by mrmagic 10 Replies latest watchtower child-abuse
What would be the equivalent of a US version of the Royal Commission? I'm not just asking about one specific governmental entity, but perhaps even a conglomerate of entities or series of events that would need to take place to cause a domino effect....a tipping point.
Who do you think needs to be contacted that can turn around and contact a lot of others?
Looking for thoughts and ideas. Your thoughts and ideas count.
Basically remove the church confessional privilege and make it uniform and mandatory in every State to report certain serious crimes to the authorities. Child abuse & violent crime would be the two crimes that need to be given this kind of attention.
So the solution should come from the Legislators on the State and National level. Allowing a confessed murderer or pedophile to run around unpunished is not a State Right.
Congress could hold hearings as the Royal Commission has and call upon victims to tell their stories and then have church officials answer the charges. The publicity would be devastating.
The inquiry in the UK was basically fired up by MP's that were moved by a.. public scandal. (What else motivates politicians?)
From wikipedia [link too long] :
Background EditIn 2012, UK celebrity Jimmy Savile, who had died the year before, was identified by police as a prolific child sexual abuser, who had accessed and abused children in hospitals, schools and other institutions during the past six decades.
In the ensuing investigations, a number of prominent household names in media and politics, among others, were alleged to have been responsible for, and in some cases were convicted of, child sexual abuse.
Calls were raised from 2012 onwards, for a public inquiry into child sexual abuse, and to examine how such failings had been possible, and to what extent those responsible for these institutions had known of the abuse, or had cause to be aware.
In June 2014, a cross-party group of 7 MPs, co-ordinated by Tim Loughton and Zac Goldsmith, wrote to the Home Secretary, Theresa May, calling on her to set up an overarching investigation into a series of cases in the United Kingdom concerning allegations of historic child sex abuse within government and other institutions.[9] Goldsmith said that "The Government should establish – and properly resource – an independent inquiry so that a line can be drawn, once and for all."[10] Other MPs were quick to add their names to the call for an inquiry, and within three weeks more than 150 British MPs were backing the call for an inquiry.
It was a similar pattern in Australia:
Report of child abuse coverups >> Further investigations >> Politician moved to action by public outcry channelled through representatives.
From Wikipedia:
In Queensland, during 1999 the Commission of Inquiry into Abuse of Children in Queensland Institutions (headed by Leneen Forde, a former Governor of Queensland), investigated the treatment of children in 159 licensed government and non-government institutions from 1911 to 1999. In its report, the Inquiry found that abuse had occurred and made 42 recommendations relating to contemporary child protection practices, youth justice and redress of past abuse.[7]In Victoria, in January 2011 the Protecting Victoria's Vulnerable Children Inquiry was launched to investigate Victoria's child protection system and make recommendations to strengthen and improve the protection and support of vulnerable young people..
A bi-partisan parliamentary inquiry was established in May 2012 in that state to seek information about the causes and effects of criminal abuse within religious and other non-government organisations..
By June 2012, there was community and academic pressure for the establishment of a Royal Commission, most especially in Victoria.
So, my conclusion would be that the first step is to move investigative reporters or organisations to publish damning and shocking reports into institutional child sex abuse iThe inquiry in the UK was basically fired up by MP's that were moved by a.. public scandal. (What else motivates politicians?)
From wikipedia [link too long] :
Background Edit
In 2012, UK celebrity Jimmy Savile, who had died the year before, was identified by police as a prolific child sexual abuser, who had accessed and abused children in hospitals, schools and other institutions during the past six decades.
In the ensuing investigations, a number of prominent household names in media and politics, among others, were alleged to have been responsible for, and in some cases were convicted of, child sexual abuse.
Calls were raised from 2012 onwards, for a public inquiry into child sexual abuse, and to examine how such failings had been possible, and to what extent those responsible for these institutions had known of the abuse, or had cause to be aware.
In June 2014, a cross-party group of 7 MPs, co-ordinated by Tim Loughton and Zac Goldsmith, wrote to the Home Secretary, Theresa May, calling on her to set up an overarching investigation into a series of cases in the United Kingdom concerning allegations of historic child sex abuse within government and other institutions.[9] Goldsmith said that "The Government should establish – and properly resource – an independent inquiry so that a line can be drawn, once and for all."[10] Other MPs were quick to add their names to the call for an inquiry, and within three weeks more than 150 British MPs were backing the call for an inquiry.
It was a similar pattern in Australia:
Report of child abuse coverups >> Further investigations >> Politician moved to action by public outcry channelled through representatives.
From Wikipedia:
In Queensland, during 1999 the Commission of Inquiry into Abuse of Children in Queensland Institutions (headed by Leneen Forde, a former Governor of Queensland), investigated the treatment of children in 159 licensed government and non-government institutions from 1911 to 1999. In its report, the Inquiry found that abuse had occurred and made 42 recommendations relating to contemporary child protection practices, youth justice and redress of past abuse.[7]
In Victoria, in January 2011 the Protecting Victoria's Vulnerable Children Inquiry was launched to investigate Victoria's child protection system and make recommendations to strengthen and improve the protection and support of vulnerable young people..
A bi-partisan parliamentary inquiry was established in May 2012 in that state to seek information about the causes and effects of criminal abuse within religious and other non-government organisations..
By June 2012, there was community and academic pressure for the establishment of a Royal Commission, most especially in Victoria.
So, my conclusion would be that the first step is to move investigative reporters or organisations to publish damning and shocking reports into institutional child sex abuse in the US.
Then comes public outcry, backed by hard facts and statistics..
Then government representatives have to act.
Not sure how helpful all that waffling was, but I have emailed you with suggestions of various journalists.
Can anyone help out by perhaps suggesting an investigative agency that is influential in the US? One that could publish a report that would get the nation's attention?
Sorry, don't know what happened there, weird error..
So, my conclusion would be that the first step is to move investigative reporters or organisations to publish damning and shocking reports into institutional child sex abuse in the US. (State by state preferably).
Then comes public outcry, backed by hard facts and statistics..
Then government representatives have to act.
Not sure how helpful all that waffling was, but I have emailed you with suggestions of various journalists.
Can anyone help out by perhaps suggesting an investigative agency that is influential in the US? One that could publish a report that would get the nation's attention?
Any institution that has allowed children to be harmed by predators deserves to be taken to task for it. No institution should get a pass. And no profession should get a pass. Not preachers, not priests — not even teachers.Especially not teachers. And yet …Consider the statistics: In accordance with a requirement of President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act, in 2002 the Department of Education carried out a study of sexual abuse in the school system.HofstraUniversity researcher Charol Shakeshaft looked into the problem, and the first thing that came to her mind when Education Week reported on the study were the daily headlines about the Catholic Church."[T]hink the Catholic Church has a problem?" she said. "The physical sexual abuse of students in schools is likely more than 100 times the abuse by priests."So, in order to better protect children, did media outlets start hounding the worse menace of the school systems, with headlines about a "Nationwide Teacher Molestation Cover-up" and by asking "Are Ed Schools Producing Pedophiles?"No, they didn't. That treatment was reserved for the Catholic Church, while the greater problem in the schools was ignored altogether.As the National Catholic Register's reporter Wayne Laugesen points out, the federal report said 422,000 California public-school students would be victims before graduation — a number that dwarfs the state's entire Catholic-school enrollment of 143,000.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/has-media-ignored-sex-abuse-in-school/
-------The failure of U.S. schools to protect students from sexual abuse by school personnel is a story of district cover-ups, lack of training, incomplete teacher background checks and little guidance from the U.S. Department of Education, according to a new federal report.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office said the nation’s K-12 schools lack a systemic approach to preventing and reporting educator sexual abuse of students, despite a problem that the report said affects an estimated 9.6 percent of students – nearly one in 10 – who are subjected to sexual misconduct by teachers, coaches, principals, bus drivers and other personnel during their K-12 career. That figure is from a 2004 report made to the U.S. Department of Education and is the most recent estimate available, according to the Government Accountability Office report released last week.
“Although states and school districts are taking some positive steps,” the report said, “current efforts are clearly not enough.”
So, how do we give them an appetite?Shove some reports in their faces?First we need a study on nationwide sex abuse in American schools..How Many Kids Are Sexually Abused by Their Teachers?Probably millions.
These statistics are uncertain, however, because no one has ever designed a nationwide study for the expressed purpose of measuring the prevalence of sexual abuse by educators. The Departments of Justice, Education, and Health and Human Services can’t agree on whose domain teacher sexual misconduct falls into, and Congress has shown little appetite to spend money on the issue.
defender of truth. Essentially it was the outrage of many who had suffered in religious organizations that caused such a public awareness. It takes a few with enough courage to state the facts
Julia Gillard accepted this need and announced her decision to have an inquest or Royal Commission. She may not have initiated the inquest in it's formative state, but she certainly stamped it "approved" at the end of the day. Certainly she was not that popular in many liberal circles, but she is labour in belief. I liked her most of the time, although at times she needed diction lessons in order not to switch people off to the actual message.
She was the one who gave it the go ahead.
