressive, reckless, or self-destructive behavior; sleep disturbances; hypervigilance; and other related problems.

For additional information, visit the Physical and Mental Health section of our site.

If you have not yet contacted law enforcement officials to report your missing child, please do so immediately. Ask them about the issuing an AMBER Alert.

Through AMBER Alert, law enforcement agencies and broadcasters activate an urgent bulletin in the most serious child abduction cases. Request that law enforcement put out a Be On the Look Out (BOLO) bulletin. Ask them about involving the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the search for your child.

Additional helpful information for families about what to do when a child is missing is available in the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention's When Your Child is Missing: A Family Survival Guide and Missing and Exploited Children page. You may also contact the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 800-843-5678 and view their Missing-Child, Emergency-Response, Quick-Reference Guide for Families.

Finally, visit the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) website. NamUs is a clearinghouse for missing persons and unidentified decedent records. This free online system can be searched by law enforcement officials, other allied professionals, and the general public to solve these cases.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics' National Crime Victimization Survey Data Dashboard provides data on the number of sexual assaults that occur annually in the United States. The Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reporting Program provides data on rape reported to the police.

For additional information about sexual assault, visit the Sexual Assault section of our website.

Visit the Report a Crime section of the U.S. Department of Justice website to learn how you can report child pornography or cases involving the sexual exploitation of children.

You can also report suspicion of child sexual exploitation to your local police, your Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, or the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's CyberTipline (file a report online or call 800-843-5678).