Trauma specialists believe that “what is most tragic about child abuse and neglect is the exploitation of the child’s attachment to the parent.” To be sure, it is far easier to abuse one’s own children, precisely because their love and loyalty to the parent render them much more compliant than they would be to a stranger. It is exactly this attachment exploitation that teaches children they are not safe in a relationship to other human beings.

First Annual Candlelight Vigil in the State of Oklahoma, Sunday April 15 @ 7:00pm! Event will be held at the beautiful COLE’S GARDEN! Fox 25 will be covering our Candlelight vigil with our National Spokeswoman, Debbie Splawn~Bunch!!

FALL RIVER, Mass. – A 72-year-old sex offender was sentenced to life in prison Thursday, after he was convicted of raping a Fall River boy. The Bristol County District Attorney’s office said Palermo Alicea was also found guilty of child rape as a habitual offender.

Kendrick was 9 when a 41-year-old relative asked her a poignant question, “Can you keep a secret?” That secret included rape, unwanted touching and sodomy. The abuse went on for six years. Sometimes her family wasn’t at home. Other times her brother and sister were outside playing.Her demeanor changed.

WEST VIRGINIA–An Amber Alert has been issued for an abducted child out of Mercer County. The West Virginia State Police are looking for 8-year-old Porshia Atwell, a white female, 4 feet 2 inches tall and 75 pounds.

ATLANTA — A Cobb County principal and counselor have been fired for failing to report an incident of suspected child sexual abuse to authorities within a 24-hour time frame. The school board on Wednesday fired principal Jerry Dority and counselor Yatta Collins of Tapp Middle School in Powder Springs. School system records say a student told Collins in January she tried to hang herself in her closet. The girl had marks on her neck, but would not explain herself to Collins.

“Two years ago today we lost the most precious gift to come into our lives,” said Richard Calhoun. “He has never left our thoughts and our hearts.” His grandson, then 4-year-old Dominick Calhoun, died on April 12, 2010. Doctors would later describe Dominick’s injuries during a trial. His body was bruised from his head to his toes. He suffered cigarette burns and his teeth had been knocked out. His brain was swollen beyond the size of his skull. He didn’t have a chance at survival.

A one-year-old was allegedly beaten to death by his mother and her boyfriend after the boy’s father made frantic calls to child protection services months before begging them to protect his son. Jayden Noel died on January 18 after repeated blunt force trauma to the head, according to the county coroner, who ruled his death a homicide.

It’s an unthinkable crime. A mother harming her child. Police say Carmen Paul, 29, of Shreveport did just that. Now her ten month old is the hospital. Shreveport Police P.I.O. Bill Goodin says the child is in stable condition at the L.S.U. Health Center. The child suffered a fractured skull and bleeding on the brain, and the mother is in deep trouble.

PASADENA, CA — Police arrested a former substitute teacher at a Head Start program in Pasadena for allegedly molesting a 4-year-old girl. The girl’s parents, who asked to remain anonymous in order to protect their daughter, said they received a letter last month warning about a criminal investigation involving teacher Miguel Angel Garcia.

Paul LaDuke, the former Schaumburg Christian School teacher accused of fondling himself in class, pleaded guilty Tuesday to sexual exploitation of a child and will receive 30 months of probation, his attorney said. LaDuke, 75, was fired from his job in November shortly after a student reported seeing him fondle himself during an algebra class. Authorities said he had confessed to engaging in similar conduct over the past 10 years, though he had never before been the subject of a complaint.

WEST ADAMS, CA — USC officials are expected to announce a $125,000 reward Friday for information leading to the gunman who shot and killed two USC graduate students. Police suspect a lone gunman shot Ming Qu and Ying Wu, both 23, around 1 a.m. Wednesday morning, possibly during a robbery attempt.

One mother and her boyfriend get arrested for molesting her two daughters. Unnamed mother, 31, and her boyfriend, 29, were arrested in Florida after the woman’s two daughters were found in filthy rooms, a 7-year old girl with a broken ankle that had not been treated, using a cane to walk, and a 4-year old with a learning disability who had been molested by her mom’s boyfriend.

Baby Nehan Afreen, only three months old, died on Wednesday morning in Bangalore after her father Umar Farooq, 25, tortured her for not being a boy. Afreen was admitted to the hospital with cigarette burns and a dislocated neck. She had multiple convulsions, ultimately aggravating a cardiac arrest, which ended the child’s life.