Sex Trafficking in the U.S. Sex trafficking occurs when people are forced or coerced into the commercial sex trade against their will.  Child sex trafficking includes any child involved in commercial sex.  Sex traffickers frequently target vulnerable people with histories of abuse and then use violence, threats, lies, false promises, debt bondage, or other forms of control and manipulation […]

A super-religious former football star kept his eldest son prisoner in the basement for two years because he had ‘sinned’ by stealing a DVD player, the MailOnline can reveal. Strict Recardo Wimbush Sr, 33, and wife Therian Cornelia Wimbush, 37, locked up 13-year-old Recardo Jr as punishment for his ‘wicked’ act to keep him on the ‘straight and narrow’. The child was kept in a tiny, sparsely furnished room with all the windows blacked out.

A Queensland girl who was repeatedly bashed with a metal pole by her mother asked the woman to pray for her hours before she died alone and in pain. The horrific abuse the eight-year-old was subjected to in the days leading up to her death in Cairns in 2011 was outlined by a Coroner on Friday. “I flogged her with the vacuum pole in her room and kept hitting her and hitting her,” the girl’s mother told police after the death. The girl was beaten with the pole on three occasions between November 22 and 28, 2011. During the days in between she lay in bed in pain.

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican’s former ambassador to the Dominican Republic has been convicted by a church tribunal of sex abuse and has been defrocked, the first such sentence handed down against a top papal representative. The Vatican said Friday that Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski was found guilty by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in recent days, and sentenced to the harshest penalty possible against a cleric under canon law: laicization, meaning he can no longer perform priestly duties or present himself as a priest.

A pedophile who targeted victims through mobile phone apps and computer game chat facilities has been jailed after being caught red-handed downloading child abuse images. Police said 21-year-old Aaron Honey was a “dark and devious” prolific offender adept at grooming vulnerable children online. He incited young boys and girls to send him indecent images of themselves after contacting them via instant chat mobile phone apps WhatsApp and Kik Messenger. Honey also preyed on other youngsters through chat facilities on popular computer games, including Call of Duty and Fifa Football.

WINNSBORO, La. — A woman is being charged with attempted murder after deputies say she flung her baby out of a moving car. The Franklin Parish Sheriff’s Office was dispatched to Franklin Medical Center in Winnsboro around 1:30 a.m. Sunday, June 22, to investigate the incident. They were called to the ER when staff noticed a 20-month-old child suffered injuries that were reported as severe in nature.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado –Colorado Springs police arrested a man suspected of Felony Child Abuse. On Tuesday, an 11-month-old baby was admitted at the Children’s Hospital in Denver. The child was suffering from a subdural hemorrhage and hemorrhaging on both eyes. At this time, there is no update on the baby’s condition. Doctors determined the injuries were non-accidental, police said. It was also determined the incident had occurred at a home in Colorado Springs. The hospital contacted CSPD and advised them of the case.

MADISON HEIGHTS, Michigan — A female teacher at a Catholic school in metro Detroit accused of having a sexual relationship with a male student has been charged. After the Madison Heights police investigation concluded, The Oakland County Prosecutors Office charged 29-year-old Kathryn Ronk, of Birmingham, with five counts of first degree criminal sexual conduct, a felony punishable by up to life in prison.

SANFORD, N.C. — Authorities in North Carolina say a registered sex offender ran a home child care as a front for a child porn production operation involving a Special Forces soldier and other adults. Harnett County investigators say Bailey Joe Mills ran the unlicensed child care from his home. Mills has three felony convictions involving sexual activity with children and was charged in January with raping a 13-year-old girl.

CLARKSVILLE, Tennessee — A Clarksville couple has been charged with felony child abuse and neglect, and animal cruelty after Clarksville Police went to their home for a welfare check late Monday night and found two children covered in bug bites living in deplorable conditions with eight extremely emaciated dogs. Daniel Kevin Thompson and Jessica Dawn Thompson, both 33, were each charged Tuesday with one counts of felony child abuse and neglect, one count of child abuse and neglect and one count of animal cruelty after their home at 714 Green Valley Court was found filled with urine and feces, according to an arrest warrant.

SEATTLE – The Archdiocese of Seattle has agreed to pay about $12.125 million to 30 men who alleged they were sexually abused as children and teens at two Seattle-area schools from the 1950s until 1984, their attorney said. The men alleged in lawsuits filed in King County Superior Court that the Catholic district failed to shield them from known abusers at Seattle’s O’Dea High School and at Briscoe Memorial School, in nearby Kent, plaintiffs’ attorney Michael Pfau said in an interview.

NEW MIAMI — A wooden backyard shed outfitted with toys, alcohol and drugs was where a 34-year-old New Miami man victimized boys all under the age of 13, according to Butler County Sheriff’s detectives. Detectives on Friday were processing evidence from a 10-foot by 18-foot shed towed from the backyard of Luke D. Buchanan, who is accused of raping four boys. Detectives say Buchanan, 34, was living in the shed and assaulted his young victims in the wood structure that sat beside his North Riverside Drive home.

A second man was arrested Friday as part of a Battle Creek investigation into manufacturing child pornography and having sex with minors. John Balyo, 35, of Caledonia was arrested in Gaylord as part of a joint investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Battle Creek Police Department and Michigan State Police. Balyo, an on-air personality at WCSG-FM, a Christian radio station associated with Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, was arrested on a state charge of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, according to Khaalid Walls, a spokesman for ICE.

Child abuse may actually impact a person long after they’ve left their childhood behind. Scientists have found that the volume of cerebral grey matter, which is responsible for processing information, actually is impacted by maltreatment. Child abuse is defined as all forms of physical or emotional maltreatment, sexual abuse, neglect or negligent treatment or commercial or other exploitation. Until now, though, the results of structural neuroimaging studies carried out on these children have been inconsistent. Now, scientists may have found out exactly how childhood maltreatment can impact the brain.