Gwinn went to work for the San Diego City Attorney's office right after law school. He founded the city's Child Abuse/Domestic Violence Unit in August 1986. Starting in 1985 he led the Domestic Violence Unit within the City Attorney's office. He became known as a hard-line prosecutor of domestic violence cases, winning 19 of his first 21 cases and eventually prosecuting more than 10,000 such cases. Gwinn pioneered an approach to domestic violence prosecution known as "evidence-based" prosecution, promoting the investigation and prosecution of cases even if the victim was unable or unwilling to participate with the prosecution. The task force created the first countywide protocols in San Diego County on the investigation and prosecution of domestic violence cases, embracing Gwinn's pro-prosecution approach toward domestic violence offenders. His proposal was rejected by the district attorney, police chief, and sheriff. Nevertheless, Gwinn, working with fellow prosecutor Gael Strack, began adding on-site partner agencies in the San Diego City Attorney's Office in 1990. Later in 1993, Gwinn's work was profiled on "NOW" with Tom Brokaw and Katie Couric on NBC. 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. He had first proposed the concept in 1989. He named Assistant City Attorney Gael Strack to be the first Family Justice Center Director. 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." 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. 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. 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.
2004–present In 2007, Casey Gwinn and Gael Strack were featured on CBS
The Early Show with Harry Smith. 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. Gwinn and Strack have argued that non-fatal strangulation cases should be identified as the "edge of a homicide". In 2013, Gwinn developed a statewide model for Camp HOPE California, bringing children exposed to domestic violence to camp from across the state. In 2015, Camp HOPE America went nationwide under Gwinn's leadership. In 2018, Camp HOPE America operated in 18 states. Gwinn has published or co-published ten books since 2006. 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. == Personal ==