Filed under: Child abuse
Children of the Secret is often referred to those children who were afraid to speak up and tell others what was done to them by a parent, relative, or someone they trusted. Usually children do not tell because of guilt, fear, shame, or a feeling that he/she won’t be believed. If one chooses to speak it may happen when they are much older and it is not surprising that they will find out that the abuser has done the same to another. Wow! They don’t feel so alone now and together they can do something. They can get stronger, heal, and report the crime. All it takes is someone to break the silence, let out the secret. Don’t be afraid to speak. If you don’t you may not have the chance to help another in the same or similar situation and will allow the abuser to possibly hurt someone else. You can do it!
Written by Nashilla Alibhai, Justice for Children
Marci Hamilton, a Professor at Cardozo Law School and columnist for findlaw.com, has written an excellent summary of the fight for expanded statute of limitations across the country. Hamilton provides a detailed legislative history and the particulars of various bills put forth by state legislatures. She also highlights the efforts made by interest groups to derail statute-expanding legislation and makes a strong case against them.
The Maturing of a Movement: Statute of Limitations Reform for Sex Abuse Victims [FindLaw]
An article published last week by the Bay Area News Group highlights a family court public forum held in Oakland. The piece also outlines the fight for family court reform in California.
Public officials call for major changes in family law [Inside Bay Area]
Filed under: Child abuse
Please contact Governor Perry and urge him to sign Senate Bill (SB) 1440 which is now (June 11, 2009) on his desk for signature. Follow this link to contact Governor Perry. http://governor.state.tx.us/contact/
This bill is a response to the federal 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in the Gates case in 2008. It allows DFPS (Department of Family and Protective Services) to seek court orders in aid of investigation without first filing suit. It authorizes courts to order persons to transport children for interviews, examinations, and investigation; to order release of certain records or examinations to be conducted.
Justice for Children strongly supports SB 1440.
It is being actively opposed by the home schooling groups who are paranoid about governmental intrusion in their affairs. The good home schooling groups do not realize that they are providing cover for home schooling parents who abuse their children.
SB 1440 was written to clarify the protocol for DFPS when they determine that parental rights should be terminated because of abuse. The 5th Circuit’s opinion on the matter in 2008 implied that DFPS would have to file suit to obtain records. This bill would allow judges to give permission to DFPS to obtain that information. However, DFPS must be able to show probable cause to obtain the order. As we have argued, that evidence is typically insufficient until DFPS has removed the child, interviewed the child, and had a doctor see the child.
Over investigation by DFPS of abused children is not a problem. The real problem is that abused children do not receive protection often enough. According to DFPS’s own statistics, they put children back into dangerous homes 75% of the time (based on an internal audit by the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services).
Many child abuse situations are emergencies and requiring DFPS to file suit places an unreasonable constraint on their ability to protect the children of Texas. SB 1440 removes a major obstacle and allows DFPS to conduct an adequate investigation.
Senator Kirk Watson of Austin introduced this bill to the senate.
Filed under: Child abuse
A bill that would extend the statute of limitations for sex offenses against children is currently waiting for a vote in the New York State Assembly.
The bill (A2596/S2568) would raise the maximum age that someone can file civil suits stemming from child abuse to 28. Currently, victims have until they turn 23 to report offenses. The bill would also give individuals whose statute period expired under the current law to have a one year window to file charges.
Though victims often need more than 10 years to work through a complicated web of emotions and social pressures to come forward, this bill represents a step in the right direction. Were it to pass, the state legislature would send a sharp a rebuke to powerful interests that have successfully blocked similar measures for years. As the New York Times detailed in a piece earlier this year, a wide array of religious and legal defense groups have vigorously opposed the bill.
The bill was introduced by Assemblywoman Margaret Markey. Markey has also introduced the legislation in the last three Assembly sessions but the bill stalled in the Senate each time. It also comes on the heels of similar measures that were passed this decade in Delaware and California.
Filed under: Child abuse
The California State Assembly’s Select Committee on Domestic Violence will hold a hearing today on the issue of children being placed in the custody of batterers. Below is the press release put out by Assemblywoman Fiona Ma (D- San Francisco):
Assemblywoman Fiona Ma 12th Assembly District For Immediate Release: May 27, 2009 Contact: Catalina Hayes-Bautista Phone: (916) 319-2012 Cell: (510) 499-9637Media Advisory
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE THE PLACEMENT OF CHILDREN WITH BATTERERS
Assemblywoman Ma Holds Select Committee on Domestic Violence hearing to look at whether the interest of the child is taken into account
WHEN: Thursday, May 28th at 1:30 pm
WHERE: California State Capitol, Sacramento – Room 126
WHO: Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, Chair
Members of the Select Committee on Domestic Violence
WHAT: Assemblywoman Fiona Ma (D-San Francisco), Chair of the Select Committee on Domestic Violence will convene an informational hearing into allegations that family courts are placing children with batterers. The Committee will hear from victims, experts, judges and advocates on a child’s best interest in the family court system. The hearing seeks to shed light on stories shared with Assemblywoman Fiona Ma by mothers who are victims of domestic violence and have been in the court system for years, fighting for their children’s best interest.
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Filed under: Child abuse
Sex offender registries get a lot of attention. The politicians congratulate themselves every time they concoct a new form of registry. The politicians have to know that this “solution” will not work but they continue to call for more registries to give us the impression that they are tough on sex abuse.
I deal with sexual abuse every day and I can tell you that sex offender registries will do little to address the problem of sexual assault of children.
Here are the problems associated with sexual abuse – and suggested solutions from my point of view.
Problem: Sex offender registries do not work unless they are backed up with measures which have teeth.
Solution: Demand stiff sentences for, and real monitoring of, sex offenders. In Harris County last year, according to a KHOU TV report, 40% of confessed sex offenders received deferred adjudication – this is what you get when you take a defensive driver’s course to beat a speeding ticket. No one should believe that putting the name of a sex offender on a list will discourage that offender from repeating his crime.
Problem: The majority of sex abuse crimes are committed by males who are known by the victims. They are husbands, fathers, boyfriends, uncles, step dads or other men close to the family, yet they continue to molest our children without intervention.
Solution: Children’s Protective Services (CPS) must put safety of the child ahead of reunification of the family.
CPS knows who the sex offenders are, but according to a report by the Inspector General of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (CPS’s own watchdog), “where there was an imminent threat to the health or safety of the child documented in the case file, only 24.72% of the time was the child removed from the home.”
More than 75% of the time, CPS puts our kids back into dangerous situations. CPS will say that the best alternative is to keep the child in the “home.” Why they would call a place where a child is forced to live with her molester a “home,” defies all notions of decency. CPS must put safety of the child above all other considerations.
Problem: There is not one shred of evidence that sex offenders can be rehabilitated yet CPS thinks that by some social miracle, parenting classes or anger management classes, will prevent a sexual abuser from doing it again.
Solution: Do not allow sex offenders access to their children. Don’t be misled by fathers’ rights groups who will claim that they are being falsely accused. ALL reputable data sources say that false accusations of sexual abuse occur in less than 2% or 3% of the reported cases.
Problem: Most cases of child abuse end up in family court, not criminal court, even though child abuse is a crime.
Solution: Demand that the police take the lead in child abuse cases and that prosecutors do their job. If I were to rape YOUR child, all the resources of our criminal justice system would be brought to bear on me. I would be arrested by the police and I would be prosecuted by the state in criminal court. If I rape MY child, a social worker will lead the investigation and the case will be tried in family court as a custody matter where I would be able to use all sorts of outrageous tactics to discredit the child and the protective parent – see PAS below.
Problem: Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS) is used by unethical and immoral lawyers in custody cases to force children to live with their abusers.
Solution: Demand that family court judges follow the guidelines established by the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges which say that PAS has been so discredited by the scientific community that it should not be allowed to be used in custody cases. PAS was invented by Richard Gardner, a psychologist who committed suicide several years ago. The fulcrum upon which PAS is levered is Gardner’s belief that child sexual abuse is very rare. According to Gardner, the only reason we hear so much about sexual abuse is that vindictive women so poison their children and brainwash them into making false allegations against the father that mom’s home is toxic and the only remedy is instant removal of the child from the mother. This obnoxious tactic works in custody battles because it plays on the real fact that everyone knows – people behave poorly when they divorce. This is true but there is absolutely no evidence that children can be brainwashed into making false claims of sexual abuse.
Jim Shields
Executive Director
Justice for Children
713-225-4357
The New York Times published a fascinating article last week on distinguishing signs of child abuse from the usual scrapes, bruises and other marks that a child accumulates during his or her development. The author, Perri Klass, who is a doctor, identifies certain injuries that are inconsistent with normal child activity.
Among the signs of maltreatment are marks from foreign objects such as cigarette burns and belt marks. Klass also highlights other injuries that are cause for alarm including suspicious wounds and marks in unusual places—such as bruising around the neck, burns from scalding water or broken hymens.
The piece also highlights the emerging specialty of child abuse in the medical field. Klass quotes Dr. Carole Jenny, a pediatrics professor at Brown, who recounts her colleagues’ inexperience with the matter of child abuse back in the 1980s. He also highlights the work of Dr. Lori Legano who specializes in child abuse at Bellevue Hospital and has helped pioneered the field by combining pediatric word with the growing body of forensic evidence about child abuse.
The Marks of Childhood or the Marks of Abuse? [New York Times]
Filed under: Child abuse
However in the face of the father’s obvious culpability—the testimony of H.P., several medical reports and psychological evaluations pointed to his guilt—the prosecutors employed a series of dubious tactics to wiggle themselves out of the case. Chief among these was the superfluous and careless use of a polygraph test, the aim of which was to achieve a favorable result for the father and thus end the case. What’s more, the prosecutors were quite open about their desire to drop the case, telling H.P.’s mother and grandmother that, “No one wants these cases.”
Filed under: Child abuse
Justice for Children took part in a series of events last week in advance of the 2009 National Crime Victims’ Rights Week (April 26th – May 2nd). The gatherings were hosted by the Congressional Victims’ Rights Caucus. Dozens of victims’ rights, domestic violence and child welfare advocates and experts gathered on Capitol Hill to devise legislative strategy and acknowledge the hard work of some of their colleagues.
On Wednesday, the Caucus hosted its annual award ceremony to honor individuals who have made substantive contributions to the cause of victims’ rights. This year, the Caucus recognized the work of six advocates who have advanced these issues from the grassroots, legal and legislative levels.
The Caucus held an advisory board group meeting on Thursday where attendees discussed legislative strategies, the re-authorization of the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) and the Violence Against Women Act along with a number of other matters. Those in attendance also had the opportunity to brief the audience on their organizations’ work and goals. JFC Regional Director Eileen King addressed the group on the challenges confronting victims of crime in our nation’s family courts. Representative Ted Poe, co-chair of the Caucus, spoke briefly about the need to secure federal funding for VOCA.
On Friday the group reconvened for a public policy forum. Among the presenters were Will Marling, the Executive Director of the National Organization for Victim Assistanceand Steve Derene, Executive Director of the National VOCA Assistance Administrators.
The bi-partisan Caucus was created in 2006 and is presently co-chaired by Rep. Ted Poe (TX-02) and Rep. Jim Costa (CA-20). The stated mission of the caucus is to advance the cause of victim’s rights through legislation, dialogue and educational initiatives.
JFC has recently participated in a series of education initiatives aimed at legislators. In March, JFC DC helped organize a congressional briefing on family court reform with the office of Majority Leader Steny Hoyer.
