“‘We must do more’ — Defense Secretary orders review of sexual assault prevention efforts” – Task & Purpose
by Hayley Britzky
“Newly-confirmed Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has given his senior military leaders until Feb. 5 to provide him with a summary of what is and isn’t working in their efforts to combat sexual assault and harassment in the ranks.
“’I know this has been a focus for you and for the Department’s leadership,’ Austin wrote in a memo released on Saturday, the day after he was confirmed by the Senate. ‘I know you have worked this problem for many years. I tried to tackle it myself when I, too, commanded.’
“”We simply must admit the hard truth: we must do more. All of us.’
“Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered senior leaders to tell him what is and isn’t working in their efforts against sexual assault.”
“Austin said in the memo that while President Joe Biden has ordered a 90-day commission to ‘pursue solutions to sexual assault in the military,’ he wanted to move faster.
“He ordered leaders to provide a summary of the accountability measures taken in the last year that ‘show promise,’ along with ‘frank, data-driven assessment of those which do not’ He also asked they focus on what kind of oversight their programs and policies have to ensure they are being ‘executed on the ground and with fidelity.'”
Continue reading this article at Task & Purpose, click here.
“Not All Trauma Is the Same” – Psychology Today
Many factors explain how trauma affects survivors differently.
by Mellissa Withers and Kathryn Maloney
“Human trafficking survivors often have to deal with the aftermath of complex trauma for the rest of their lives. What exactly is trauma? The first thing that comes to mind might be an unusual event characterized by extreme violence or emotion, such as a terrorist attack, a natural disaster, or the unexpected death of a family member. However, trauma also applies to a much broader range of events that people can experience in their lifetimes. Trauma manifests itself in many forms. Often, trauma is not limited to a single, acute event, but rather a culmination of factors and experiences. A trauma-informed approach is one that takes into consideration the range of reactions of people who have experienced child maltreatment and abuse, intimate partner violence, and even human trafficking.
Forms of trauma can include:
- Complex trauma versus single incidents: Complex trauma is usually prolonged trauma that occurs between people, often beginning in childhood or adolescence. Since the events often happen in secrecy, the victim may suffer in fear and silence.
Click here to continue reading this article at Psychology Today.
“Civilian suspect taken into custody during search for missing Fort Hood soldier.” – Task and Purpose
The case of PFC Venessa Guillen is a breaking story, but this Task & Purpose article features a video with US Senator Kristen Gillibrand blasting the military leadership for failing to protect female military personnel from sexual assault.
Here’s what is at the Fort Hood, Texas Website with the latest information about PFC Guillen.
“Sexual assault in the military … “
“is a problem widely recognized but poorly understood. Elected officials and Pentagon leaders have tended to focus on the thousands of women who have been preyed upon while in uniform. But over the years, more of the victims have been men.
“On average, about 10,000 men are sexually assaulted in the American military each year, according to Pentagon statistics. Overwhelmingly, the victims are young and low-ranking. Many struggle afterward, are kicked out of the military and have trouble finding their footing in civilian life.
“For decades, the fallout from the vast majority of male sexual assaults in uniform was silence: Silence of victims too humiliated to report the crime, silence of authorities unequipped to pursue it, silence of commands that believed no problem existed, and silence of families too ashamed to protest.”
“California Looks To Lead Nation In Unraveling Childhood Trauma” – California Healthline
“What they found was striking. Almost two-thirds of participants reported experiencing at least one kind of adversity, and 13 percent — about 1 in 8 — said they had experienced four or more. Those who reported experiencing high doses of trauma as children were far more likely to have serious health problems as adults, including heart disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes. And the higher their ACEs score, the worse their health was likely to be.”
By Anna Maria Barry-Jester
“Imagine identifying a toxin so potent it could rewire a child’s brain and erode his immune system. A substance that, in high doses, tripled the risk of heart disease and lung cancer and reduced life expectancy by 20 years.And then realizing that tens of millions of American children had been exposed.
“Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, California’s newly appointed surgeon general, will tell you this is not a hypothetical scenario. She is a leading voice in a movement trying to transform our understanding of how the traumatic experiences that affect so many American children can trigger serious physical and mental illness.
“The movement draws on decades of research that has found that children who endure sustained stresses in their day-to-day lives — think sexual abuse, emotional neglect, a mother’s mental illness, a father’s alcoholism — undergo biochemical changes to their brains and bodies that can dramatically increase their risk of developing serious health problems, including heart disease, lung cancer, asthma and depression.”
Keep reading this article at California Healthline.
“Childhood poverty is linked to poorer cognitive skills in old age.” – Pacific Standard
“Cognitively speaking, there may be no way to recover from a disadvantaged childhood.”
by Tom Jacobs
“The aging of the Baby Boomers has inspired a lot of research into how we can stave off old-age cognitive decline. But a large new study suggests the most effective interventions may take place at the beginning of one’s life.
“It finds people who grew up in socially disadvantaged households—defined as crowded living quarters that are lacking in books—tend to score lower than others on tests of cognitive skills.
“This gap apparently does not increase over time, but it remains significant after taking into account such factors as education, employment, and physical health.”
“An explosive investigation into orphanage abuse in the US” – BuzzFeed News
Nuns killed children, say former residents of St. Joseph’s Catholic Orphanage
This BuzzFeed article is shocking and not easy to read.
Take a deep breath, because this is an explosive and difficult story. Millions of American children were placed in orphanages. Some didn’t make it out alive.
After hearing whispers that seemed almost too awful to believe, BuzzFeed News investigative reporter Christine Kenneally embarked on a four-year-long journey to find out what really went on in these institutions. BuzzFeed News publishes her special investigation, with a powerful video, revealing the systematic abuse and even the alleged murder of children by nuns.
Her searing report — part true crime drama, part ghost story — cracks open a secret history of American life, and adds a vast new dimension to the Catholic church’s mistreatment of children.
From a world shrouded in secrecy, she tells the story of Sally Dale, Joseph Barquin, Dale Greene, and other former residents of St. Joseph’s Orphanage in Burlington, Vermont, who somehow found the courage to come forward and tell the world what they had witnessed, begging to be heard and believed. The local Catholic diocese put up the fight of a lifetime.
The legal battle upended every assumption that the people of Burlington had. Could memory be trusted? Could forgetting be forgotten? Could a thriving community turn a blind eye to evil? And could nuns, the very women charged with protecting the most vulnerable members of society, have tortured and even killed them?
The Catholic Church abuse scandals — including this month’s Pennsylvania grand jury report on how the church hid the crimes of hundreds of priests — shattered the silence that for so long had protected the church’s secrets. But the truth about what went on inside its American orphanages somehow remained unspoken.
Across thousands of miles, across decades, the abuse in orphanages took eerily similar forms. People who grew up in orphanages said they were made to kneel or stand for hours, sometimes with their arms straight out. Children were forced to eat their own vomit. Children were dangled upside-down out windows, over wells, or in laundry chutes. They were locked in cabinets, in closets, in attics, sometimes for days.
While other countries have opened national inquiries, in the US, there has been no national reckoning. The few times that people who went through the orphanages have sought justice, the courts have tended to be largely indifferent.
So the dark secrets, like the children who haunt survivors’ dreams, lay buried.
Read the article at BuzzFeed News.
“Child pornography may make a comeback after court ruling guts regulations protecting minors” – The Conversation
“The porn industry has long placed an emphasis on young girls. Reuters/Russell Boyce”
“A federal appeals court judge just made it a lot easier for the pornography industry to abuse and exploit children for profit.
“The Aug. 3 legal decision, which has received far less media attention that it deserves, represents the most significant blow to opponents of child porn in decades. We believe it could lead to a sharp increase in the number of underage performers being exploited due to the removal of legal oversight and penalties for uploading or distributing images that feature minors.
“We’ve been studying the business of porn for years, as scholars, advocates and experts in legal battles. In fact, we provided expert testimony in 2013 in a related court case and endured two hours of grilling from the judge and porn industry lawyers.
“The industry is now celebrating its landmark victory.”
Click here to read this article in its entirety at The Conversation.
FREE WEBINAR Sexual Abuse in Nursing Homes: What You Need to Know
Wednesday, September 5, 2018
2:00 – 3:15 PM ET
Register Today
Join this webinar to learn about sexual abuse in nursing homes. Presenters will discuss a variety of topics to help you recognize the signs of sexual abuse and immediately respond to it.
We will examine the full scope of sexual abuse in nursing homes, including: (1) its prevalence, (2) the physical and social signs of sexual abuse, (3) who is most at risk, and (4) who the perpetrators are. In addition, you will learn the protections the federal nursing home rule provides for nursing home residents against this abuse and how to respond to the needs of victims. Finally, we will equip you with concrete knowledge on how ombudsmen can advocate for nursing home residents who are victims of this type of abuse, including hearing from a special presenter on the ombudsman role in the Washington Alliance to End Sexual Violence in Long-Term Care.
“In Their Own Words: People With Intellectual Disabilities Talk About Rape” – NPR
“Yes, it’s happened to me. It was a staff person. It started out where he was buying pop for me and candy for me at, it was called, the canteen. … Then one time he asked me to come down in the basement. He wanted to show me something. And I trusted him. That’s where that happened.” — Sam Maxwell, Meadville, Pa.
“Debbie Robinson has been a leader and an advocate, in Pennsylvania and across the country, for people with disabilities. – Meg Anderson/NPR”
“Editor’s note: This report includes descriptions of sexual assault.
“Somebody with an intellectual disability by definition has difficulty learning, reasoning or problem-solving.
“But many often think deeply about the things that affect them — and the things that isolate them, like sexual assault.
“As part of its investigation into the hidden epidemic of sexual violence faced by this group of Americans, NPR reached out to people with intellectual disabilities across the country to hear their voices, what they have to say about the sexual assaults they’ve survived, and how those experiences have affected their lives.”
Read this article in its entirety (and listen to their stories) at NPR here.
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