The Cleveland Horror and a Week of Violence Against Women, Gina DeJesus: Girl allegedly kidnapped by Ariel Castro watched mother on TV once a year

- Emotional and physical abuse brought into the light in Cleveland

Gina DeJesus: Girl allegedly kidnapped by Ariel Castro watched mother on TV once a year  20 May 2013

She says that was the only glimpse of the outside world Gina, now 23, was allowed in her nine years of captivity

One of the girls allegedly kidnapped by Ariel Castro was allowed to watch TV once a year – to see her mother conduct a prayer service on the anniversary of her abduction, it is claimed.

Mum Nancy Ruiz says that was the only glimpse of the outside world Gina DeJesus, now 23, was allowed in her nine years of captivity.

She told a Spanish TV show: “She knew I hadn’t given up looking because she had seen me on television.

“It gave her more strength to carry on living.”…. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/gina-dejesus-girl-allegedly-kidnapped-1901787

The Cleveland Horror and a Week of Violence Against Women
Leslie Savan on May 9, 2013

In just the last few days, we’ve seen a series of news stories involving violence against women. The violence comes in different forms—physical, psychological, financial—and from different quarters—a former school-bus driver in Cleveland, the NRA convention in Houston, the military, Congress—and so it’s not surprising that the media, as usual, are delivering these stories as unrelated incidents. But arriving almost simultaneously, these tales of misogyny should jolt us all to connect the dots and to shine an unblinking light on the violence against women that’s always there, just below the surface….

When I first saw the photo of a freed Amanda Berry with her sister and daughter, and tried to imagine the women’s unimaginable captivity, I couldn’t get another set of images out of my mind—that of “The Ex,” a target mannequin that squirts blood when you shoot her. “The Ex” (variously called “The Ex-Girlfriend” and “Alexa”) is a large-breasted white woman, her clothes party ripped off, blood dripping from her mouth down her cleavage, and she was sold with other “bleeding zombie targets” at the NRA convention in Houston last weekend. A target mannequin that looks like Obama painted green (one happy customer calls him “Barry” in a video that has been removed) also made the news. Buzzfeed reported that the NRA asked the vendor, Zombie Industries, to remove it from display, but it continued to be sold, a reminder of the racism that fuels the pro-gun paranoia. But the NRA didn’t object to displaying “The Ex,” and she still appears on the company’s website….

Tim Murphy of Mother Jones cites other shelters and domestic violence programs that are being reduced or completely eliminated in Louisiana, Kentucky, Rhode Island, Oregon and other states. “The projections are bleak,” he writes.

Sen. Tom Harkin’s (D-Iowa) office estimates that 70,120 fewer domestic violence victims will have access to recovery programs and shelters; 35,900 fewer people will get help obtaining non-shelter services such as restraining orders and sexual assault treatment. Cuts to programs related to the Victims Against Crime Act will hurt another 310,574 people….

And you know that big-shock Pentagon report released Tuesday that estimates 26,000 sexual assaults took place in the armed forces in 2012, a 37 percent increase over 2010? The report that also said fewer than 10 percent of the sex-assault cases end with a conviction at court-martial, while 62 percent of victims who dare to report an assault are rewarded with retaliation?….

In the Pentagon report above, an estimated 13,900 of the 1.2 million active duty men said they had experienced some form of sexual assault in the past year (a far smaller portion than the active duty women). About a quarter of the victims of non-family child abductions are boys. And from 1994 to 2010, about four in five victims of intimate partner violence were female, according to the Bureau of Justice stats. But that leaves one in five victims to be men…. http://www.thenation.com/blog/174267/cleveland-horror-and-week-violence-against-women  

Emotional and physical abuse brought into the light in Cleveland
BY MARILOU JOHANEK BLADE COLUMNIST  5/17/2013

….Ariel Castro terrorized his wife. He has a history of domestic violence and restraining orders.

What he’s accused of doing to three other women is not classified as domestic violence, said Linda Dooley, who is the CEO of the Domestic Violence and Child Advocacy Center in Cleveland, but his alleged tactics of power and control are classic traits of a domestic violence offender.

“He clearly isolated the victims, manipulated them — that’s how he wound up getting them to his house — and abused them both physically and emotionally.”

Domestic violence offenders are masters at manipulation, Ms. Dooley added.

“I think the emotional mind-set is really a big part of this [Cleveland case], especially when you hear that he [Castro] intentionally left the door open and if they [victims] came out, he would beat them,” she said.

Emotional abuse takes a toll.

“When you’re in this day after day, year after year, and no one’s rescuing you, no one’s hearing you, many times victims give up.”

But contrary to common belief, Ms. Dolley added, victims of ritual abuse are anything but passive.

“Every day, they’re actively looking at how to survive,” Ms. Dooley said. “Escaping is secondary. They do a lot of things to stay alive like trying not to get their abuser angry or do something he doesn’t like so maybe he won’t beat them…. http://www.toledoblade.com/MarilouJohanek/2013/05/18/Emotional-and-physical-abuse-brought-into-the-light-in-Cleveland.html

Cleveland forgotten abductee Michele Knight may have been beaten the worst, Kevin Annett Video

- Ariel Castro may have beaten Michelle Knight worst in Cleveland hell house
- New details emerge about Michelle Knight — oldest of the woman freed from Cleveland hell house
- Behind the forgotten abductee Michele Knight
- Kevin Annett video

Ariel Castro may have beaten Michelle Knight worst in Cleveland hell house
The first victim in the Ohio house of horrors was allegedly the captors’ main ‘punching bag.’
By Michael Walsh / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Thursday, May 16, 2013

Inside Ariel Castro’s Cleveland hell house, three young women allegedly suffered over a decade of abuse — but his first captive, in particular, may have borne the brunt of that beast’s brutality.

Michelle Knight’s family friend told CNN that she was Castro’s main “punching bag,” having been beaten so severely with hand weights and other objects that she suffered vision and hearing loss, as well as muscle and joint damage.

Back in August 2002, Castro abducted Knight, 21, but she was removed from the FBI’s missing persons database after 15 months and slowly forgotten; whereas, awareness campaigns sprung up for the other victims, Gina DeJesus and Amanda Berry.

Castro allegedly raped the women repeatedly and impregnated Knight at least five times. But each time, he starved her for at least two weeks before punching her stomach until she miscarried, the police report read….

Knight appears to have gone into seclusion, even from some family members, her grandmother said.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/michelle-knight-worst-article-1.1345709

New details emerge about Michelle Knight — oldest of the woman freed from Cleveland hell house
Michelle Knight disappeared Aug. 23, 2002.

She was reportedly beaten repeatedly by her captors and suffered hearing loss and damage to some of the bones in her face — but her mother tells the ‘Today’ show she never gave up hope. By Corky Siemaszko / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Word that Michelle Knight had escaped from the Cleveland house of horrors came as a double shock Wednesday to her twin brother Freddie.

“I was freaking happy as hell because I didn’t know my sister was kidnapped,” he told CNN. “My mother never tells me anything.”

Freddie Knight said his mom, Barbara, kicked him out of the house when he was 14 and he was estranged from the rest of the family. But the years melted away when he saw his sister at the hospital….

Knight, who is believed to be 32, was reportedly beaten repeatedly by her captors and suffered hearing loss and damage to some of the bones in her face….

Police have already conceded that they paid more attention to the disappearances of the younger women Knight had been imprisoned with — Gina DeJesus and Amanda Berry.

Knight reportedly had a troubled childhood and dropped out of high school at 17 after she was bullied by classmates….
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/details-cleveland-escapee-michelle-knight-article-1.1338149

Behind the forgotten abductee Michele Knight
Matt Young     news.com.au     May 10, 2013
Knight was never officially classed as a missing person
Abducted women found alive in Cleveland home

HORRIFIC details are emerging about Cleveland abductee Michele Knight’s difficult past, including an alleged gang-rape before her decade-long kidnapping.
Knight is also reported to have given police crucial evidence indicating there may have been more victims, telling authorities she was unsure how many women were detained inside the house.

It’s alleged she suffered up to five miscarriages while imprisoned and lived in darkness for long stretches of time….

19 Action News reports she is being treated at Metro Health Medical Centre for anxiety, and reports she may undergo reconstructive surgery to “heal injuries suffered at the hands of her attacker during her decade in captivity”.

“When she was severely beaten, he had beat her so bad in the face, she has to have facial reconstruction, and she’s lost hearing in one ear,” her grandmother, Deborah Knight said.

But it is unclear whether those injuries were sustained during her imprisonment or whether it was due to a gang-rape which allegedly occurred in junior high school, one year before her August 2002 disappearance.

Knight’s grandmother claims three of her classmates “grabbed her by the arm and raped her at school”.

Knight bore a child after the ordeal, a boy named Joey. She later lost custody of the child who was placed in foster care, reports the Daily News….
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/law-order/behind-the-forgotten-abductee-michele-knight/story-fnat7jnn-1226639583612

Kevin Annett video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=C7g111Ih-pU#!

 

Epidemiology of Dissociative Disorders: An Overview

Epidemiology of Dissociative Disorders: An Overview

Vedat Sar – Department of Psychiatry, Istanbul Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey 2011

General psychiatric assessment instruments do not cover DSM-IV dissociative disorders. Many large-scale epidemiological studies led to biased results due to this deficit in their methodology. Nevertheless, screening studies using diagnostic tools designed to assess dissociative disorders yielded lifetime prevalence rates around 10% in clinical populations and in the community. Special populations such as psychiatric emergency ward applicants, drug addicts, and women in prostitution demonstrated the highest rates. Data derived from epidemiological studies also support clinical findings about the relationship between childhood adverse experiences and dissociative disorders. Thus, dissociative disorders constitute a hidden and neglected public health problem. Better and early recognition of dissociative disorders would increase awareness about childhood traumata in the community and support prevention of them alongside their clinical consequences.

http://downloads.hindawi.com/journals/eri/2011/404538.pdf

excerpts:

“Most of the published clinical case series are focused on chronic and complex forms of dissociative disorders.

Data collected in diverse geographic locations such as North America [2], Puerto Rico [3], Western Europe [4], Turkey [5], and Australia [6] underline the consistency in clinical symptoms of dissociative disorders. These clinical case series have also documented that dissociative patients report highest frequencies of childhood psychological trauma among all psychiatric disorders. Childhood sexual (57.1%–90.2%), emotional (57.1%), and physical (62.9%–82.4%) abuse and neglect (62.9%) are among them (2–6).”

“Several studies conducted on consecutive series of inpatients and outpatients in general psychiatric settings in diverse countries yielded
results depending on the hinterland of the particular institution (Table 1).

Two studies in North America demonstrated that 13.0–20.7 % of psychiatric inpatients had a dissociative disorder [22, 23]. Studies on dissociative disorders in Istanbul, Turkey, yielded a prevalence slightly above 10% among psychiatric inpatients and outpatients [8, 24, 25]. Although still considerable, these rates were lower in the Netherlands [26], Germany [18], and Switzerland [27] among inpatients, that is, between 4.3%–8.0%. A Finnish study [28] reported higher rates for psychiatric outpatients (14.0%) and inpatients (21.0%).

Emergency admissions of a university psychiatric clinic in Istanbul, Turkey yielded the highest rate in the country: 35.7% [29]. In a study from Zurich, Switzerland, among severely impaired psychiatric outpatients, prevalence of all dissociative disorders were 25.0% [30]. Two recent studies on inpatient and outpatient psychiatric units in North America reported higher rates than those of the previous studies [31, 32].”

Elmo actor faces sex abuse claim from fourth accuser, Abuses at infamous Florida boys reform school even more widespread, report says, Merzbacher victim: Archdiocese has much to answer for

Elmo actor faces sex abuse claim from fourth accuser
By Courtney Hazlett, TODAY  12/10/12

A fourth man is accusing Kevin Clash, the puppeteer and actor who for many years portrayed “Sesame Street” character Elmo, of sexual abuse.

In a lawsuit filed Monday in Miami, the accuser — using the name John Doe — claims that Clash befriended him in late 1995 or early 1996, when Doe was 16 or 17. In 1996, he says, Clash flew him from Miami to New York at Clash’s expense. It was during Doe’s stay in New York that the abuse allegedly happened.

In a statement, the victim’s attorney Jeff Herman said, “According to our lawsuit, Kevin Clash knowingly paid to transport a minor across state lines for the purpose of satisfying his sexual interests.”

Herman also represents two other men who’ve accused Clash of sexual abuse: second accuser Cecil Singleton and the third accuser, who is also using the name John Doe.
http://todayentertainment.today.com/_news/2012/12/10/15819226-elmo-actor-faces-sex-abuse-claim-from-fourth-accuser

Abuses at infamous Florida boys reform school even more widespread, report says
By M. Alex Johnson, NBC News 12/10/12

Scientists have found 19 previously unknown grave shafts on the grounds of a notorious Florida reform school, suggesting that many more boys died there amid brutal conditions than had previously been known, the researchers said Monday.

The Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in Marianna, which was also known as the Florida State Reform School, closed in June 2011 after state investigators and the U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division confirmed widespread abuse over many decades.

The state attributed its decision to close the school to budgetary reasons. Yet long before then, the institution had been the target of investigations and lawsuits alleging not only physical and mental abuse but also forced labor, rape and even murder of the young charges sent to its care since it opened in 1900.

The prominent writer Roger Dean Kiser, author of “The White House Boys — An American Tragedy,” about the horrors he experienced while incarcerated there in the 1950s as a child, has called the school a “concentration camp for little boys.”….

They’re called the White House Boys because much of the abuse occurred in an 11-room building on the school grounds known as the White House, where former students say they were beaten with leather straps. A group of the former students sued the state in 2010, but the case was dismissed because the statute of limitations had expired….

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/10/15823192-abuses-at-infamous-florida-boys-reform-school-even-more-widespread-report-says

Documentation of the Boot Hill Cemetary (8JA1860), at the former Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys, Marianna, Florida
http://goo.gl/KYqJo http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/MSNBC/Sections/NEWS/AJDocs/20121210_DozierSchoolReport.pdf

Merzbacher victim: Archdiocese has much to answer for

December 6, 2012

Regarding Baltimore Archdiocese Vice-Chancellor Sean Caine’s recent letter justifying the church’s response to allegations of child sexual abuse, I am glad that in 1993 Maryland’s attorney general made it clear that all abuse cases should be reported (“Archdiocese acted responsibly,” Dec. 2). So much for the Catholic Church being a moral leader.

When I returned to the archdiocese in 1993 to again report the abuse I had suffered, it was through Fr. William Mannion. At that point I had been in touch with 17 other victims of John Merzbacher.

I was never contacted directly by the diocese. Instead I was sent a message from the diocese through Fr. Mannion: “The diocese is going to contact the police and give them your name only.” Eventually I and the other victims reached out to an attorney, who contacted the Baltimore City police. They reported the crimes to the state’s attorney’s office.

The archdiocese knew full well of my fear of contacting the police on my own after the death threats I had received at gunpoint from Mr. Merzbacher. Nor did the diocese contact any other former Catholic Community Middle School students during this time.

For seven years after the trial of Mr. Merzbacher I wrote repeatedly to Cardinal William Keeler and the superintendent of Catholic Schools asking that Eileen Weisman be removed from her position as principal of the Cathedral School. It was only after I contacted the head of the lay board that action was finally taken to remove Ms. Weisman from her position. It wasn’t until seven years after the Merzbacher trial that she was forced to resign, and not only did the diocese allow her to retire but stood by while the parents at the school collected money to dedicate a playground in her name….
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/readersrespond/bs-ed-abuse-archdiocese-20121206,0,7429725.story

Abuse During Childhood Linked to Adult-Onset Asthma in African-American Women

Abuse During Childhood Linked to Adult-Onset Asthma in African-American Women

Dec. 7, 2012 – According to a new study from the Slone Epidemiology Center (SEC) at Boston University, African-American women who reported suffering abuse before age 11 had a greater likelihood of adult-onset asthma compared to women whose childhood and adolescence were free of abuse.

The study, which is published online in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, was led by Patricia Coogan, DSc, senior epidemiologist at SEC and associate professor of epidemiology at the Boston University School of Public Health.

This study followed 28,456 African-American women, all of whom are participants in the Black Women’s Health Study, between 1995-2011. They completed health questionnaires and provided information on physical and sexual abuse during childhood up to age 11 and adolescence, ages 12-18.

The results indicate that the incidence of adult-onset asthma was increased by more than 20 percent among women who had been abused during childhood. The evidence was stronger for physical abuse than for sexual abuse. There was little indication, however, that abuse during adolescence was associated with the risk of adult-onset asthma….
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/12/121207133240.htm

Abuse during childhood and adolescence and risk of adult-onset asthma in African American women
Patricia F. Coogan, ScD, Lauren A. Wise, ScD, George T. O’Connor, MD, Timothy A. Brown, PsyD. Julie R. Palmer, ScD, Lynn Rosenberg, ScD

….In this large cohort of African American women, there was a positive association between adult-onset asthma and childhood physical abuse and weaker associations for childhood sexual abuse and any abuse during adolescence.
http://www.jacionline.org/article/S0091-6749%2812%2901691-0/abstract

Eyewitness ‘saw Thatcher aide take boys to abuse’, Cyril Smith ‘sexually and physically abused young boys’

Cyril Smith ‘sexually and physically abused young boys’
Simon Israel Home Affairs Correspondent
Tuesday 27 November 2012 UK

Greater Manchester police have concluded that the former Liberal MP, Sir Cyril Smith, was guilty of physical and sexual abuse of young boys over a period of many years.

Allegations came from eight young men back in 1970. They alleged that Cyril Smith subjected them to various forms of abuse in the early sixties.

All were living were living at the privately run children’s home Cambridge House hostel, in Rochdale, at the time, or were dependent on Cyril Smith for employment, money or welfare.

Lancashire Police opened a file and sent that off to the director of public prosecutions with 80 pages of evidence and a one-page letter from the then chief constable of Lancashire. He wrote -

“Any charges of indecent assault founded on these allegations, as well as being stale, would be , in my view, completely without corroboration. Further, the characters of some of these men young men would be likely to render their evidence suspect.”

Outdated way of thinking

Today the Crown Prosecution Service says that way of thinking has gone and that, given the same today, Sir Cyril Smith would have been prosecuted

Nazir Afzal, chief crown prosecutor, said: “Prosecutors and police now recognise such crimes normally occur in private and that victims are often targeted because the offender doubts they will be believed.
http://www.channel4.com/news/cyril-smith-sexually-and-physically-abuse-young-boys

 

Exclusive: Eyewitness ‘saw Thatcher aide take boys to abuse’
Tuesday 06 November 2012 UK

A former resident of the Wrexham care home at the centre of abuse allegations tells Channel 4 News that he saw evidence of abuse, and remembers seeing Sir Peter Morrison at the care home five times.

The former resident told Channel 4 News that although he did not recognise Sir Peter at the time, he later realised it was him.

Sir Peter, who died in 1995, was Margaret Thatcher’s parliamentary private secretary and was at the heart of the Tory establishment during the 1980s. Recently, he has been publicly linked to abuse at the care home.

The former resident, who was not abused himself, said: “Going through some stuff recently and I saw his face. I know now he was the MP for Chester at the time. Morrison. Red, wavy hair. I recognised him straight away.

“I saw him at Bryn Estyn, he turned up in a car, boy went off in his car, don’t know if he was in it. It was definitely his car, I saw him arrive in it then we went to bed and we saw it drive off….

David Cameron ordered an urgent investigation into whether the north Wales child abuse inquiry “properly did its job” after fresh allegations of abuse at Bryn Estyn emerged. It is alleged that a senior Thatcher-era politician, who has not been named, was involved….

Describing allegations of abuse from other residents, the former resident told Channel 4 News: “They said there was more than one, they said they were made to drink, there was a lot of people there, there was a party almost….

The resident said he did inform police: “I made a statement to South Wales Police with regard to some alleged offences in SW area – a statement was taken but didn’t hear anything else about it.”

However, describing the effect the events had had on him, he said: “I’ve been carrying this around for 35 years. It’s destroyed every relationship in my life. I don’t trust anybody. http://www.channel4.com/news/exclusive-eyewitness-saw-thatcher-aide-take-boys-to-abuse

Embattled Childhoods May Be the Real Trauma for Soldiers With PTSD

Embattled Childhoods May Be the Real Trauma for Soldiers With PTSD

ScienceDaily (Nov. 19, 2012) — New research on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in soldiers challenges popular assumptions about the origins and trajectory of PTSD, providing evidence that traumatic experiences in childhood — not combat — may predict which soldiers develop the disorder….

“Most studies on PTSD in soldiers following service in war zones do not include measures of PTSD symptoms prior to deployment and thus suffer from a baseline problem. Only a few studies have examined pre- to post-deployment changes in PTSD symptoms, and most only use a single before-and-after measure,” says Berntsen….

Rather than following some sort of “typical” pattern in which symptoms emerge soon after a particularly traumatic event and persist over time, Berntsen and colleagues found wide variation in the development of PTSD among the soldiers.

The vast majority of the soldiers (84%) were resilient, showing no PTSD symptoms at all or recovering quickly from mild symptoms.

The rest of the soldiers showed distinct and unexpected patterns of symptoms. About 4% showed evidence of “new-onset” trajectory, with symptoms starting low and showing a marked increase across the five timepoints. Their symptoms did not appear to follow any specific traumatic event.

Most notably, about 13% of the soldiers in the study actually showed temporary improvement in symptoms during deployment. These soldiers reported significant symptoms of stress prior to leaving for Afghanistan that seemed to ease in the first months of deployment only to increase again upon their return home.

What could account for this unexpected pattern of symptoms?

Compared to the resilient soldiers, the soldiers who developed PTSD were much more likely to have suffered emotional problems and traumatic events prior to deployment. Childhood experiences of violence, especially punishment severe enough to cause bruises, cuts, burns, and broken bones actually predicted the onset of PTSD in these soldiers. Those who showed symptoms of PTSD were more likely to have witnessed family violence, and to have experienced physical attacks, stalking or death threats by a spouse. They were also more likely to have past experiences that they could not, or would not, talk about. And they were less educated than the resilient soldiers….

The findings challenge the notion that exposure to combat and other war atrocities is the main cause of PTSD.

“We were surprised that stressful experiences during childhood seemed to play such a central role in discriminating the resilient versus non-resilient groups,” says Berntsen. “These results should make psychologists question prevailing assumptions about PTSD and its development.”

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121119140625.htm

Peace and War Trajectories of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms Before, During, and After Military Deployment in Afghanistan

Dorthe Berntsen, Kim B. Johannessen, Yvonne D. Thomsen, Mette Bertelsen, Rick H. Hoyle and David C. Rubin

Abstract
In the study reported here, we examined posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in 746 Danish soldiers measured on five occasions before, during, and after deployment to Afghanistan. Using latent class growth analysis, we identified six trajectories of change in PTSD symptoms. Two resilient trajectories had low levels across all five times, and a new-onset trajectory started low and showed a marked increase of PTSD symptoms. Three temporary-benefit trajectories, not previously described in the literature, showed decreases in PTSD symptoms during (or immediately after) deployment, followed by increases after return from deployment. Predeployment emotional problems and predeployment traumas, especially childhood adversities, were predictors for inclusion in the nonresilient trajectories, whereas deployment-related stress was not.

These findings challenge standard views of PTSD in two ways. First, they show that factors other than immediately preceding stressors are critical for PTSD development, with childhood adversities being central. Second, they demonstrate that the development of PTSD symptoms shows heterogeneity, which indicates the need for multiple measurements to understand PTSD and identify people in need of treatment.

http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2012/11/02/0956797612457389

Small Upswing in Child Abuse Despite Reports, Abuse of smallest babies may have risen, study finds

Small Upswing in Child Abuse Despite Reports
By Crystal Phend, Senior Staff Writer, MedPage Today
October 01, 2012

Reviewed by Robert Jasmer, MD; Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco and Dorothy Caputo, MA, BSN, RN, Nurse Planner

A national study found that serious injuries from child abuse appear to have risen modestly over the past decade or so, and suggested that downward trends in other studies of abuse may reflect reporting changes rather than real improvement.

Hospitalization for abuse-related injury rose 4.9% overall among children 18 and under over the 12-year span from 1997 through 2009, wrote John Leventhal, MD, and Julie Gaither, RN, MPH, MPhil, both of Yale University in New Haven, Conn.

Children were increasingly likely to die from these injuries before discharge as well, they reported in the November issue of Pediatrics.

However, “these results are in sharp contrast to data from child protective services,” they noted. A national reporting system from these agencies indicated a 55% decline in substantiated child abuse cases from 1992 through 2009.

A second more extensive report by the Congress-mandated National Incidence Studies suggested a 23% decline in physical abuse.

While called evidence of “positive changes in the provision of services to children and families, there have been concerns that some of this decrease may be due to changes in reporting of cases to child protective services agencies and changes in which cases get investigated by child protective services and which cases are actually substantiated as physical abuse,” Leventhal and Gaither wrote….

http://www.medpagetoday.com/Pediatrics/DomesticViolence/35038

 

Abuse of smallest babies may have risen, study finds
By Maggie Fox, NBC News  9/30/12

A new look at child abuse reports suggests there may have been a small but worrying rise in injuries to babies over the past decade or so. While most research suggests child abuse is down overall, the report published on Monday in the journal Pediatrics shows infants are far from safe.

The study contradicts government data collected over the same time, and it shows that health officials need to take a better look at whether child abuse is getting better, worse or staying the same, experts said.

“I think it’s premature to make any conclusions about whether it is going up or down,” says Dr. James Anderst, chief of the section on child abuse and neglect at Children’s Mercy Hospitals and Clinics in Kansas City, Mo., who was not involved in the study. “Medical providers may be getting better at identifying abuse over time.”….

Child abuse is a serious problem in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says more than 740,000 children and youth are treated in hospital emergency departments for injuries resulting from violence every year.

“Child abuse, neglect or violence can actually affect the development of a child’s brain – impacting the child now and for years to come. Our Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study shows a connection between child maltreatment and some of the nation’s worst health problems, including depression and heart disease,” CDC child abuse expert Linda Degutis says in a blog on the agency’s website….

http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/01/14163696-abuse-of-smallest-babies-may-have-risen-study-finds?lite

Researchers Find Link Between Childhood Abuse and Age at Menarche

Researchers Find Link Between Childhood Abuse and Age at Menarche

ScienceDaily (July 27, 2012) — Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have found an association between childhood physical and sexual abuse and age at menarche. The findings are published online in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

Researchers led by corresponding author, Renée Boynton-Jarrett, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics at BUSM, found a 49 percent increase in risk for early onset menarche (menstrual periods prior to age 11 years) among women who reported childhood sexual abuse compared to those who were not abused. In addition, there was a 50 percent increase in risk for late onset menarche (menstrual periods after age 15 years) among women who reported severe physical abuse in childhood. The participants in the study included 68,505 women enrolled in the Nurses’ Health Study II, a prospective cohort study.

“In our study child abuse was associated with both accelerated and delayed age at menarche and importantly, these associations vary by type of abuse, which suggest that child abuse does not have a homogenous effect on health outcomes,” said Boynton-Jarrett.  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/07/120727121413.htm

Renée Boynton-Jarrett, Rosalind J. Wright, Frank W. Putnam, Eileen Lividoti Hibert, Karin B. Michels, Michele R. Forman, Janet Rich-Edwards. Childhood Abuse and Age at Menarche. Journal of Adolescent Health, 2012; DOI: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2012.06.006

….Results
Fifty-seven percent of respondents reported some form of physical or sexual abuse in childhood. We found a positive dose–response association between severity of sexual abuse in childhood and risk for early menarche. Compared with women who reported no childhood sexual abuse, the adjusted odds ratio (AOR) for early menarche in women who reported childhood sexual abuse was 1.20 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.10, 1.37) for sexual touching and 1.49 (95% CI: 1.34, 1.66) for forced sexual activity. Severe physical abuse predicted early menarche (AOR = 1.22, 95% CI: 1.10, 1.37). Childhood physical abuse had a dose–response association with late age at menarche: AOR 1.17 (95% CI: 1.04, 1.32) for mild, 1.20 (95% CI: 1.08, 1.33) for moderate, and 1.50 (95% CI: 1.27, 1.77) for severe physical abuse. Sexual abuse was not associated with late menarche.

Conclusions
Childhood abuse was prevalent in this large cohort of U.S. women. Severity of childhood sexual abuse was associated with risk for early onset of menarche, and physical abuse was associated with both early and late onset of menarche.   http://www.jahonline.org/article/S1054-139X%2812%2900227-3/abstract

Three men say they were abused by Jerry Sandusky in ’70s or ’80s, Assault: Children With Disabilities Are More Likely to Be Victims of Violence, Analysis Shows

Three men say they were abused by Jerry Sandusky in ’70s or ’80s
By NBC News staff 7/16/12

Three men have told police they were abused by Jerry Sandusky in the 1970s or 1980s, according to a local report Monday.

Sources close the Sandusky case say they are the first people to allege abuse before the 1990s by the 68-year-old convicted pedophile, The Patriot-News reported.

In the early 1970s when one of the men said he was abused, the former Penn State assistant football coach would have been in his late 20s.

Sandusky was convicted in June on 45 counts of child sex abuse against 10 victims. As the case unfolded, more alleged victims came forward – including Sandusky’s adopted son – to say they were also abused.
http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/07/16/12772779-three-men-say-they-were-abused-by-jerry-sandusky-in-70s-or-80s

Assault: Children With Disabilities Are More Likely to Be Victims of Violence, Analysis Shows
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.  July 16, 2012

Children with disabilities are almost four times more likely to be victims of violence than other children, according to a new report commissioned by the World Health Organization.

The report, published in The Lancet on Thursday, found that disabled children were 3.6 times more likely to be physically assaulted and 2.9 times more likely to be sexually assaulted.

The most common victims of sexual assault were those with mental illness or retardation, and institutionalized children were attacked more often than those living at home.

Last week’s report was a meta-analysis of 17 other studies that collectively gathered evidence on 18,374 children, all of them living in wealthy countries, from the United States to Europe to Israel. About 3 percent of children in rich countries and up to 6 percent in poor ones have disabilities.

“Physical violence” included threats and spanking that left marks on the skin. A study published about 10 years ago estimated that 53,000 children under age 18 are murdered each year. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/17/health/policy/children-with-disabilities-are-victimized-more-often.html

People with disabilities: the forgotten victims of violence

Esme Fuller-Thomson, Sarah Brennenstuhl
Three decades have passed since the UN declared 1981 as the International Year of Disabled Persons. The theme of the commemoration was “full participation and equality”. Progress towards this goal has been sadly deficient as evidence suggests that individuals with disabilities experience exceptionally high levels of violence. http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2812%2960077-4/fulltext