AURORA, Colo. (May 1, 2014) – David Finkelhor, PhD, director of the Crimes against Children Research Center and co-director of the Family Research Laboratory at the University of New Hampshire, has been named the first recipient of the National Kempe Scientific Impact Award.
This award from the Kempe Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse and Neglect will be given annually to a research scholar who has made leading and sustained scientific contributions during the past decade to the field of child abuse and neglect.
Finkelhor has been studying the problems of child victimization, child maltreatment and family violence since 1977. Finkelhor is editor and author of 12 books and over 200 journal articles and book chapters. He has received grants from the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect, and the U.S. Department of Justice.
Finkelhor will receive the award Friday, May 2, in New Orleans at the 19th National Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect from Desmond Runyan, MD, DrPH, executive director of the Kempe Center and professor of pediatrics at the Universty of Colorado School of Medicine.
The award builds on C. Henry Kempe's legacy and research on the Battered Child Syndrome, and the Kempe Center's current focus on systems and clinical research. The Kempe Center recognizes the importance of translating research into practice and policy to benefit children and families, and the systems designed to serve them. In 1962, C. Henry Kempe, MD, and his colleagues published "The Battered Child Syndrome," the defining paper in the field.
A section of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, the Kempe Center opened in 1972 with one vision: to recognize that children were being abused, the threat was real, and we must do something about it.
Faculty at the University of Colorado School of Medicine work to advance science and improve care. These faculty members include physicians, educators and scientists at University of Colorado Hospital, Children's Hospital Colorado, Denver Health, National Jewish Health, and the Denver Veterans Affairs Medical Center. The school is located on the Anschutz Medical Campus, one of four campuses in the University of Colorado system. To learn more about the medical school's care, education, research and community engagement, visit its web site.