Casey Gwinn

In 1996, Gwinn was elected San Diego City Attorney, taking leadership of a staff of nearly 330 attorneys, investigators, and support professionals.[8] As City Attorney he led the creation in 2002 of the multi-agency San Diego Family Justice Center serving victims of domestic violence and their children.[9] He had first proposed the concept in 1989.[10] He named Assistant City Attorney Gael Strack to be the first Family Justice Center Director.[8] Along with opening the San Diego Family Justice Center, Gwinn also founded a camping and mentoring program as part of the Center called Camp HOPE San Diego.[8] He argued that children who witnessed domestic violence are more likely to be violent in the future, and goes on to say, "once we increase hope, we can change the trajectory of their lives".[11] He was also strongly against pornography, saying "I have seen a very strong link between pornography and child abuse and sexual assault as a prosecutor for many years."[4] In 2003, his work was on the Oprah Winfrey Show rapidly expanding knowledge of the Family Justice Center framework for helping adult and child victims of abuse.[12] In October 2003, President George W. Bush recognized him as the founder of the Family Justice Center movement and asked him to help develop Family Justice Centers across the United States.[13]

There are now more than 100 Family Justice Centers across the United States as well as centers in more than 20 countries around the world. Family Justice Centers have been identified as a "best practice" in helping domestic violence victims and their children.[14]

After being term-limited out of his position as City Attorney in 2004, he helped to lead President George W. Bush's Family Justice Center Initiative, which over the period 2004–2006 helped to open fifteen Family Justice Centers modeled on the one in San Diego.[15]

In 2007, Casey Gwinn and Gael Strack were featured on CBS The Early Show with Harry Smith.[16] In 2011, Gwinn and Strack co-founded the Training Institute on Strangulation Prevention, focused on addressing near and non-fatal strangulation cases in domestic violence, sexual assault, elder abuse, and child abuse cases.[17] Gwinn and Strack have argued that non-fatal strangulation cases should be identified as the "edge of a homicide".[18]

In 2013, Gwinn developed a statewide model for Camp HOPE California, bringing children exposed to domestic violence to camp from across the state.[19] In 2015, Camp HOPE America went nationwide under Gwinn's leadership. In 2018, Camp HOPE America operated in 18 states.[19]

He continues to be active in the family justice movement. He is president of Alliance for HOPE International, formerly the Family Justice Center Alliance.[15]

Gwinn and Gael Strack have been recognized for identifying the relationship between domestic violence, trauma-exposed children, and strangulation of women.[20] Gwinn has published or co-published ten books since 2006.[21] In 2015, he published a book, Cheering for the Children, in which he contends that childhood trauma is the number one public health issue in the country.[22]