12-7-2009 National:
While in the book store the other day, a book seemed to leap off the shelf at me.
It spoke directly to my life, my American experience. It’s a book that depicts a holiday tradition so many of us have shared. It’s called "Scared of Santa: Scenes of Terror in Toyland," by Denise Joyce and Nancy Watkins.
This is a touching photo compilation of that moment when an innocent babe sits upon Santa’s knee, realizes that their parents have handed them off to a white-haired stranger with type-2 diabetes, and responds (rationally, I might add) by screaming bloody murder. I recommend flipping through the pages of "Scared of Santa" as you roast chestnuts.
My own children had moments of abject holiday horror in the local mall. My favorite holiday Santa moment occurred when the only way I could get the picture was to sit on the Jolly Old Elf’s lap while holding my toddler. Said toddler, wailing and red-faced, contorted his body and grasped for some off-camera savior. No help would come. I suppose I could have skipped the photo session but I’d already paid $9.99.
Flip through the pages of "Scared of Santa" and you’ll find children trying to beat Santa back with a candy cane, twins howling in shared rage, or the ever popular crying little brother on one Kringle-Knee while big sister sits on the other Kringle-Knee laughing. Ah, memories.
The fear is to be expected. All year we warn them of stranger danger. And in general it is good policy to avoid men in velvet suits with free candy. But then, once a year we drop this one on them.
"Johnny, this time it’s okay. You’re going to sit on that old man’s knee, he’s going to bounce you a few times, and ask you a few questions. If you answer correctly you’ll be allowed to tell him your secret holiday wish. Now stop crying, it’s your turn."
To avoid the Santa Terrors parenting experts suggest familiarity could help. I read that wearing a Santa hat around the house in advance of the picture might work. This year you also might consider outfitting the child with a surgical mask to minimize the risk of H1N1. Imagine how lovely that picture will look in the holiday frame!
"Scared of Santa" could be the explanation for the scene I wandered into the other day. I was parked in the mall garage. Next to my car was a white van. Behind the wheel of the van was a sleeping Santa Claus. I wanted to snap a picture with my cell phone because Santa sleeping in his van in the mall parking — funny right? It could have been my Christmas card.
But then I thought better of it. The guy was taking a break after a morning of candy cane assaults and temper tantrums. He needed a rest. And really what kind of list do you get on if you wake up Santa while he naps? Naughty for sure. ..Source.. Rebecca Regnier is an award-winning television journalist
December 7, 2009
Scared of Santa? Definitely
November 15, 2009
FL- Figures: Victim Often Knows Abuser
11-15-2009 Florida:
by Shoshana Walter
Never take candy from a stranger. Those are wise words for children.
But professionals who work with child sex abuse victims say those concerns are overemphasized.
Of the 129 child sexual abuse cases the Polk County Sheriff's Office investigated in 2007 and 2008, 94 percent of the abusers knew their victims. Children should be taught to be wary of an approaching stranger, experts say, but the truth is that a child abuser is more likely to live under the same roof as the child.
Why aren't people more aware of this fact?
Richard Brimer has counseled sex offenders and victims in Lakeland for more than 20 years. He says media coverage of particularly salacious stranger-danger scenarios have captured nationwide attention and become the focus of misguided legislators.
Instead of focusing on rehabilitation and treatment, which reduces recidivism, Brimer says many current laws focus more on monitoring and restricting offenders who are released.
That might sound safe to a public more familiar with national headlines about strangers assaulting young children, but those laws don't prevent a trusted adult from touching a child, he said.
Brimer and others say prevention education could help.
In many households, talking about inappropriate touching is taboo. But unless that subject is broached, a child who is being abused may not even know to come forward, said Dionne Hodgson of the Children's Home Society, a nonprofit child welfare agency based in Bartow.
"If you're spanked every day, or physically abused on a daily basis, you may not know that other kids aren't getting that same thing," Hodgson said. Sexual abuse is the same. "If it's part of their daily life or what happens at their home, they may not realize that the abuse that happens with them doesn't happen to all the other kids. So it may just be normal to them."
Brimer says prevention education is also important for those who feel urges to abuse but have yet to act.
An individual clinically diagnosed as a pedophile may never lose his or her attraction to children, he says, but a counselor can teach an individual how to change and control his or her behavior, to understand the repercussions of abusive behavior on others, and how to successfully handle and manage the urges.
Most offenders are not diagnosed as pedophiles, Brimer said.
Their impulses may be caused by underlying psychological problems, and can be treated with therapy. But social stigma and embarrassment can prevent those people from coming forward. Counseling can keep a potential abuser from acting upon his or her desires.
The answer to this problem? Don't be a stranger.
Hodgson says community organizations and groups, families and friends can help by being open to honest talk, and once someone has come forward with those concerns, by helping them seek treatment.
This is especially true for young victims.
"They need the grown-ups and the adults in the community to really step up for them, getting involved and teaching kids what is right," Hodgson said. "If you find out about your friend, tell somebody. You might feel like you're betraying your friend, but hopefully it helps to stop the abuse." ..Source..
September 22, 2009
September 18, 2009
The Problem with Teaching Kids about Stranger Danger
9-18-2009 National:
On Saturday, The New York Times ran a thoughtful piece by Jan Hoffman about whether kids can walk to school by themselves. In the US, just 13% of kids are walking or biking to school, down from 41% in 1969. (That drop, as steep as it is, is nothing compared to what's happened in the UK: Gill Valentine found that, in 1971, 80% of British children were responsible for getting themselves to school. By 1990, that figure was just 9%.)
Hoffman took pains to show both sides of this agonizing issue – the tradeoff between absolute safety and the desire to encourage kids some small amount of responsibility and self-efficacy. I was very happy to see Hoffman’s story picked up by others such as the Today Show.
But I'd like to go a bit further on a related issue – how we talk to kids about "stranger danger," and how much parents let their anxieties be felt by their children.
It's one thing to tell a kid not to accept candy from a stranger, that a kid shouldn't go anywhere with a stranger or get in a stranger's car, etc. But some of safety messages go much further – telling kids that they should never speak to strangers, and they can't trust anyone that they don't already know.
It's at this point that the scholars such as University of Durham professor Sue Scott warn of a problem. Especially if the kids live in an urban environment, most of the people that a child will encounter in an average day will in fact be strangers.
Kids who are constantly warned of stranger danger come to see the world as a very threatening, dangerous place. Every interaction puts them at risk. For some young kids, they don't even understand the distinction between "stranger" and "strange" – so they think that anything out of their ordinary experience can be a threat.
When the default position becomes that kids should be fearful of everyone, with frequent admonitions to never talk to or trust strangers, that leaves kids with no practical guidance on how to carry normal discourse. And kids are aware of the disconnect: the kid who says hello to a bus driver or asks a store cashier a question knows that he has just broke the "Don't talk to strangers" rule.
So, as Scott explains, what ends up happening is that kids come up with these ad-hoc, fairly random decisions about who is all right to trust. They just size up a person by gender, appearance, and situation, and then hope for the best. (And of course, it's exactly that sort of "he looked nice" reasoning that can get kids into trouble.)
There has to be some middle ground – where kids can be taught specifics on how to handle themselves in different situations – a focus on what people are doing, not who they are. So that children can feel empowered, rather than helpless and frightened. ..Source.. by Ashley Merryman
May 17, 2008
‘Stranger Danger’ Takes Back Seat to Family Fiend
A lot of mythology surrounds criminal sexual offenses, and, in many cases, these assumptions can hamper attempts to reduce recidivism.
5-17-2008 National:
Residency restrictions on released sex offenders — which typically prohibit them from living within 1,000 to 2,000 feet of a school, park or other child-friendly spot — have become an increasingly popular strategy aimed at preventing new sex crimes. As of 2006, 22 states had adopted a form of residency restriction on sex offenders, and even localities with fewer than 1,000 residents have passed such laws.
The perception that sex offenders — even in comparison to other violent offenders — prey on the defenseless in particular is no doubt one of the reasons for the revulsion with which the public regards them. Considering sex offenders' frequent victimization of children and adolescents and common use of deception to lure their victims, this perception has a substantial basis in fact. Another common public perception — that sex offenders are programmed predators, doomed to re-offend — rests on a shakier factual foundation.
The language of California's version of Jessica's Law (officially the Sexual Predator Punishment and Control Act) is typical of the conventional wisdom on the subject. Citing an unnamed 1998 U.S. Department of Justice report, the legislation declares, "Sex offenders are the least likely to be cured and the most likely to re-offend ... Sex offenders have a dramatically higher recidivism rate for their crimes than any other type of violent felon."
The research actually tells a somewhat different story. A 1997 Bureau of Justice Statistics report noted that, based on a study of felons on probation, "Rapists had a lower rate of re-arrest for a new felony and a lower rate of re-arrest for a violent felony than most categories of probationers with convictions for violence," with 19.5 percent of rapists being arrested for a new felony within three years, compared with 41 percent of other violent felons on probation.
A 2002 BJS study that followed nearly 300,000 felons released from state prison found that those who had served time for robbery or assault (excluding sexual assault) were the most likely to be "specialists" — those who, upon release, commit the same crime for which they had just been incarcerated. Within three years of their release, 13 percent of robbers and 22 percent of those convicted of assault had been arrested for new crimes of the same type as their previous offense — compared with 2.5 percent of released rapists arrested for a new rape during the same time period.
This is not to minimize the danger posed by sex offenders, who are more likely — when they do re-offend — to commit a sex crime than are other violent felons. The 1997 BJS report notes, "Released rapists were found to be 10.5 times as likely as nonrapists to be re-arrested for rape, and those who had served time for sexual assault were 7.5 times as likely as those convicted of other crimes to be re-arrested for a new sexual assault."
These figures are not the most chilling statistics to be found in the research, however. According to the 1997 BJS report, "Sexual assaulters were about three times as likely as all violent offenders and twice as likely as rapists to report that the victim had been a member of their family." A quarter of those imprisoned for sexual assault, notes the study, had victimized their own child or stepchild.
In other words — although the cases that capture headlines and drive ever more punitive legislation involve heinous crimes committed by strangers — studies indicate that sexual offenders usually are not the stereotypical stranger lurking at the edges of the playground.
As the Iowa County Attorneys Association noted in 2006, "Residency restrictions were intended to reduce sex crimes against children by strangers who seek access to children at the covered locations. Those crimes are tragic, but very rare. In fact, 80 to 90 percent of sex crimes against children are committed by a relative or acquaintance who has some prior relationship with the child and access to the child that is not impeded by residency restrictions. Only parents and caretakers can effectively impede that kind of access."
Defending residency restrictions, California state Sen. George Runner — the sponsor of California's Jessica's Law — told Miller-McCune.com, "Polygraph exams of sex offenders often reveal dozens or even hundreds of previously undisclosed offenses ... few rapes and even fewer child molestations are ever reported." Government data support this assertion: A 2006 BJS report on criminal victimization indicates that 41 percent of rapes and sexual assaults committed that year were reported to police, compared to 57 percent of robberies and 59 percent of aggravated assaults.
But if the distribution of unreported rapes and sexual assaults follows that of reported ones, it means that most undisclosed sex crimes are also committed by people who are related or otherwise known to their victims.
For his part, Runner has greater confidence in monitoring and controlling sex offenders than treating them as a way to prevent future crimes. "I am less than optimistic about the efficacy of (treatment) programs. For example, most gang members — the young ones in particular — have the potential to rehabilitate, while most sex offenders will recidivate because they are pedophiles," he told Miller-McCune.com.
"Pedophiles tend to require severe behavior modification — intensive supervision, chemical castration, GPS, random drug testing, etc.," he added. "Sex offenders tend to be model citizens except they sexually abuse children, which must require a higher level of treatment regimens. I believe in the near future GPS will be a standard tool of every law enforcement agency to monitor sex offenders. ... Therefore, the problem of supervising sex offenders should be a thing of the past. California law was the first to pair GPS monitoring with residency restrictions and, thus, I anticipate significant success in the coming years."
Despite his optimism, Runner has also expressed frustration at the slow implementation of the law's provision for GPS monitoring. And even though California lawmakers are currently scrambling to close a $15 billion budget gap, Runner said he is committed to having the state pay the costs of GPS tracking (which the sex offender management board has projected to be a minimum of $20 million for the state corrections agency alone), whether they are incurred by state or local law enforcement agencies.
But in focusing on reducing the odds of something that — while terrifying — is already highly unlikely to occur, parents and others concerned with the welfare of children may be missing the bigger picture.
As noted by the authors of a study of released Minnesota sex offenders, nearly two-thirds of the recidivating offenders "were biologically related to their victims (14 percent), or they gained access to their victims through a form of collateral contact such as a girlfriend, wife, co-worker, friend or acquaintance (51 percent). Thus, for the biological-contact and collateral-contact offenders, residential proximity was not nearly as important as social or relationship proximity." ..more.. by Amy R. Ramos
April 6, 2008
VA- Virginia First State to Require Internet Safety Lessons
4-6-2008 Virginia:
MIDLOTHIAN, Va. — On the screen at the front of the classroom, Virginia assistant attorney general Gene Fishel flashed an online social-networking profile of "hotlilflgirl," a 15-year-old who says she enjoys being around boys and wants to meet new people.
The next image revealed the real "hotlilflgirl" — a mugshot of a 31-year-old man convicted of sexually abusing 11 children he met online and sentenced to a 45-year prison term on charges including child pornography and forcible sodomy.
"Not little, not fly and not a girl," said Fishel, in warning teens about the dangers of sharing personal information on the Internet and agreeing to meet Web acquaintances in person.
Fishel's recent presentation at James River High School was one of many being held in classrooms this school year across Virginia, the first state to mandate that public schools offer Internet safety classes for all grade levels. It's one of many measures being taken nationally to protect young Web users.
Virginia's requirement initially stemmed from concerns about sex offenders preying on children online and a general increase in Internet-based crime, including spamming and phishing. More than half of the world's Internet traffic flows through Virginia, as America Online and MCI have major operations in northern Virginia, according to Attorney General Bob McDonnell.
Texas and Illinois are among states that subsequently passed Internet safety education laws, but unlike Virginia, they don't make the courses mandatory. And others are considering similar legislation, said Judi Westberg Warren, president of Web Wise Kids, a nonprofit group funded by corporations such as Verizon and Symantec and the federal government to provide schools with no-cost Internet safety lessons for 11- to 16-year-olds.
The Illinois law recommends that school divisions adopt online safety training curricula and offers guidelines on topics that should be included, said Matt Vanover, spokesman for the Illinois State Board of Education.
Warren said such efforts are overdue as the Internet's technological advances have enabled criminals to reach more victims.
The FBI doesn't specifically track the number of sexual-abuse cases that originate online. But according to a 2006 study by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, about 13 percent of Internet users ages 10 to 17 received unwanted sexual solicitations. Ninety percent of those solicitations targeted teens. Four percent of those youths reported being asked for nude or sexually explicit photographs of themselves.
"Decisions to make Internet safety training part of the curriculum should have taken place years and years ago," she said. "Kids are encountering the Internet at younger and younger ages. Society is slow to realize the impact the Internet is having on kids."
For preteens, schools often focus on cyberbullying — which includes harassing, spreading gossip or otherwise targeting others online — and several states have passed anti-cyberbullying measures.
Nine percent of youths in the center's survey reported being harassed online, and 28 percent of youths admitted they "made rude or nasty comments to someone on the Internet."
Tammy McGraw, director of the Virginia Department of Education's office of educational technology, has worked with school divisions to integrate Internet safety lessons into existing coursework. Her office also helps schools educate parents, including encouraging families to use filtering software and put their computers in public areas of the house.
"We're all sensitive that many, many important things need to be addressed. This is absolutely essential," McGraw said.
Under mounting pressure, social-networking site MySpace reached an agreement to create a task force to devise ways to protect youngsters from online predators and bullies. The deal between the company and 49 of 50 states — except Texas, whose attorney general has said he can't support the effort because it lacks a way to verify users' ages — comes as the exponential growth of such sites have created a venue for predators and cyberbullies to lure and threaten young people.
At James River High School, Fishel also warned students about the permanence of what they put on the Internet, and how information posted today can come back to haunt them when they're applying to colleges or looking for jobs. It's basic advice on issues that might not occur to teens who generally live in the moment.
Some listened attentively to the presentation; others slumped forward over their desks.
"I thought it was very important because we post a lot of things on the Internet," said freshman Maya Towers, who created a MySpace page in August. "I didn't know how much information can be exposed."
Others, like 16-year-old Kyle Rackley, still figures that becoming an online predator's victim can't happen to them.
"I feel pretty safe about it," he said.
McDonnell says young people are vulnerable precisely because they think they're bulletproof. No one wants to curb teens from using Facebook and MySpace, he said, but in the Internet age, it's necessary to update all students with the basic warning of "Don't talk to strangers." ..more.. by Fox News
