News and new developments pertaining to child abuse and child abuse laws
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* The Essence of Evil: Sex with Children Has Become Big Business in America -- by John W. Whitehead (originally a publication of the Rutherford Institute) - note: my own thoughts follow the excerpts
excerpts from the article:
Children, young girls—some as young as 9 years old—are being bought and sold for sex in America. The average age for a young woman being sold for sex is now 13 years old.
This is America’s dirty little secret.
Sex trafficking—especially when it comes to the buying and selling of young girls—has become big business in America, the fastest growing business in organized crime and the second most-lucrative commodity traded illegally after drugs and guns.
As investigative journalist Amy Fine Collins notes,
It’s not.
It is estimated that there are 100,000 to 150,000 under-aged child sex workers in the U.S. These girls aren’t volunteering to be sex slaves. They’re being lured—forced—trafficked into it. In most cases, they have no choice ...
... as the head of a group that combats trafficking pointed out,
“Let’s think about what average means. That means there are children younger than 13. That means 8-, 9-, 10-year-olds.
... Rarely do these girls enter into prostitution voluntarily. Many start out as runaways or throwaways, only to be snatched up by pimps or larger sex rings. Others, persuaded to meet up with a stranger after interacting online through one of the many social networking sites, find themselves quickly initiated into their new lives as sex slaves.
According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, nearly 800,000 children go missing every year (roughly 2,185 children a day).
With a growing demand for sexual slavery and an endless supply of girls and women who can be targeted for abduction, this is not a problem that’s going away anytime soon.
For those trafficked, it’s a nightmare from beginning to end.
Those being sold for sex have an average life expectancy of seven years, and those years are a living nightmare of endless rape, forced drugging, humiliation, degradation, threats, disease, pregnancies, abortions, miscarriages, torture, pain, and always the constant fear of being killed or, worse, having those you love hurt or killed ...
... A common thread woven through most survivors’ experiences is being forced to go without sleep or food until they have met their sex quota of at least 40 men...
... So what can you do? ...
... Call on your city councils, elected officials and police departments to make the battle against sex trafficking a top priority, more so even than the so-called war on terror and drugs and the militarization of law enforcement.
Stop prosecuting adults for victimless “crimes” such as growing lettuce in their front yard and focus on putting away the pimps and buyers who victimize these young women ...
But the truth is that we are all guilty of contributing to this human suffering ... every individual who does not raise a hue and cry over the atrocities being committed against women and children in almost every nation around the globe—including the United States—is guilty.
“It’s become more lucrative and much safer to sell malleable teens than drugs or guns. A pound of heroin or an AK-47 can be retailed once, but a young girl can be sold 10 to 15 times a day—and a ‘righteous’ pimp confiscates 100 percent of her earnings.” ...
... According to USA Today, adults purchase children for sex at least 2.5 million times a year in the United States ...
... In Georgia alone, it is estimated that 7,200 men (half of them in their 30s) seek to purchase sex with adolescent girls each month, averaging roughly 300 a day ...
... Don’t fool yourselves into believing that this is merely a concern for lower income communities or immigrants.
It’s not.
It is estimated that there are 100,000 to 150,000 under-aged child sex workers in the U.S. These girls aren’t volunteering to be sex slaves. They’re being lured—forced—trafficked into it. In most cases, they have no choice ...
... as the head of a group that combats trafficking pointed out,
“Let’s think about what average means. That means there are children younger than 13. That means 8-, 9-, 10-year-olds.
For every 10 women rescued, there are 50 to 100 more women who are brought in by the traffickers. Unfortunately, they’re not 18- or 20-year-olds anymore,” noted a 25-year-old victim of trafficking. “They’re minors as young as 13 who are being trafficked. They’re little girls.” ...
... Rarely do these girls enter into prostitution voluntarily. Many start out as runaways or throwaways, only to be snatched up by pimps or larger sex rings. Others, persuaded to meet up with a stranger after interacting online through one of the many social networking sites, find themselves quickly initiated into their new lives as sex slaves.
According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, nearly 800,000 children go missing every year (roughly 2,185 children a day).
With a growing demand for sexual slavery and an endless supply of girls and women who can be targeted for abduction, this is not a problem that’s going away anytime soon.
For those trafficked, it’s a nightmare from beginning to end.
Those being sold for sex have an average life expectancy of seven years, and those years are a living nightmare of endless rape, forced drugging, humiliation, degradation, threats, disease, pregnancies, abortions, miscarriages, torture, pain, and always the constant fear of being killed or, worse, having those you love hurt or killed ...
... A common thread woven through most survivors’ experiences is being forced to go without sleep or food until they have met their sex quota of at least 40 men...
... So what can you do? ...
... Call on your city councils, elected officials and police departments to make the battle against sex trafficking a top priority, more so even than the so-called war on terror and drugs and the militarization of law enforcement.
Stop prosecuting adults for victimless “crimes” such as growing lettuce in their front yard and focus on putting away the pimps and buyers who victimize these young women ...
But the truth is that we are all guilty of contributing to this human suffering ... every individual who does not raise a hue and cry over the atrocities being committed against women and children in almost every nation around the globe—including the United States—is guilty.
My own thoughts about this:
When I stay in motels and hotels, one of the things I noticed are when the flyers about child sex trafficking began to show up in all of the rooms (several years ago). This hadn't been done before. These aren't small postcard sized flyers either, usually. They are generally the size of a standard sheet of paper: 8.5" x 11".
I have read enough articles that state that the sex trafficking of young girls (13 and younger) is at epic proportions and other reasons for it that were not stated in the article by John Whitehead were not given, so I am listing them below:
1. In order for a child to prosecute her abusers when she turns 18, she must reach the statute of limitations, which in many states is 7 years. So if the abuse stops at age 11 or age 12, then it allows the sexual predators off the hook, and she cannot prosecute. This accounts for why many sex traffickers are targeting little girls from age 7 to age 12 instead of teens and young women. However, some states have begun to realize this, and are taking the statute of limitations off (NY in 2019 changed laws so that children who were sexually abused at any time during childhood can now sue their abusers: see next article below). However, most states still have inadequate laws to deal with the rise of the sexual abuse and trafficking of minors.
2. Mothers who have Narcissistic Personality Disorder and Antisocial Personality Disorder are at an all-time high. The rate of increase is anywhere between 400 - 500 percent from 20 years ago. Why does this matter and what does it have to do with the sexual abuse of their children?
These mothers have a high propensity to practice "cycles of abuse" on their children, and most particularly the cycle of "idealize, devalue, discard". They usually also have a scapegoat child (a child who is rejected and who the mother teaches other members of the family to revile and reject too). So scapegoat children are primed to think of abuse as all their fault, and most are also blackmailed to apologize for wrongs they did not commit to keep from being abused further, which makes them vulnerable to many other predators, and in childhood that overwhelmingly means sexual predators.
In forums for survivors of narcissistic and antisocial personality disordered parents, as well as forums for child abuse victims, sometimes questions are posed as to "what was the worst thing your parent did to you?" About a quarter to a third of the respondents were sexually abused in childhood, in addition to being abused by their parent (which in, and of itself, says volumes), but the standout message from the survivors who were sexually abused said things like "not doing anything about the sexual abuse", "telling me to apologize to my sexual abuser", "deciding I was a tramp at 9 years old instead of calling the police", and so on.
Narcissistic and Antisocial Personality Disordered parents do not particularly care about the fate of their children (they care more about their reputations), and scapegoat children are, by and large, "throw-away children". This makes these children much easier for predators to kidnap, terrorize, rape, hold hostage, beat and sell because the parents do not love their children enough to protect them or to acknowledge anything that would blemish their perfect image of themselves. For antisocial personality disordered parents, the abduction of a child might be something they would not mind, even if they may not say so in public or to law enforcement officials.
3. Latch-key kids and children with a single parent with a full time job: Children who are home alone are more vulnerable to sexual predators for the sole reason that they are alone. Often the only protection is "written instructions" from a parent. Many children naturally push the boundaries when they are given written instructions, or they do not understand the instructions fully, from venturing outside to the sidewalk in front of their house, to answering the door if someone knocks, to exploring "chats" on the internet. Most children who are abducted for sex are abducted when they are without their parent or when their parent is intentionally or unintentionally distracted.
4. Societal concerns and awareness: Other than hotels and an advertisement here and there about missing and exploited children, very little is being said or done about it as the problem grows to epic proportions. The fact that the society is so lax about this issue (and I write from the American perspective) is why so many states still do not discuss this issue. 800,000 missing children each year, around 600,000 of which are from NON-family, should make any nation stand up and notice. Flyers and a few ads here and there do not begin to solve the problem. Laws that take this problem seriously, including serious consequences for breaking the law should always be more of the dialogue than the continual repeating of statistics, flyers, and the life stories of those who were subjected. The laws should also involve parents who fail to report sexual abuse of their minor children to law enforcement officials, especially as sexual abuse can be perpetrated by a family member or step-parent. Any harm to a child should not have a statute of limitation as children are hostages to the type of upbringing they have, whether that be neglect, scapegoating, distracted parents, being a latch-key kid, or having the best family in the world but being unlucky enough to have been abducted at an early age. We also cannot count on all parents to have normal parenting skills and to report crimes of sexual abuse, so the laws need to protect those kinds of children too.
* Child Victims Act Signed Into Law in New York State -- by various resources:
-- 'This is society's way of saying we are sorry,' New York Governor tells survivors of sex abuse before signing Child Victims Act into law -- for CNN by Elizabeth Joseph
-- Child Victims Act: Here's how it could let survivors seek justice in New York -- Democrat and Chronicle
-- NY Child Victims Act: What new law means for sex abusers, victims -- by Julie McMahon
-- Governor Cuomo Announces Child Victims Act to be Included in 2019 Executive Budget -- New York government website
* Dominator vs. Persuader Cultures -- by Five Hundred Pound Peep (screen name)
When I stay in motels and hotels, one of the things I noticed are when the flyers about child sex trafficking began to show up in all of the rooms (several years ago). This hadn't been done before. These aren't small postcard sized flyers either, usually. They are generally the size of a standard sheet of paper: 8.5" x 11".
I have read enough articles that state that the sex trafficking of young girls (13 and younger) is at epic proportions and other reasons for it that were not stated in the article by John Whitehead were not given, so I am listing them below:
1. In order for a child to prosecute her abusers when she turns 18, she must reach the statute of limitations, which in many states is 7 years. So if the abuse stops at age 11 or age 12, then it allows the sexual predators off the hook, and she cannot prosecute. This accounts for why many sex traffickers are targeting little girls from age 7 to age 12 instead of teens and young women. However, some states have begun to realize this, and are taking the statute of limitations off (NY in 2019 changed laws so that children who were sexually abused at any time during childhood can now sue their abusers: see next article below). However, most states still have inadequate laws to deal with the rise of the sexual abuse and trafficking of minors.
2. Mothers who have Narcissistic Personality Disorder and Antisocial Personality Disorder are at an all-time high. The rate of increase is anywhere between 400 - 500 percent from 20 years ago. Why does this matter and what does it have to do with the sexual abuse of their children?
These mothers have a high propensity to practice "cycles of abuse" on their children, and most particularly the cycle of "idealize, devalue, discard". They usually also have a scapegoat child (a child who is rejected and who the mother teaches other members of the family to revile and reject too). So scapegoat children are primed to think of abuse as all their fault, and most are also blackmailed to apologize for wrongs they did not commit to keep from being abused further, which makes them vulnerable to many other predators, and in childhood that overwhelmingly means sexual predators.
In forums for survivors of narcissistic and antisocial personality disordered parents, as well as forums for child abuse victims, sometimes questions are posed as to "what was the worst thing your parent did to you?" About a quarter to a third of the respondents were sexually abused in childhood, in addition to being abused by their parent (which in, and of itself, says volumes), but the standout message from the survivors who were sexually abused said things like "not doing anything about the sexual abuse", "telling me to apologize to my sexual abuser", "deciding I was a tramp at 9 years old instead of calling the police", and so on.
Narcissistic and Antisocial Personality Disordered parents do not particularly care about the fate of their children (they care more about their reputations), and scapegoat children are, by and large, "throw-away children". This makes these children much easier for predators to kidnap, terrorize, rape, hold hostage, beat and sell because the parents do not love their children enough to protect them or to acknowledge anything that would blemish their perfect image of themselves. For antisocial personality disordered parents, the abduction of a child might be something they would not mind, even if they may not say so in public or to law enforcement officials.
3. Latch-key kids and children with a single parent with a full time job: Children who are home alone are more vulnerable to sexual predators for the sole reason that they are alone. Often the only protection is "written instructions" from a parent. Many children naturally push the boundaries when they are given written instructions, or they do not understand the instructions fully, from venturing outside to the sidewalk in front of their house, to answering the door if someone knocks, to exploring "chats" on the internet. Most children who are abducted for sex are abducted when they are without their parent or when their parent is intentionally or unintentionally distracted.
4. Societal concerns and awareness: Other than hotels and an advertisement here and there about missing and exploited children, very little is being said or done about it as the problem grows to epic proportions. The fact that the society is so lax about this issue (and I write from the American perspective) is why so many states still do not discuss this issue. 800,000 missing children each year, around 600,000 of which are from NON-family, should make any nation stand up and notice. Flyers and a few ads here and there do not begin to solve the problem. Laws that take this problem seriously, including serious consequences for breaking the law should always be more of the dialogue than the continual repeating of statistics, flyers, and the life stories of those who were subjected. The laws should also involve parents who fail to report sexual abuse of their minor children to law enforcement officials, especially as sexual abuse can be perpetrated by a family member or step-parent. Any harm to a child should not have a statute of limitation as children are hostages to the type of upbringing they have, whether that be neglect, scapegoating, distracted parents, being a latch-key kid, or having the best family in the world but being unlucky enough to have been abducted at an early age. We also cannot count on all parents to have normal parenting skills and to report crimes of sexual abuse, so the laws need to protect those kinds of children too.
* Child Victims Act Signed Into Law in New York State -- by various resources:
-- 'This is society's way of saying we are sorry,' New York Governor tells survivors of sex abuse before signing Child Victims Act into law -- for CNN by Elizabeth Joseph
excerpt:
The new law allows survivors of child sex abuse until their 55th birthday to file a civil suit, an increase from the previous age limit of 23. Felony charges can be sought until they're 28 years old, up from 23. Misdemeanors can be filed until their 25th birthday, extending the previous statute of limitation by five years.
The law also provides victims a one-time "lookback" window, referred to as "a window of justice" by Marci Ann Hamilton, CEO of CHILD USA, a think tank to prevent child abuse and neglect. The window allows victims to file suit in instances in which the statute of limitations has lapsed.
The law also provides victims a one-time "lookback" window, referred to as "a window of justice" by Marci Ann Hamilton, CEO of CHILD USA, a think tank to prevent child abuse and neglect. The window allows victims to file suit in instances in which the statute of limitations has lapsed.
-- Child Victims Act: Four things to know about important new law in New York -- Democrat and Chronicle
-- Child Victims Act: Here's how it could let survivors seek justice in New York -- Democrat and Chronicle
-- NY Child Victims Act: What new law means for sex abusers, victims -- by Julie McMahon
-- Governor Cuomo Announces Child Victims Act to be Included in 2019 Executive Budget -- New York government website
* Dominator vs. Persuader Cultures -- by Five Hundred Pound Peep (screen name)
Recommended post.
from the blog post:
The most dominant societies are ones who have the strongest police states while those who lean more towards persuader culture believe in cooperation.
Today the dominator style is global and the persuader style exists only in a few primitive tribes in remote areas. Few people even know persuader societies exist.
... At the core of the dominator mentality is the view that humans are basically wicked and must be restrained and controlled. At the bottom it is fear-based. Such societies are highly controlling and punitive. This creates all sorts of pathologies. You're either victim or victimizer, the option of being neither is closed off, and you get marginalized if you don't want to participate in the dominance game. Such societies are lacking in empathy. Conquer or be conquered. If you're not on top, you're on the bottom ...
... At the core of the dominator mentality is the view that humans are basically wicked and must be restrained and controlled. At the bottom it is fear-based. Such societies are highly controlling and punitive. This creates all sorts of pathologies. You're either victim or victimizer, the option of being neither is closed off, and you get marginalized if you don't want to participate in the dominance game. Such societies are lacking in empathy. Conquer or be conquered. If you're not on top, you're on the bottom ...
... Persuader societies didn't have commanders. Even in war the warriors were free to abandon the battle and leave and the war chief couldn't do anything about it ... The chief was the person everyone in the village agreed was the wisest man they knew ... There's no special wealth or power in being a chief. Chiefs had no servants and their tents didn't look any better or bigger or nicer than anyone else's. They didn't seek power or wealth as there was no power or wealth to seek. They tended to be very egalitarian societies by our standards. Domestic abuse was unknown in those cultures. They didn't treat their children like property the way we do ...
* Witnessing Parental Psychological Abuse May Do More Harm Than Physical Abuse -- by Traci Pedersen
Dr. Catherine Naughton of UL’s department of psychology interviewed 464 young people (aged 17-25) who were attending the university. The participants were asked about two types of intra-parental domestic abuse: physical abuse (hitting, punching, kicking, and use of a weapon) and psychological abuse (arguing, name-calling, or behavior that is intimidating, isolating, manipulating, or controlling).
Naughton found that while 20 percent had grown up in homes where physical violence was perpetrated by one parent on the other, 60 percent had experienced intra-parental psychological abuse.
... “What this research highlights is that growing up in a home with domestic abuse, in particular the psychological dimension of it, has long-term consequences for the well-being of young people,” Naughton said.
“Importantly, our findings show that it was young people’s exposure to the psychological dimension of domestic abuse, which had a detrimental impact on their psychological well-being. Exposure to the physical dimension did not have any additional negative effect on well-being,” she said.
“We know that social support is important for recovery from traumatic childhood events. However, our findings evidence that exposure to high levels of psychological domestic abuse was associated with a decrease in young people’s satisfaction with their social support.” ...
* Narcissists aren't capable of something called 'object constancy' — and it helps explain why they are so cruel to the people they date -- by Lindsay Dodgson
from the article:
When we quarrel with our loved ones, most of us have the ability not to do too much damage. This is because of something called object constancy. It basically means having the ability to still have a positive emotional bond with someone when you are also feeling angry, hurt, or disappointed with them. It also means being able to feel emotionally connected to that person when they are not physically around you ...
To most of us, this is a given, and we can move past the little things. However, to those with narcissistic personality disorder, or people who are psychopathic or sociopathic with narcissistic traits, the negative feelings they have towards someone in the moment are all they can focus on ...
... Mahler wrote that if a child's caretaker is abusive, this can result in a defense mechanism in their psychology called "splitting," which could help explain why some people grow up with a lack of object constancy — and then become narcissists with the inability to have empathy for others ...
... According to psychiatrist Perry Branson in a blog post on Psychology Today, this can result in dissociation from the situation. This can happen in adulthood when the narcissist is under stress, such as being in an argument with their significant other. They dissociate from the positive feelings while they are experiencing negative ones and vice versa, seeing the other person as all good or all bad ...
... Therapist Perpetua Neo told Business Insider that the behaviour of narcissists in abusive relationships is so insidious that the victims stop respecting themselves ... and the best thing survivors can do is run far away from them as fast as they can.
* The Root of All Cruelty? Perpetrators of violence, we’re told, dehumanize their victims. The truth is worse -- by Paul Bloom for The New Yorker Magazine
from the article:
One focus of Smith’s book is the attitudes of slave owners; the seventeenth-century missionary Morgan Godwyn observed that they believed the Negroes, “though in their Figure they carry some resemblances of Manhood, yet are indeed no Men” but, rather, “Creatures destitute of Souls, to be ranked among Brute Beasts, and treated accordingly.” Then there’s the Holocaust. Like many Jews my age, I was raised with stories of gas chambers, gruesome medical experiments, and mass graves—an evil that was explained as arising from the Nazis’ failure to see their victims as human ...
... Throughout history, people have believed that it was acceptable to own humans ...
... The thesis that viewing others as objects or animals enables our very worst conduct would seem to explain a great deal. Yet there’s reason to think that it’s almost the opposite of the truth ...
* Witnessing Parental Psychological Abuse May Do More Harm Than Physical Abuse -- by Traci Pedersen
from the article:
Dr. Catherine Naughton of UL’s department of psychology interviewed 464 young people (aged 17-25) who were attending the university. The participants were asked about two types of intra-parental domestic abuse: physical abuse (hitting, punching, kicking, and use of a weapon) and psychological abuse (arguing, name-calling, or behavior that is intimidating, isolating, manipulating, or controlling).
Naughton found that while 20 percent had grown up in homes where physical violence was perpetrated by one parent on the other, 60 percent had experienced intra-parental psychological abuse.
... “What this research highlights is that growing up in a home with domestic abuse, in particular the psychological dimension of it, has long-term consequences for the well-being of young people,” Naughton said.
“Importantly, our findings show that it was young people’s exposure to the psychological dimension of domestic abuse, which had a detrimental impact on their psychological well-being. Exposure to the physical dimension did not have any additional negative effect on well-being,” she said.
“We know that social support is important for recovery from traumatic childhood events. However, our findings evidence that exposure to high levels of psychological domestic abuse was associated with a decrease in young people’s satisfaction with their social support.” ...
* Narcissists aren't capable of something called 'object constancy' — and it helps explain why they are so cruel to the people they date -- by Lindsay Dodgson
from the article:
When we quarrel with our loved ones, most of us have the ability not to do too much damage. This is because of something called object constancy. It basically means having the ability to still have a positive emotional bond with someone when you are also feeling angry, hurt, or disappointed with them. It also means being able to feel emotionally connected to that person when they are not physically around you ...
To most of us, this is a given, and we can move past the little things. However, to those with narcissistic personality disorder, or people who are psychopathic or sociopathic with narcissistic traits, the negative feelings they have towards someone in the moment are all they can focus on ...
... Mahler wrote that if a child's caretaker is abusive, this can result in a defense mechanism in their psychology called "splitting," which could help explain why some people grow up with a lack of object constancy — and then become narcissists with the inability to have empathy for others ...
... According to psychiatrist Perry Branson in a blog post on Psychology Today, this can result in dissociation from the situation. This can happen in adulthood when the narcissist is under stress, such as being in an argument with their significant other. They dissociate from the positive feelings while they are experiencing negative ones and vice versa, seeing the other person as all good or all bad ...
... Therapist Perpetua Neo told Business Insider that the behaviour of narcissists in abusive relationships is so insidious that the victims stop respecting themselves ... and the best thing survivors can do is run far away from them as fast as they can.
* The Root of All Cruelty? Perpetrators of violence, we’re told, dehumanize their victims. The truth is worse -- by Paul Bloom for The New Yorker Magazine
from the article:
One focus of Smith’s book is the attitudes of slave owners; the seventeenth-century missionary Morgan Godwyn observed that they believed the Negroes, “though in their Figure they carry some resemblances of Manhood, yet are indeed no Men” but, rather, “Creatures destitute of Souls, to be ranked among Brute Beasts, and treated accordingly.” Then there’s the Holocaust. Like many Jews my age, I was raised with stories of gas chambers, gruesome medical experiments, and mass graves—an evil that was explained as arising from the Nazis’ failure to see their victims as human ...
... Throughout history, people have believed that it was acceptable to own humans ...
... The thesis that viewing others as objects or animals enables our very worst conduct would seem to explain a great deal. Yet there’s reason to think that it’s almost the opposite of the truth ...
(my note: child abusers often call their children animal names and try to humiliate them in an attempt to make them feel "less than" others)
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