Dissociative identity disorder exists and is the result of childhood trauma

- Dissociative identity disorder exists and is the result of childhood trauma             

- Dispelling Myths About Dissociative Identity Disorder Treatment: An Empirically Based Approach

- Evaluation of the Evidence for the Trauma and Fantasy Models of Dissociation

 

Dissociative identity disorder exists and is the result of childhood trauma

 

In the movies, people with multiple personality disorder are nearly always psychopaths. But according to these contributing academics, most people who have dissociative identity disorder, as the condition is now known, aren’t psychopaths – they’re victims of society’s most heinous crimes. 08/11/2019
By Dr Michael Slater, Dr Warick Middleton, Prof. Martin Dorahy

 

....But research hasn’t found people with the disorder are more prone to “false memories” than others. And brain imaging studies show significant differences in brain activity between people with dissociative identity disorder and other groups, including those who have been trained to mimic the disorder.

 

....Dissociative identity disorder comes about when a child’s psychological development is disrupted by early repetitive trauma that prevents the normal processes of consolidating a core sense of identity. Reports of childhood trauma in people with dissociative identity disorder (that have been substantiated) include burning, mutilation and exploitation. Sexual abuse is also routinely reported, alongside emotional abuse and neglect.

In response to overwhelming trauma, the child develops multiple, often conflicting, states or identities. These mirror the radical contradictions in their early attachments and social and family environments – for instance, a parent who swings unpredictably between aggression and care.

 

According to the DSM-5, the major characteristic of dissociative identity disorder is a disruption of identity, in which a person experiences two or more distinct personality states

 

....But the causal relationship between trauma and dissociation (alterations of identity and memory) has been repeatedly shown in a range of studies using different methodologies across cultures.

 

....a contemporary survey of clinical practice among specialists of dissociative identity found those treating the disorder weren’t focused on retrieving memories at any phase of the treatment.

 

A recent literature analysis concluded that criticisms of dissociative identity disorder treatment are based on inaccurate assumptions about clinical practice, misunderstandings of symptoms, and an over-reliance on anecdotes and unfounded claims.

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/insight/dissociative-identity-disorder-exists-and-is-the-result-of-childhood-trauma

 

Dispelling Myths About Dissociative Identity Disorder Treatment: An Empirically Based Approach

Article· Literature Review in Psychiatry Interpersonal & Biological Processes 77(2):169-89 · June 2014 

DOI: 10.1521/psyc.2014.77.2.169 · Source: PubMed

Bethany L Brand
Towson University
Richard J Loewenstein
Independent Researcher
David Spiegel
Stanford University

 

Abstract
Objective: Some claim that treatment for dissociative identity disorder (DID) is harmful. Others maintain that the available data support the view that psychotherapy is helpful.

 

Method: We review the empirical support for both arguments.

 

Results: Current evidence supports the conclusion that phasic treatment consistent with expert consensus guidelines is associated with improvements in a wide range of DID patients' symptoms and functioning, decreased rates of hospitalization, and reduced costs of treatment. Research indicates that poor outcome is associated with treatment that does not specifically involve direct engagement with DID self-states to repair identity fragmentation and to decrease dissociative amnesia.

 

Conclusions: The evidence demonstrates that carefully staged trauma-focused psychotherapy for DID results in improvement, whereas dissociative symptoms persist when not specifically targeted in treatment. The claims that DID treatment is harmful are based on anecdotal cases, opinion pieces, reports of damage that are not substantiated in the scientific literature, misrepresentations of the data, and misunderstandings about DID treatment and the phenomenology of DID. Given the severe symptomatology and disability associated with DID, iatrogenic harm is far more likely to come from depriving DID patients of treatment that is consistent with expert consensus, treatment guidelines, and current research.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262682220_Dispelling_Myths_About_Dissociative_Identity_Disorder_Treatment_An_Empirically_Based_Approach

 

Evaluation of the Evidence for the Trauma and Fantasy Models of Dissociation
Psychological Bulletin - American Psychological Association 2012, Vol. 138, No. 3, 550 –5880033-2909/12 DOI: 10.1037/a0027447

 

The relationship between a reported history of trauma and dissociative symptoms has been explained in 2 conflicting ways. Pathological dissociation has been conceptualized as a response to antecedent traumatic stress and/or severe psychological adversity. Others have proposed that dissociation makes individuals prone to fantasy, thereby engendering confabulated memories of trauma. We examine data related to a series of 8 contrasting predictions based on the trauma model and the fantasy model of dissociation. In keeping with the trauma model, the relationship between trauma and dissociation was consistent and moderate in strength, and remained significant when objective measures of trauma were used. Dissociation was temporally related to trauma and trauma treatment, and was predictive of trauma history when fantasy proneness was controlled. Dissociation was not reliably associated with suggestibility, nor was there evidence for the fantasy model prediction of greater inaccuracy of recovered memory. Instead, dissociation was positively related to a history of trauma memory recovery and negatively related to the more general measures of narrative cohesion. Research also supports the trauma theory of dissociation as a regulatory response to fear or other extreme emotion with measurable biological correlates. We conclude, on the basis of evidence related to these 8 predictions, that there is strong empirical support for the hypothesis that trauma causes dissociation, and that dissociation remains related to trauma history when fantasy proneness is controlled. We find little support fort he hypothesis that the dissociation–trauma relationship is due to fantasy proneness or confabulated memories of trauma
https://www.towson.edu/cla/departments/psychology/facultystaff/dalenbergetalevalevidencefortraumaandfantasymodelspsychbull2012.pdf 

 Dissociative Identity Disorder

The causes of dissociative identity disorder are theoretically linked with the interaction of overwhelming stress, traumatic antecedents,[3] insufficient childhood nurturing, and an innate ability to dissociate memories or experiences from consciousness.[2] Prolonged child abuse is frequently a factor, with a very high percentage of patients reporting documented abuse[4] often confirmed by objective evidence.[1] The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders states that patients with DID often report having a history of severe physical and sexual abuse. The reports of patients suffering from DID are "often confirmed by objective evidence," and the DSM notes that the abusers in those situations may be inclined to "deny or distort” these acts.[1] Research has consistently shown that DID is characterized by reports of extensive childhood trauma, usually child abuse.[5][6][7] Dissociation is recognized as a symptomatic presentation in response to psychological trauma, extreme emotional stress, and in association with emotional dysregulation and borderline personality disorder.[8] A study of 12 murderers established the connection between early severe abuse and DID[9]. A recent psychobiological study shows that dissociative identity disorder (DID) sufferers' "origins of their ailment stem more likely from trauma" than sociogenic or iatrogenic origins[10][11].

 

https://childabusewiki.org/index.php?title=Dissociative_Identity_Disorder

Separated migrant children are headed toward shelters that have a history of abuse and neglect; Children chained up - torture and child abuse charges

Immigrant Youth Shelters Have History of Child Abuse Claims: Report

Government contractors and non-profits running immigrant child shelters have been accused of sexual abuse, physical abuse, and neglect, according to a joint investigation by the Texas Tribune and Reveal.

 

“Taxpayers have paid more than $1.5 billion in the past four years” to the companies operating the shelters, the report revealed. The Office of Refugee Resettlement has given over $5 billion dollars in grants to the companies since 2003 in 18 states. In Texas, state inspectors found 400 deficiencies in the shelters, including reports of broken wrists, burns, and sexually transmitted diseases. Southwest Key, the company that runs the shelter at the deserted Walmart in Brownsville, Texas, has received over 246 violations. In Florida, a former employee at the Homestead shelter was sentenced to 10 years in prison for a “sexually inappropriate behavior” with a child—she once asked a 15-year-old for a pornographic video.

 

In New York, an 11-year-old boy was sexually assaulted by an older child at The Children’s Village shelter. Thirteen organizations have dealt with serious allegations since 2014, but ORR has only ended agreements with two of those companies....
https://www.thedailybeast.com/immigrant-youth-shelters-have-history-of-child-abuse-claims-report

 

Separated migrant children are headed toward shelters that have a history of abuse and neglect

Taxpayers have paid more than $1.5 billion to private companies operating shelters accused of serious lapses in care, including neglect and abuse.

by Aura Bogado, Patrick Michels and Vanessa Swales, Reveal and Edgar Walters, The Texas Tribune June 20, 2018

 

Taxpayers have paid more than $1.5 billion in the past four years to private companies operating immigrant youth shelters accused of serious lapses in care, including neglect and sexual and physical abuse, an investigation by Reveal and The Texas Tribune has found.

 

In nearly all cases, the federal government has continued to place migrant children with the companies even after serious allegations were raised and after state inspectors cited shelters with deficiencies, government and other records show.

 

Since 2003, the U.S. Health and Human Services Department has awarded nearly $5 billion in grants through the Office of Refugee Resettlement, mostly to religious and nonprofit organizations in 18 states, to house children who arrive in the country unaccompanied. The program grew quickly in 2014, when around 70,000 children crossed the southern border alone.

 

Now this web of private facilities, cobbled together to support children with nowhere else to go, is beginning to hold a new population: the more than 2,000 children who arrived with their parents but were separated from them because of a Trump administration policy.

 

In Texas, where the resettlement agency awarded the majority of the grants, state inspectors have cited homes with more than 400 deficiencies, about one-third of them serious.

Allegations included staff members’ failure to seek medical attention for children. One had a burn, another a broken wrist, a third a sexually transmitted disease. In another shelter, staff gave a child medicine to which she was allergic, despite a warning on her medical bracelet. Inspectors also cited homes for “inappropriate contact” between children and staff....

 

A case in point is the Shiloh Treatment Center, a mobile home complex-turned-child care center. Located in rural Manvel, Texas, the center was founded in 1995 by Clay Dean Hill, who is now 69. In 2013, the resettlement agency began funding the shelter, sending more than $25 million in grants over five years.

In 2001, Stephanie Duffield, 16, died after being restrained by staff. Following her death, Shiloh was found to be “in compliance” with state requirements, according to the refugee resettlement office. Since then, Shiloh has been dogged by allegations of child abuse, leading Brazoria County’s district attorney, Jeri Yenne, to call for increased monitoring of the shelter.

 

Children have died at two other programs affiliated with Hill, Behavior Training Research Inc. and Daystar Residential Inc. Between 1993 and 2010, three children died after being restrained at those facilities. In 2002, Latasha Bush, 15, died from asphyxia. Eight years later, Michael Keith Owens, 16, died after being restrained inside a closet. Both were ruled homicides.

Daystar closed after Owens’ death. Behavior Training Research remains registered as an active domestic for-profit corporation.

 

Over the last three years, Texas inspectors found eight deficiencies at Shiloh, including poorly supervised medication inside the facility and overdue background check renewals for staff....

https://www.texastribune.org/2018/06/20/separated-migrant-children-are-headed-toward-shelters-history-abuse-an/

 

911 call in child abuse case: Girl reports parents, says sisters are ‘chained up’
June 20, 2018, by Associated Press

 

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — A 17-year-old girl who had just escaped her home of horrors called police dispatchers and revealed in a high-pitched voice the abuse that had gone on for years.

 

“My two little sisters right now are chained up,” she said in a recording played Wednesday during a hearing to determine if her mother and father stand trial for a raft of abuse charges.

“They will wake up at night and they will start crying and they wanted me to call somebody,” she said of her siblings. “I wanted to call y’all so y’all can help my sisters.”

 

The girl’s mother, Louise Turpin, dabbed her eyes with a tissue as the 911 call was played in Riverside County Superior Court.

David and Louise Turpin have pleaded not guilty to torture, child abuse and other charges. They are being held on $12 million bail each.

 

The 911 call in January was the start of a new day for their 13 children, some of whom didn’t even understand the role of police officers when they showed up at the house in response to the call.

 

Officers freed two children who were shackled to beds and arrested the parents in a case that drew worldwide attention to severe neglect at the Perris, California, home that looked neatly kept from the outside.

Inside, police discovered something completely different.

 

The house reeked of human waste, and the evidence of starvation was obvious, with the oldest of 13 siblings weighing just 82 pounds. The children were locked up as punishment, denied food and toys and allowed to do little except write in journals, prosecutors said.

 

Children were isolated from each other and locked in different rooms in small groups. They did not have access to televisions or radios but expressed themselves in the hundreds of journals that investigators seized from the home where they were schooled.

 

After they were freed, the children, who ranged in age from 2 to 29, were immediately hospitalized and eventually released....

https://kdvr.com/2018/06/20/911-call-in-child-abuse-case-girl-reports-parents-says-sisters-are-chained-up/ 

 

Child and Ritual Abuse Research  https://ritualabuse.us 

 

Articles by Neil Brick  http://neilbrick.com 

Child abuse: Documenting Australia's shame, The Impact of Child Abuse Can Last a Lifetime

Child abuse: Documenting Australia's shame
By Phil Mercer BBC News, Sydney  December 19, 2016

In Australia, a boy of 10 is raped by an Anglican clergyman, who cuts his victim with a small knife and smears blood over his back in a twisted ritual to symbolise the suffering of Christ.

This happened in the 1960s in Cessnock, a former mining town in the New South Wales Hunter Valley, but only now has this and other decades-old stories of sexual violence and degradation been heard, catalogued and, crucially for many victims, believed.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is an unprecedented investigation into an epidemic of depravity across Australia.

The far-reaching inquiry began in 2013 and has heard from thousands of survivors of paedophiles who worked, or volunteered, in sporting clubs, schools, churches, charities, childcare centres and the military....

For four days earlier this year, the senior Vatican official was quizzed, denying any personal wrongdoing but conceding the organisation had made grave errors.

"I am not here to defend the indefensible," said Cardinal Pell. "The Church has made enormous mistakes, is working to remedy those, but the Church has in many places - certainly in Australia - mucked things up."

When he was 13, John Ellis, a former altar boy, was molested by an Australian monk who was also implicated in a suspected paedophile ring at a former Catholic boarding school in the Scottish Highlands....

"The most important thing for people in being invited to give their own stories and having their stories valued is that somebody cares," Mr Ellis told the BBC news website.

"For many, many years people have been silenced, people have been fearful of what reaction they will get if they were to tell their truth. The overwhelming emotion people have when they have had that opportunity is empowerment."

When it hands down its final report at the end of 2017, this painstaking inquiry will have lasted for almost five years. Already, more than 1,700 cases have been referred to the authorities, including the police....
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-38301488


The Impact of Child Abuse Can Last a Lifetime
Dec. 19, 2016 By Steven Reinberg HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, Dec. 19, 2016 (HealthDay News) -- The traumatic effects of child abuse and neglect can persist for decades, often with substantial economic consequences, researchers report.

"We found associations of child neglect and abuse with adult socioeconomic circumstances at age 50," said lead author Snehal Pinto Pereira.

Physical, social or emotional abuse in childhood was linked at midlife to a greater risk of time off from work due to long-term sickness, said Pereira, a research associate at University College London's Institute of Child Health.

Mistreatment in childhood also lowered the odds of owning a home, she said.

"The associations for child neglect were linked to their poor reading and mathematics skills in adolescence, which in turn could hamper their ability to find work and progress in the job market," she explained.

The research is only observational and doesn't establish a direct cause-and-effect relationship. Still, it appears that children who suffered more than one type of abuse were most likely to be thwarted economically....

The study was published online Dec. 19 in the journal Pediatrics.

Child abuse and neglect are major public health problems in the United States, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In 2014, around 700,000 American kids suffered from abuse or neglect. More than 1,500 died from it, the CDC said.

Toddlers younger than 3 account for more than one-quarter of victims, the agency said.

One study estimated that 1 in 4 children experiences some form of child abuse or neglect in their lifetime, according to the CDC....
http://health.usnews.com/health-care/articles/2016-12-19/the-impact-of-child-abuse-can-last-a-lifetime



Child Abuse Research  https://ritualabuse.us

Articles and Research  by Neil Brick  http://neilbrick.com

Former children's TV show host is linked to child abuse case, Study Links Child Abuse, Neglect to Earlier Onset of Bipolar Disorder

Former children's TV show host is linked to child abuse case
By Associated Press February 11, 2016
A California judge has determined that a man recently arrested in a San Diego suburb is a fugitive wanted in a 1979 child sexual abuse investigation in Louisiana, where he was a children's TV show host known as “Mr. Wonder.”

A San Diego County Superior Court judge ruled Thursday after a brief identity hearing.

Authorities say Frank John Selas III assumed a new identity in the San Diego area, where he often invited children to his house to swim and was a Cub Scout leader. He was arrested in January.

The ruling sets the stage for extradition proceedings to begin.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-childrens-tv-show-host-child-abuse-20160211-story.html

Study Links Child Abuse, Neglect to Earlier Onset of Bipolar Disorder   HealthDay Feb. 11, 2016  By Robert Preidt

THURSDAY, Feb. 11, 2016 (HealthDay News) -- People with bipolar disorder who have a history of being abused or neglected as children may have more severe symptoms and a higher risk of suicide, new research suggests.

"Our findings have important implications for clinical practice, as they suggest that a history of childhood maltreatment could be used as an early indicator of high risk for poor outcomes among individuals with bipolar disorder," said study author Jessica Agnew-Blais, a postdoctoral researcher at King's College London in England.

"This information could be valuable for identifying patients with bipolar disorder who may benefit from greater support and treatment," she said in a college news release.

The researchers reviewed 30 studies. While they only found an association, rather than a cause-and-effect link, they said bipolar patients who suffered from neglect or physical, sexual or emotional abuse as children were more likely to have more severe manic, depressive and psychotic symptoms compared to those who weren't abused.

People with bipolar disorder who were abused as children also had a higher risk of anxiety disorders and substance and alcohol abuse disorders, the research showed.

Those abused as children developed bipolar symptoms more than four years earlier, the study found. They also were nearly four times more likely to have post-traumatic stress disorder. And they were nearly twice as likely to attempt suicide as those who weren't mistreated during childhood, the researchers said.... The study was published Feb. 9 in The Lancet Psychiatry.
http://health.usnews.com/health-news/articles/2016-02-11/study-links-child-abuse-neglect-to-earlier-onset-of-bipolar-disorder 

Federal Data Shows Nearly 3 Percent Rise in Child Abuse, UK child abuse victims sue Catholic Church, Scotland Yard child abuse probe into Kids Company, 5 of 77 western Washington priests suspected of child abuse were likely prosecuted, animal sacrifice ritual

- New Federal Data Shows Nearly 3 Percent Rise in Child Abuse
- UK child abuse victims sue Catholic Church
- REVEALED: The true scale of Scotland Yard child abuse probe into "cult-like" Kids Company
- Report: 5 of 77 western Washington priests suspected of child abuse were likely prosecuted
-  Man beheads dog, duck as part of animal sacrifice ritual, deputies say

New Federal Data Shows Nearly 3 Percent Rise in Child Abuse
By david crary, ap national writer
Jan 25, 2016
The number of U.S. children victimized by abuse and neglect increased by nearly 3 percent in the latest annual reporting period, according to new federal data.

According to the report released Monday by the Department of Health and Human Services, the estimated number of victimized children in the 2014 fiscal year was 702,208 — up from 682,307 in 2013.

The report estimated fatalities attributable to child abuse and neglect at 1,580 — up from 1,530 in 2013....
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/federal-data-shows-percent-rise-child-abuse-36507530


UK child abuse victims sue Catholic Church
AAP January 26, 2016
The claims - dating back to the 1950s and featuring pupils at a church school in the northwest of England - mirror those in the film Spotlight, tipped for Oscars success for its depiction of similar allegations in the Catholic Church in Boston, US, in the 1980s.

Lawyers acting on behalf of the British victims, who were aged between 11 and 15 at the time of the abuse, said they hope the positivity Spotlight's release met with will help give other victims the strength to come forward.

Thomas Beale, representing victims with London-based child abuse lawyers AO Advocates, said there were "significant" similarities between Spotlight and the allegations of abuse at St Bede's Catholic school in Manchester decades ago....

The allegations at St Bede's relate to Monsignor Thomas Duggan, Father Charles Mulholland and Father Vincent Hamilton - three senior figures at the school who carried out the alleged abuse.

They died before being brought to justice, but the survivors are now taking out a civil case against the Diocese of Salford for what they say is a failure to protect them from abuse.

Allegations range from inappropriate touching to rape....
https://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/30658532/uk-child-abuse-victims-sue-catholic-church/


REVEALED: The true scale of Scotland Yard child abuse probe into "cult-like" Kids Company
POLICE and social services are investigating 36 separate cases of child abuse in connection with the failed Government-funded charity Kids Company.
By Jon Austin Fri, Jan 22, 2016

The true scale of the Metropolitan Police investigation into the former charity backed by Prime Minister David Cameron was revealed by a social services chief in a damning letter giving evidence to an ongoing Parliamentary inquiry into the relationship between Kids Company and Whitehall.

David Quirke-Thornton, Strategic Director for Children’s and Adults’ Services at Southwark Council, launched a stinging attack on the charity and former chief executive Camila Batmanghelidjh in evidence to the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee.

He wrote: "The ethics of practice within Kids Company appears to me to have been compromised by a cult of personality; a wilful blindness to the consequences and impact of their model on children, young people and their families; and a lack of acceptance by the leadership of the organisation of their accessorial liability."

The charity, whose chairman was former BBC creative director Alan Yentob, closed in August just days after it pocketed a £3million final bailout from Whitehall.

It has since emerged the Government provided Kids Company a whopping £46m in funds over less than 10 years despite their being repeated concerns raised with officials over its management.

The closure came just days after it emerged the Scotland Yard was investigating a number of allegations of sexual abuse relating to some of its clients....
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/637208/REVEALED-The-true-scale-of-Scotland-Yard-child-abuse-probe-into-cult-like-Kids-Company


Report: 5 of 77 western Washington priests suspected of child abuse were likely prosecuted
By The Associated Press January 24, 2016

....Boyle, now deceased, retired from Mount St. Vincent in Seattle in 1984 and spent a total of about 15 years in the Seattle Archdiocese. He pleaded guilty in Nevada in 1987 to one count of lewdness with a child for exposing himself, according to news accounts and interviews.

....Since the late 1980s, the Seattle Archdiocese has paid about $74 million in civil settlements for 392 claims of sexual abuse of minors, including at least $1.1 million paid to three of Boyle's victims.
http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2016/01/report_5_of_77_western_washing.html


Man beheads dog, duck as part of animal sacrifice ritual, deputies say  By Kate Jacobson Sun Sentinel  January 20, 2016

A man beheaded his dog and a duck as part of an animal sacrifice ritual in the front yard of his apartment complex while neighbors watched, deputies said.

Javier Orelly, 28, was arrested on Tuesday by the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office. Deputies said they got a call just after 7 p.m. on Jan. 14 about a man who appeared to be setting up a shrine to kill his dog....

Animal sacrifices are common in Santeria, a religion typically practiced in parts of Africa and the Caribbean. Under U.S. and state law, some animal sacrifices are legal if the animal is killed humanely and for legitimate religious purposes.

Florida law prohibits the slaughter of dogs or cats.

Officers from animal care and control typically come across the discarded bodies of livestock like chickens and goats. Walesky said finding the person behind a slaughter is rare. The fact that the animal killed was a dog, Walesky said, is even more rare....
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/palm-beach/fl-west-palm-animal-sacrifice-20160120-story.html

Military Deployment Tied to Greater Odds of Child Abuse, Neglect, Drexel, Bryant U. rescind honorary degrees for Bill Cosby

Military Deployment Tied to Greater Odds of Child Abuse, Neglect
Periods during and just after deployment are highest risk, study finds

By Tara Haelle
HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, Nov. 12, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- Young children of U.S. Army soldiers may have a higher risk of abuse or neglect during and just after a parent is deployed abroad, a new study finds.

"The findings are not that surprising because a family experiences enormous stress when a soldier goes off on a deployment," said Dr. Bob Sege, a pediatrician specializing in child abuse and vice president of Health Resources in Action, in Boston.

"The men and women who go off to fight for us are doing very admirable work, and it's not a surprise that it's stressful for their families," Sege said.

Other kinds of stress, such as extreme poverty, partner abuse and postpartum depression, are already known to increase the risk of child abuse, said Sege, who wasn't involved in this research.

"This study confirms the family stress theory of what causes child maltreatment," Sege said. "That's important because I think many people feel that people who maltreat their children are morally deficient. But, those of us in the field know that often, they're just really stressed out beyond their capacity to deal with their situation."

It's important to note that the study's design only shows a link between deployment and child abuse, it cannot prove a cause-and-effect relationship.

Findings from the study were published online Nov. 12 in the American Journal of Public Health....

The study focused on children under age 2 because they are at the highest risk for abuse or neglect, the authors said.

The rates of maltreatment hovered around 0.5 percent among children of soldiers who had been deployed once or twice. However, the rates were higher during and just after deployment compared to the six months before deployment.

In families of soldiers deployed once, nearly four episodes of abuse or neglect occurred per 10,000 children per month during deployment. That compared to three episodes in the six months before deployment. And, in the six months after deployment, the rate was almost 4.5 episodes per 10,000 children, the study found.

In families of soldiers deployed twice, the highest rate of abuse and neglect occurred during the second deployment, at a rate of nearly five episodes per 10,000 children per month, the research revealed....
http://consumer.healthday.com/public-health-information-30/family-health-news-749/military-deployment-ups-odds-of-child-abuse-neglect-705209.html 


Drexel, Bryant U. rescind honorary degrees for Bill Cosby
PHILADELPHIA — Drexel and Bryant universities have joined a number of schools in rescinding honorary degrees awarded to Bill Cosby, citing accusations of sexual assault.

Drexel President John Fry says the misconduct that came to light in a deposition Cosby gave "stands in clear opposition" to the Philadelphia school's values.

He said in a letter Thursday to the Drexel community that universities are "critical arenas" in addressing sexual violence and Drexel takes that responsibility seriously.

Rhode Island-based Bryant said on its website Thursday that Cosby's "egregious conduct" is "inconsistent with the character, values and behavior" it expects of the holder of an honorary degree.

It said that by revoking Cosby's degree, it upholds the values, character and mission of the Smithfield school.

The comedian has never been charged with a crime and has denied allegations that he drugged and sexually assaulted women.
http://www.wral.com/drexel-university-rescinds-honorary-degree-for-bill-cosby/15104137/ 

Focus in alleged satanic rape case, Measuring child abuse's legacy, Sexual abuse and neglect may be passed down

"the first large, longitudinal study to track how victims of child abuse treat their own children has found little evidence of a cycle of violence, but suggests that sexual abuse and neglect may indeed be passed down the generations."

Porn focus in alleged satanic rape case
March 26 2015 By Shain Germaner

Johannesburg - Police are scanning the electronic devices belonging to four people, including a church pastor, accused of raping a 9-year-old boy in an alleged satanic ritual.

This is to determine if they contain any illegal pornography.

This emerged in the Germiston Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday, when the 9-year-old’s grandparents, uncle and pastor appeared on charges of the alleged rape.

While a trial date was expected to be set, the court heard that the police needed time to download the data of all four accused’s cellphones and laptops to search for child porn and other evidence.

The group were arrested last month. Police suspect they brought the then 7-year-old to the Full Gospel Church of God in Witfield, Boksburg, in 2013.

At the venue, the four, clad in red robes and chanting, allegedly forced the boy to fondle their genitals before the uncle is said to have raped the boy....
http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/porn-focus-in-alleged-satanic-rape-case-1.1837340#.VRTHr5M0OMI 

Measuring child abuse's legacy
Emily Underwood

Science 27 March 2015:
Vol. 347 no. 6229 p. 1408
DOI: 10.1126/science.347.6229.1408

The notion that victims of physical abuse as kids are more likely to abuse their own children, often described as the "cycle of violence," is widely held but sparsely documented. Now, the first large, longitudinal study to track how victims of child abuse treat their own children has found little evidence of a cycle of violence, but suggests that sexual abuse and neglect may indeed be passed down the generations. The study, published this week in Science, also makes a controversial claim: that heightened surveillance of families with a history of abuse may have biased some studies taken as evidence for the cycle of violence.
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/347/6229/1408.summary

Abused Kids Not Destined to Be Abusive Parents, Study Finds
By Amy Norton  HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, March 26, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- Conventional wisdom says that abused children often grow up to be abusive parents, but a 30-year study of American families suggests it's more complicated than that.

In one striking finding, researchers uncovered little evidence that physical abuse is passed from one generation to the next.

"That was extremely surprising," said lead researcher Cathy Spatz Widom, a professor of psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, in New York City. "The theory has been that children of parents who were abused are at increased risk of physical abuse."

That theory has been supported by past research. But, Widom explained, those studies have been hampered by limitations, such as working "backward" -- starting with parents accused of abuse, and asking them if they'd been mistreated as kids.

"The problem there is, you miss the parents who were abused but did not go on to have these issues," Widom explained.

Her study, published in the March 27 issue of Science, followed two generations of families, including over 1,100 parents and their kids. More than half of the parents had been abused or neglected as children, back in the 1960s and 1970s; the rest had no history of abuse, but were from similar backgrounds.

To see whether the children of abused parents were at risk, Widom's team used three sources: Records from child protective services (CPS); interviews with parents; and interviews with their children once they were young adults.

Overall, the researchers found, children of abused parents were at no greater risk of physical abuse. And that was true whether the information came from parents' or children's reports, or CPS records.

Based on CPS reports, for example, almost 7 percent of kids born to abused parents suffered physical abuse, versus just over 5 percent of the comparison group -- a difference that was not statistically significant.

In contrast, children of abused parents were at higher risk of sexual abuse or neglect, the finding showed.
http://health.usnews.com/health-news/articles/2015/03/26/abused-kids-not-destined-to-be-abusive-parents-study-finds

Vatican Arrests Former Archbishop On Child Abuse Charges, Don’t turn a blind eye to child abuse or neglect

Vatican Arrests Former Archbishop On Child Abuse Charges
September 24, 2014

Jozef Wesolowski is the first high-ranking Vatican official to face criminal charges for sexually abusing children. Steve Inskeep talks to Joshua McElwee of the National Catholic Reporter.

....Vatican City, the home of the Catholic Church, is also a tiny, independent nation with its own laws. And today, one of its citizens is under house arrest. The Vatican took former Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski into custody. He had already been defrocked in June. All of this follows allegations that he sexually abused young boys while he was the Vatican's ambassador to the Dominican Republic. He's going to stand trial on a Vatican criminal court. Joshua McElwee, who is Vatican bureau chief for The National Catholic Reporter, is covering this story.

....Well, the Vatican had acted a couple months ago. What they'd done is they laicized Wesolowski, who was an archbishop, which basically made him a normal Catholic. He's no longer a priest. He's no longer an archbishop. And now they're saying that they're prosecuting him according to the laws of the Vatican City State for, apparently, accusations of abuse in the Dominican Republic.
http://www.npr.org/2014/09/24/351074916/vatican-arrests-former-archbishop-on-child-abuse-charges 


Don’t turn a blind eye to child abuse or neglect
By Yvonne Abraham Globe Columnist   September 21, 2014

How is it possible that Erika Murray’s oldest children went to school, had friends, and saw relatives, yet nobody raised the alarm about the horrors filling their Blackstone home?....

It all went to hell the summer before Spadaro turned 11, when she found her mother on the floor, in seizures. Doctors removed a brain tumor, leaving her mother with impaired judgment and impulse control, and dependent on sedatives.Her father, who had broken his hip and quit work years earlier, was also heavily medicated. Depressed, and with strained finances, her parents mixed alcohol with the drugs, descending into addiction.

“That combination of the unwashed people and the unwashed pets and the food that may be halfway round the bend,” recalled Spadaro, now 48. “You learn to function with the smell, but I don’t think you ever stop noticing it.”

She did what many kids do in these situations: She became the parent, at 11. She remembers trying to clear some of the mess away, hauling trash to the garage, and cleaning up after the beagle. For meals, she warmed frozen pizza in a toaster oven. She did laundry so that she and her sister — several years younger — would look presentable.

“I tried to keep things as best I could, but I could not be in charge of two parents, a younger sibling, and the pet,” she said.

For three years, none of the many adults in their lives came to their rescue....

Three years after the spiral began, her mother’s family took the girls in. Spadaro does not know why they decided to intervene then, and not sooner....

Several times, though, neighbors complained about pets being mistreated at the home. There was only one call about the children, found to be unsubstantiated. How those kids must have envied the dogs.....
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/09/20/don-turn-blind-eye-child-abuse-neglect/d1OaB8XQbdqPXdaoERXf8J/story.html

Effects Of Child Abuse And Neglect On The Brain, Man Charged With Child Abuse in Kenya

Effects Of Child Abuse And Neglect On The Brain  Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Hundreds of thousands of children suffer from neglect, abuse and trauma during their early years. Many of the psychological consequences are well known, but it’s becoming increasingly clear just how damaging they are to the developing brain.

Today in the final part of our series from WBUR called “Brain Matters: Reporting from the Frontlines of Neuroscience,” Iris Adler looks at a key issue in brain development: the biological consequences of early childhood neglect and trauma.
http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2014/07/23/child-abuse-brain-effects


Man Charged in Oklahoma With Child Abuse in Kenya
OKLAHOMA CITY — Jul 22, 2014
By SEAN MURPHY Associated Press

An Oklahoma man has been charged with sexually abusing boys and girls while volunteering at an organization in Kenya that assists neglected children.

Matthew Lane Durham, of Edmond, is accused of engaging in sex acts with as many as ten children aged from 4 to 10 years while volunteering at Upendo Children's Home in Nairobi from April to June 2014.

The complaint filed in the U.S. District Court of Western Oklahoma last week says the 19-year-old Durham has volunteered with Upendo since June 2012.

Durham wrote and signed a confession that an Upendo official provided to the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, according to an affidavit filed by FBI agent Scott Lobb.

In it, he admitted to sexually abusing boys and girls in a bathroom at the children's home. At least one of the victims is HIV positive, according to the affidavit....

Durham's attorney Stephen Jones said Tuesday the affidavit is riddled with inaccuracies and that his client is innocent....
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/man-charged-oklahoma-child-abuse-kenya-24662622

Manslaughter claim in deaths of 800 children in Galway Home, Neglect and death, Bodies of 800 Babies Reportedly Found in Sewer Tank in Ireland

Manslaughter claim in deaths of 800 children in Galway Home (VIDEO)
Cahir O'Doherty June 05,2014

An Irish politician has called what happened with the deaths of 800 children at a religious-run unmarried mothers home in Tuam in Galway between 1925 and 1961 “manslaughter.”

Hildegarde Naughton, a Fine Gael Senator from Galway, claimed in the Irish Senate that what had occurred at the mothers and babies home was in fact criminal.

The shocking revelation that 796 babies died and were buried in an unmarked grave in a septic tank in the mother and baby home in Tuam, County Galway continues to reverberate.

Calls for a full historical inquiry have now reached the higher echelons of the church.

Archbishop of Tuam Michael Neary said the order of the Bon Secours sisters needed to address the issue, stating the archdiocese had nothing to do with the home when it was open.... http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Manslaughter-claim-in-deaths-of-800-children-in-Galway-unwed-mothers-Home-VIDEO.html

Neglect and death of 800 kids in Galway happened in plain sight
Sheila Langan June 04,2014

The 796 infants and children buried in an unmarked mass grave in the septic tank behind St. Mary’s Mother and Baby home in Tuam, Co. Galway made headlines around the world after their shocking story broke last week.

But this is not the first time the Home and the ‘Home babies,’ as locals call them, have been in the news.

Following early reports on the research of Tuam historian Catherine Corless, who brought the story to light, Liam Hogan, a Limerick-based historian and librarian, began uncovering a trail of damning news clips dating from before the Home’s founding in 1925 to after its closure in 1961.

The articles show that the Home was very much a matter of both public and governmental knowledge. And the way in which they discuss the Home’s occupants (or “inmates” as they are more often referred to) makes clear the totally normalized disdain with which all the “illegitimate children” and “fallen women” were held.

The Tuam Children’s Home, it turns out, is a scandal that emerged from an even earlier scandal – The Glenamaddy Children’s Home, less than 20 miles away.

A June 1, 1924 article from the Connacht Tribune speaks of the ‘dire conditions’ at the Glenamaddy Home, a former workhouse that began housing orphans and unwed mothers in 1921, under the supervision of the Bon Secours nuns.... http://www.irishcentral.com/news/The-Home-babies-in-the-news-A-timeline-of-neglect-in-plain-sight.html

Bodies of 800 Babies Reportedly Found in Sewer Tank in Ireland
Thursday, Jun 5, 2014
New research suggests that some 796 children were secretly buried in the sewage tank of a home run by nuns in Tuam, Ireland, where unmarried pregnant women were sent to give birth in an attempt to preserve the country's devout Catholic image, NBC News reported. People who lived near the home-- run by nuns from the Bon Secours Sisters congregation between 1925 and 1961 -- said they have known about the unmarked mass grave for decades, but a fresh investigation was sparked this week after research by a local historian purportedly showed that of the hundreds of children who died at the home, only one was buried at a cemetery. http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/261955901.html

1 in 8 Children Will Be Maltreated, Study Says, Priest Accused of Abuse in U.S. Rises Again in Paraguay

1 in 8 Children Will Be Maltreated, Study Says
The numbers are even higher for African-American and Native American children.

By Allie Bidwell June 2, 2014

The number of children who experience a confirmed case of maltreatment in their lifetime could be much higher than previous estimates, according to a new study released by Yale University on Monday.

Maltreatment – which can come in the form of neglect or physical, sexual or emotional abuse – is also known to have negative physical and mental health outcomes for children, including improper brain development, lower language development and impaired cognitive abilities.

More than 12 percent of American children will experience a confirmed case of maltreatment by the time they turn 18, the study found. Among African-American and Native American children, the numbers were even higher: 1 in 5 black children and 1 in 7 Native American children experienced maltreatment during that time, according to the study, published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.

Still, the actual number of child maltreatment incidents is likely much higher, says Christopher Wildeman, an associate professor of sociology at Yale. The 12.5 percent estimate he and his colleagues determined is "the absolute floor," he says, because confirming maltreatment cases is such a complicated process.

"The bar for getting to the point that you have a confirmed maltreatment case is very, very high," Wildeman says. "The fact that 12.5 percent is actually a drastic underestimate is pretty concerning."....
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/06/02/study-1-in-8-american-children-will-experience-maltreatment-by-age-18


The Prevalence of Confirmed Maltreatment Among US Children, 2004 to 2011 ONLINE FIRST

Christopher Wildeman, PhD1; Natalia Emanuel, BA2; John M. Leventhal, MD3; Emily Putnam-Hornstein, PhD, MSSW4,5; Jane Waldfogel, PhD, MED6; Hedwig Lee, PhD7
JAMA Pediatr. Published online June 02, 2014. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2014.410

Importance  Child maltreatment is a risk factor for poor health throughout the life course. Existing estimates of the proportion of the US population maltreated during childhood are based on retrospective self-reports. Records of officially confirmed maltreatment have been used to produce annual rather than cumulative counts of maltreated individuals....

Conclusions and Relevance  Annual rates of confirmed child maltreatment dramatically understate the cumulative number of children confirmed to be maltreated during childhood. Our findings indicate that maltreatment will be confirmed for 1 in 8 US children by 18 years of age, far greater than the 1 in 100 children whose maltreatment is confirmed annually. For black children, the cumulative prevalence is 1 in 5; for Native American children, 1 in 7.
http://archpedi.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1876686


Priest Accused of Abuse in U.S. Rises Again in Paraguay
By Will Carless, GlobalPost

Father Carlos Urrutigoity glides into the sanctuary, his ivory and scarlet robes swishing between the pews. Revered by his flock in the unruly diocese of eastern Paraguay’s Ciudad del Este, the priest will deliver his sermon to hundreds of worshippers. They will later clamor outside the church to meet the man, to receive his benediction.

This is a man who’s been described by bishops from Switzerland to Pennsylvania as “dangerous,” “abnormal,” and “a serious threat to young people.”

He has spent two decades flitting from diocese to diocese, always one step ahead of church and legal authorities, before landing in this lawless, remote corner of South America. Here, in the pirate-laden jungle near the Iguacu falls, he has risen to a position of power.

Today, despite warnings from the bishop of Scranton, Pennsylvania, where in 2002 Urrutigoity was accused of molesting a teenage boy and sleeping with and touching other young men, this priest leads a starry-eyed cadre of young male seminarians. Despite once being accused of running what a fellow priest called a “homosexual cult” in the hills of Pennsylvania, Urrutigoity now graces the diocese website here, advertising seminars for budding young Catholics.

Urrutigoity’s voyage from his native Argentina to Pennsylvania and back to South America represents a new chapter in the shocking story of abuse in the Catholic Church.

It illustrates the church’s seeming inability to prevent a priest accused of illegal acts in the United States from fleeing to a remote developing country — even one on the doorstep of Pope Francis’ homeland — and remaking himself into a powerful religious leader.

Urrutigoity, who denies ever molesting anyone, says he’s been the victim of a smear campaign. But to those devoted to uncovering church misdeeds, the Argentine’s sustained protection by the Catholic establishment is emblematic of an ethos of cover-ups and gross negligence that continues to place young people at risk....
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/priest-accused-abuse-u-s-rises-again-paraguay-n121231

Galway historian reveals truth behind 800 orphans in mass grave

Galway historian reveals truth behind 800 orphans in mass grave                        
Cahir O'Doherty June 01,2014
There is a growing international scandal around the history of The Home, a grim 1840’sa workhouse in Tuam in Galway built on seven acres that was taken over in 1925 by the Bon Secours sisters, who turned it into a Mother and Baby home for “fallen women.”

The long abandoned site made headlines around the world this week when it was revealed that a nearby septic tank contained the bodies of up to eight hundred infants and children, secretly buried without coffins or headstones on unconsecrated ground between 1925 and 1961.

Now a local historian has stepped forward to outline the terrible circumstances around so many lost little lives.

Catherine Corless, the local historian and genealogist, remembers the Home Babies well. “They were always segregated to the side of regular classrooms,” Corless tells IrishCentral. “By doing this the nuns telegraphed the message that they were different and that we should keep away from them....

Surrounded by an eight-foot high wall, Tuam, County Galway locals say that they saw little to nothing of the daily life of The Home or of the pregnant young mothers who arrived and left it without a word over the decades....

A local health board inspection report from April 1944 recorded 271 children and 61 single mothers in residence, a total of 333 in a building that had a capacity for 243.

The report described the children as “emaciated,” “pot-bellied,” “fragile” with “flesh hanging loosely on limbs.” The report noted that 31 children in the “sun room and balcony” were “poor, emaciated and not thriving.” The effects of long term neglect and malnutrition were observed repeatedly.

Children died at The Home at the rate of one a fortnight for almost 40 years, one report claims. Another appears to claim that 300 children died between 1943 and 1946, which would mean two deaths a week in the isolated institution....
http://www.irishcentral.com/opinion/cahirodoherty/Galway-historian-reveals-truth-behind-800-orphans-in-mass-grave.html

Over 100 'Human Trafficking' Victims Rescued, National Statistics on Child Abuse

Over 100 'Human Trafficking' Victims Rescued
Sky News – Thu, Mar 20, 2014
More than 100 people, suspected of being victims of a human trafficking gang, have been rescued from a house in Houston, Texas.

When officers opened the door to the property they found "a large, large group of people, some sitting on top of one another, in very confined spaces".

A spokesman for the Houston Police Department said dozens of the victims were dressed only in underwear and were sitting in filthy conditions surrounded by bin bags full of old clothes.

They had been kept in a number of small rooms with access to just one toilet and no hot water.

Police made the discovery during a search for a 24-year-old woman and her two children who had been reported missing by relatives....

Five men have been arrested in connection with the discovery.
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/over-100-human-trafficking-victims-rescued-011448372.html 

National Statistics on Child Abuse

In 2012, an estimated 1,640 children died from abuse and neglect in the United States.

In the same year, Children’s Advocacy Centers around the country served over 286,000 child victims of abuse, providing victim advocacy and support to these children and their families. In 2013, this number was over 294,000.

2012 NATIONAL ABUSE STATISTICS

    An estimated 686,000 children were victims of abuse and neglect (unique instances).
    51 states reported approximately 3.8 million children received preventative services from Child Protective Services agencies in the United States.
    Children younger than one year had the highest rate of victimization of 21.9 per 1,000 children in the national population of the same age.
    Of the children who experienced maltreatment or abuse, over 75% suffered neglect; more than 15% suffered physical abuse; and just under 10% suffered sexual abuse.
    Approximately 80% of reported child fatalities as a result of abuse and neglect were caused by one or more of the child victim’s parents....
http://www.nationalchildrensalliance.org/NCANationalStatistics 

Pope Francis asks forgiveness for priests who sexually abused children, Pa. bill expands list of those required to report child abuse

Pope Francis asks forgiveness for priests who sexually abused children
By Daniel Burke and Laura Smith-Spark, CNN
Fri April 11, 2014

(CNN) -- Pope Francis made his strongest condemnation yet of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy on Friday, asking for forgiveness and pledging to impose penalties on "men of the church" who harm children.

"I feel compelled to personally take on all the evil which some priests -- quite a few in number, obviously not compared to the number of all the priests -- to personally ask for forgiveness for the damage they have done for having sexually abused children," the Pope said in remarks quoted by Vatican Radio....

The U.S.-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said it may be the first time a pope has spoken of sanctioning "complicit bishops."

"But that is all it is: talk," said Barbara Dorris, SNAP's outreach director.

"We beg the world's Catholics: Be impressed by deeds, not words. Until the Pope takes decisive action that protects kids, be skeptical and vigilant."

The Pope's new comments, made Friday to members of a Catholic nongovernmental organization, the International Catholic Child Bureau, represent a shift from his previous statements on sexual abuse....
http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/11/world/europe/vatican-pope-sex-abuse/ 

Pa. bill expands list of those required to report child abuse  By Oscar Gamble 04/11/14

NORRISTOWN — A bill sponsored by Rep. Todd Stephens to expand the list of professionals required to report suspected child abuse and increase penalties for those who shirk the obligation has unanimously passed the Pennsylvania Legislature and is headed to Gov. Tom Corbett’s desk.

House Bill 436, the Child Protection Act, is a companion to Senate Bill 21, sponsored by Sen. Kim Ward, R-39th Dist., which includes Stephens’ language expanding and clarifying the list of professionals required to report abuse....

The bill requires child care providers and school personnel at every educational level, religious leaders, doctors and health care professionals, social and emergency service workers, librarians, law enforcement and the lawyers and independent contractors representing all of these entities to report suspected cases of child abuse or neglect. It also imposes stiffer penalties for noncompliance.“I think the penalties will get people’s attention,” said Stephens. “In some cases, not reporting (child abuse) will be a felony ... In every case, it’s in the best interest of organizations that care for children to report instances of child abuse”....
http://www.pottsmerc.com/government-and-politics/20140411/pa-bill-expands-list-of-those-required-to-report-child-abuse 

Panel Charged With Eliminating Child Abuse Deaths, Early brain development susceptible to neglect, abuse, Elytte Barbour to return to county prison; Miranda stays at SCI-Muncy

Panel Charged With Eliminating Child Abuse Deaths
by February 25, 2014

A federal commission to prevent children's deaths from abuse and neglect held its first meeting on Monday. Figuring out the extent of the problem is just one challenge facing the new commission.

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
About 1700 children die in the U.S. each year as the result of abuse and neglect. At least that's the official count. Many experts think the real number is much higher. Figuring out the extent of the problem is just one challenge facing a new commission set up to help eliminate such deaths. The panel held its first meeting yesterday in Washington, D.C....
http://www.npr.org/2014/02/25/282359501/panel-charged-with-eliminating-child-abuse-deaths

Part Four: From care to where? Early brain development susceptible to neglect, abuse
Emotional, physical trauma in childhood can cause delays in brain maturation, say experts
By Tracy Sherlock, Vancouver Sun February 25, 2014

The human brain is not fully developed until about age 25. Before that, young people can be impulsive, make poor decisions, and are often more susceptible to addictions.

Psychiatrists have a phrase for this stage of reasoning: “Hyperrational thinking.”

It is a tendency to focus on the upside of situations and ignore risks, says Daniel J. Siegel, a psychiatry professor at the University of California, Los Angeles school of medicine....

When a young person has been neglected, abused, or has no secure attachments, brain development may be compromised, Siegel said.

Children in government care have often been neglected or abused, making them more vulnerable to developmental delays and mental health problems....

“Young people who have experienced early emotional or physical trauma may suffer from delays in brain maturation, leaving them ‘behind’ in brain development during adolescence,” states a report called The Adolescent Brain by the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative, an American foundation that works to help former foster kids transition to independence. “When stressful events or traumatic experiences occur, children, youth, and adults may temporarily regress to an earlier developmental stage or accomplishment.”

The experts agree that stress during childhood not only physically compromises brain development, it also has far-reaching effects on mental health that can be compounded by things like poverty or living in a chaotic home. Put together, adverse childhood experiences like neglect and abuse, have long-term effects that spill over into physical health....
http://www.vancouversun.com/life/Part+Four+From+care+where+Early+brain+development+susceptible/9546381/story.html


Elytte Barbour to return to county prison; Miranda stays at SCI-Muncy
By Justin Strawser
February 26, 2014
SUNBURY - Accused killer Miranda Barbour will remain at State Correctional Institution-Muncy (SCI-Muncy) for the time being, but her husband, Elytte, will be moved to Northumberland County Prison....

The international attention around Barbour's claim to The Daily Item that she killed more than 22 people has disrupted security and efficiency at the prison, Johnson said. "It made it very, very difficult to focus on all the issues of all the inmates," Johnson said. Nineteen-year-old Miranda Barbour and 22-year-old Elytte Barbour are charged in the Nov. 11 slaying of Troy LaFerrara in Sunbury....
http://newsitem.com/news/elytte-barbour-to-return-to-county-prison-miranda-stays-at-sci-muncy-1.1640921

Huronia institution cemetery a painful reminder of neglect and abuse

Huronia institution cemetery a painful reminder of neglect and abuse 

As part of the $35 million settlement with former residents of Huronia Regional Centre, Ontario will offer a formal apology and a promise to maintain the cemetery and create a registry of all those buried there.

By: Rachel Mendleson News reporter, Published on Tue Sep 17 2013

Most of the 2,000 children and adults buried in the unkempt field across from Huronia Regional Centre were laid to rest in unmarked graves.

Others are identified by numbers scrawled on small slabs of concrete hidden amid overgrown grass.

For former residents of the government-run institution for the developmentally delayed in Orillia, the cemetery has served as a painful reminder of the neglect and abuse they have long insisted occurred there.

But that may soon change. On Tuesday, the Ontario government settled a historic class-action lawsuit with former residents of Huronia. The terms include $35 million, a formal apology — and a promise to maintain the cemetery and create a registry of all those buried there....

Under the terms of the settlement, 65,000 documents — including internal government documents, police reports, eyewitness accounts and letters from concerned parents — will also be made public.
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2013/09/17/former_residents_settle_huronia_lawsuit_for_35m.html

Man sentenced to 165 years in prison for sexually abusing children in Haiti, Army Child Abuse Cases Jump 40% From 2009

Man sentenced to 165 years in prison for sexually abusing children in Haiti By Elisha Fieldstadt, NBC News  7/31/2013

A man who sexually abused children at a center for poor youth that he operated in Haiti was sentenced to 165 years in prison in Florida on Wednesday, according to prosecutors.

Matthew Andrew Carter, 68, was charged in February with five counts of travelling in foreign commerce from the U.S. to Haiti in order to pursue illicit sexual conduct with children and one count of attempting to do so, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of Florida. Judge Joan A. Lenard sentenced Carter to 165 years in prison — the maximum prosecutors requested during Carter's February hearing. The judge tacked on a lifetime of supervised release if he's ever freed.

A U.S. Department of Justice statement said the evidence presented at Carter’s trial showed he traveled to Haiti under the guise of helping impoverished children at a home he ran called Morning Star. The children who lived at Morning Star came from homes in which their families could not financially support them.

“For 15 years, Matthew Carter, under the guise of serving as an international humanitarian, sexually abused more than 50 Haitian children,” said acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman. “He held himself out as a savior to vulnerable children in Haiti, but in fact cruelly forced those children to choose between poverty and submitting to repeated sexual abuse,” he added....
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/07/31/19801515-man-sentenced-to-165-years-in-prison-for-sexually-abusing-children-in-haiti

Army Child Abuse Cases Jump 40% From 2009: Report (PLUS: What's Being Done About It) The Huffington Post By Eleanor Goldberg 07/31/2013
Incidents of child abuse in the Army are on the rise, an alarming trend that coincides with the return of tens of thousands of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.

According to an investigation conducted by the Army Times, 3,698 cases of Army child abuse and neglect were reported last year, a 40 percent increase from 2009.

While the military has not drawn any concrete conclusions as to why such crimes are on the rise, some experts say that abusers may be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, which could lead to their taking their frustrations out on their children. Others cited in the report were quick to note that this type of maltreatment doesn’t always come at the hands of the spouse wearing a uniform.

A 2007 Pentagon study concluded that mothers were three times more likely to mistreat their children while their soldier husbands were away, than when they were home.

Whatever the cause, the disturbing spike raises questions about how the Army investigates such cases of child abuse and the effectiveness of its advocacy programs....
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/31/army-child-abuse_n_3677851.html

The Army's hidden child abuse epidemic
30,000 kids abused, 118 killed; Army saw 40 percent increase in cases from 2009 to 2012 Jul. 29, 2013

....While the Army’s intense public attention has been focused on suicides, domestic violence and sex assaults in the ranks, Liyah is part of an epidemic of child abuse inside the Army so under the radar that even top brass were unaware of its scope and an alarming spike in cases. Nearly 30,000 children have suffered abuse or neglect in Army homes over the past decade, an Army Times investigation shows.

Beatings, torture and starvation claimed the lives of 118 Army children.

More than 1,400 children were subjected to sexual abuse.

“The Army put a lot of focus on domestic violence because there’s been a lot of political pressure,” said Dr. Rene Robichaux, social work programs manager at Army Medical Command. “There hasn’t been a concurrent interest in child abuse.”

Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. John Campbell said he was not aware of the extent of the epidemic.

When the Army suspects child abuse or neglect, Campbell said, “we’ll investigate and prosecute and try to make sure we have the right program in place to take care of the soldiers and their families and do what’s right there.”

Of the 29,552 cases of child abuse and neglect in active-duty Army families from 2003 through 2012, according to Army Central Registry data, 15,557 were committed by soldiers, the others by civilians — mostly spouses.

The Army’s rate of child abuse was 4.5 cases per 1,000 children for 2011. The civilian rate was 27.4 per 1,000 children, according to the Children’s Bureau of the Department of Health and Human Services.

But the number of Army cases has spiked 28 percent between 2008 and 2011, while the number of civilian cases has increased by 1.1 percent....
http://www.armytimes.com/article/20130729/NEWS06/306170030/The-Army-s-hidden-child-abuse-epidemic

Miami Cold Case Murder Solved With Recovered Memories

Miami Cold Case Murder Solved With Recovered Memories
By Michael E. Miller Thursday, May 9 2013

....Instead, it would be more than a quarter-century before police caught a break.
"Back then we were finding so many dope murders," says retired Miami-Dade homicide detective John Parmenter. "We all thought [the bodies] had something to do with drugs."  He pauses and adds quietly, "How wrong we were."....

So when Gloria Hampton walked into McCully's office in the summer of 2010 with a story stranger than fiction, the sergeant was suspicious.

"I just need somebody to listen to me," Gloria pleaded. The short 29-year-old with wide hips, tan skin, and curly hair had been through years of psychiatric therapy, she said. From the haze of her hurtful childhood, however, she had pulled one particular memory and polished it until clear.  "I saw my father kill my mother when I was 4 years old," she said. "He put her body into an army-green bag."

McCully was still skeptical. Cops don't put much faith in recovered memories, and these were 25 years old. But after Gloria left, he cracked open musty boxes of cold-case files. He flipped through yellowing photographs and police reports for hours before pulling out a thin binder that hadn't been touched in years. It was the unsolved murder from April 4, 1985. And inside was a photo of a woman's body in an army-green bag.

DNA analysis quickly confirmed that Gloria's mother, Nilsa Padilla, was the murder victim known for decades as "Theresa Torso." Gloria's father, Jorge Walter Nuñez, instantly became the only suspect. For Miami-Dade police, it was a breakthrough in one of the department's oldest and most vexing cases. For Gloria, it was salvation.

"They thought I was crazy," she says of the cops, foster parents, and caseworkers who ridiculed her claims for years. "Now they know I'm not."....

I didn't like him at all," Soto says of Nuñez. "He was always drunk." He also brought out the worst in Padilla. She drank heavily, slipping into dark moods. One day, Padilla drunkenly hit 4-year-old Bernisa on the head with a brush, causing a gash. Soto told her: "If you ever do that again, I'm calling the cops on you."  Nuñez and Padilla left town shortly afterward in an old U-Haul truck he'd turned into a makeshift camper by cutting a window in the rear. They drove down the coast to Florida.

When Soto next saw her cousin, it was three years later, in 1984. Padilla was in worse shape than ever. She now had three kids: Bernisa, Gloria, and a baby named Alicia. But the family was on the run from the Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services.

When Soto asked why, Padilla pointed to Gloria's shoddily bandaged left hand. Nuñez had dropped a heavy piece of metal on the 3-year-old — by accident, he said — mangling her thumb. The two drunks had never taken the toddler to the hospital....

Nuñez, meanwhile, made no effort to hide his hatred. "I'm fed up with her," he told Soto in Spanish. "One of these days, I'm going to kill her."....

Instead of comforting her, Padilla drunkenly smacked her daughter. "She hit me so hard my face was bleeding," Bernisa says. "Maybe she finally realized that she was with the wrong man."

If so, it was too late. When Nuñez returned around 2 a.m., Padilla was waiting for him. From their bunk bed near the ceiling, the three children saw their father strike her with the butt of a beer bottle. He hit her again and again in the head, the glass breaking within its brown paper bag. She tried to climb out the back door. For a moment, moonlight flooded into the tiny camper.

"Then he shoved her back in with his foot," Bernisa remembers. "He closed the door, and then he finished her off."....

"I saw my mom beaten to death," Bernisa says. "My only protector in the world, and she couldn't protect herself." Neither sister remembers Nuñez cutting up the corpse, but Gloria distinctly recalls seeing her father stuff her mother's body into an army-green bag. "I remember helping him dispose of her," she says....

The two sisters had already seen their father kill their mother and sister. But those sickening moments were nothing compared to the rape, violence, and neglect that would follow. Without Padilla around, Nuñez would become a monster. And Bernisa and Gloria would be forced to live like animals alongside him to survive....

Nuñez never worked, likely living on Padilla's welfare checks. Whatever money he did have, he spent on Budweiser or marijuana. The campground was only a few hundred yards from Lower Matecumbe Key's strip malls, but Bernisa and Gloria lived like wolves. Their hair — Bernisa's dark, Gloria's blond — grew long and matted, and they survived on crabs or shrimp they found in shallow pools. "If we didn't catch anything, we didn't eat," Bernisa says.

The sexual abuse that had begun as a secret now spread into a sick obsession. Nuñez would emerge from the U-Haul, growl "Vámanos chicas," and then molest them. He raped one or both of them nearly every day for years. Sometimes Nuñez would let other men take the girls into the dirty U-Haul at the edge of the world.

"Some of it is blacked out, thank God," Bernisa says of the abuse. "If we remembered the whole thing, we probably would have gone crazy."....

The girls' nightmare lasted four years. Even when the police took Nuñez away, the two girls did not say what he had done to them. It would take another child to scream out....

At the police station, officers tried to get Bernisa to talk. But the 11-year-old said Nuñez never abused them. Then the cops tried Gloria. At first she also denied it all. But then the talkative 8-year-old began to tell the horrible truth. "She would have to keep the bedroom door locked at night to keep Daddy from coming in and touching them," reads  a Monroe County Sheriff's report from March 1989. They'd kept quiet out of terror, police realized. "If I tell you, will you let my daddy go?" Gloria fearfully asked an officer.

Police didn't let Nuñez go, at least not for four years. He was convicted of two counts of lewd and lascivious acts on children. By the time he was released in 1993, his daughters had changed their names and disappeared. But they could not change the past. And as they became teenagers, Gloria and Bernisa would relive the horrors of their childhood in their own ways....
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2013-05-09/news/miami-cold-case-murder-nilsa-padilla/

Wales child abuse: Report finds evidence of 140 allegations - Operation Pallial, A Child Without Dreams, Teen dies after being 'beaten' at camp that 'makes men out of boys', Why Christie Blatchford Is Wrong About My Daughter Rehtaeh

Wales child abuse: Report finds evidence of 140 allegations   29 April 2013
An independent investigation examining claims of historical child abuse at children's homes in north Wales has found "significant evidence of systemic and serious sexual and physical abuse".

Investigators in Operation Pallial have found evidence of 140 allegations of historical abuse between 1963 and 1992. Seventy six new complainants have also come forward and 84 suspected offenders been identified.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-22339417


Wales child abuse: Operation Pallial inquiry finds evidence of 140 claims  29 April 2013

An independent investigation examining claims of historical child abuse at children's homes in north Wales has found "significant evidence of systemic and serious sexual and physical abuse".

Investigators in Operation Pallial have found evidence of 140 allegations of historical abuse between 1963 and 1992. Seventy six new complainants have also come forward.
The claims centre on 18 homes involving offences against boys and girls aged between seven and 19.  A total of 84 suspected offenders have been named - 75 male and nine female. Of these, 16 have been named by more than one complainant....
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-22306588


A Child Without Dreams
Marian Wright Edelman  President, Children's Defense Fund 04/26/2013

Every day four children in America are killed by abuse or neglect.  More than 750,000 children are abused or neglected each year.  Even when children survive or after physical scars heal, the emotional damage left by child abuse and neglect can last a lifetime just as the post traumatic stress left by gun violence leaves deep scars in countless children.

Joseph Miles has essentially been on his own since he was 13 years old -- the year his mother tried to kill him.  Until then, he would say, he cried for love.  After that he gave up on hoping ever to find it.  Today Joseph is in his forties and has been incarcerated since he was 28.  When he came to prison he couldn’t read or write. It was only recently that Joseph realized he missed out on something crucial besides love in early childhood:  he didn’t even know he should have had dreams until it was much too late.... 
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marian-wright-edelman/a-child-without-dreams_b_3165763.html 


Teen dies after being 'beaten' at camp that 'makes men out of boys'
A 15-year-old South African boy died after he was kept chained to his bed, beaten with planks and hoses at a training camp that boasted of "making men" out of its young recruits, a court has heard.   By Aislinn Laing, Johannesburg  24 Apr 2013

Raymond Buys, who had learning difficulties, was admitted to hospital and put on life support two months into a three-month training course run by Alex de Koker's Echo Wild Game Rangers in the bush an hour south of Johannesburg.

He was severely emaciated and dehydrated, had brain damage, a broken arm and bruises, and cigarette burns all over his body. His mother was told that the chances of him surviving were "virtually zero". He died two weeks later.

"I sent my son on this course to make him a better man, to give him a better future," Wilma Buys told The Daily Telegraph. "I trusted Alex de Koker with his life."

Mr de Koker, 49, and employee Michael Erasmus, 20, are currently on trial for charges of murder, child abuse and neglect, along with two cases of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm in relation to Mr Buys' death.

His death is alleged to have been the third among the mainly Afrikaans children who attended the R22,000 (£1,500) courses run by Mr de Koker, who was reportedly a member of murdered white supremacist Eugene Terreblanche's Iron Guards movement.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/southafrica/10015978/Teen-dies-after-being-beaten-at-camp-that-makes-men-out-of-boys.html


Why Christie Blatchford Is Wrong About My Daughter Rehtaeh - Father of Rehtaeh Parsons
Glen Canning 04/26/2013

This morning I woke up and read an article in the National Post about Rehtaeh's case. I'm not upset or mad. A little disappointed maybe. The writer, Christie Blatchford, makes a few statements I would like to address....

"What they had was a complainant whose evidence was all over the map..." Rehtaeh was intoxicated at the time and she has always stated she couldn't remember much of what happened. What she did say was all over the map and that is exactly what one should expect it to be from a 15-year-old girl who remembers very little but is being swamped at school and online with slut stories about what took place.

"...independent evidence that supported the notion that any sex was consensual, and no evidence that Rehtaeh was so drunk that she couldn't consent:" The two boys involved in taking and posing for the photograph stated Rehtaeh was throwing up when they had sex with her. That is not called consensual sex. That is called rape. They also stated they had to get her dressed when they were finished. She was passed out. That is the story they told to anyone at Rehtaeh's school who would listen. That is their account of what happened. There are numerous people who heard that and shared that. No evidence she was so drunk that she couldn't consent? How drunk does someone have to be? Drunk enough to get sick or drunk enough to not remember?....
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/glen-canning/rehtaeh-parsons-christie-blatchford_b_3164434.html

Saudi Arabia’s Child-Rape Case: Female Activists Fight to Prevent Abuse, Child Abuse in America

Saudi Arabia’s Child-Rape Case: Female Activists Fight to Prevent Abuse
Feb 8, 2013 Christopher Dickey

A monstrous case of abuse in Saudi Arabia shakes the kingdom and strengthens the cause of Saudi women activists.

The torture and murder of 5-year-old Lama Al Ghamdi could hardly have been more horrific—and news of it, repeated in countless Twitter feeds, has enflamed opinion around the world. But the fact that this story of one little girl’s death and one father’s monstrosity went public is also a sign of just how hard women in Saudi Arabia are working to fight the cruel misogyny embedded in the kingdom’s version of Islamic law. And among those women is a daughter of the king....

Fayhan Al Ghamdi, a self-styled Islamic preacher who appears occasionally on local TV shows pontificating about morality, was arrested last year and charged with murder. He told authorities that he had suspected his 5-year old daughter was not a virgin. He had even taken her to a doctor to check. But apparently that had not satisfied him....

Saudi law claims to follow a clear path (sharia) laid out in the Quran, but in practice it’s based on a maze of sayings and traditions (hadith) with as many baffling contradictions as the codes used by lawyers anywhere. According to one reading, a father cannot be held fully accountable for the death of his children; their loss is a punishment for him. So the question arose in the proceedings whether Al Ghamdi could simply pay the mother “blood money” for the loss of her daughter and walk free....

The mother has said she will not accept payment. She has asked that the stepmother be investigated as well, and she has told her advocates that she wants to see her ex-husband executed, which in Saudi Arabia means beheading.

Before the middle of the last decade, domestic violence and child abuse in Saudi Arabia were treated mainly as family affairs. Nobody wanted to talk about them, and if police did bother to investigate suspected crimes, which was rare, they found proof very hard to come by.

But it’s important to remember Saudi Arabia is not the only country where domestic abuse is a hidden crime. Indeed, the United States has the worst record in the industrialized world. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, almost five children a day die from neglect or abuse, but according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, those numbers almost certainly are understated....

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/02/08/saudi-arabia-s-child-rape-case-female-activists-fight-to-prevent-abuse.html

Child Abuse in America
Children are suffering from a hidden epidemic of child abuse and neglect. Every year 3.3 million reports of child abuse are made in the United States involving nearly 6 million children (a report can include multiple children). The United States has the worst record in the industrialized nation – losing five children every day due to abuse-related deaths....Approximately 80% of children that die from abuse are under the age of 4.

http://www.childhelp.org/pages/statistics