Allegations of child sex abuse are complicated by a legal maze in Indian country, Ministry of Defence pays out £2 million to settle cadets' sex abuse claims

Ministry of Defence pays out £2 million to settle cadets' sex abuse claims
One case involved a teenage girl who was sexually abused by her adult cadet instructor and gave birth to her abuser's child

By Bill Gardner 28 Dec 2014

The Ministry of Defence has paid out more than £2 million in out-of-court settlements in the last three years as a result of claims that young cadets were sexually abused.

The cases includes allegations that teenage boys performed ritual sex acts on younger cadets, and a cadet who was raped by an instructor and gave birth to her abuser’s child....

Some of the settlements are understood to relate to historic abuse, perpetrated against adults when they were children. Others relate to abuse carried out in recent years.... 
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/11315528/Ministry-of-Defence-pays-out-2-million-to-settle-cadets-sex-abuse-claims.html


A man of healing, a saga of suffering
Allegations of child sex abuse are complicated by a legal maze in Indian country
December 28, 2014
....The sexual abuse of children has long been regarded as a rampant if largely unspoken problem on Native American reservations, in part a legacy of a boarding school system that was designed to assimilate students and subjected them to widespread sexual, emotional and physical abuse, according to Native leaders and prosecutors.

....Child sexual abuse on the reservations is at the root of the many problems that follow for Indian children — depression, alcohol and drug abuse, juvenile detention and suicide, according to Indian country experts. The challenge of getting victims to speak out — common in child sexual assault cases anywhere — is exacerbated by the close-knit nature of the remote communities where they live.

The U.S. attorney for South Dakota, Brendan V. Johnson, said that sexual violence is one of the most common criminal offenses on the nine reservations where he shares criminal jurisdiction with the tribes, but it is extremely difficult to bring charges.

“Victims are placed under tremendous pressure by family members and friends to recant their stories,” said Johnson, who declined to discuss details of the Chipps case. “The complaint will come in, the victims will be forensically interviewed and will provide us with specific facts about what happened and then, months later, will recant their stories.”

....Many studies tie sexual abuse to the intergenerational trauma that began in the secular and church-run boarding schools that Indian children were required to attend. Court documents and lawsuit settlements reveal how the boarding schools, especially in places like South Dakota, were centers of widespread sexual, emotional and physical abuse.

Many of the children who attended the schools are the parents and grandparents of today’s Native American children. “There were individuals who were willing to move out in the middle of nowhere in order to work at boarding schools with these children and there were some who had a pre-disposition for child sex abuse and many of the children were sexually abused,” Thompson said. “Unfortunately, that has become a cycle that was passed down from generation to generation. You compound that with the poverty, socioeconomic and isolation issues in Indian country and unfortunately that cycle has not yet been broken.”....
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2014/12/28/a-man-of-healing-a-saga-of-suffering/