Psychobiological DID/MPD evidence, Pediatric dentist facing child porn possession charges, Victims of child pornography seek restitution from men who downloaded and traded horrific images, Paedophiles behind a face of respectability

- Prosecutor: Pediatric dentist facing child porn possession charges
- Victims of child pornography seek restitution from men who downloaded and traded horrific images
- Dissociative Identity States “DID does not have a sociocultural (e.g., iatrogenic) origin”
-  Psychobiological characteristics of dissociative identity disorder: a symptom provocation study.
- One Brain, Two Selves.
- Paedophiles behind a face of respectability

Prosecutor: Pediatric dentist facing child porn possession charges
By Laura Ly and Rande Iaboni, CNN
Thu December 27, 2012

(CNN) — A pediatric dentist charged with possession and distribution of child pornography can still treat children at his Framingham, Massachusetts, dental office under a judge’s ruling, according to a news release from the Middlesex district attorney’s office.

Melvin A. Ehrlich, 52, was arraigned Thursday in Framingham District Court on three counts of possession of child pornography and two counts of distribution of child pornography, according to the release.

Ehrlich, who was arrested Wednesday, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment, according to Stephanie Chelf Guyotte, spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office.

“While the case remains under development and investigation, there is currently no evidence that presently leads law enforcement to believe that Ehrlich physically abused any children or manufactured any images of child pornography,” the news release said….

Authorities immediately launched an investigation that they say revealed Ehrlich had used the laptop “under various user names to download and distribute commercially traded child pornography images,” the release said….

http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/27/us/massachusetts-pediatric-dentist-charged/index.html

Victims of child pornography seek restitution from men who downloaded and traded horrific images
By Jenifer B. McKim Globe Staff December 27, 2012
The woman, now in her twenties, lives in relative anonymity on the West Coast, but to child pornography collectors worldwide she will always be known as “Vicky,” a little girl raped by her father in a series of videos illegally disseminated online thousands of times during more than a decade.

Now the woman and a small but growing number of other child pornography victims are seeking restitution from those who collected or traded pictures and videos depicting their abuse, filing claims for damages against convicted child pornographers in Massachusetts and around the country. In court papers, victims describe living with the knowledge that their images can never be cleansed from the Internet.

“Many people somewhere are watching the most terrifying moments of my life and taking grotesque pleasure in them,” the woman said in court statement provided by her Seattle attorney, Carol Hepburn. “They are being entertained by my shame and pain.”

Since 2008, six federal child pornography cases in Massachusetts have resulted in defendants being ordered to pay restitution, according to the US attorney’s office in Boston.

The amounts range between $2,000 and $2.5 million, and more than a dozen local cases are pending as courts across the country grapple with questions about whether victims deserve restitution and, if so, how much.

The recent restitution efforts come as the scourge of child pornography has accelerated during the last decade, aided by improved technology and the Web’s promise of anonymity.

While most sexually exploited children go unidentified, nearly 5,000 nationwide have been located during the last 10 years by law enforcement officials and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

The Virginia nonprofit manages a database to aid prosecutors and help identify exploited children….
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/2012/12/27/victims-child-pornography-seek-restitution-from-men-who-downloaded-and-traded-horrific-images/LPHPAEuOjJGACBwBTA485K/story.html

Dissociative Identity States. Reinders AATS, Willemsen ATM, Vos HPJ, den Boer JA, Nijenhuis ERS (2012) PLoS ONE 7(6): e39279. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.003927

Methodology/Principal Findings

DID patients, high fantasy prone and low fantasy prone controls were studied in two different types of identity states (neutral and trauma-related) in an autobiographical memory script-driven (neutral or trauma-related) imagery paradigm. The controls were instructed to enact the two DID identity states. Twenty-nine subjects participated in the study: 11 patients with DID, 10 high fantasy prone DID simulating controls, and 8 low fantasy prone DID simulating controls. Autonomic and subjective reactions were obtained. Differences in psychophysiological and neural activation patterns were found between the DID patients and both high and low fantasy prone controls. That is, the identity states in DID were not convincingly enacted by DID simulating controls. Thus, important differences regarding regional cerebral bloodflow and psychophysiological responses for different types of identity states in patients with DID were upheld after controlling for DID simulation.

Conclusions/Significance

The findings are at odds with the idea that differences among different types of dissociative identity states in DID can be explained by high fantasy proneness, motivated role-enactment, and suggestion. They indicate that DID does not have a sociocultural (e.g., iatrogenic) origin
http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0039279

Psychobiological characteristics of dissociative identity disorder: a symptom provocation study. Reinders AA, Nijenhuis ER, Quak J, Korf J, Haaksma J, Paans AM, Willemsen AT, den Boer JA. Biol Psychiatry. 2006 Oct 1;60(7):730-40.

Abstract
BACKGROUND:
Dissociative identity disorder (DID) patients function as two or more identities or dissociative identity states (DIS), categorized as ‘neutral identity states’ (NIS) and ‘traumatic identity states’ (TIS). NIS inhibit access to traumatic memories thereby enabling daily life functioning. TIS have access and responses to these memories. We tested whether these DIS show different psychobiological reactions to trauma-related memory.

METHODS:
A symptom provocation paradigm with 11 DID patients was used in a two-by-two factorial design setting. Both NIS and TIS were exposed to a neutral and a trauma-related memory script. Three psychobiological parameters were tested: subjective ratings (emotional and sensori-motor), cardiovascular responses (heart rate, blood pressure, heart rate variability) and regional cerebral blood flow as determined with H(2)(15)O positron emission tomography.

RESULTS:
Psychobiological differences were found for the different DIS. Subjective and cardiovascular reactions revealed significant main and interactions effects. Regional cerebral blood flow data revealed different neural networks to be associated with different processing of the neutral and trauma-related memory script by NIS and TIS.

CONCLUSIONS:
Patients with DID encompass at least two different DIS. These identities involve different subjective reactions, cardiovascular responses and cerebral activation patterns to a trauma-related memory script.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17008145

One Brain, Two Selves.  Reinders AA, Nijenhuis ER, Paans AM, Korf J, Willemsen AT, den Boer JA. Neuroimage. 2003 Dec;20(4):2119-25.

ABSTRACT:  Having a sense of self is an explicit and high-level functional specialization of the human brain. The anatomical localization of self-awareness and the brain mechanisms involved in consciousness were investigated by functional neuroimaging different emotional mental states of core consciousness in patients with Multiple Personality Disorder (i.e., Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)). We demonstrate specific changes in localized brain activity consistent with their ability to generate at least two distinct mental states of self-awareness, each with its own access to autobiographical trauma-related memory. Our findings reveal the existence of different regional cerebral blood flow patterns for different senses of self. We present evidence for the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) and the posterior associative cortices to have an integral role in conscious experience.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14683715

Paedophiles behind a face of respectability
By Tracey Spicer The Daily Telegraph September 21, 2009
A PAEDOPHILE lives in Sydney’s East Ryde. He doesn’t have a facial tic or a stutter. He doesn’t look like the sex offender from central casting. And his name is not Dennis Ferguson.

He is one of tens of thousands of paedophiles, living in the suburbs, who don’t walk around with big signs on their foreheads.

In about 90 per cent of child sex abuse cases, the perpetrator is a family member or friend, not some rock spider who abducts kids in the street.

“Offenders look like everybody else,” Carol Ronken from Bravehearts, a support group for child sex victims, said….
http://www.news.com.au/opinion/paedophiles-behind-face-of-respectability/story-e6frfs99-1225777275022

Restitution for Child Victims Returns to the Supreme Court, More boys sexually abused at M’sian orphanage: NGO

Restitution for Child Victims Returns to the Supreme Court  
By James R. Marsh on November 27, 2012

Today, the Marsh Law Firm, along with co-counsel Paul G. Cassell and Carol L. Hepburn, filed a petition for a writ of certiorari in the United States Supreme Court.

Almost 20 years ago, Congress enacted the Mandatory Restitution for Sexual Exploitation of Children Statute, 18 U.S.C. § 2259, to benefit victims of federal child pornography crimes, including petitioners like Amy and Vicky, whose child sex abuse images are traded and collected over the internet by countless individuals worldwide….

The question presented in this cert petition is whether the Mandatory Restitution for Sexual Exploitation of Children Statute, 18 U.S.C. § 2259, excuses a defendant from paying restitution for the itemized loss categories unless there is proof that the victim’s losses were the proximate result of an individual defendant’s child pornography crime.

The Supreme Court is expected to decide whether or not to grant this petition early next year. If the Court decides to hear the case, oral arguments and a decision are likely this term which ends on October 1, 2013.

http://www.childlaw.us/2012/11/restitution-for-child-victims-.html

More boys sexually abused at M’sian orphanage: NGO
Asia News Network By R.S.N. Murali in Malacca/The Star | Asia News Network – Fri, Nov 23, 2012

Malacca (The Star/ANN) – An NGO has claimed that more underage boys are being sexually abused at a government home for boys in Durian Daun in the Malaysian state of Malacca.

Three boys, aged 13 and 14, lodged police reports on Nov 12 at the state police headquarters in Malacca, Malaysian Welfare and Social Organisation (Perbak) president Muhammad Khairul Hafiz claimed….
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/more-boys-sexually-abused-msian-orphanage-ngo-090002503.html

Landmark Children’s Rights Case Now Before the Fifth Circuit

Landmark Children’s Rights Case Now Before the Fifth Circuit

By James R. Marsh on April 25, 2012

During the past two years, victims of child pornography (represented by the Marsh Law Firm and pioneering attorneys Paul G. Cassell and Carol L. Hepburn) have been seeking restitution in federal courts throughout the country.

Almost twenty years ago Congress, led by then-Senator Joe Biden, passed a law as part of the Violence Against Women Act which requires federal district courts to award mandatory restitution to child pornography victims for the “full amount of the victim’s losses.” 18 U.S.C. § 2259(B)(3). Among the losses covered by the statute are psychiatric care, lost income, and occupational therapy.

Recently this issue has come to a head in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in two cases, In re Amy Unknown, No. 09-41238, and United States v. Wright, No. 09-3125.

The Fifth Circuit has scheduled a rare rehearing en banc before 16 judges in these two cases on Thursday, May 3, 2012 in New Orleans.

Amy will argue that the Fifth Circuit should not read a general proximate cause requirement into the statute. At least four judges on the Court agree with her.

Both the Government and the defendants in these two consolidated cases believe that proximate cause is required and limits the availability and amount of restitution.

A decision in the case is expected by the end of the year.

For more information on this issue, visit http://www.childlaw.us/restitution/