Let not thy will roar, when thy power can but whisper
The recent anonymous Facebook craze that asked users to change their profile picture to their favorite childhood cartoon in a stand against child violence brought tremendous awareness to an important topic.
In an alert entitled “Barbie ‘Video Girl’ a Possible Child Pornography Production Method,” the FBI said the doll has a built-in hidden camera in the chest and a small LCD screen for video display in her back.
Researches have found that statistics in South Carolina support research showing parallels between rising unemployment and child abuse. The results of the study support widely held views that indicate tough economic times impact children in areas outside of the normal economic impact that would be expected.
In the study, researchers analyzed data from almost 3,700 women who took part in the 2005 U.S. National Alcohol Survey. The investigators found that women who reported that they had been sexually abused as children were more likely to also report that they drank four or more alcoholic drinks daily, that they were alcohol dependent, and that they drank in a way that could pose serious threats to their health.
“The Pedophile’s Guide to Love and Pleasure: A Child-Lover’s Code of Conduct” was pulled from Amazon.com after thousands of users posted angry comments and threats to boycott the site. The self-published e-book was available on the site for download until late Wednesday for $4.79.
The first feature film by Jim Loach looks at the true story of the deportation of thousands of children from Britain to Australia and the abuse they suffered. The director said he sees it as a tale of survival and the indomitable human spirit. Loach, English director Ken Loach’s son, said that he was fascinated by the woman who uncovered the scandal and is at the center of the movie: a social worker who worked doggedly to reunite families and bring authorities to account. He became fascinated by the personalities of the former child migrants, some of whom he met, and questions of identity.
A new study has found that victims of child abuse, who blame themselves and their families for their situation, experience higher rates of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Emotional abuse, or psychological maltreatment, is a fairly common form of child abuse but one that is often difficult to identify or categorize. Although complex and difficult to define, experts agree that occasional negative actions or responses to a child are not considered emotional abuse (we all lose our heads at times and say things we regret later). Regardless, even occasional emotional abuse may be harmful to the child. As Douglas Besharov states in Recognizing Child Abuse, “emotional abuse is an assault on the child’s psyche, just as physical abuse is an assault on the child’s body.”
On October 10, 2010, eight year old Elisa Cardenaz (Cardenas) was playing outside her Fresno, California home with five of her friends when a man in a red pickup truck approached them. The man lured the girls over to his truck. Two female adults recognized something was wrong and hollered for the girls to run. The man quickly grabbed Elisa and drove away as witnesses chased the vehicle.
The Child Protective Services system in the United States “has outlived its usefulness,” and should be scrapped in favor of other approaches to protecting at-risk kids, according to a leading expert on injury prevention. Law enforcement personnel should investigate abuse allegations, public health nurses should help at-risk families before abuse or neglect occurs, and social workers should be involved in counseling and helping families, but not investigating crime…
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