The bankruptcy hearings for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee have revealed more than 8,000 previously unreported instances of alleged sexual abuse of children, according to one attorney representing the victims. The charges cover a span of 60 years and implicate a group of 100 alleged offenders, including nuns, church workers and some 75 priests.
All forms of violent crime take a heavy toll on society, in both tangible and intangible costs. When the violence takes place behind closed doors between members of a domestic relationship, it can be harder to identify, prevent and prosecute.
A leading child abuse lawyer has warned physical and sexual abuse in special Muslim faith schools is going unreported and unpunished.
When stories of child sexual abuse hit the media and the victim is a teenager, or perhaps even a little younger, faulty underlying assumptions about the victim’s responsibility emerge. Many also jump to troubling conclusions when the victim is an adolescent or teenage boy.
Medical science has long recognized and documented in great detail how being struck on the buttocks can stimulate sexual feelings. Children are especially susceptible. The tragic consequence for many children who have been punished by paddling or spanking is that they form a connection between pain, humiliation and sexual arousal that endures for the rest of their lives.