Interview with Dr. Silberg on the Kathleen Dunn
Interview with Dr. Silberg on the Kathleen Dunn Show about how theWoody allen and Dylan Farrow story illustrates problems in family court. Download
Do courts use a controversial theory to punish mothers who allege abuse?
‘Parental alienation’ is sometimes used in family court to wrest custody from a parent who alleges abuse. by Tim Stelloh, Al Jazeera America
Details how allegations of alienation are frequently used by fathers to counter claims of child abuse. Often, these are cases in which a mother reported a classic symptom of abuse — the child acting in a sexually inappropriate manner, for instance, or having overly sexualized knowledge. However, these cases are not considered to be credible because the mother was considered to be alienating or because she was thought to have a mental-health issue. Attorney Gregory Jacob, a former solicitor in George W. Bush’s Department of Labor, stated, “I see parent after parent after parent punished for raising good-faith allegations in court in order to get the authorities looking at the same evidence they’ve seen.”
Supreme Court weighs how much one person should pay pornography victim
by Robert Barnes, Washington Post,
The Supreme Court heard an appeal by a Paroline, a man convicted of possessing child pornography who had been ordered to pay millions of dollars in damages to the child victim (Paroline v. United States). A woman with the pseudonym Amy Unknown was at the Supreme Court on Wednesday as justices discussed the horrible events that changed her life: Her uncle raped her when she was a young girl, recorded that assault and other sex acts and put the images on the Internet, where they have been viewed tens of thousands of times. All the justices seemed to think that those who downloaded the images of Amy should pay to help her put her life back together. But they struggled to decide what any one person should pay.
Paying Amy: Doyle Paroline owned two pornographic pictures of an 8-year-old girl. How much should he have to pay?
By Emily Bazelon, Slate,
Countless numbers of people have seen the pictures of 8-year-old “Amy,” as she is called in court documents, being sexually abused by her uncle. She has claimed lifetime damages—in lost income, counseling costs, and attorney’s fees—of $3.4 million.
In January, the Supreme Court will hear the appeal of Doyle Randall Paroline, who was caught with two pictures of Amy among 280 illegal images and was found liable by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit for the full amount of the restitution Amy pagetemplate-1, who is now 24, has claimed. The 5th Circuit said it was up to Paroline—not Amy—to find the other men who could also be on the hook for restitution and go after them for contributions.
Institute of Medicine report finds that child abuse can alter the brain and the harm can last for life.
See New Directions in Child Abuse and Neglect Research
How Googling Unmasks Child Abuse
by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, The New York Times
The contrast between the search data and the reported data tells a sad story about social services in this country. Just when more children are searching for help, we decimate the budgets of the very people who might actually do something to protect them.
Stephens-Davidowitz reports that he spent months studying the incidence of child abuse using a number of different data sources, including Google search queries. He found that the Great Recession caused a significant increase in child abuse and neglect. At the same time, far fewer of these cases were reported to authorities, with much of the drop due to slashed budgets for teachers, nurses, doctors and child protective service workers.
Teenager’s 1988 Sexual-Abuse Conviction Was Justified, Report Says
By Peter Applebome, The New York Times
Jesse Friedman, the Great Neck, NY teenager whose role in a sexual abuse case a quarter-century ago was portrayed in the Oscar-nominated documentary “Capturing the Friedmans” and came to symbolize an era of sensational, often-suspect accusations of child molesting, was properly convicted and should not have his status as a sexual predator overturned, according to a three-year review that was released on Monday.
In a 155-page report written with very little ambiguity, the Nassau County district attorney, Kathleen M. Rice, concluded that none of four issues raised in 2010 in a strongly worded ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit were substantiated by the evidence.
Report: “Jesse Friedman Was Not Wrongfully Convicted.”
In a 155-page report released by Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice, the Review Team tasked with conducting the conviction integrity investigation wrote that “…by any impartial analysis, the re-investigation process…has only increased confidence in the integrity of Jesse Friedman’s guilty plea and adjudication as a sex offender.”
An independent advisory panel appointed to guide the process found the Review Team’s conclusion to be “reasonable and supported by the evidence.” In addition, three of Friedman’s victims affirmed their prior accounts to the Review Team, and at least three others maintained their accusations at various points within the last decade. Read the report.
The report supports the analysis of the case done by the LeadersRhip Council
