McMartin 1985 articles, cost of child abuse/neglect in US $33 billion yearly

describes crimes - Reporter's Notebook: 6 Months of California Case By Robert Lindsey Published: February 13, 1985 "Prosecutors say they intend to present as witnesses 41 former pupils of the school, almost all of whom, physicians testified at the hearing, showed physical evidence of having been sexually abused. The second of the children to testify at the hearing, a 10-year-old boy who attended the McMartin Preschool almost five years ago, has now been on the witness stand for nine days, including eight days under intense cross examination by defense lawyers who have been trying to find inconsistencies in his story. So far, often under rapid-fire questioning that might wither some adult witnesses, the child has stuck to his story with only minor contradictions. He described being sodomized or otherwise sexually molested by all seven of the defendants and asserted that children had been made to pose for pornographic pictures. The 10-year-old boy repeated under cross examination an account of how he and other children were taken to a church where he said adults wearing masks and black robes danced and moaned while Mr. Buckey went to the altar and killed pet rabbits, turtles and birds and threatened to kill the children's parents the same way if the children told of the alleged abuse. http://www.nytimes.com/1985/02/13/us/reporter-s-notebook-6-months-of-california-case.html

describes crimes - Boy, 7, Is Witness in California Child Abuse Case by Robert Lindsey January 23, 1985 A 7-year- old boy testified today that he had played ''naked games'' at the Virginia McMartin Preschool near here and that in at least one of the games teachers at the school had touched his genital organs....Prosecutors have asserted that more than 100 children were abused at the school in the past decade. All the defendants have denied the charges, which date from 1978....After pointing out his former teachers in the courtroom, the boy said he had played ''naked games'' at the school. Describing a game called ''Cowboys and Indians'' under questioning by Glenn Stevens, a deputy district attorney, the boy said the children playing the game were taken into a room. ''They'd put us in jail; they'd touch us in jail,'' he said. ''How did the teachers touch you?'' Mr. Stevens asked. ''In the penis,'' the boy replied....While Mr. Stevens appeared satisfied with the answers regarding the first game the child mentioned, he was less successful when questioning the child about two other games, called ''the Alligator Game'' and ''Naked Movie Star.'' In both games, the boy said, children were asked by other children to remove their clothes, but he seemed to draw a blank whenever he was asked to give details. ''I don't remember,'' the boy said repeatedly. The first grade pupil also testified that Mr. Buckey had cut the ears off rabbits and injured other pets in front of the children and had threatened to harm their parents if they told anyone about the alleged sexual molestation. http://www.nytimes.com/1985/01/23/us/boy-7-is-witness-in-california-child-abuse-case.html


83,000 cases of child abuse reported in Texas in 2008 By Sandra Cason, News Messenger 4/28/09 National Center for Victims of Crime statistics show that a child was reported as abused or neglected every 34.9 seconds during 2008. In Texas last year, there were more than 83,000 separate allegations of abuse or neglect confirmed by Child Protective Services (CPS), a division of Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS)....The national estimate of children who received an investigation or assessment has declined from 3.6 million during 2006 to 3.5 million during 2007....Nationwide statistics for 2007 from 50 states indicate that the rate of children who were subjects of a screened-in referral (a report) and who subsequently received an investigation or assessment was 47.2 per 1,000 children. Individual state rates ranged from 8.4 to 127.4 per 1,000 children....The youngest children had the highest rate of victimization and accounted for the largest percentage of victims: children from birth to 3 years of age accounted for 30 percent of child victims....Of the victims who were sexually abused, 35.2 percent were in the age group 12-15 years, 23.8 percent were in the age group 8-11 years, and 23.3 percent were in the age group 4-7 years....The direct cost of child abuse and neglect in the United States totals more than $33 billion annually - a figure which includes law enforcement, judicial system, child welfare, and health care costs. When factoring in indirect costs, such as special education, mental health care, juvenile delinquency, lost productivity, and adult criminality, the figure rises to more than $103 billion annually. Victims of child abuse constituted 19 percent of the recipients of crime victim compensation in 2006. http://www.marshallnewsmessenger.com/news/content/news/stories/2008/08/042809_web_childabuse.html

Child trafficking in Britain up by 50%, says study

Child trafficking in Britain up by 50%, says study - Robert Booth - The Guardian, 4/25/09 - The rate of recorded child trafficking in Britain has increased by almost 50% in two years, according to figures released yesterday by the Home Office's child exploitation and online protection centre (Ceop). In all, 325 children from 52 countries have been identified by government agencies in the latest survey - from March 2007 to February 2008 - as potential victims of trafficking, with many brought into the UK for activities including prostitution, illegal labour, forced marriage and illegal adoption. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/25/child-trafficking-in-britain-survey

False memory syndrome proponents tactics

http://ritualabuse.us/research/memory-fms/false-memory-syndrome-proponents-tactics/

False memory syndrome proponents have done the following to try and ensure that only their point of view is in the public view.

1) Harassing debate opponents

Confessions of a Whistle-Blower: Lessons Learned Author: Anna C. Salter DOI: 10.1207/s15327019eb0802_2 Published in: Ethics & Behavior, Volume 8, Issue 2 June 1998 , pages 115 - 124 Abstract - In 1988 I began a report on the accuracy of expert testimony in child sexual abuse cases utilizing Ralph Underwager and Hollida Wakefield as a case study (Wakefield & Underwager, 1988). In response, Underwager and Wakefield began a campaign of harassment and intimidation, which included multiple lawsuits; an ethics charge; phony (and secretly taped) phone calls; and ad hominem attacks, including one that I was laundering federal grant monies. The harassment and intimidation failed as the author refused demands to retract. In addition, the lawsuits and ethics charges were dismissed.
http://ritualabuse.us/research/memory-fms/confessions-of-a-whistle-blower-lessons-learned/
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a784402311~db=all

Calof, D.L. (1998). Notes from a practice under siege: Harassment, defamation, and intimidation in the name of science, Ethics and Behavior, 8(2) pp. 161-187. Abstract: I have practiced psychotherapy, family therapy, and hypnotherapy for over 25 years without a single board complaint or lawsuit by a client. For over 3 years, however, a group of proponents of the false memory syndrome (FMS) hypothesis, including members, officials, and supporters of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation, Inc., have waged a multimodal campaign of harassment and defamation directed against me, my clinical clients, my staff, my family, and others connected to me. I have neither treated these harassers or their families nor had any professional or personal dealings with any of them; I am not related in any way to the disclosures of memories of sexual abuse in these families. Nonetheless, this group disrupts my professional and personal life and threatens to drive me out of business. In this article, I describe practicing psychotherapy under a state of siege and place the campaign against me in the context of a much broader effort in the FMS movement to denigrate, defame, and harass clinicians, lecturers, writers, and researchers identified with the abuse and trauma treatment communities. http://ritualabuse.us/research/memory-fms/notes-from-a-practice-under-siege/ http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a784402374~db=all

JENNIFER A. HOULT in 1988, filed a civil suit against her father - a member of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation - (J. Hoult v. D.P. Hoult), whom she alleged had sexually abused her throughout her childhood. In 1993, this case was unanimously decided in her favor, and she was awarded monetary damages. However, Hoult has seen the facts of her case twisted and misreported in the media and by FMS proponents. She writes:

“Since 1995, I have become aware of the parallel between the intimidation and silencing in the microcosm of the abusive family and in the macrocosm of a society that is ill at ease in dealing with the abuse of children. During my childhood my father protected himself from being held accountable by threatening me into silence. I believe that published documents demonstrate how some members and supporters of false memory groups publish false statements that defame and intimidate victims of proven violence and their supporters. Such altered accounts are used to discredit others in court and in the press.” — Silencing the Victim: The Politics of Discrediting Child Abuse Survivors, p. 125. http://www.fmsf.com/ethics.shtml

Abstract: As a victim of child abuse who proved my claims in a landmark civil suit, there have been many attempts to silence and discredit me. This article provides an overview of my court case and its effects. Silencing the Victim: The Politics of Discrediting Child Abuse Survivors - Ethics & Behavior, Volume 8, Issue 2 June 1998 , pages 125 - 140
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a784402312~db

2) Misrepresenting the data in the field

“Since at least 95 percent of child molesters initially deny their abusive behaviors, how can untrained lay people like Pamela Freyd and her staff “document” a real or “unreal” case of “FMS,” as appears to be the case with most of their communications, which usually occur over the telephone or by letter. (p. 76) (Memory and abuse: remembering and healing the effects of trauma By Charles L. Whitfield, Christine Courtois Published by HCI, 1995)
http://books.google.com/books?id=z1LW3u1e04YC

JENNIFER J. FREYD, PH.D., author of “Betrayal Trauma: The Logic of Forgetting Childhood Abuse.”
“Despite this documentation for both traumatic amnesia and essentially accurate delayed recall, memory science is often presented as if it supports the view that traumatic amnesia is very unlikely or perhaps impossible and that a great many, perhaps a majority, maybe even all, recovered memories of abuse are false….Yet no research supports such an implication…and a great deal of research supports the premise that forgetting sexual abuse is fairly common and that recovered memories are sometimes essentially true.” (p. 107)
Science in the Memory Debate - Ethics & Behavior, Volume 8, Issue 2 June 1998 , pages 101 - 113 http://www.fmsf.com/ethics.shtml
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a784402310~db

Ralph Underwager and Hollida Wakefield, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Anna Salter, Et Al., Defendants-Appellees., 22 F.3d 730 (7th Cir. 1994) Federal Circuits, 7th Cir. (April 25, 1994) Docket number: 93-2422

“Psychologists Ralph Underwager and Hollida Wakefield have written two books…When a given reference fails to support their viewpoint they simply misstate the conclusion. When they cannot use a quotation out of context from an article, they make unsupported statements, some of which are palpably untrue and others simply unprovable. David L. Chadwick, Book Review, in 261 JAMA 3035 (May 26, 1989)”

“Both Salter and Toth came to believe that Underwager is a hired gun who makes a living by deceiving judges about the state of medical knowledge and thus assisting child molesters to evade punishment.” http://vlex.com/vid/36092881

3) Controlling the media

U-Turn on Memory Lane by Mike Stanton - Columbia Journalism Review - July/August 1997

“Rarely has such a strange and little-understood organization had such a profound effect on media coverage of such a controversial matter. The foundation is an aggressive, well-financed p.r. machine adept at manipulating the press, harassing its critics, and mobilizing a diverse army of psychiatrists, outspoken academics, expert defense witnesses, litigious lawyers, Freud bashers, critics of psychotherapy, and devastated parents. With a budget of $750,000 a year from members and outside supporters, the foundation’s reach far exceeds its actual membership of about 3,000.”

“As controversial memory cases arose around the country, FMSF boosters contacted journalists to pitch the false-memory argument, more and more reporters picked up on the issue, and the foundation became an overnight media darling. The story line that had dominated the press since the 1980s — an underreported toll of sexual abuse, including sympathetic stories of adult survivors resurrecting long-lost memories of it — was quickly turned around. The focus shifted to new tearful victims — respectable, elderly parents who could no longer see their children and grandchildren because of bad therapists who implanted memories…:” http://web.archive.org/web/20071216011151/http://backissues.cjrarchives.org/year/97/4/memory.asp

U.S. Government-Sponsored Mind Control and Tulane

from http://ritualabuse.us

U.S. Government-Sponsored Mind Control and Tulane http://tulanelink.com/mind/tulane_role_04a.htm

links include : Wolf Interview, Wolf Testimony, Scheflin Validation, Scheflin Credentials, Tulane Experiments

NY must give child sex abuse victims more time

http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-opgar2312679312apr22,0,5749848.story

OPINION:
NY must give child sex abuse victims more time
BY RICHARD B. GARTNER
April 22, 2009
Richard B. Gartner, a psychologist and psychoanalyst in New York City, is the author of "Beyond Betrayal: Taking Charge of your Life after Boyhood Sexual Abuse."

As the New York State Assembly considers two competing bills to extend the statute of limitations on child sexual abuse crimes, astonishingly little has been said about the prevalence, effects or economic and social costs of such crimes. These factors demonstrate the urgent need for a lengthened window for justice, which will help enable victims to heal.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about one in five American children is sexually abused. So in a classroom of 25 children, five will be victimized before adulthood.

Abusers prey on the most susceptible, often choosing children already at risk: isolated, weaker, smaller, nonathletic, disabled or from a disadvantaged minority. Victims may have troubled, addicted or physically abusive families, or be separated from their parents. They look to other adults for healing, advice and emotional support. Abusers profess to offer solace while laying the groundwork for victimization.

Common aftereffects of childhood sexual trauma include anxiety, depression, drug and alcohol addiction, prostitution, truancy, poor grades and even suicide - all of which, aside from the personal tragedy, carry a huge social and financial cost to the state.

Since predators commonly hurt numerous victims, stopping even one may protect many children from abuse. But this is impossible when the clock on access to justice runs out.

Victims are often criticized for not coming forward sooner. But this is because they usually know their victimizers, most of whom are either family members or caretakers in positions of power and trust - teachers, scout leaders, baby-sitters, coaches, clergy, camp counselors, health care professionals and others. Abusing their positions, they betray children's trust to satisfy their own needs. This betrayal creates shaky foundations for the children's future relationships. Frightened of closeness, they often stay isolated and distant.

Shame also silences victims, who typically minimize their trauma for decades as a means of warding off painful humiliation. They also fear disclosing abuse because they have no faith they will be believed - and with good reason. Stories abound of children being told they are inventing lies about pillars of the community or, worse, being blamed for "seducing" these adults.

Abusers also keep their victims quiet with threats of harm against the children or their families. They may be told they will be taken from their homes and put in foster care or even prison if they tell.

So they desperately try to forget what happened. Research confirms the capacity of the human brain to stop conscious recall of traumatic information. In war veterans, Holocaust survivors and even crime victims, the brains' ability to protect itself by blocking unwanted memories is well-documented.

These memories can later be validly recalled, and false claims of childhood sexual abuse are exceedingly rare - and are often detectable. But, while any law providing a pathway to justice can be violated by frauds, it simply isn't responsible public policy to prevent access to justice for all victims to avoid the atypical false case.

When victims come forward, institutions usually stonewall, disavow culpability and deny abuse exists under their auspices. Schools, athletic organizations, religious institutions, scouting and camping groups, and others try to insulate themselves from responsibility for the harmful behavior of people who work for them. And so, victims are betrayed again.

This brings us to the larger institution: the state. The statute of limitations for sexual abuse - five years after age 18 - is woefully inadequate. It encourages abusers to increase their silencing efforts, ensuring the victim stays quiet long enough for the clock to run out. It also gives institutions incentive to provide only temporary remedies and support - just long enough for the statute to expire.

Such a short limitation period punishes victims for their blameless role in becoming silenced, while rewarding offenders for preying on children. So it makes sense to create a one-year window in which victims can charge predators and any organizations that demonstrably shielded them, as the bill sponsored by Assemb. Margaret Markey (D-Maspeth) does. People who have been disenfranchised by the statute should be permitted to get redress for wrongs done to them. The other bill, sponsored by Assemb. Vito Lopez (D-Brooklyn), doesn't include this key element, nor does it extend the statute of limitations nearly enough.

The statute of limitations must be lengthened until victims are old enough to face their abusers and the institutions shielding them. These men and women were abused as children by sexual predators, and then again by institutions that countenanced crimes. New York State must not re-victimize them by continuing to protect predators and institutions.

The Myth of Epidemic False Allegations of Sexual Abuse in Divorce Cases

The Myth of Epidemic False Allegations of Sexual Abuse in Divorce Cases by Merrilyn McDonald (note: abstract summaries and web page addresses are not from the article)

CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE IS A COMMON EXPERIENCE. A more recent national survey found that 27 percent of women and 16 percent of men reported sexual abuse as a child. David Finkelhor, Gerald Hotaling, I.A. Lewis & Christine Smith, "Sexual Abuse in a National Survey of Adult Men and Women: Prevalence, Characteristics, and Risk Factors," Child Abuse and Neglect: The International Journal, v14 n1 p19-28 1990. Abstract: The national survey of over 2500 adult men and women found a reported history of childhood sexual abuse of 27 percent in women and 16 percent in men. Correlates of higher rates of abuse (e.g., growing up in unhappy families) are reported for both men and women. http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=EJ406942&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=EJ406942 The rates of 27 percent of women and 16 percent of men are considered to be solid, accurate rates by most researchers.

ALLEGATIONS OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE IN DIVORCE CASES ARE INFREQUENT. An excellent study on the incidence of sexual abuse in divorce was done by Thoennes and Tjaden of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts Research Unit in Denver, with funding from the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect. Data was gathered from domestic relations court staff in eight jurisdictions, during a six-month period. Staff in these jurisdictions completed a questionnaire each time there was an allegation of sexual abuse in a custody or visitation dispute. More than 9,000 families in these areas had custody or visitation disputes. Of these 9,000 families, less than 2 percent had allegations of sexual abuse. (Nancy Thoennes & Patricia G. Tjaden, "The Extent, Nature, and Validity of Sexual Abuse Allegations in Custody/Divorce Disputes," Child Abuse and Neglect: The International Journal, v14 n2 p151-63 (1990). "A study of over 9,000 custody/visitation dispute cases found that sexual abuse allegations occurred in 2 percent of contested cases. Such cases involve a variety of accused and accusing parties and are no less likely to be "unfounded" than other sexual abuse reports."
http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=EJ411724&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=EJ411724

David P. H. Jones & J. Melbourne McGraw, "Reliable and Fictitious Accounts of Sexual Abuse to Children," Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Vol. 2, No. 1, 27-45 (March 1987). "The various categories of reports of child sexual abuse were examined in Phase 1 of a two-part study. In this first phase, all the reports (N = 576) of child sexual abuse made to the Denver Department of Social Services were categorized. Most reports were reliable accounts (70%), but a small proportion appeared to be fictitious (8%)" http://jiv.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/2/1/27

Why Do Kids Recant?....The fact that a child recants does not mean that abuse never happened. It often means that pressure has been applied to the child and the child submitted. A child may also recant when he feels he is not being believed. Naturally reluctant to talk about abuse, a child may become silent or recant if those interviewing him seem skeptical of his disclosure. (Published in the Spring 1998 issue of Court Review) http://www.omsys.com/mmcd/courtrev.htm

old and new CIA tactics

The CIA has a long history of these types of abuses.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/21/AR2009042104055.html
Harsh Tactics Readied Before Their Approval
Senate Report Describes Secret Memos
By Joby Warrick and Peter Finn
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Intelligence and military officials under the Bush administration began preparing to conduct harsh interrogations long before they were granted legal approval to use such methods -- and weeks before the CIA captured its first high-ranking terrorism suspect, Senate investigators have concluded.

Previously secret memos and interviews show CIA and Pentagon officials exploring ways to break Taliban and al-Qaeda detainees in early 2002, up to eight months before Justice Department lawyers approved the use of waterboarding and nine other harsh methods, investigators found.


The findings are contained in a Senate Armed Services Committee report scheduled for release today that also documents multiple warnings -- from legal and trained interrogation experts -- that the techniques could backfire and might violate U.S. and international law.

One Army lieutenant colonel who reviewed the program warned in 2002 that coercion "usually decreases the reliability of the information because the person will say whatever he believes will stop the pain," according to the Senate report. A second official, briefed on plans to use aggressive techniques on detainees, was quoted the same year as asking: "Wouldn't that be illegal?"

Once they were accepted, the methods became the basis for harsh interrogations not only in CIA secret prisons, but also in Defense Department internment camps at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and in Afghanistan and Iraq, the report said....

--


Psychiatry and the CIA - Victims of Mind Control (Hardcover) by Harvey Weinstein “Dr Weinstein chronicles how he spent eight years fighting to help obtain justice for his father, who, along with eight other Canadians, was suing the CIA for negligence in its sponsorship of Dr Ewen Cameron's mind control experiments. That programme included lengthy periods of multiple electroshocks, hallucinogenic drugs such as LSD, prolonged sensory deprivation, forced sleep, induced insulin comas, and psychic driving - an attempt to alter behaviour by forcing patients to listen to taped messages over and over again. In his book, Dr Weinstein describes his feelings of horror and helplessness while watching his father's health and personality be destroyed as he underwent Cameron's experimental protocol. "Psychiatry and the CIA: Victims of Mind Control" is Harvey Weinstein's personal account of the events at the Allan Memorial Institute. A chronicle of a medical scandal of horrific proportions, this book is also a story of government misconduct, deceit, and cover-ups. Dr Weinstein further raises questions about the vulnerability of contemporary medicine to the abuse of patients in the context of repeated episodes of ethical transgressions during this century. (American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc.; Revised edition (October 1990) ISBN-10: 0880483636) http://www.amazon.com/Psychiatry-CIA-Victims-Mind-Control/dp/0880483636

child abuse rates, Memory and abuse

from http://ritualabuse.us

Sheriff says there's more child abuse going on than community knows about 4/13/09 OLEAN - According to national surveys, one in four girls and one in six boys will be sexually abused by their 18th birthday. Cattaraugus County Sheriff Dennis John....He said he soon learned that most children try to hide abuse. "The number of children that disclose abuse is actually very small," he said. "There's so much of it going on that we're just not aware of." He said the greatest risk to children doesn't come from strangers but from family and friends. Research has shown that in more than 90 percent of sexual abuse cases, the child and the child's parents or caregivers know and trust the abuser....Sheriff John remembers one case in Cattaraugus County where a father had been sexually abusing his daughter for more than four years. The girl eventually told authorities what was happening. "What convinced her to finally make a disclosure to us was he was beginning to abuse her younger sister," Sheriff John said. "And the first thing she said to us was, `I don't want my father to go to jail.' She still had some compassion for her father even though he had been abusing her." http://www.oleantimesherald.com/articles/2009/04/14/news/doc49e389e1d59be424238748.txt


Memory and abuse: remembering and healing the effects of trauma By Charles L. Whitfield, Christine Courtois Published by HCI, 1995 ISBN 1558743200, 9781558743205 "Remembering what happened in any traumatic experience is basic and crucial to healing. For over 100 years the memory of abuse survivors has been questioned and challenged by all sorts of people, ranging from perpetrators to family members." http://books.google.com/books?id=z1LW3u1e04YC

9000 people in child porn ring, McMartin Preschool archeology report

from http://ritualabuse.us

Germany breaks up child porn ring 4/16/09 Police in Germany have said they have broken up a child pornography network suspected of involving around 9,000 people in more than 90 countries. Officers in the Baden-Wuerttemberg said obscene images were being sent over the internet to countries in Europe, as well as the US, Canada and New Zealand. The footage included "images of the most serious sexual abuse", they added. In raids across Germany, 500 computers and 43,000 storage devices were seized, and a number of people were arrested. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8003129.stm

Archaeological Investigations of the McMartin Preschool Site by E. Gary Stickel, Ph.D. This is the final report, written by Dr. E. Gary Stickel, describing his findings at the McMartin preschool site in Manhattan Beach, California. http://www.scribd.com/doc/10252626/Archaeological-Investigations-of-the-McMartin-Preschool-Site-by-E-Gary-Stickel-PhD

Ritual abuse conference, newsletter, survivor accounts, day care sex abuse

The newest ritual abuse conference information with a speaker schedule is at : http://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/
A conference to help survivors of severe child abuse (ritual abuse) and torture will be held on August 14 - 16, 2009, between 8 - 5 PM Saturday and Sunday at the DoubleTree Hotel near Bradley International Airport, 16 Ella Grasso Turnpike, Windsor Locks, CT 06096 (between Hartford, CT and Springfield, MA). This conference will help educate survivors of this abuse and their helpers. Pre-registration is preferred. For information write S.M.A.R.T., P. O Box 1295, Easthampton, MA 01027-1295 E-mail: smartnews@aol.com, conference information is at: http://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/

SMART's newsletter with information on the statute of limitations, child pornography, clergy abuse and ritual abuse is at http://ritualabuse.us/2009/04/issue-86-may-2009/


Therapy for adults molested as children by John Briere "It is my clinical impression, supported by a growing body of research, that many (although not all) survivor reports of previously unavailable abuse memories represent actual occurrences. To the extent that this is true, there exists a certain unpleasant irony: By negating true accounts of sexual abuse, our culture may be accomplishing exactly what it discounts in the survivor: "Repressing" or wishing away things that are too painful to tolerate in conscious awareness." p. 48 - Springer Publishing Company, 1996 ISBN 082615641X, 9780826156419, 256 pages http://books.google.com/books?id=tyz0GlsdxiUC
books by John Briere - http://www.johnbriere.com/books.htm


Sexual Abuse in Day Care: A National Study - Executive Summary - March 1998 - Finklehor, Williams, Burns, Kalinowski "The study identified 270 "cases" of sexual abuse in day care meaning 270 facilities where substantiated abuse had occurred involving a total of 1639 victimized children....This yielded an estimate of 500 to 550 reported and substantiated cases and 2500 victims for the three-year period. Although this is a large number, it must be put in the context of 229,000 day care facilities nationwide service seven million children....allegations of ritual abuse ("the invocation of religious, magical or supernatural symbols of activities") occurred in 13% of the cases." The authors divided these cases into "true cult-based ritual," pseudo-ritualism" with a primary goal of sexual gratification and ritual being used to intimidate the children from disclosing and "psychopathological ritualism" the activities being "primarily the expression of an individuals obsessional or delusional system." http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/1c/82/61.pdf

Childhood Abuse Associated With Onset Of Psychosis In Women

ScienceDaily (Apr. 5, 2009) — Researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London have published new research which indicates that women with severe mental illness are more likely to have been abused in childhood that the general population. But the same association has not been found in men....Those in the first group had experienced psychotic symptoms, such as hallucinations or delusions and received treatment for depression, mania or schizophrenia. Those in the second group had no mental health problems, and acted as a control sample. Both groups were asked whether they experienced physical or sexual abuse during their childhood. Women with psychosis were twice as likely to report either physical or sexual abuse compared to healthy women. But no such association was found in men. The researchers suggest that one explanation for this is that girls are more likely to 'internalise' difficulties than boys. In other words, girls who are abused may distance themselves from other people, and become overly suspicious of other people's behaviour. This may put them at greater risk of psychotic symptoms in the future, such as paranoid delusions. In contrast, boys may be more likely to 'act out' following physical abuse and potentially be at greater risk for antisocial behaviour. The lead author on this paper, Helen Fisher, Researcher in Psychosis at the Institute of Psychiatry at King's said: "These findings do not mean that if a child is abused they will develop psychosis; but women with such disorders are more likely to reveal a background which included childhood abuse. Journal reference: Fisher et al. Gender differences in the association between childhood abuse and psychosis. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 2009; 194 (4): 319 DOI: 10.1192/bjp.bp.107.047985 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090331201524.htm

Ritual abuse journal articles, Polygamy Survivor Carolyn Jessop

from http://ritualabuse.us

Journal of Child and Youth Care - ISSN 0840-982X - SPECIAL ISSUE 1990 - CONTENTS
A Case of Multiple Life-Threatening Illnesses Related to Early Ritual Abuse
Rennet Wong and Jock McKeen
Ritual Child Abuse: A Survey of Symptoms and Allegations
Pamela S. Hudson
Satanic Ritual Abuse: A Cause of Multiple Personality Disorder
George A. Fraser
Differentiating Between Ritual Assault and Sexual Abuse
Louise M. Edwards
The Choice - Gerry Fewster http://www.cyc-net.org/Journals/jcycSpecial1990.html


Polygamy Survivor Carolyn Jessop By Andrea Sachs 10/24/07 Polygamy was the norm in Carolyn Jessop's life. After all, her own father had three wives by the time she was in fourth grade. Her family was part of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), a radical offshoot of the Mormon Church. But Jessop's own experience in the cult was so disturbing that she ran away with her eight children four years ago. Last month, the FLDS was in the news when its leader, Warren Jeffs, was found guilty of being an accessory to rape for forcing a 14-year-old girl in the group to marry her 19-year-old cousin. Jessop, 38, tells her extraordinary story in a riveting new book, Escape (Broadway). TIME's Andrea Sachs spoke with Jessop from her home in a suburb of Salt Lake City.

TIME: You were 18 when you were told you were going to be the fourth wife of Merril Jessop, a 50-year-old leader of the FLDS. How did you feel?

Carolyn Jessop: I was shocked. I was devastated. I really wasn't expecting that I'd be getting married. I didn't want to get married. I really had my heart set on going to college. The biggest concern I had with it was that once you're married, your husband really does own you....

You describe physical abuse and beatings. How widespread was that?

It was a big part of the culture. Dominance and control. It was all to maintain the work of God. If it was done in the name of God, then you didn't question it. It was just a fundamental part of life. I think that in the community people did have their limits when it came to physical violence of what was okay and what was not okay. And so there were cases of extreme violence in families and people viewed that as not being okay. But a man was believed to have the spirit of God and he could get divine revelation from God that pertained to his family. If he had a revelation that in order to get a wife in line physical violence [was required], then he was within his right to use whatever means he needed to have control of his family. Mostly it pertained to children. It was frowned upon for a man to beat his wife, but they did it all the time. http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1675126,00.html

Fran’s Day Care

Fran’s Day Care
Randy Noblitt, PhD

http://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/articles/frans-day-care/

©Copyright R. Noblitt 2009. All rights reserved.

In recent days, an interest in the case of Fran and Dan Keller has reemerged and that reemergence has triggered new interest in the outcries of children that resulted in several investigations, trials, convictions, and tragedies throughout the 1990s. I can speak about Fran’s Day Care with some authority.

In 1992, the Travis County prosecutor’s office contacted me for advice as to how they should proceed with a bizarre case involving multiple child victims of sexual and ritual abuse in a day care. The accused perpetrators were the owners-operators of the nursery, Fran and Dan Keller. The day care was situated in a remote area beyond the suburbs of Austin, Texas. At this time, the legal community was reeling from the McMartin Day Care ordeal which was the costliest prosecution in California history up to that time, and had resulted in two hung juries in a seven-year prosecution. The prosecution, wishing to learn from the mistakes of McMartin, wanted advice regarding how to proceed without contaminating the children’s stories, compromising the alleged perpetrators’ rights, and getting to the truth of the children’s outcries.

Some of the parents whose children attended the preschool became suspicious when their children returned home wearing underwear not their own, or with their clothes inside out or with their hair wet. There were always reasonable explanations: the child had an accident and was changed into clothes on hand for that purpose; or the child splashed water on herself when the children were cleaning up; and so forth. However, when one of the children made an outcry, the parents more closely scrutinized the strange behaviors some of the children had started engaging in and the aforementioned episodes, and they took their concerns to the police. The police took the concerns seriously and collected statements and evidence. The grand jury found a basis for indictment. The Kellers responded to the warrant for their arrest by fleeing the state in disguise, obtaining false identifications in their new personas, and attempting to leave the country. They were apprehended in Las Vegas, Nevada and extradited back to Travis County.

It was at this point that I was introduced to the situation. I was in private practice in Dallas, two hundred miles north of Austin and had no knowledge of what was happening at Fran’s Day Care. The prosecutor, Judy Shipway, contacted me for advice on how to deal with the children, their stories, their parents’ reactions, and the impact of ritual abuse allegations on the court. I advised her to focus on the sexual abuse allegations for which there was substantial support and evidence. I expressed my opinion that introducing the topic of ritual abuse would be exploited by the defense as a means of discrediting the children. I also advised Ms. Shipway to make sure that every child had a therapist and that no therapist treat more than one child from Fran’s Day Care. Finally, I advised the prosecutor to request that the children’s parents not communicate with one another until after the trial to avoid inadvertent contamination of their children’s stories and their own interpretations. These suggestions were all implemented.

I was also invited to review the evidence which included drawings and writings produced by Danny Keller; the confession of co-defendant Doug Perry; the testimony of the children. I was able to describe for the prosecution the kinds of abuses ritually practiced by various groups and individuals and explain the psychological consequences of such abuse. I was able to interpret for the prosecutor the children’s stories in the context of what had been learned from other victims including the use of coercion, duplicity, threats, and other means of controlling survivors of such abuse.

Although several children at the day care were thought to have been sexually and ritually traumatized, some of them were so young that they did not yet speak in complete sentences. Some of them were identified by other victims. Three of the children were selected to represent the whole population. These were slightly older children, five and six years old, and they were able to convey their stories most articulately of all the child victims.

As the trial commenced, the prosecution developed an excellent case against the Kellers. I was surprised only by the defense attorneys’ rather blasé approach to their defense of the Kellers, perhaps operating under the assumption that the children would not be believed. In defense of the Kellers, their attorneys did raise the specter of ritual abuse by introducing into evidence the book Sex Abuse Hysteria: The Salem Witch Trials Revisited (Gardner, 1991), which promoted the idea that sexual and ritual abuse allegations by children were projections of their parents (and other adults’) latent pedophilia. It was at this point that I was asked to take the stand as an expert witness and address the topic of ritual abuse and Gardner’s book.

The case ended with the conviction of the Kellers and their sentencing to 48 years in prison each. They are in prison still, any efforts for appeal having failed to date. Shortly after the trial, the magazine, Texas Monthly, published a piece by Gary Cartwright in which he implied that the Kellers were the true victims in this sorry tale. He did me the courtesy of a call to “fact check” his story, particularly ideas attributed to me, except that it was only after the issue had been published.

Recently, the Fran’s Day Care case was dredged up by the Austin Chronicle, an alternative periodical produced locally in Texas. My son sent me the link in an email with the heading, “Dad, you’re in the news again.” Once more, the perspective was one of advocacy for falsely accused, persecuted, prosecuted, and convicted victims of a malicious or inept legal system that places too much trust in the stories children tell. A particular flaw in this story was the story. It was certainly not founded on anything I witnessed during my participation in the case. Evidence was not withheld from the prosecution to my knowledge. The defense was left flat-footed by their own conviction that the children would not be believed. And the advice I offered may have helped to prevent influence or contamination of the children’s testimony. The children’s stories were credible – Fran and Dan Keller’s defense was not. End of story? Probably not. I doubt that we have heard the last of Fran and Dan or of their day care or of their victims.

Interestingly enough, the Austin Chronicle article, Believing the Children, ended with a reference to one of the child victims, Veejay Staelin, a now 21-year old. Although he declined to be interviewed for the story, he re-asserted that he had been abused by Fran and Dan Keller.

The Fifteenth Annual Northern California Child Sexual Abuse Awareness Conference

APRIL IS CHILD ABUSE PREVENTION MONTH
and
SEXUAL ASSAULT AWARENESS AND PREVENTION MONTH
CA Protective Parents Association and Incest Survivors Speakers' Bureau

present
The Fifteenth Annual Northern California
Child Sexual Abuse Awareness Conference
in Sacramento and Davis, CA

Friday April 24, 2009
Sierra Health Foundation
1321 Garden Hwy, Sacramento, CA
9:00 am to 5:00 pm

Cost: $75 preregistration ($100 on site)
Up to 7 CE credits offered

TRANSFORMING TREATMENT:
Symptoms, Substances, and Axis IV


The Mental Health Services Act was passed by California voters in 2004 to transform public mental health treatment by providing funds to respond to the needs of people with mental health symptoms. The Act mandates effective, innovative programs that lead to well ness and recovery.
Steve Mayberg MD, Director of the CA Department of Mental Health, and CA Michael Cunningham, Chief Deputy Director of the Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs, will participate in a panel presentation on effective treatment for people with co-occurring mental health and substance abuse symptoms.
Ann Jennings Ph.D., Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)-National Center for Trauma-Informed Care, Susan Curry MFT, clinician and EMDR specialist, and Randy Noblitt Ph.D., Alliant Internat ional University professor and author will present evidence-based innovative approaches to treatment that can lead to improved outcomes, wellness, and recovery while providing social and cost savings.
Luncheon speaker: Robin Sax, author and Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney who specializes in prosecuting of sex crimes against children.
Pre-registration for Friday April 24, 2009
Name_________________________________________ Agency___________________________
Address_______________________________________ Phone____________________________
Email___________________________________________________________________________
Please send a check for $75 made out to CPPA to POB 1903, Davis, CA 95617
Saturday April 25, 2009
Veterans’ Memorial Center
203 East 14th Street, Davis, CA
9:3 0 am to 5:00 pm
No cost, no registration
Up to 5.5 CE credits offered
RITUAL ABUSE in the 21st CENTURY
What is ritual abuse?
How does it happen?
What is the evidence?
How do survivors heal?
Keynote Speaker
Randy Noblitt, Ph.D.
Ritual Abuse in the 21st Century, edited by clinical psychologist Randy Noblitt Ph.D. and Pamela Perskin Noblitt, is a sweeping overview of the subject of ritual abuse by an international, multi-disciplinary team of writers, researchers, therapists and survivors.
Dr. Noblitt will discuss the evidence of ritual abuse, international research data from over 1,500 survivors, efforts to discredit allegations made by survivors, and the psychological, behavioral and physical devastation left by such abuse.
Pamela Noblitt, co-author with Dr. Noblitt of Cult and Ritual Abuse: Its History, Anthropology and Recent Discovery in Contemporary America, Jeanne Adams, author of Drawn Swords, Anne A. Johnson Davis, author of Hell Minus One (who has signed confessions from her perpetrators), and survivors of ritual abuse will discuss pathways to wellness and recovery.
This conference is co-sponsored by The Institute on Violence, Abuse and Trauma (IVAT) at Alliant International University.
IVAT is approved by the American Psychological Association (APA) to sponsor continuing education for psychologists.
IVAT maintains responsibility for this continuing education program and its contents.
IVAT is recognized by the National Board of Certified Counselors (NBCC) to offer continuing education for National Certified Counselors (Provider #5659).
IVAT adheres to NBCC Continuing Education Guidelines.
IVAT is approved by the CA Board of Behavioral Sciences (PCE #33) to offer continuing education for LCSWs and MFTs. IVAT is approved by the California Board of Registered Nurses to offer continuing education for nurses (CEP #13737).
IVAT is approved by the State Bar of California to offer Minimum Continuing Legal Education for attorneys (#11600).
IVAT is approved by the California Association of Alcoholism & Drug Abuse Counselors (CAADAC) to offer continuing education for certified alcohol and drug counselors (Provider# 1S-03-499-0109).
CE credits approved by California agencies are accepted in most states. The conference is approved for up to 12.5 hours. Fees for CE credits are $30 in advance and $40 at the door.
Conference coordinator can be reached at cppa001@aol.com or 916-233-8381. Please let us know if you need accommodations.