India rape case, rape case loophole, pedophilia article reply, abuse convictions
January 5, 2013 Comments Off on India rape case, rape case loophole, pedophilia article reply, abuse convictions
– India victim’s male friend recounts Delhi rape attack
– Delhi women ‘carry knives’ on board buses
– US rape case loophole prompts uproar
– A response to Jon Henley’s article on paedophilia
– 123 child victims of Internet sex abuse identified — one just 19 days old, US officials say
– Proof that children can be brainwashed into believing sadistic abuse is ‘horseplay’
– Robert Sullivan “Worst case I’ve ever heard”: Judge blasts sadistic paedophile who used young girls as “playthings”
– Website to boost rape reporting in London
India victim’s male friend recounts Delhi rape attack 4 January 2013
The victim’s friend, who witnessed the attack, speaks to Zee News
The friend of a woman who died after being raped on a bus in Delhi has given his first interview since the incident.
The man, who has not been named, told Zee News how he and the victim had boarded the bus and paid a fare, before he was beaten unconscious by men on board, who then attacked her.
He also criticised police for their slow response to the attack.
The woman died of her injuries last weekend, and five men are due to stand trial for her murder and rape. The five could face the death penalty if they are convicted. A sixth suspect is expected to be tried in a juvenile court.
The friend said the bus had tinted windows, and that he believed the group of men had laid a trap for them. “We tried to resist them. Even my friend fought with them, she tried to save me,” he said. She tried to dial the police control room number 100, but the accused snatched her mobile away.”
He confirmed earlier reports that the assailants had thrown them off the bus and tried to run them over. And he also criticised the authorities, accusing them of being slow to arrive, then arguing over jurisdiction, and eventually taking them to the wrong hospital.
“My friend was bleeding profusely. But instead of taking us to a nearby hospital, they [police] took us to a hospital that was far away,” he said….
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-20916131
Delhi women ‘carry knives’ on board buses 3 January 2013
Indian authorities have charged five men with the kidnap, gang-rape and murder of a woman in Delhi last month.
The 23-year-old was travelling on a bus when the men beat her and her companion with iron bars, raped her for nearly an hour and then threw them out of the moving bus into the street, say police.
The attack has sparked mass protests in India and there have been calls to improve safety for women….
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20903937
US rape case loophole prompts uproar 4 January 2013
California lawmakers have vowed to close a loophole that allowed a man’s rape conviction to be overturned because his victim was not married.
An arcane state law says a person who gets consent for sex by pretending to be someone else is guilty of rape only if posing as the victim’s spouse.
Julio Morales was initially convicted of rape after pretending to be the unmarried victim’s boyfriend. A similar loophole has already been closed in the state of Idaho.
In the California case from four years ago, Morales went into a room and had sex with an 18-year-old woman after her boyfriend, whom she had fallen asleep beside, had left….
In its ruling on Wednesday, the California appeal court reluctantly decided that Morales was not guilty of rape, because he was pretending to be the woman’s boyfriend and not her husband. A law dating back to 1872 makes it a crime for a man to have sex with a woman while posing as her husband, but not as a boyfriend….
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-20918642
A response to Jon Henley’s article on paedophilia Tom Watson MP January 4th, 2013
Jon Henley had a piece in yesterday’s Guardian, entitled “Paedophilia: bringing dark desires to light”. He’s received a furious response on social media and I can see why. Many involved child protection will find it hard to see it as anything other than the commentariat’s backlash, a contrarian response to a public outcry over recent revelations about child abuse by the rich and famous….
My main argument against this article is that this approach ignores the evidence of the experiences of abused children, the experiences of adult survivors of child abuse and the experiences of many professionals who work to protect children. It is a risky strategy at the current time because so many of those who promoted the rights of the ‘paedophile’ have in later years been convicted of sexual crimes against children. Equally, so many of those whom this lobby attacked have been vindicated in their efforts to protect and gain justice for children and survivors….
No wonder many more enlightened academics like Dr Liz Davies talk of the “child sex abuse lobby”. She argues some academic writings have to be located in the context of what is known about those who spread those viewpoints and their agendas. Their views were clearly expressed in a document dated 1975 where Paedophile Information Exchange submitted evidence to the Home Office.This proposed abolition of the age of consent and the removal of consensual sexual activity at all ages from the criminal law….
In order to sexually abuse a child a perpetrator will often groom the child and so it is not uncommon for a child to have some positive feelings towards the person harming them. The perpetrator may also be someone who is close to them and the child wants the abuse to stop but does not want to lose the relationship. This is no way suggests that the abuse is justifiable. In fact a state of confused emotions and responses adds to the severity of the trauma experienced by the child. That this is not obvious to Jon Henley is alarming to me.
Whether or not a child voluntarily entered into sexual relations with their abuser, and how positive or negative they felt about it at the time, is irrelevant when it comes to both the long-term effects of child sex abuse, and how seriously we should treat the abuse. Even if it is true that for some survivors of this type of consensual abuse there were no “undesirable outcomes” (though this is surely hard to quantify), this is certainly not true for all, or even many, if any, children who entered into abusive relationships voluntarily; and to draw a distinction between children who were violently abused and children who submitted willingly is irresponsible and damaging when children who submitted willingly are already more likely to feel shame, self-blame and not seek help due to their belief it was their own fault….
Survivors of child sex abuse commonly suffer from depression, anxiety disorders, panic attacks, phobias, flashbacks, disturbing thoughts, intrusive memories, self-harming, alcoholism, eating disorders, and feelings of shame, anger and worthlessness. This is the reality, but Jon Henley doesn’t voice it in his piece.
http://www.tom-watson.co.uk/2013/01/6445
123 child victims of Internet sex abuse identified — one just 19 days old, US officials say By Andrew Mach, NBC News
In just over a month, more than 120 sexually exploited children — one just 19 days old — were identified in an international operation that found them depicted in child pornography on the Internet, U.S. officials said Thursday.
In Operation Sunflower, led by agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigation unit from Nov. 1 to Dec. 7, 123 victims of child sexual exploitation were identified, ICE Director John Morton said at a press conference in Washington.
Of that group, 44 children had been living with their abusers, and 79 children were exploited by people outside of their home or were victimized as children and are now adults. Seventy female and 53 male victims rescued; 110 of the victims were identified in 19 U.S. states and the rest were identified in six foreign countries….
Of the victims identified during Operation Sunflower, five were under the age of 3, and one of those was just 19 days old. Thirty others were below the age of 10, officials said….
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/03/16327023-123-child-victims-of-internet-sex-abuse-identified-one-just-19-days-old-us-officials-say
Proof that children can be brainwashed into believing sadistic abuse is ‘horseplay’
Parents who ‘brainwashed’ their three children to hide years of horrific abuse face jail
The Chorley, Lancashire, couple, who cannot be named for legal reasons, subjected their children to years of abuse but convinced them that their sadistic punishments were ‘horseplay’
The parents were convicted of four counts of child cruelty having previously admitted five similar offences
By Nazia Parveen 6 December 2012
A care-home worker and her husband who subjected their children to years of horrific abuse were facing jail yesterday after being convicted of cruelty.
The couple hid their crimes for years by lying to social services and ‘brainwashing’ their daughter and two sons into believing their sadistic punishments were ‘horseplay’, a court heard….
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2244335/Parents-brainwashed-children-hide-years-horrific-abuse-face-jail.html
Robert Sullivan “Worst case I’ve ever heard”: Judge blasts sadistic paedophile who used young girls as “playthings” By Luke Traynor 4 Jan 2013 One of his two victims was four when he first assaulted her
….The court heard the defendant used the girls as “playthings” to fulfil his own sexual gratification in a “cycle of violent and sadistic behaviour.”
The abuse went on between 1977 and 1984.
Sullivan was arrested in 2009 but went on the run for 22 months before being caught last July. He admitted 25 sex charges, including nine rapes….
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/robert-sullivan-sadistic-paedophile-jailed-1517508
Website to boost rape reporting in London 5 December 2012
A website aimed at boosting the number of reported rapes has been launched by the Metropolitan Police. Called My Decision, the site provides a step-by-step guide for anyone who has been raped or sexually assaulted.
It is designed to overcome barriers people may have to reporting such crimes – for example victims fearing they would not be believed. According to the Met only one in five rape victims go to the police and about 40% choose not to report it.
The Rape Crisis charity welcomed the fact the website will give information and answer victims’ questions, but said it lacks links to “crucial support services”….
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-20605215
CIA Accused of Coverup in Military Scientist’s 1953 Fatal Fall, Bipartisan Legislation to Help Train Child Protection Professionals to Detect and Prevent Child Abuse
December 6, 2012 Comments Off on CIA Accused of Coverup in Military Scientist’s 1953 Fatal Fall, Bipartisan Legislation to Help Train Child Protection Professionals to Detect and Prevent Child Abuse
CIA Accused of Coverup in Military Scientist’s 1953 Fatal Fall
By Tom Schoenberg Bloomberg News
Thursday, November 29, 2012
CIA employees murdered military scientist Frank Olson in 1953 after he raised concerns about testing chemical and biological weapons on human subjects without their consent, according to a lawsuit brought by his two sons.
Eric and Nils Olson, in a complaint filed Wednesday against the United States in Washington, said the agency has covered up the cause of their father’s death for 59 years. Frank Olson, who the CIA admitted was given LSD a few days before his death, didn’t jump from a 13th-floor window of the Statler Hotel in New York City, but rather was pushed, they claim.
Assassination manual
“The circumstances surrounding the death mirrored those detailed in an assassination manual that, upon information and belief, the CIA had drafted that same year,” Scott Gilbert, a lawyer for the Olsons, wrote in the complaint.
Olson’s family has tried to piece together how Frank Olson died and the circumstances surrounding his death ever since a 1975 government report on CIA activities in the U.S. said that he committed suicide after being given LSD without his knowledge.
The family’s lawsuit includes one claim of negligent supervision by the agency and requests that damages be decided at trial.
CIA spokesman Preston Golson said in an emailed statement that the agency doesn’t comment on pending court cases. He said that the agency’s covert behavioral research program known as MK-ULTRA was investigated in 1975 by the Rockefeller Commission and the Church Committee, and in 1977 by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the Senate Subcommittee on Health and Scientific Research.
“Without commenting on this specific legal matter, CIA activities related to MK-ULTRA have been thoroughly investigated over the years, and the agency cooperated with each of those investigations,” Golson said. “In addition, tens of thousands of pages related to the program have been declassified and released to the public.”
Olson’s sons said in the suit they have asked repeatedly “to be told the truth” about their father’s death and “each time, the government has responded with falsehoods.”….
http://www.concordmonitor.com/home/3066923-95/olson-cia-agency-according
Klobuchar, Franken, Walz, McCollum Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to Help Train Child Protection Professionals to Detect and Prevent Child Abuse
An estimated 695,000 children were victims of child abuse in 2010, and yet studies indicate that many child protection professionals such as teachers, doctors, and prosecutors are not adequately trained to identify and respond to abuse
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken and Representatives Tim Walz and Betty McCollum today introduced bipartisan legislation to help train child protection professionals to detect and prevent child abuse. The bill would create regional training centers – including the National Child Protection Training Center in Winona, MN – that would create new curricula for undergraduates and graduates in fields where they will most likely be involved in identifying and reporting cases of abuse. The legislation also increases coordination between federal, state and local officials in creating best practices for the training of child protection professionals. Senator Klobuchar authored the legislation in the Senate and Representative Walz introduced companion legislation in the House of Representatives….
According to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, an estimated 695,000 children were victims of child abuse in 2010. Yet studies indicate that those in the best position to identify and respond to child abuse – such as teachers, doctors, and prosecutors – are often not adequately trained to do so. For example, a 2001 survey of teachers found that 74% received minimal training on child abuse while earning their degrees and 58% had minimal training on the job….
http://www.franken.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=2240
Dale Griffis – West Memphis Three Case Information and Documents, Photo e-mailed from Mass. man led to vast global child pornography network
July 30, 2012 Comments Off on Dale Griffis – West Memphis Three Case Information and Documents, Photo e-mailed from Mass. man led to vast global child pornography network
Photo e-mailed from Mass. man led to vast global child pornography network
By Jenifer B. McKim Globe Staff July 29, 2012
As soon as they saw the terrified boy’s photo three years ago, federal agents Peter Manning and Gregory Squire had the same thought: we have to save him. The blue-eyed child, about 18 months old, was naked from the waist down and clutching a stuffed rabbit for comfort. There was no doubt he had been sexually abused. But that doesn’t begin to describe his suffering…..
Assigned to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations office in Boston, their job is to track down child pornographers and victims. Over the years, they’ve become painfully familiar with some of the hundreds of thousands of child pornography pictures and videos online. Many depict almost unimaginably grotesque attacks on infants and toddlers and are traded like baseball cards by men using obscure Internet outposts to revel in their depravity.
But that single image of the distraught boy with the toy bunny became a crucial piece of evidence for Manning and Squire. It had been e-mailed to them by a Milford man who thought he was sharing it with fellow child-pornography voyeurs. His miscalculation sparked an investigation that would spread around the world, thus far leading to 42 arrests and the discovery of 140 children who were violated. The youngest was 19 days old.
Robert Diduca, who sent the first photo — which he labeled “cookie” in a reference to the boy — eventually pleaded guilty to the production, distribution, and possession of child pornography. In June, the 48-year-old father of three was sentenced in US District Court in Worcester to 18 years in prison….
After Diduca’s arrest in November 2010, Manning and Squire mined the trove of 27,000 images he’d stored on laptops, flash drives, and cellphones in his four-bedroom Colonial home and in the Sheraton hotel office in Framingham where he worked. The evidence linked him to other offenders and victims in several European countries, Mexico, Canada, and the United States. Within a few weeks, the agents had helped to uncover a massive child abuse case in the Netherlands….
Hiding behind a normal life
Robert Diduca didn’t have a criminal record. He appeared to be a decent father and faithful husband to his wife of some 25 years, and he held a job as a hotel manager. But beneath the veneer of normalcy, court records show, he sought, catalogued, and exchanged photos of sexually exploited children, fantasizing about rape and egging on predators to do more harm.
Diduca declined repeated requests for an interview….Diduca faced up to 60 years in prison but received a lesser sentence after he cooperated with prosecutors and pleaded guilty….
Like Diduca, many child-pornography viewers collect tens of thousands of images, some of which they share through e-mail chats or members-only online bulletin boards. Websites often feature sections catering to fetishes, including “super hardcore” and “homemade posts only.”….
A 2008 study by Michael Bourke, who is now chief psychologist for the US Marshals Service, found 85 percent of men arrested for possession of child pornography had also sexually exploited a child.
….Within hours, police descended on the Amsterdam home of 27-year-old Robert Mikelsons, a Latvian-born daycare provider. Mikelsons had baby-sat the boy several times — in his house and at a respected child care center favored by professional families.
By the time police arrived, Mikelsons — aware of the broadcast — had already deleted many images from his computer, prosecutors said. But there were far too many to wipe clean. He was arrested on the spot and confessed to molesting the boy. During the days of interrogation that followed, Mikelsons detailed attacks on 87 children, most under 2½ years old. He preferred to prey on those too young to talk….
Even though he confessed, Mikelsons still had to be convicted in court and sentenced by a three-judge panel. The formal charges were staggering. He stood accused of attacking 67 children — 52 boys and 15 girls — between 2007 and 2010. Many were ravaged multiple times.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2012/07/28/led-innocent-into-web-evil/Sk9VoLSnM9uQqZQAggmQJL/story.html
Dale Griffis – West Memphis Three Case Information
This information is being posted with the permission of its author, Dale Griffis:
This document is to provide accurate information about my professional background and educational credentials as these have been inaccurately referenced on the Internet and in at least one documentary film in relation to the Memphis Three Case.
From 1960 to 1986, I worked in the Tiffin Ohio Police Department, I began as a Patrolman and over the course of my 26-year career, became Captain in Charge of Operations and a State Certified School Commander.
During these years, I attended over forty service school and seminars. This included three courses on intelligence work, including a three-week course as a unit commander of an intelligence unit. I was chosen to attend the Federal Alcohol, tobacco and Firearms Academy in Washington D.C. and graduated with honors. I graduated from Terra Community College with an Associates Degree in Police Science. I graduated Cum Laude from Heidelberg College in 1976 with a Bachelors degree in psychology.
I began my graduate education at Columbia Pacific University (CPU) in 1980 and graduated in January of 1984 with a Ph.D. At the Masters level, I concentrated on an independent study project (ISP) on intelligence graphics and advanced investigation charting for small agencies. My Masters ISP took a year to finish and I graduated upon completion of my approximately 90-page thesis. CPU then granted me entry into their doctoral program.
Copies of Documents in regard to Columbia Pacific University
http://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/articles/dale-griffis-west-memphis-three-case-information/dale-griffis-west-memphis-three-case-documents/
….Approximately a year prior to the murders of three children by convicted Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley Jr. and Jason Baldwin, I was given data about a suspicious and criminal activity by some local youths in the West Memphis area. I provided to a West Memphis detective investigating these activities some indicators of possible problems and suggestions for thwarting the criminal activity. The detective’s concerns and my suggestions were not implemented by local authorities. The murders took place and I read about it in the media
….I have worked now with close to 2000 cases of cult and occult activity and am now retired, I still carry concern for the three eight-year-old boys who were savagely beaten and killed. I had told investigators and detectives more than a year before the arrest of the Memphis Three that children and animals would be sacrificed based on indicators sent to me of activity in the West Memphis area. I was sadly correct in my opinion. It is true still that when a person sees or hears something so bizarre as a ritually abusive sacrificial cult or occult group that it is easier to go after the messenger than to listen to the message.
http://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/articles/dale-griffis-west-memphis-three-case-information/
A Troubled Silence, Jury breaks without verdict in Philadelphia church abuse case
June 8, 2012 Comments Off on A Troubled Silence, Jury breaks without verdict in Philadelphia church abuse case
Op-Ed Contributor – A Troubled Silence
By RICHARD B. GARTNER June 7, 2012
THE revelation this week of alleged widespread child abuse at the elite Horace Mann School in New York City, most of it occurring during the 1970s and ’80s, is only the most recent instance of men coming forward, many years after the fact, with horrific stories of sexual molesting from their childhood.
Most of those accused of the abuse in the Horace Mann case are dead, but under New York State law, if alive they would most likely be safe from justice. The state’s statute of limitations on child abuse is five years from the victim’s 18th birthday. After age 23, the victim has no recourse.
Yet young adults, particularly men, who suffer the aftereffects of abuse are rarely in an emotional state to bring charges. Given what we now know about why it takes victims so long to come forward, the law needs to be changed.
Many people cast a skeptical eye on those who wait so long to reveal instances of child abuse, particularly when it happened to them as teenagers. They assume that accusers are making it up, blaming what were at most minor incidents for their troubles.
But in my decades of experience working with abuse victims, I have found that men spend years putting their emotions in a deep freeze or masking post-traumatic reactions with self-defeating behaviors like compulsive gambling and substance abuse. Eventually, they are forced by internal or external events to find treatment….
Finally, since boyhood abuse was not part of the public conversation until recently, many boys and men assumed their experiences were repulsive and aberrant. And a man who has not talked about it might feel it would be humiliating to first disclose it in middle age or later. Needless to say, the decades spent trying to bury the memories rarely work….
Things may be changing, thanks, in part, to the recent spate of abuse revelations. Many older victims have gained the courage to come forward. In my own practice, I received almost as many calls from sexually abused men in December and January, soon after allegations surfaced about abuse by the former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, as I usually get in a year. With Mr. Sandusky’s trial set to begin next week, I expect to get even more calls.
But more needs to be done. Every year since 2005, Margaret M. Markey, a New York State assemblywoman, has introduced a bill to extend the statute of limitations for five more years, a modest increase; it would also create a one-year window for adults up to age 53 to bring charges against alleged abusers. The bill has passed the Assembly four times but has consistently been blocked from coming to the floor of the Senate, largely thanks to fierce lobbying by the Roman Catholic Church….
Richard B. Gartner is a psychologist and psychoanalyst and the author of “Beyond Betrayal: Taking Charge of Your Life After Boyhood Sexual Abuse.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/08/opinion/in-light-of-child-abuse.html
Jury breaks without verdict in Philadelphia church abuse case
June 7, 2012 PHILADELPHIA (Reuters)
A Philadelphia jury ended its fifth day of deliberations on Thursday without reaching a verdict in the child sex abuse trial of a Roman Catholic monsignor, the highest-ranking U.S. clergyman to stand trial in the church’s wide-ranging pedophilia scandal. Monsignor William Lynn, who supervised hundreds of priests in the Philadelphia Archdiocese for 12 years as secretary of the clergy, is accused of conspiracy and child endangerment. If convicted on all charges, he faces the possibility of 21 years in prison….
Prosecutors say Lynn, 61, covered up child sex abuse allegations, often by transferring priests to unsuspecting parishes.
Lynn’s motive was to avoid scandal and any potential loss of money for the church, they argued. His job was to supervise 800 priests, which included investigating sex abuse claims, from 1992 to 2004.
The defense said Lynn tried to handle documented cases of pedophile priests, making a list in 1994 of 35 accused predators and writing memos to suggest treatment and suspensions. He was hampered because he could only make recommendations to the head of the archdiocese, Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, who died in January at age 88, the defense said….
The Philadelphia jury also is deliberating the fate of the Reverend James Brennan, 48, who is charged with child endangerment and the attempted rape of a 14-year-old child in 1996.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-usa-crime-churchbre8561g8-20120607,0,7146796.story
Mother of Jerry Sandusky’s grandchildren aims to bar him from visitation
February 18, 2012 Comments Off on Mother of Jerry Sandusky’s grandchildren aims to bar him from visitation
Mother of Jerry Sandusky’s grandchildren aims to bar him from visitation
By Jeremy Roebuck The Philadelphia Inquirer
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
The mother of three of Jerry Sandusky’s grandchildren is vowing to fight to bar the former Penn State assistant football coach from having access to her children while he awaits trial on child sex abuse charges.
In a statement sent to reporters hours after a judge approved visits between Sandusky and his 11 other grandchildren on Monday, former daughter-in-law Jill Thomas said psychologists who had treated her 5-year-old son “could not rule out that Jerry Sandusky was grooming him for sexual abuse.”
Thomas, 29, is currently involved in a custody dispute with her former husband, Sandusky’s son, Matt.
Judge John M. Cleland, who issued the pretrial order involving the other children, opted to leave any decisions involving Thomas’ youngsters to the judge presiding over her custody case.
http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/college/football/view.bg?articleid=1403798
Few penalties for keeping child abuse secret
February 18, 2012 Comments Off on Few penalties for keeping child abuse secret
Few penalties for keeping child abuse secret
By Brad Heath, USA TODAY 12/16/2011
Laws that could punish doctors, teachers and other adults for keeping silent when they suspect a child has been abused have gone largely unenforced over the past decade.
Those state laws require people who work closely with children to alert police or child-welfare investigators anytime they so much as suspect a child has been abused.
Yet a USA TODAY examination of police and court records from across the USA found that a combination of infrequent enforcement and small penalties means adults often have little to fear from concealing abuse.
In most of the states that could provide records, local police and prosecutors typically charged no more than one or two people each year. Michigan police made just five arrests over the past decade. In Hawaii and Minnesota, court officials said they couldn’t find a single case.
Fewer than half of the cases USA TODAY reviewed in detail ended in convictions, and the penalty was usually a fine of less than $1,000.
“If you’re not going to make the moral choice, at least you have to have a law with some teeth that makes somebody do it for the legal reason that you’re afraid you’re going to be charged,” said Sean McCormack, the chief child abuse prosecutor in Harrisburg, Pa.
States’ mandatory abuse-reporting laws are getting new scrutiny in the aftermath of a sexual abuse scandal at Penn State University, where longtime assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky is accused of having molested 10 boys over 15 years. He has pleaded not guilty. Two Penn State officials are charged with failing to report the abuse to police….
Abuse frequently unreported
Child welfare agencies estimate that 695,000 children were abused or neglected last year, but studies have repeatedly found that even more abuse goes unreported. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-01-02/unreported-child-abuse/51981108/1
Physically Abused Children Report Higher Levels of Psychosomatic Symptoms
February 14, 2012 Comments Off on Physically Abused Children Report Higher Levels of Psychosomatic Symptoms
Physically Abused Children Report Higher Levels of Psychosomatic Symptoms – ScienceDaily (Feb. 9, 2012)
Children who display multiple psychosomatic symptoms, such as regular aches and pains and sleep and appetite problems, are more than twice as likely to be experiencing physical abuse at home than children who do not display symptoms, according to a study in the March edition of Acta Paediatrica.
Swedish researchers who studied 2,510 children aged 10, 12 and 15 from 44 schools found a strong association between reported physical abuse and three or more psychosomatic symptoms. The association was highest in children who were physically abused and also witnessed intimate partner violence (IPV). However, there was no significant association between IPV on its own and multiple symptoms….
“Our study demonstrates a clear association between high levels of psychosomatic symptoms and an increased risk of physical abuse” says Professor Janson. “The association was even stronger in abused children who also witnessed intimate partner violence at home.
Carolina Jernbro, Birgitta Svensson, Ylva Tindberg, Staffan Janson. Multiple psychosomatic symptoms can indicate child physical abuse – results from a study of Swedish schoolchildren. Acta Paediatrica, 2012; 101 (3): 324 DOI: 10.1111/j.1651-2227.2011.02518.x
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/02/120209135343.htm
Multiple psychosomatic symptoms can indicate child physical abuse – results from a study of Swedish schoolchildren
Carolina Jernbro, Birgitta Svensson, Ylva Tindberg, Staffan Janson
Acta Paediatrica Volume 101, Issue 3, pages 324–329, March 2012
DOI: 10.1111/j.1651-2227.2011.02518.
Methods: A national cross-sectional study of 2771 pupils in grades 4, 6 and 9 from 44 schools in Sweden was carried out in 2006 (91% response rate)….
Results: There was a strong association between reported physical abuse and multiple (three or more) psychosomatic symptoms among schoolchildren (AOR 2.12). Chronic condition was the only determinant that had an obvious enhancing effect on the association between physical abuse and psychosomatic symptoms in childhood.
Conclusion: This study shows that multiple psychosomatic symptoms are associated with child physical abuse. Health professionals therefore need to pay special attention to schoolchildren who complain about the co-occurrence of psychosomatic symptoms and pattern of symptoms, which could not be easily explained by other causes.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1651-2227.2011.02518.x/abstract;jsessionid=534C549FE6A2CD
full article
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1651-2227.2011.02518.x/full
Child abuse and neglect cost US $124 billion, Scouts Canada, school staff replaced
February 8, 2012 Comments Off on Child abuse and neglect cost US $124 billion, Scouts Canada, school staff replaced
articles:
– Child abuse and neglect cost the United States $124 billion
– The economic burden of child maltreatment in the United States and implications for prevention
– Study: Child abuse bigger threat than SIDS
– Convicted leader continued with Scouts movement
– Entire staff to be replaced at LA school where 2 teachers were arrested
Child abuse and neglect cost the United States $124 billion
Rivals cost of other high profile public health problems
Press Release
For Immediate Release: February 1, 2012
Contact :CDC Division of News and Electronic Media
The total lifetime estimated financial costs associated with just one year of confirmed cases of child maltreatment (physical abuse, sexual abuse, psychological abuse and neglect) is approximately $124 billion, according to a report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, published in Child Abuse and Neglect, The International Journal.
This study looked at confirmed child maltreatment cases, 1,740 fatal and 579,000 non–fatal, for a 12–month period. The lifetime cost for each victim of child maltreatment who lived was $210,012, which is comparable to other costly health conditions, such as stroke with a lifetime cost per person estimated at $159,846 or type 2 diabetes, which is estimated between $181,000 and $253,000. The costs of each death due to child maltreatment are even higher….
Child maltreatment has been shown to have many negative effects on survivors, including poorer health, social and emotional difficulties, and decreased economic productivity. This CDC study found these negative effects over a survivor’s lifetime generate many costs that impact the nation’s health care, education, criminal justice and welfare systems.
Key findings:
The estimated average lifetime cost per victim of nonfatal child maltreatment includes:
$32,648 in childhood health care costs
$10,530 in adult medical costs
$144,360 in productivity losses
$7,728 in child welfare costs
$6,747 in criminal justice costs
$7,999 in special education costs
….Child maltreatment can also be linked to many emotional, behavioral, and physical health problems. Associated emotional and behavioral problems include aggression, conduct disorder, delinquency, antisocial behavior, substance abuse, intimate partner violence, teenage pregnancy, anxiety, depression, and suicide. http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2012/p0201_child_abuse.html
The economic burden of child maltreatment in the United States and implications for prevention Xiangming Fanga, Derek S. Brownb,
Curtis S. Florencea, James A. Mercya
Results
The estimated average lifetime cost per victim of nonfatal child maltreatment is $210,012 in 2010 dollars, including $32,648 in childhood health care costs; $10,530 in adult medical costs; $144,360 in productivity losses; $7,728 in child welfare costs; $6,747 in criminal justice costs; and $7,999 in special education costs. The estimated average lifetime cost per death is $1,272,900, including $14,100 in medical costs and $1,258,800 in productivity losses. The total lifetime economic burden resulting from new cases of fatal and nonfatal child maltreatment in the United States in 2008 is approximately $124 billion. In sensitivity analysis, the total burden is estimated to be as large as $585 billion.
Conclusions
Compared with other health problems, the burden of child maltreatment is substantial, indicating the importance of prevention efforts to address the high prevalence of child maltreatment. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0145213411003140
Study: Child abuse bigger threat than SIDS
4,600 children hospitalized with serious injuries
By Frederik Joelving 2/6/2012
Nearly 4,600 U.S. children were hospitalized with broken bones, traumatic brain injury and other serious damage caused by physical abuse in 2006, according to a new report.
Babies younger than one were the most common victims, with 58 cases per 100,000 infants. That makes serious abuse a bigger threat to infant safety than SIDS, or sudden infant death syndrome, researchers say in the report….
Based on data from the 2006 Kids’ Inpatient Database, the last such numbers available, Leventhal’s team found that six out of every 100,000 children under 18 were hospitalized with injuries ranging from burns to wounds to brain injuries and bone fractures. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46281207/ns/health-childrens_health
Convicted leader continued with Scouts movement
CBC 2/7/12 A man who was twice-convicted of sex offences against children was welcomed as a member of a Scouts alumni association for decades, even after officials became aware of at least one of his convictions, a CBC News investigation has found.
Even though the organization says there was no contact with youth, Scouts Canada, in a recent interview with the CBC, now admits it was a mistake.
But a Lillooet, B.C., family that suffered damage caused by the abuse, says the acknowledgement gives them little solace.
“I ended up doing nine prison sentences, and having drinking and drug and all those other problems,” Christopher Jones told CBC News.
Decades ago, in 1976, his Grade 4 teacher and Scout leader, Michael David Henley, began molesting him….
It took Jones, who was known as Christopher Aaron as a child, 10 years to tell anyone what Henley did to him….
Henley eventually pleaded guilty to indecent assault and received a year’s probation. In 1994, Moore wrote to Scouts officials to be certain they were aware of what happened.
Moore says the letter she got back made her sick. Henley was still involved in Scouting as part of an adult alumni group for leaders called the Baden Powell Guild. The provincial commissioner wrote that Henley had no direct contact with youth, was undergoing counselling, and appeared determined to stay clear of situations that could result in a recurrence of his crime.
After Henley was convicted of sex assaults against six boys in 1999, he stepped down from his position as editor of the Baden Powell Guild’s newsletter, but returned as editor until 2005. http://ca.news.yahoo.com/convicted-leader-continued-scouts-movement-000842148.html
Entire staff to be replaced at LA school where 2 teachers were arrested
By msnbc.com staff and news services
2/7/12 The Los Angeles Unified School District is replacing the entire staff of Miramonte Elementary following the arrest of two teachers on lewd conduct charges last week, Superintendent John Deasy told parents at a meeting Monday night, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Positions will be filled by qualified teachers and other workers already on a placement or rehiring list, the Times report stated. But the displacement of the current staff could be temporary, according to the report.
Teacher Mark Berndt was charged last week with committing lewd acts on 23 children. Another teacher, Martin Springer, was arrested Friday on suspicion of fondling two girls in his classroom.
Deasy said staffers are being replaced because a full investigation of allegations is disruptive, and staffers require support to get through the scandal. http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/06/10332533-entire-staff-to-be-replaced-at-la-school-where-2-teachers-were-arrested
Eassurvey's Weblog 
Jerry Sandusky trial: Former coach allegedly wrote intimate letters to victims, Child sex-abuse cases under-reported, often ignored
June 6, 2012 Comments Off on Jerry Sandusky trial: Former coach allegedly wrote intimate letters to victims, Child sex-abuse cases under-reported, often ignored
Jerry Sandusky trial: Former coach allegedly wrote intimate letters to victims
Tuesday, Jun 5, 2012 Associated Press and Sporting News staff
Former Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky allegedly sent love letters and gifts to his victims, ABC News reported on the first day of jury selection in Sandusky’s child molestation case.
Known only as Victim 4, one of Sandusky’s eight accusers said he received intimate letters from the former coach. The letters will be read into testimony during the trial, which begins on Monday. Victim 4, who is expected to be the first person to testify, will also show gifts Sandusky gave him during the course of their relationship.
The letters, said to be in Sandusky’s handwriting, are expected to corroborate the accusations of Victim 4, who met Sandusky through the former coach’s Second Mile charity. Victim 4, now 28 years old, is one of seven alleged victims who will testify against Sandusky in the three-week trial.
Ben Andreozzi, Victim 4’s attorney, says the letters will play a key part in the case against Sandusky. “They have evidence to support his allegations, and there’s other evidence that has not been released to the public yet that I think will really resonate with the jury,” Andreozzi told ABC News….
Sandusky, 68, faces 52 criminal counts and potential penalties that could result in an effective life prison sentence for alleged abuse involving 10 boys. He has denied the allegations.
http://aol.sportingnews.com/ncaa-football/story/2012-06-05/jerry-sandusky-trial-jury-selection-sexual-abuse-penn-state
Child sex-abuse cases under-reported, often ignored Saturday, June 2, 2012 Sat Jun 2, 2012 By Bill Heltzel and Halle Stockton
….David Scott Zimmerman’s case is a cautionary tale about what happens when certain patterns of behavior are not recognized and reported. Another boy described abusive sexual conduct by Zimmerman to school officials — three years after the 1995 incident involving the first boy. Vincentian officials immediately suspended Zimmerman, notified police and the county prosecutor, and started their own investigation. Ultimately, 13 boys told police of sexual behavior by Zimmerman. This time, a public scandal engulfed the Catholic high school. Court proceedings show that the school made a deal with Zimmerman to keep quiet about his dismissal if he absolved the school of liability. He also kept his teaching license.
A proposed Pennsylvania law would make confidential deals like the one between Zimmerman and Vincentian impossible. Other states have already acted. Oregon recently passed a law that could make it easier to recognize sexual misconduct. The law, cited as a model, could stop abuse in its early stages. Recent changes in Oregon law were made because of the Sandusky case, officials said. As policymakers consider a response, teachers, parents and students can be alert to recognize classic “grooming” patterns that are precursors to the sexual abuse of children. Another effective step, experts say, is to ban the practice of “passing the trash,” a phrase that describes when a suspected school employee is allowed to resign quietly and without consequences.
“You can stop a lot of this behavior,” said Charol Shakeshaft, an education professor at Virginia Commonwealth University who studies sexual abuse. One of every 10 students becomes a target of sexual misconduct that includes such behavior as unwanted sexual comments, inappropriate touching, and even rape, Shakeshaft said. Yet only about 6 percent of child sexual-abuse cases are reported to authorities, and teachers….
Coaches or teachers suspected of abuse tend to single out students for special treatment, lavishing them with attention and rewards. They become unusually close to children, finding ways to spend time with them privately in school and on trips outside of school.
Recognizing these techniques and reporting them are the keys to stopping predators from abusing children, experts say.
http://www.timesonline.com/news/local_news/child-sex-abuse-cases-under-reported-often-ignored/article_8cf83740-ac23-11e1-842e-001a4bcf6878.html