(CNN) — A 30-year-old father who police say decapitated his 7-year-old disabled son is unfit for trial, a Lafourche Parish, Louisiana, judge ruled Tuesday. Jeremiah Lee Wright is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Jori Lirette. The second-grade boy was killed on August 14 in the town of Thibodaux.

PRINCE GEORGE, B.C. — The arrest of an accused serial killer in northern B.C. is a “big deal” for sex workers, says the head of a Prince George organization. Jan Wilson, who works with women in the sex trade as the co-ordinator of the Prince George New Hope Society, said they will feel safer now that charges have been laid in the murders of Jill Stacey Stuchenko and Cynthia Frances Maas. Both 35-year-old mothers had worked as prostitutes in Prince George.

Some types of physical actions are clearly abusive. It is never okay for an adult to sexually abuse a child, provide a child with illegal drugs or to burn or choke a child. However, the line between parental and child abuse is not always that clear. Many families strongly believe in spanking as a means of punishment, for example. Other families believe that spanking is a form of child abuse.

The lesbian parents of an 11-year-old US boy have taken the controversial step of giving their son hormone blockers to delay puberty after he expressed a desire to become a girl. California couple Pauline Moreno and Debra Lobel decided to start the hormone blocking therapy after son Tommy decided he wanted to be a girl, according to Fox News.

NEWTON –A solemn vigil on Newton’s courthouse steps marked the loss of innocent lives across North Carolina. Tuesday’s ceremony was held to honor the 20 children killed by a parent or caregiver this year. Of the 20 names read aloud, one was immediately recognizable – Zahra Baker.

KERSHAW, S.C. — A police officer was charged with criminal sexual conduct with a child after he accidentally called the mother of his victim during the assault, according to the Kershaw County Sheriff’s Office.Kershaw County Sheriff Jim Matthews said that at about 10 p.m. Tuesday, deputies responded to a call in Cassatt, S.C., about a sexual assault of an 11-year-old girl.

COSTA MESA — A dance instructor is accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old student, and police believe there may be more victims. Brandon Marriott, 21, was arrested Sunday, October 14. His arraignment is set for Tuesday. The District Attorney is asking that he be held on $100,000 bail.

DIAMOND BAR, CA — A 41-year-old middle school teacher in Diamond Bar has been arrested for allegedly having a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old student. Steven Andrews, who taught history at Lorbeer Middle School, is facing 17 felony charges, including lewd acts with a child, unlawful sex with a minor and oral copulation with a child under 16.

SANTA CLARITA, CA — A 25-year old man wanted in the sexual assault of an 11 year-old boy at the Westfield Valencia Town Center Mall in Santa Clarita has surrendered to authorities. Casey Crockett is suspected of molesting the boy Monday, around 4:00 p.m. inside a public restroom in the food court area of the mall.

Planning to swipe a can of dad’s favorite beans? You might want to read this story first. Police in St. Petersburg, Fla., were called to a home Friday morning, to investigate a reported stabbing. Officers arriving found 26-year-old Donald Gilley bleeding from the chest and abdomen with multiple stab wounds.

WARNING: Graphic Video!! Horrifying footage of a 2-year-old girl in China being run over by two separate vehicles and left to die by passersby has stirred outrage throughout the country, with CNN reporting that security footage of the incident has led the nation of 1.3 billion people to do some collective soul-searching.

PROMO: Everyone who donates exactly $29 to Dreamcatchers for Abused Children’s organization (or) fundraising project before January 15, 2012 will be automatically entered to win an iPad 2 being offered by Crowdrise. (A $600 value!!)

In a news conference on Monday two state lawmakers said they’re tired of seeing headlines about children who die while in state care. The Oklahoma Department of Human Services says 129 children have died while in state care over the past decade.

Why is the problem of violence against children so much more acute in the US than anywhere else in the industrialised world, asks Michael Petit, President of Every Child Matters. Over the past 10 years, more than 20,000 American children are believed to have been killed in their own homes by family members. That is nearly four times the number of US soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.