Fears that persisting economic woes would increase child abuse in the U.S. have proved unfounded, according to the latest federal data. A comprehensive new report, to be formally unveiled Wednesday, shows overall abuse and neglect figures declining slightly between 2008 and 2010, and child fatalities dropping by 8.5 percent during that span. “The recession hasn’t had the draconian effect that some feared,” said Richard Gelles, dean of the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy and Practice and an expert on child welfare. “The doom and gloom predictions haven’t come true.”

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Herbert and Catherine Schaible, the Rhawnhurst couple who practiced faith-healing as their 2-year-old son died of bacterial pneumonia, will not be going to prison. They will, however, be taking their seven surviving children to a doctor from now on.  READ MORE HERE

A new truancy court in Palm Beach, Florida aims to cut down on the state’s absentee rate for young children by punishing parents who don’t take their kids to school. Florida law says parents of children under 16 who let their kids miss 15 days of school within three months can be sent to jail for up to two months as punishment.  The Florida Sun-Sentinel reports that Palm Beach prosecutors say the two-month jail sentence will be a last resort, after government and nonprofit workers try to fix whatever problem is keeping parents from getting their kids to school.  READ MORE HERE

IRVINE, Calif. — An Irvine couple who suspected their 15-year-old son of smoking turned to a man believed to be relied on in their church to violently discipline children, authorities said. The parents asked Paul Kim, 39, to discipline their son after finding a lighter in his possession, dropping the boy off at Kim’s Chino Hills home with permission for the beating, San Bernardino County sheriff’s spokesperson Cindy Bachmann said Saturday.

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Hush: Moving From Silence to Healing After Childhood Sexual Abuse

Childhood sexual abuse is running rampant, yet it’s the best-kept secret in our nation today. Its victims grow into adulthood with their little child’s heart trapped in the pain and torment of their past. Nicole Braddock Bromley shares her own story and the steps to moving from silence to healing. Hush exposes the harsh realities of childhood abuse, explains the pain it causes, examines the false beliefs it creates, and empowers survivors to begin a personal journey toward healing by breaking the silence.With words of understanding and comfort, Nicole tells the real-life stories of those whose voices would otherwise never be heard. She is straightforward enough to pierce the hearts of those in a survivor’s circle of influence, yet careful to tread lightly on what could be tender words.

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Pastor Tom Daniels

SACRAMENTO, CA – A California jury deliberated nearly four days before finding an American Baptist pastor guilty on 11 of 12 child molestation charges Dec. 8.  Tommy Gene Daniels, 49, faces sentencing Jan. 13 for crimes involving five girls ages 5-8 alleged to have occurred between 2003 and 2005. Daniels, arrested a year ago, remains listed as pastor of First Baptist Church in Rio Linda, Calif., a congregation affiliated with Growing Healthy Churches, formerly known as American Baptist Churches of the West.

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GUTHRIE, Oklahoma — Logan County authorities arrested seven people Monday for allegations of child sexual abuse and neglect after an investigation into incidents that occurred from 2008 to 2010 in the Meridian and Coyle area. Authorities learned about the alleged abuse from a tip into the Oklahoma Child Abuse Hotline.

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Opportunity and Authority Attract Abusers to Coaching

When details of sexual abuse allegations against two prominent college assistant coaches — Penn State’s Jerry Sandusky and Syracuse’s Bernie Fine — became public last month, the news hit sports like a thunderbolt.  But sports as an environment for sexual abuse is hardly new. Experts say it has all the significant ingredients that can lead to such abuse: coaches have close relationships with children and unsupervised access to them, while holding a position of trust and authority that can often keep children from reporting the problems to their parents or other authority figures.

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Dreamcatchers for Abused Children has been accepted as a contestant in the PEPSI REFRESH CONTEST!!!! We are in the running for $50K for our child abuse advocacy program and we need YOUR help to see it through!!! Please help ~ Together we CAN make a difference!!!!

What’s the Pepsi Refresh Project?

Pepsi is funding amazing ideas that refresh the world. Dreamcatchers has submitted our idea to: Provide community outreach programs for child abuse.

If we can get enough votes, PEPSI REFRESH will  help make it happen!

Please click below and VOTE for us!!! You can vote once per day. Contest ends 12/31/11.

THANK YOU!!!!

CLICK BELOW——

http://www.refresheverything.com/dreamcatchers

A 24-year-old Bensalem mother of six children was arrested today and charged with neglecting and abusing her 3-year-old daughter, severely burning her hand in one incident, police said. Andrea Amaya, of 3131 Knights Road, was jailed on $200,000 bail following her initial appearance, police said.  READ MORE HERE

ST. PETERSBURG –A 21-year-old man was arrested today on charges he beat his live-in girlfriend’s 2-year-old daughter, who suffers from brain damage and is blind. Steve Slasinski Jr. was charged with one count of aggravated child abuse. He was being held without bail at the Pinellas County Jail. According to an arrest affidavit, the child suffers from hydrocephalus, a condition where fluid collects around the brain, as well as from agenesis of the cerebellum, which is the partial or complete absence of the cerebellum, at the base of the skull.

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ORLANDO, FL — Two former basketball players have accused ex-Amateur Athletic Union president Robert “Bobby” Dodd of molesting them as children, according to an ESPN report. The AAU confirmed late Friday that it is investigating the claims, which reportedly date from the 1980s. One of the players, 43-year-old Ralph West, told ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” he was assaulted in Memphis in 1984. READ MORE HERE