HUNTINGTON BEACH — Former Olympic gymnastics coach Don Peters, who has been accused of sexually abusing at least three teenage gymnasts, has resigned his membership with USA Gymnastics, his attorney confirms. Peters has also quit his positions as coach and director at SCATS, the gymnastics club he built in Huntington Beach.
READ MORE HERE:

http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-gymnastics-coach-resigns,0,1604404.story

There is no universal definition of child sexual abuse. However, a central characteristic of any abuse is the dominant position of an adult that allows him or her to force or coerce a child into sexual activity. Child sexual abuse may include fondling a child’s genitals, masturbation, oral-genital contact, digital penetration, and vaginal and anal intercourse. Child sexual abuse is not solely restricted to physical contact; such abuse could include noncontact abuse, such as exposure, voyeurism, and child pornography. Abuse by peers also occurs.

READ MORE HERE:

http://www.apa.org/pubs/info/brochures/sex-abuse.aspx

While on-line computer exploration opens a world of possibilities for children, expanding their horizons and exposing them to different cultures and ways of life, they can be exposed to dangers as they hit the road exploring the information highway. There are individuals who attempt to sexually exploit children through the use of on-line services and the Internet. Some of these individuals gradually seduce their targets through the use of attention, affection, kindness, and even gifts. These individuals are often willing to devote considerable amounts of time, money, and energy in this process. They listen to and empathize with the problems of children. They will be aware of the latest music, hobbies, and interests of children. These individuals attempt to gradually lower children’s inhibitions by slowly introducing sexual context and content into their conversations.

READ MORE HERE:

http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/parent-guide

Police found two young boys confined in a locked animal kennel in a Nebraska home littered with animal feces and urine when called to the house to check on their welfare, police said on Tuesday. Police officers in North Platte discovered the boys, ages 3 and 5, when they responded to a call on Monday night to check on the well-being of four children who lived in a mobile home, authorities said.

READ MORE HERE:

http://news.yahoo.com/two-young-boys-found-locked-kennel-nebraska-home-044626655.html

Protecting Your Children: Advice from Child Molesters
(This information was developed and written by child molesters in treatment at The Center for Behavioral Intervention in Beaverton Oregon.)

What is Child Sexual Abuse?
Child molestation usually begins with a sex offender gaining a child’s trust and friendship. The offender then begins “testing” the child’s ability to protect himself by telling sexual jokes, engaging in horseplay, back rubs, kissing or sexual games. If the child appears comfortable or curious about this type of behavior, (and most healthy, normal children are) the offender will slowly increase the amount and type of touching to include more direct sexual touching. Child sexual abuse can include exposing, fondling, masturbation, oral sex, intercourse and pornography.

READ MORE HERE:

http://dcf.vermont.gov/sites/dcf/files/pdf/protectkids/Protecting_Your_Children.pdf

Bad things happen to everyone, but there’s something about sexual assault that leaves a nasty mark on bodies and minds. But, you can overcome the victim’s mentality and take your life back. For the majority of my childhood, I endured gross afflictions in the areas of first molestation, then rape and finally domestic violence. From issues with abandonment to issues with love, I suffered much from a very young age.

READ MORE HERE:

http://www.authorsden.com/visit/viewArticle.asp?id=34935

ONEIDA, N.Y. - Two women have been charged after police say one of the women forced a child to eat feces from a soiled diaper. According to City of Oneida Police, Melissa A. Seifert, 35, of Munnsville and Julie L. Patane, 28, of Oneida were both charged with endangering the welfare of a child on Friday, October 21.

READ MORE HERE:

http://www.wktv.com/news/local/Women-charged-after-child-allegedly-forced-to-eat-feces-132474498.html

An Orange County man was charged Friday with attempting to murder his 2-month-old son after he was captured on a hidden camera swinging him by the neck with a noose-like blanket and repeatedly punching and shaking the baby, prosecutors say. Joshua Robey, 24, is charged with one felony count each of attempted murder, torture and child abuse.

READ MORE HERE:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/10/man-accused-of-attempting-to-kill-and-physically-abusing-toddler-son.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+lanowblog+%28L.A.+Now%29

This leading-edge book shows you HOW to keep your child safer today from predators prowling your neighborhood. Best of all, it is an amazing investment in your child s safe future because it also includes: How to create a continuous, Nucleus of Safety, that is predictable, secure, controllable circumstances that flow right around your family for maximum security! 10 of the Most Powerful, Heart-Pounding Secrets, Techniques, Tactics, and Strategies To Stopping Online Predators Cold! An INGENIOUS (yet completely unknown) Ultimate Safety Secret on How You Can Keep your child safer today! How to immediately use the Five Proven Safety Secrets For Playing Outside Safely. The most AMAZING Secret you can use to keeping your child safe – NOW!

PURCHASE BOOK HERE:

http://www.amazon.com/Protect-Your-Child-Sexual-Predators/dp/097969390X

Severn, MD—- A high school coach at Archbishop Spalding High School has been arrested for engaging in an inappropriate relationship with a student.  Brian Timothy Funk, 40, of Pasadena, is charged with showing porn and trading lewd photos with a female student via personal cell phones. The relationship started over the summer, and came to light when Funk took the girl on a date to see a movie.

READ MORE HERE:

http://deadkidsofmyspace.com/

Registered Sex-Offender Counts

This list contains the actual number of offenders that are publicly viewable in the official state. The Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Website (NSOPW), coordinated by the U.S. Department of Justice, is a cooperative effort between jurisdictions hosting public sex offender registries (“Jurisdictions”) and the federal government and is offered free of charge to the public. These Jurisdictions include the 50 states, U.S. Territories, the District of Columbia, and participating tribes. The Website provides an advanced search tool that allows a user to submit a single national query to obtain information about sex offenders; a listing of public registry Web sites by state, territory, and tribe; and information on sexual abuse education and prevention.

VIEW OFFENDER COUNT HERE:

http://www.familywatchdog.us/OffenderCountByState.asp

I looked at my father for the last time before he was finally laid to rest. And I said to myself, “I forgive you father”. I have forgiven him but I have not forgotten the turmoil, terror and abuse that I went through. My father was working away most of the time when I was growing up. But when he was home, he was violent. I remembered crying in the middle of the night listening to him beating up my mother. I could hear her sobs. And I wept because I could not do anything about it.

READ MORE HERE:

http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/Musa3.html

Federal Judge Landya B. McCafferty brought six formal charges of child sexual exploitation against John Allen Wright (45) in Concord, Maine yesterday.  He was also transferred from state to federal jurisdiction.  Wright is accused of sexually exploiting three boys over a 10-month period, and video taping the incidents.

READ MORE HERE:

http://www.examiner.com/sex-trafficking-in-national/rape-video-of-mute-6-year-old-what-is-proper-punishment-for-perpetrator

Violence Begins at Home; Effects of Domestic Violence on Children

• Witnessing violence between one’s parents or caretakers is the strongest risk factor of transmitting violent behavior from one generation to the next.
• Boys who witness domestic violence are twice as likely to abuse their own partners and children when they become adults.
• 30% to 60% of perpetrators of intimate partner violence also abuse children in the household.

READ MORE HERE:

http://jacksonville.com/opinion/blog/400691/inside-hubbard-house/2011-10-23/domestic-violence-did-you-know

Stafford County prosecutor Eric Olsen was miffed when he got a call in 2009 about Dion Darnell Waller, a man he’d prosecuted in Stafford for killing his infant daughter in 2001. The caller, a prosecutor in Indiana, told Olsen that Waller had been arrested in Allen County. The prosecutor wondered why someone who had killed a small child had served only six years in the Virginia prison system.

READ MORE HERE:

http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2011/102011/10232011/660242

For some time now our ethos at HAVOCA has been ‘Every Survivor has the right to become a Thriver.‘  These very words cause some pretty powerful reactions.  Visitors to the site appear to like the phrase, but are confused by it’s meaning.  The sentence represents a place where they want to be, but they are at a loss as how to get there.  Members of our site seem to suffer the same confusion.  Although they can associate with the words ‘victim’ and ‘survivor’ they tend to lose perspective of what it would be like to ‘thrive’. Some members even refuse to believe it is possible to thrive, almost as if surviving is all that is possible.  And why shouldn’t surviving be a good place to be?

READ MORE HERE:

http://www.havoca.org/HAVOCA_home.htm

A pregnant Shreveport woman whose 1-year-old daughter died Friday from injuries police say are consistent with abuse has been charged with killing the child.Alasundria Avery, 19, was booked into Shreveport City Jail the same day and charged with second-degree murder. Avery is eight months pregnant with another child, a friend says.

READ MORE HERE:

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/article/20111023/SPECIALPROJECTS12/110230367/Mother-charged-in-beating-death-of-1-year-old?odyssey=tab%7Cmostpopular%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE

One in eight confirmed physical child abuse cases last year in Oklahoma were babies born exposed to illicit drugs.

Out of 128 cases, at least seven infants died of birth complications and dozens of others were sent home from the hospital with their drug-using mothers, according to a Tulsa World analysis. Several cases in which newborns died after going home with drug-abusing parents have sparked a renewed look at how to handle child safety in those situations.

READ MORE HERE:

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20111023_11_A1_ULNSyd871409

BREAKING THE SILENCE

In response to the recently aired investigative news report on child abuse fatalities in the United States by the BBC, I want to call attention to the importance of child advocacy in the U.S. This issue deserves our attention now more than ever before. This multimedia, 22-minute story, entitled “America’s Death Shame,” began airing Monday, Oct. 17 on BBC World News affiliates, including PBS and NPR stations in most American cities. The focus of the broadcast is on the magnitude of child abuse — and particularly child-abuse-related deaths — in America.

READ MORE HERE:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/teresa-huizar/child-abuse-america_b_1025890.html

MORE STATISTICS HERE:

http://dreamcatchersforabusedchildren.com/abuse/statistics/

http://www.haltnow.ca/abuse/child-abuse/190-statistic-of-child-abuse.html

A true story about the shattered lives of a family of children who were abused and tortured, survival was all they knew…

For one child to be abused, it is a travesty. Yet, for a family of children to be abused, physically and mentally, on a daily basis for over 15 years, at the hands of various adults—caregivers, parents and guardians—is beyond words. Nevertheless, in this book, JoAnn found the words and strength to capture her childhood story of loss, suffering, hope and survival. Like the song, “Hot Peas and Butter,” she and her siblings would sing in the basement to brighten their darkest days, this resulting book is a moving tale of a child’s resilience in the face of unspeakable atrocities. As well, it is a tragic case study of violence in the home, serving as a heart-wrenching account of the vicious cycle of brutality and ignorance. Now an adult and mother herself, JoAnn’s struggle still continues today, as she comes to terms with her harrowing upbringing and the mixed feelings harbored towards her father, her deceased mother, and her step-mother. But, incredibly, in spite of everything, JoAnn has become a happy and spirited person—no longer the little girl, “trapped in the mirror.”

READ MORE ON THEIR FACEBOOK PAGE:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Hot-Peas-and-Butter-The-Children-in-the-Basement/219512131400536?sk=info

PURCHASE BOOK HERE:

https://www.createspace.com/3652846

MIAMI — Miami-Dade County has named a street after a 10-year-girl who died after chronic child abuse and launched a new poster to make people aware of an abuse hotline. Officials on Friday renamed a portion of a street “Nubia Way” after Nubia Barahona. Her decomposing body was found in her father’s truck along Interstate 95 in February. Her twin brother Victor was badly burned by a toxic chemical.

READ MORE HERE:

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/state/miami-dade-names-street-after-child-abuse-victim-1928062.html

ERIE, Colo. — An Erie woman and her boyfriend face charges of child abuse, false imprisonment and crimes against an At Risk juvenile after police say they locked a 14-year-old boy inside a small room in their mobile home, often with no food. Amanda Jolliff, 36, and Richard Smith, 31, were arrested late last month after a neighbor called police when he found the frightened boy hiding under his porch.

READ MORE HERE:

http://www.kwgn.com/news/kdvr-police-say-erie-boy-locked-in-room-fed-once-a-day-20111020,0,341238.story