New York passes Child Victims Act, allowing child sex abuse survivors to sue their abusers, Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination and the moral context of trauma science

New York passes Child Victims Act, allowing child sex abuse survivors to sue their abusers

By Augusta Anthony, CNN Mon January 28, 2019

New York (CNN)The New York State Legislature passed a bill on Monday that will increase the statute of limitations for cases of child sexual abuse.

The Child Victims Act will allow child victims to seek prosecution against their abuser until the age of 55 in civil cases, a significant increase from the previous limit of age 23. For criminal cases, victims can seek prosecution until they turn 28. The bill also includes a one-year window during which victims of any age or time limit can come forward to prosecute.

“New York has just gone from being one of the worst states in the country to being one of the best,” in terms of the statute of limitations for child sex abuse cases, said Marci Hamilton, CEO of Child USA and a professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

Hamilton said the bill “represents over 15 years of work by survivors and advocates trying to get around the stiff opposition from the Catholic bishops and the insurance industry” and is a step forward in the national conversation. There are eight other states considering similar legislation….

Catholic Church opposition

Monday’s bill passage comes after more than a decade of opposition from the Catholic Church in New York. In a news conference on Monday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is a Roman Catholic, blamed the church directly for preventing the bill’s passage.

Speaking about why the bill took years to pass, Cuomo said, “I believe it was the conservatives in the Senate who were threatened by the Catholic Church.” The bill passed the Senate unanimously on Monday. In November 2018, Democrats took over the Republican-held Senate….

https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/28/us/new-york-child-victims-act/index.html

Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination and the moral context of trauma science
Michael Salter Published online: 24 Jan 2019

Download citation https://doi.org/10.1080/15299732.2019.1571858

The fraught process surrounding the recent nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court was a spectacular deployment of institutional power to suppress good faith allegations of sexual violence. Trauma survivors and their allies have been shaken by the public scorn and victim-blaming that occurred when a childhood acquaintance of Kavanaugh’s, Christine Blasey Ford, alleged she had been sexually assaulted by him while they were at high school. Kavanaugh denied the allegation and US President Donald Trump firmly supported him. The matter only became more heated when, after Ford agreed to testify publicly to the Senate Judiciary Committee, two other women come forward with allegations of sexual assault and improper conduct by Kavanaugh.

The response of Kavanaugh and his supporters was replete with the rhetoric of denial. Kavanaugh variously characterized the allegations as part of a “coordinated effort” and “conspiracy” to destroy his reputation and prevent his nomination. President Trump agreed that the three women describing abuse by Kavanaugh were politically motivated. He went on to suggest that one woman “has nothing” on Kavanaugh because she “admits she was drunk” at the time of the alleged assault. Conservative media commentators speculated that Ford was suffering from “false memories” of rape, or had mistaken her actual attacker for Kavanaugh. Such language, reverberating from the White House and its spokespeople and advocates, represents a sustained campaign of institutional betrayal that only compounds the trauma of sexual assault (Smith & Freyd, 2013 Smith, C. P., & Freyd, J. J. (2013). Dangerous safe havens: Institutional betrayal exacerbates sexual trauma. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 26(1), 119–124. doi:10.1002/jts.21778[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®], , [Google Scholar]), consonant with other policy positions that have profoundly traumatised the vulnerable (Smidt & Freyd, 2018 Smidt, A. M., & Freyd, J. J. (2018). Government-mandated institutional betrayal. Journal of Trauma & Dissociation, 26(5), 491–499.[Taylor & Francis Online], , [Google Scholar]).

The proposition that allegations of sexual violence are motivated by animus or the product of confabulation or “false memories” has a long and shameful history (Campbell, 2003 Campbell, S. (2003). Relational remembering: Rethinking the memory wars. Oxford, UK: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc. [Google Scholar]). Movements against sexual assault and child abuse have routinely been accused of hiding an ideological agenda, or creating the conditions for false allegations by confused women and children. The conflicts surrounding Kavanaugh’s appointment have highlighted the persistence of a culture of disbelief.

However, it is notable that the attempts by Kavanaugh’s supporters to invoke pseudo-scientific explanations for Ford’s allegation found considerably less purchase in the mass media than they might have in the past. Questions about the integrity of Ford’s memory were largely limited to right wing and conservative media, and were rejected in statements from the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation and the American Psychological Association. Progress against the institutionalized mechanics of denial and unaccountability is substantive although clearly incomplete (Brand & McEwen, 2016 Brand, B. L., & McEwen, L. (2016). Ethical standards, truths, and lies. Journal of Trauma & Dissociation, 17(3), 259–266. doi:10.1080/15299732.2016.1114357[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®], , [Google Scholar])….

While I hesitate to argue that we can read life lessons directly from research findings, it does appear to me that the overall direction of trauma research and treatment trends in a particular moral direction. If we seek to find opportunities for trauma survivors to recover and live well, and if we want to promote the conditions in which people are not traumatised in the first place, then we are necessarily advancing moral propositions about human happiness and flourishing. Research on trauma, recovery and psychological wellbeing consistently finds that human beings thrive when we are embedded in emotionally rich, mutual and equitable relationships. This conclusion furnishes us with a powerful and, I think, very appealing image of a good life – one characterized by dignity, equality, accountability, and shared recognition – that the trauma field should not hesitate in articulating clearly. Political theorist Alford (2016 Alford, C. F. (2016). Trauma, culture, and PTSD. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.[Crossref], , [Google Scholar]) suggests that a key reason for the expanding public interest in trauma science is precisely because the concept of ‘trauma’ provides a rare acknowledgement of human relationality and vulnerability in a culture that is exhaustively individualistic and atomizing.

When a person like Christine Blasey Ford stands up to testify to a traumatic event, in opposition to incredibly powerful forces, we can recognize this as a courageous step in the fulfillment of a moral vision that we also have a stake in. The visceral and hate-filled response that has driven her, and her family, from their home is stark evidence of the cost paid by people who challenge the structures of traumatisation. Such costs have, of course, been visited in the past on trauma therapists and researchers whose ethical and scientific convictions have also bought them into conflict with vested interests. However the tremendous support that rallied around Christine Blasey Ford, and that recognised and celebrated her bravery in stepping forward with her story, indicates a growing consensus that opposes traumatizing social formations and seeks an alternative. Trauma research and theory, I would argue, is well placed to elaborate on what those alternatives might be.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15299732.2019.1571858

PTSD In The Wake Of Abuse Is A Reality For Many Women, Sexual Abuse By Priest, Stop Mind Control and Ritual Abuse Today, Hypnosis in MPD

– PTSD In The Wake Of Abuse Is A Reality For Many Women
– ‘I Knew It Wasn’t Right’: Winona Woman Speaks Out About Sexual Abuse By Priest
– Stop Mind Control and Ritual Abuse Today
– Becoming Yourself: Overcoming Mind Control and Ritual Abuse by Alison Miller
– Hypnosis in MPD : Ritual Abuse, Greenbaum Speech, Mind Control Programming
– The Power of Story  An Interview with Neil Brick – Facing Down Fears

Has graphic descriptions of violence
PTSD In The Wake Of Abuse Is A Reality For Many Women
Lauren Messervey 10/12/2016

Teal Swan was only six years old when she found herself in the hands of her abuser and forced into a nightmarish world that a lot of people were unwilling (or unable) to believe. For the better part of 13 years, she was was raped, beaten and psychologically tortured by people who she was told to trust. It wasn’t until she was 19 that she was able to escape.

This story of specific ritualistic abuse is unique to Teal’s struggle, but the heart of the issue is something that millions of people experience….

Teal was entrusted to an acquaintance of her family who claimed he could help her become healthier and better adjusted. Instead of helping her, Teal was inducted into two groups of deranged adults who participated in religious blood sacrifice and ritual.

“When I was 12, I was placed on a metal table in a veterinary office after hours,” says Teal. “The cult trainer of the group had black mesh over his face. He hooked me up to electrodes, placing gel under each one and used an old projector to project images of dead animal carcasses onto the wall in front of me. Every time he would change the slide on the projector screen, he would shock me. He kept saying ‘Look what you did,’ over and over, trying to suggest that I had killed all of those animals.”…. http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/lauren-messervey/ptsd-abuse-women_b_12445530.html

‘I Knew It Wasn’t Right’: Winona Woman Speaks Out About Sexual Abuse By Priest
October 11, 2016 By Liz Collin
WINONA, Minn. (WCCO) — A Minnesota woman calls it the untold story in the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal. Jeanie Hansen says a priest beat and raped her when she went to college in Winona. Other women came forward with similar claims against the same man but the priest was never publicly named as doing anything wrong….

She pursued a career in religious administration at St. Teresa’s in the late 70s.  She met Father John Surprenant, the chaplain at the college, in her second year….

It’s why her junior year when she was 20 years old, Hansen stopped by one winter night.  She remembers having trouble with her boyfriend back home at the time.  She says Surprenant told her she struggled receiving male affection as he started to kiss her. “I knew it wasn’t right. I knew a priest shouldn’t be doing that,” Hansen said….

More than 850 people came forward in all as part of the Child Victim’s Act.  Five hundred were claims made against Minnesota Catholic clergy. A civil lawsuit was filed against Surprenant for forcing a female teenager to have sex with him for three years, and exploiting other students.  It was the second case in 1987 charging the Winona Diocese for negligently failing to prevent a priest from committing sexual abuse…. http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2016/10/11/winona-sexual-abuse-priest/

Stop Mind Control and Ritual Abuse Today https://stopchildabuse.tumblr.com

S.M.A.R.T. ritual abuse newsletter was founded in 1995 by Neil Brick. The purpose of S.M.A.R.T. is to help stop ritual abuse and child abuse and to help those who have been ritually abused.  We work toward this goal by disseminating information on the connections between secretive organizations, ritual abuse, and mind control, by encouraging healing from the damage done by child abuse, ritual abuse and mind control, and by encouraging survivors to network.

We publish scientific information about ritual abuse and trauma crimes.
We have a web site at ritualabuse.us , a bimonthly newsletter, an e-mail discussion list, and annual conferences. https://stopchildabuse.tumblr.com

Becoming Yourself: Overcoming Mind Control and Ritual Abuse by Alison Miller
Audio versions
Becoming Yourself: Overcoming Mind Control and Ritual Abuse – part 1 – YouTube http://bit.ly/2cB7ZUv

Becoming Yourself: Overcoming Mind Control and Ritual Abuse – part 2 – YouTube http://bit.ly/2cV9B85

In contrast to the author’s previous book, Healing the Unimaginable: Treating Ritual Abuse and Mind Control, which was for therapists, this book is designed for survivors of these abuses.
It takes the survivor systematically through understanding the abuses and how his or her symptoms may be consequences of these abuses, and gives practical advice regarding how a survivor can achieve stability and manage the life issues with which he or she may have difficulty.

The book also teaches the survivor how to work with his or her complex personality system and with the traumatic memories, to heal the wounds created by the abuse.
A unique feature of this book is that it addresses the reader as if he or she is dissociative, and directs some information and exercises towards the internal leaders of the personality system, teaching them how to build a cooperative and healing inner community within which information is shared, each part’s needs are met, and traumatic memories can be worked through successfully.

Hypnosis in MPD : Ritual Abuse, Greenbaum Speech, Mind Control Programming http://childabusedata.blogspot.com/2016/09/hypnosis-in-mpd-ritual-abuse-greenbaum.html http://whale.to/b/greenbaum.html

also at: http://www.empty-memories.nl/science/greenbaum.pdf http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/esp_sociopol_mindcon03.htm

Hypnosis in MPD: Ritual Abuse. The Greenbaum Speech.
audio recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FUersarZuo

The Power of Story  An Interview with Neil Brick – Facing Down Fears http://www.facingdownfears.com/2016/09/power-story-interview-neil-brick/

Olympic speedskater Bridie Farrell joins push to pass N.Y. child abuse law

Olympic speedskater Bridie Farrell joins push to pass N.Y. child abuse law
BY Glenn Blain NEW YORK DAILY NEWS ALBANY BUREAU
Monday, April 25, 2016

ALBANY — The effort to pass legislation that would allow sexually abused children to bring lawsuits as adults will get a personal assist next week from Olympic speedskater Bridie Farrell.

Farrell, who has accused Olympian speedskater Andy Gabel of molesting her when she was just 15, will take part in a press conference and roundtable discussion in Albany on May 3 to build support for the Child Victims Act….

Markey’s bill would eliminate the civil and criminal statutes of limitations in New York for child sex abuse. And it would create a one-year window for victims who have been time-barred in the past to file criminal charges or civil claims….
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/olympic-speedskater-joins-push-pass-n-y-child-abuse-law-article-1.2614138

Ten of Jared Fogle’s child abuse victims paid $1m total prior to sentencing, Attorney: Diocese of Duluth should pay millions to child abuse victim

Ten of Jared Fogle’s child abuse victims paid $1m total prior to sentencing

Four other victims expected to receive restitution before former Subway spokesman is sentenced next month – a rare move in child sexual abuse cases
Jared Fogle agreed to plead guilty to receiving child abuse images and having sex with minors.
Associated Press in Indianapolis

Thursday 22 October 2015

Ten victims of former Subway pitchman Jared Fogle have received a total of $1m in restitution since he agreed to plead guilty to receiving child abuse images and sex-crime charges, and his four other victims could receive their checks by the time he is sentenced next month – a move prosecutors said is rare.

The $100,000 checks were hand-delivered to each of the 10 victims or their parents over the last several weeks, with each signing a form saying they had received the money and that it is intended to benefit that particular victim, assistant US attorney Steven DeBrota told the Associated Press on Thursday….

By the time a federal judge sentences Fogle on 19 November to a minimum of five years in prison, DeBrota said prosecutors expect to have either presented checks to Fogle’s four other victims or have plans in place to disburse those funds to them.

That money will pay for mental health counseling, medical care and other needs the 14 victims might have now or in the future to help them recover from the trauma. Three adults and seven minors had received their checks as of Thursday. DeBrota said that money will help them “go on with their lives and put them where they should have been had none of this happened”….
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/oct/22/jared-fogle-child-sexual-abuse-victims-restitution

Attorney: Diocese of Duluth should pay millions to child abuse victim
Madeleine Baran · Oct 21, 2015

Attorney Jeff Anderson asked jurors in Ramsey County Wednesday to award $11.7 million to a man who says he was sexually abused by a priest in the Diocese of Duluth when he was a teenager in the late 1970s.

The case is the first clergy sex abuse lawsuit to be argued in front of a jury in Minnesota since state lawmakers passed the Child Victims Act in 2013, according to available court records. The law opened a three-year window for people to file lawsuits for older incidents of abuse.

For decades, most clergy sex abuse cases in Minnesota had been settled privately or were tossed out of court. Earlier this year, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis prevented hundreds of cases from going to trial when it filed for bankruptcy….

Anderson told jurors that his 52-year-old client, identified in the lawsuit as Doe 30, had been sexually abused by the Rev. James Vincent Fitzgerald at St. Catherine’s parish in Squaw Lake, Minn., in about 1978. As a result of the abuse, Anderson said, the man has been unable to trust people, struggled in school, and has never been in a serious relationship….
http://www.mprnews.org/story/2015/10/21/sex-abuse-trial

FBI: 168 kids rescued, 281 pimps nabbed in sex-trafficking crackdown, Deputies: Day care, mentoring program a front for Sanford child porn operation, Child abuse victims stung by Albany inaction (Child Victims Act)

FBI: 168 kids rescued, 281 pimps nabbed in sex-trafficking crackdown
CBS/AP June 23, 2014

WASHINGTON — Nearly 170 victims of child sex trafficking, many of whom had never been reported missing, were rescued in the last week as part of an annual nationwide crackdown, the FBI said Monday.

Besides the 168 children rescued from the sex trade, 281 pimps were arrested during the same period on state and federal charges.

“These are not faraway kids in faraway lands,” FBI Director James Comey said in announcing the annual enforcement push known as Operation Cross Country. Instead, he added, “These are America’s children.”

This is the eighth such week long-operation, which this year unfolded in 106 cities. The FBI says nearly 3,600 children have so far been recovered from the streets….

He said one concerning trend is the increasing prevalence of children who are being prostituted online…. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/fbi-168-kids-rescued-281-pimps-nabbed-in-sex-trafficking-crackdown/

Deputies: Day care, mentoring program a front for Sanford child porn operation 6/25/14

Sanford, N.C. — A pseudo day care and mentoring program operating out of the Sanford home of a convicted sex offender was actually a front for a child porn production operation, Harnett County Sheriff’s Office detectives said.

Four people have been arrested in the case. Investigators are searching for Tommy Wall, a fifth person who may be in the Raleigh or Fayetteville areas….

Investigators say Bailey Joe Mills, 33, who was convicted three times on charges related to sexual contact with children, ran the operation out of his former Nicole Drive home. They believe Mills ran the day care and mentoring program to attract young girls to his residence and to create a relationship with their parents. Mills then offered the girls money to have sex with men he found through different social media sites, authorities said….

Mills has had multiple arrests and convictions over the years….

The operation, which involves about 10 male and female victims ranging from ages 1 to 14, dates back to 2013, but it wasn’t discovered until Mills’ arrest in January. Investigators said they realized they had a much bigger case after going through Mills’ computer and cell phones…. http://www.wral.com/deputies-day-care-and-mentoring-program-a-front-for-child-porn-operation/13758447/

Child abuse victims stung by Albany inaction
By Shant Shahrigian 6/25/14

Horace Mann School graduate Joseph Cumming says it took him 34 years to fully realize his treatment at the hands of his music teacher Johannes Somary was sexual abuse. But by then, even if he had wanted to, it was far too late for him to take legal action. New York’s criminal and civil statute of limitations for sexual abuse of minors is five years after the victim turns 18.

After revelations of decades of abuse involving more than 30 victims at Horace Mann emerged in June 2012, the Bronx District Attorney’s office said the limitations prevented it from prosecuting any of the perpetrators.

The state legislature’s recent failure to take up the Child Victims Act — which would eliminate the criminal and civil statues of limitations for child sexual abuse and create a one-year window for past victims to seek justice — infuriated Mr. Cumming and other survivors….

“The main reason [the Child Victims Act] has not passed is that there is a caucus of centrist Democrats in the senate who have blocked it again and again,”….

A man who says he suffered sexual abuse at the Hackley School in Tarrytown, N.Y., which earlier this year acknowledged abuse of students in the 1960s, echoed Mr. Cumming’ point of view.

“These politicians end up protecting very bad people,” said the surivor, who did not want his name published.

The New York State Catholic Conference is strongly opposed to the act, saying it would unfairly subject the church — which has seen widespread allegations of child abuse by priests in recent years — to costly litigation. http://riverdalepress.com/stories/Child-abuse-victims-stung-by-Albany-inaction,54539

New York May Ease Statute of Limitations for Decades-Old Child Sex Abuse Claims, Sixth Circuit Rejects Commonsense Approach to Child Pornography Restitution

New York May Ease Statute of Limitations for Decades-Old Child Sex Abuse Claims

Bill Would Ease Path to Court for Yeshiva U. Victims
By Paul Berger Published March 07, 2013, issue of March 15, 2013.

Adults abused as children decades ago in New York could file civil lawsuits against their abusers and the institutions that employed them, if a national surge of legislative reform reaches Albany.

Advocates for child sex abuse victims say that this year, the prospects look good for a bill that sank four times previously following strong opposition from Catholic and ultra-Orthodox groups. If passed, the legislation could ease the way for a slew of lawsuits against Jewish and Catholic institutions accused of failing to report accounts of child sex abuse to law enforcement authorities.

“I’ve never been more optimistic we can succeed in 2013,” the bill’s sponsor, Assemblywoman Margaret Markey, said.

Yeshiva University may also be casting a wary eye toward Albany as it continues to investigate a scandal involving abuse allegations first reported by the Forward and dating back four decades.

Read the Forward’s COMPLETE COVERAGE of the allegations of abuse against staffers at Yeshiva U. high school.

The bill, known as the Child Victims Act, still faces a real test in the state senate where a key Democrat, Jeffrey Klein, indicated he would not support it….
http://forward.com/articles/172412/new-york-may-ease-statute-of-limitations-for-decad/

Sixth Circuit Rejects Commonsense Approach to Child Pornography Restitution
By James R. Marsh on March 8, 2013

Last week, the Sixth Circuit issued this confusing decision on child pornography restitution.

The Court held that the child pornography restitution statute contains both a cause-in-fact requirement—i.e., a showing that the defendant’s conduct actually caused the victim’s losses—and a requirement that the cause be proximate.

The Court found that “the statute still allows victims to collect more restitution than under earlier and concurrent restitution statutes. The statute expands the definition of victims and the categories of losses for which victims can receive restitution and makes restitution mandatory. In addition, the list of recoverable losses that the statute provides confirms the breadth of what is a foreseeable consequence of defendants’ actions.”

The Court concluded that “a proximate cause showing is necessary for restitution awards under § 2259, meaning the losses must be both “directly attributable” to the defendant’s offense, and “reasonably foreseeable.”….
http://www.childlaw.us/2013/03/sixth-circuit-rejects-commonse.html

Reforming the Statute of Limitations for Child Sex Abuse

Reforming the Statute of Limitations for Child Sex Abuse: New York’s Child Victims Act Shouldn’t Be Political, But It Is By MARCI A. HAMILTON June 10, 2010

Last week, the New York Child Victims Act (available at http://open.nysenate.gov/legislation/bill/S5893A ) was defeated in the Senate Codes Committee. For New York’s children, it was a choice that favors child predators, and therefore a bad day. However, it was an interesting session and the bill will be re-introduced next session — and every session until it is passed, according to sponsors Assemblywoman Marge Markey and Senator Ruth Hassell-Thompson. The only impact is that child predators have one more year to operate under the anonymity afforded by New York’s extremely short statutes of limitations for child sex abuse….

Currently, New York has one of the stingiest statutes of limitations for child sex abuse in the entire country — 18 years-old for criminal charges and 23 for civil claims. In the future, it is inevitable that New York will radically expand these statutes of limitations for child sex abuse, because justice demands it, and because that is the trend in the entire country. Florida just eliminated all of its statutes of limitations for child sex abuse; Delaware did the same thing in 2007; Connecticut gives victims until age 48; Pennsylvania until age 53; New Jersey has a liberal discovery rule (which New York courts rejected, saying it was an issue for the legislature)….

Research establishes that one in four girls, and one in five boys, are sexually abused. Not only clergy child-sex-abuse victims, but incest victims too, are increasingly demanding their day in court, and the kind of statute-of-limitations reform that would make that possible.
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/hamilton/20100610.html

ACLU – Child Victims Act, Recovered Memory, DID/Abuse, ritual abuse

from http://ritualabuse.us

“The NYCLU, like the ACLU, is an institution that makes the world a worse place for children.”

“It is concluded that the weight of the evidence should allow the recovered memory victim to come before the court.”

“This study establishes, once and for all, the linkage between early severe abuse and dissociative identity disorder.”

“Civil Liberties” and Uncivil Lies: What the New York Civil Liberties Union and the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights Have in Common – An Agenda to Keep Child Predator Identities Secret By Marci A. Hamilton 3/19/2009 Yesterday, March 18, the New York Assembly Rules Committee passed the Child Victims Act (Assembly Bill A02596/Senate Bill S02568), which will extend the criminal and civil statute of limitations for child sex abuse by five years. It will also open a one-year window of opportunity for child sex abuse victims to go to court even if their statute of limitations already had expired. The next stop is the full Assembly and then on to the Senate….

If this bill is passed, as it looks like it will be, the result will be that parents in New York will know many more names of perpetrators at the end of next year than they do today. When California enacted such a window in 2003, by comparison, 300 new perpetrators were publicly named….The New York Civil Liberties Union’s Disappointing Anti-Child Victim Position – and Why It Is So Unpersuasive – Meanwhile, the New York Civil Liberties Union apparently does not want New York citizens to learn the identities of perpetrators, because they are the defendants the NYCLU would represent. They are taking the side of the perpetrators, making the patently ridiculous argument that it is not “fair” for those who preyed on children to be named decades after their abuse occurred, because memories are faulty. Once again, the truth has taken a hit from a group intent on misinforming the public for its own ends. The NYCLU appears to be ignorant of the vast literature on child sex abuse over the last couple of decades, and has not accurately informed legislators or anyone else about how the burdens of proof are apportioned in such cases. In fact, when the statute of limitations window is opened, and the statute’s term is extended, the plaintiff still bears the initial burden of proof and if the plaintiff has no corroborating evidence, then the case is over. It is rare that a defendant has to defend himself or herself against claims that are solely the result of the victim’s story, or the result of “faulty memories.” In the overwhelming majority of cases, instead, there are markers of abuse that can corroborate a victim’s story. While the crime itself occurs usually with no one else there, child sex abuse victims display common characteristics that can be traced to the abuse, such as falling grades, depression, sexual confusion, and substance abuse. There is also evidence to be adduced about the availability of the victim to the perpetrator. For example, did the perpetrator call the child out of class on a regular basis for private “counseling” sessions? With respect to organizations, there are also employee files that often prove that the organization knew about the perpetrator’s dangerous predisposition toward children, but did nothing. That is true of the Catholic Church, with its “secret archives,” which so often provide all the information anyone would need to know the hierarchy’s role in crafting the unsafe conditions that led to the abuse. Some of the most important corroborating evidence, though, comes from the fact that most abusers have multiple — and even, in some cases, hundreds — of victims….

The NYCLU, like the ACLU, is an institution that makes the world a worse place for children. The NYCLU and ACLU rarely, if ever, take the position of the child, unless the issue is free speech in public schools. Whether the issue is the medical neglect of children in faith-healing homes, or the abuse of children in polygamous families, or the failure to educate children in Amish or Mennonite communities, they choose the religious parents to the detriment of the helpless children. It is a record that all those in the emerging civil rights movement for children have come to know well, and to be deeply disappointed by. The truth is that the NYCLU and ACLU seem incapable of factoring the rights of children into the mix. The ACLU might as well be called the Adult Civil Liberties Union. These organizations’ knee-jerk reaction to the Child Victims Act is not only dangerous to children and families, but also based on outdated, inaccurate information about the reality of childhood sexual abuse.
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/hamilton/20090319.html

Recovered Memory and the Daubert Criteria : Recovered Memory as Professionally Tested, Peer Reviewed, and Accepted in the Relevant Scientific Community – Constance Dalenberg – Alliant International University California School of Professional Psychology – Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, Vol. 7, No. 4, 274-310 (2006) DOI: 10.1177/1524838006294572 Research during the past two decades has firmly established the reliability of the phenomenon of recovered memory. This review first highlights the strongest evidence for the phenomenon itself and discusses the survey, experimental, and biological evidence for the varying mechanisms that may underlie the phenomenon. Routes to traumatic amnesia from dissociative detachment (loss of emotional content leading to loss of factual content) and from dissociative compartmentalization (failure in integration) are discussed. Next, an argument is made that false memory is a largely orthogonal concept to recovered memory; the possibility of one phenomena is largely irrelevant to the potential for the other. Furthermore, some aspects of the false memory research offer supportive data for the recovered memory researcher. Finally, the issue of error rates in making the Daubert case is explored. It is concluded that the weight of the evidence should allow the recovered memory victim to come before the court. http://tva.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/7/4/274

Objective documentation of child abuse and dissociation in 12 murderers with Dissociative Identity Disorder. Lewis, D.O., Yeager, C.A., Swica, Y., Pincus, J.H., & Lewis, M. (1997). American Journal of Psychiatry, 154, 1703-1710. RESULTS: Signs and symptoms of dissociative identity disorder in childhood and adulthood were corroborated independently and from several sources in all 12 cases; objective evidence of severe abuse was obtained in 11 cases. The subjects had amnesia for most of the abuse and underreported it. Marked changes in writing style and/or signatures were documented in 10 cases. CONCLUSIONS: This study establishes, once and for all, the linkage between early severe abuse and dissociative identity disorder. Further, the data demonstrate that the disorder can be distinguished from malingering and from other disorders. The study shows that it is possible, with great effort, to obtain objective evidence of both the symptoms of dissociative identity disorder and the abuse that engenders it. http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/154/12/1703

Cult and Ritual Abuse – James Randall Noblitt – Chapter 6 – Empirical Evidence of Ritual Abuse http://books.google.com/books?id=zJkTTpfyJ-8C&printsec=frontcover#PPA55,M1

Psychometric measures of trauma among psychiatric patients reporting ritual abuse – Noblitt- Psychol Rep. 1995 Dec;77(3 Pt 1):743-7. The present investigation compared psychometric measures of trauma, the MMPI-2 PK and PS scales, in a group of patients reporting ritual abuse and another group with no such accounts of ritual abuse. Comparisons were statistically significant with mean PK and PS scores of 86.3 and 85.8, respectively, for the 34 reporting ritual abuse and 58.3 and 58.7 for the 31 not reporting ritual abuse. Further, 91% of the patients alleging ritual abuse had scores on at least one of the two scales within the clinical range, i.e., T score > or = 65. It was concluded that patients reporting histories of ritual abuse also showed significantly elevated scores on these scales and their scores were higher than those obtained for a sample of patients not reporting ritual abuse. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8559911

The Body Keeps The Score: Memory & the Evolving Psychobiology of Post Traumatic Stress
by Bessel van der Kolk first published in the Harvard Review of Psychiatry, 1994, 1(5), 253-265.
http://homepage.psy.utexas.edu/Homepage/Class/Psy394U/Bower/03%20Emot,%20Trauma,Mem/Body%20keeps%20the%20score.%20Kolk%20.pdf

Dissociation & the Fragmentary Nature of Traumatic Memories: Overview & Exploratory Study
Bessel A. van der Kolk & Rita Fisler – Journal of Traumatic Stress, 1995, 8(4), 505-525. http://www.psych.utoronto.ca/users/peterson/psy430s2001/Van%20der%20Kolk%20Fragmentary%20Nature%20of%20Traumatic%20Memory%20J%20Traumatic%20Stress%201995.pdf