Juvenile Justice Information Exchange (https://jjie.org/tag/abuse/page/4/)
Just joining us? This is part one of a five part series. See the whole series. When Suzanne and John Boyer left their upper-middle class home for work on the morning of May 20, 2008, their 15-year-old son, Kyle, had a stomachache and was still in bed. It wasn’t too bad, he told them.
A small study out of Chicago indicates that many pimps were forced into the sex industry and trafficked as children, leading to a horrible cycle of abuse. Researchers at DePaul College of Law surveyed 25 pimps, finding that 68 percent were trafficked as children and 76 percent were sexually abused. According to the survey by researchers Brenda Myers-Powell and Jody Raphael, many pimps now traffic kids themselves and “earn” between $150,000 and $500,000 a year, often by taking all the income of some of their prostitutes. The authors admit the survey was imperfect, but you can read the full report here.
The Demi and Ashton (DNA) Foundation recently launched a high-profile online video initiative to fight child sex trafficking. The series "Real Men Don't Buy Girls" features major celebrity appearances by names like Bruce Willis, Justin Timberlake, and even Pete Cashmore - founder of the social media news site Mashable.com. The interactive campaign encourages users to submit their own "Real Man" video - using the slogans "I am a Real Man" or "I prefer a Real Man" - and upload them to the DNA Foundation's Facebook fanpage. In the video above, Isaiah Mustafa (commonly known as "The Old Spice Guy") and Mashable founder Pete Cashmore tip their hat to the cause. According to the DNA Foundation, the videos - and the organization itself - aim "to raise awareness about child sex slavery, change the cultural stereotypes that facilitate this horrific problem, and rehabilitate innocent victims."
The Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) are sponsoring the Science Education Drug Abuse Partnership Award. This grant seeks to find new programs and materials to understand how drug abuse and addiction really impact kids; what it does to the neurons of their brains and how kids behave on a daily basis. This grant will focus on drugs or drug topics that are not well addressed in existing efforts by the educational community or media.
Crimes against kids go largely unreported, says a study by researchers at the University of New Hampshire. Of the more than 4,500 children ages 10 to 17 surveyed for the study, 58 percent reported being the victim of a crime in the last year. However, only 46 percent reported the incident to authorities. The study, published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, says that, because of the fear of retaliation, cases of abuse and violence against children often go unreported. In many cases families chose to handle incidents informally, without involving police, due to the sensitive nature of the crimes. The study’s authors say this often prevents the victims from receiving needed counseling. Crimes most likely to be reported included bullying, neglect and theft, researchers said.
Read up:
FBI Probing Possible Civil Rights Violation of Teen:
http://bit.ly/Amerson
New Comcast 'On Demand' Show Seeks To Find Missing Children:
http://bit.ly/comcastkids
Juvenile Justice Journeys (series launching Monday, April 18):
http://bit.ly/JJjourneys
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Host:
Ryan Schill, JJIE Reporter
Multimedia team:
Clay Duda, Social Media Strategist
Thompson High School student Shakira Hudson was 15 when she was killed. Audrey Atkinson of Covington was 19. Jasmine Harris of Atlanta was 17 and pregnant. All three died in 2010. Boyfriends or ex-boyfriends were charged with their murders. The girls' deaths were among 130 recorded by the Georgia Commission on Family Violence and the Georgia Coalition Against Domestic Violence in the 2010 Georgia Domestic Violence Fatality Report, the largest number of such homicides since the first annual report in 2003.
One of the most popular body sprays for teenage boys may be used for more than body odor. In fact, some kids like the smell of AXE Body Spray so much they are inhaling it to get high. “Many parents don’t question a body spray inhalant if kids are huffing because many parents have the scent around them,” said Colleen Creighton from inhalant.org. Message boards on the Internet are buzzing with questions from parents and teens about this trend. Some people on Facebook and other websites share instructions on how to use AXE to get high. Users may soak a towel or a shirt sleeve and breathe it in, while others may spray it directly into their mouths. Body sprays like AXE are cheap and sold everywhere. By contrast, Georgia regulates the sale of model glue to anyone under the age of 18.