4 results for month: 03/2013

Research Brief: Suicide and Bullying

In a recent blog post for stopbullying.gov, the authors review the literature to determine possible links between bullying and suicide in children and youth.They conclude that many factors may increase a youth’s risk of suicide—including mental health history, family history of suicide or child maltreatment, alcohol and substance abuse, and isolation—and caution against assuming there are “simple” causes for suicidal thoughts or behavior. Check out the post here.

OVC Video Series Addresses Children’s Exposure to Violence

The Department of Justice's Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) has released “Through Our Eyes: Children, Violence, and Trauma,” an online video series to address the needs of children exposed to violence and victimization.The series includes a public awareness video in which victims discuss the effects of the violence and trauma they experienced; and three topic-specific videos detailing evidence-based treatment, child advocacy strategies, and community-based approaches to help those affected. Visit http://www.ovc.gov/pubs/ThroughOurEyes/index.html for details.

Penalties for Falsely Reporting Child Abuse

The Jerry Sandusky criminal trial is over; the civil lawsuits are in active settlement mode. Undoubtedly, the entire country is more tuned into child abuse than it ever was. The National Conference of State Legislatures reports that about 105 bills on the reporting of suspected child abuse and neglect have been introduced in 2012 legislative sessions in 30 states and the District of Columbia. 1 All of them include a penalty for failing to report suspected child abuse. Oregon is one of the states which recently enacted child abuse reporting legislation. It added to the list of mandated reporters any employee or volunteer of organization providing ...

Sixth Circuit Rejects Commonsense Approach to Child Pornography Restitution

Last week, the Sixth Circuit issued this confusing decision on child pornography restitution in the combined cases of United States v. James D. Gamble and Shawn Crawford. The Court held that the child pornography restitution statute contains both a cause-in-fact requirement—i.e., a showing that the defendant's conduct actually caused the victim's losses—and and a requirement that the cause be proximate. The Court found that "the statute still allows victims to collect more restitution than under earlier and concurrent restitution statutes. The statute expands the definition of victims and the categories of losses for which victims can ...