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Depressive or suicidal symptoms during adolescence might do more than temporary harm. Researchers at Child Trends have found that young adults who had reported those symptoms as adolescents were more likely to be in unhealthy relationships, characterized by violence or infidelity.

Because they knew it might be tempting to attribute this to demographic differences, researchers controlled for age, gender, parent education, family structure, income and race/ethnicity. In their brief, "Measuring the Associations Between Symptoms of Depression and Suicide in Adolescence and Unhealthy Romantic Relationships in Young Adulthood," they report that the findings remained true across all of these potential divides.

In addition to their call for identifying and intervening with adolescents with (or at risk of) depressive or suicidal symptoms, study authors recommend that researchers explore specific factors (such as poor problem-solving or communications skills, or past victimization) that impact relationship outcomes for this population, and that practitioners use the results of that research to target their interventions.

Just published in Temple Political and Civil Rights Law Review is an article, Foster Care as a Mitigating Circumstance in Criminal Proceedings. The article addresses the question: should a history of foster care involvement serve as a legitimate mitigating circumstance for a defendant in a criminal trial?

According to the article:

The sensationalism of many criminal trials, especially those of a capital nature, often result from the aggravating circumstances impacting the victim. Conversely, the mitigating circumstances that affect the accused‘s criminality rarely grab headlines. During the sentencing phase of a criminal trial, mitigating factors may justify leniency or otherwise serve to lessen the sentence for the crime with which the accused has been charged. Whether a particular factor will be considered a mitigating one will depend upon the particular facts of the case.

The federal Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 provides guidance in this process, but each state maintains the discretion to dictate its own criteria within the confines of constitutional constructs. The United States Supreme Court has increasingly addressed the importance of clarity in the presentation and consideration of mitigating evidence, which is integral to the trial and sentencing of an accused.

Should a history of foster care involvement serve as a legitimate mitigating circumstance for a defendant in a criminal trial? Although this article does not provide a definitive answer, it does attempt to provide a better understanding of the foster care experience to those contemplating the question.

Part I provides a general introduction to the topic of foster care. Part II discusses different types of foster care. Part III discusses the impact of foster care on children. Finally, Part IV offers a brief conclusion.

For a copy contact Daniel Pollack, a Professor at Yeshiva University’s School of Social Work in New York City, and a frequent expert witness in child welfare cases. He can be contacted at dpollack@yu.edu, (212) 960-0836

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.

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 child-related services or activities, any employee of a higher education institution, and any coach, assistant coach or trainer of child athlete and individual who provides guidance, instruction or training in youth development activities and youth camps.

Overlooked in the wake of this new awareness is the sad reality of false allegations of child abuse. There is no disputing that child abuse is a serious and pervasive worldwide problem. ² In most situations, abuse allegations are made responsibly, based on actual abuse. Sometimes they are not.

To address this concern, Oregon also passed legislation regarding the false reporting of child abuse. The law ³ reads:

(1) A person commits the offense of making a false report of child abuse if, with the intent to influence a custody, parenting time, visitation or child support decision, the person:

(a) Makes a false report of child abuse to the Department of Human Services or a law enforcement agency, knowing that the report is false; or

(b) With the intent that a public or private official make a report of child abuse to the Department of Human Services or a law enforcement agency, makes a false report of child abuse to the public or private official, knowing that the report is false.

(2) Making a false report of child abuse is a Class A violation.”

In fact, most states ⁴ have similar statutes. For instance, Arkansas ⁵ provides that:

“(a) A person commits the offense of making a false report under this chapter if he or she purposely makes a report containing a false allegation to the Child Abuse Hotline knowing the allegation to be false.

(b) (1) A first offense of making a false report under this chapter is a Class A misdemeanor. (2) A subsequent offense of making a false report under this chapter is a Class D felony.”

Colorado ⁶ provides that “No person … shall knowingly make a false report of abuse or neglect to a county department or local law enforcement agency. Any person who willfully violates the provisions …commits a class 3 misdemeanor and shall be punished … [and] shall be liable for damages proximately caused thereby.”

The repercussions of false abuse allegations are traumatizing and stigmatizing to the child allegedly abused. The child may have to undergo unnecessary psychological and medical examinations. And commonly, rifts between the child and his or her parents and siblings may develop. In the divorce and custody context, an accusation of child abuse may begin in family court, but it can quickly wind up in civil, criminal, and juvenile courts.

When child abuse allegations are true, CPS must do everything possible to protect the child. When false accusations are made, the accused individual's morally upright reputation can be permanently damaged. CPS workers know that abuse allegations are difficult to prove. Learning to decipher false allegations from real ones is a demanding and perpetual challenge. In either case, they can lead to protracted and difficult legal battles.

1 http://www.ncsl.org/issues-research/human-services/2012-child-abuse-mandatory-reporting-bills.aspx

2 See e.g. Lalor, K. & McElvaney, R. (2010). Child sexual abuse, links to later sexual exploitation/high risk sexual behavior and prevention/treatment programmes. Trauma, Violence and Abuse, (11), 159-177.

3 ORS 419B.016.

4 AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, DC, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NE, NY, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, TN, TX, VI, WA, WY. A summary of state laws regarding penalties for the failure to report and false reporting of child abuse, written by the Child Welfare Information Gateway, is available at https://www.childwelfare.gov/systemwide/laws_policies/statutes/report.cfm.

5 Title 12, Subtitle 2, Chapter 18, Subchapter 2, § 12-18-203.

6 CRS Title 19, Article 3, Part 3, § 19-3-304.

Daniel Pollack is a professor at Yeshiva University’s School of Social Work in New York City and a frequent expert witness in child welfare cases. He can be reached at dpollack@yu.edu. This article originally appeared in Policy & Practice, 71(1), 30 (2013).

Today the National Center for Youth Law released a new report, Ending Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children: A Call for Multi-System Collaboration in California.

Report author Kate Walker, an Equal Justice Works Fellow and Attorney at the Center, commented that "Every day, the unthinkable happens: thousands of America's children are coerced into performing sex for hire. Exploitation can start as young as age ten. Some exploited children are brutally beaten and raped. Others are isolated, drugged, and starved until they become "willing" participants. Yet, these children are regularly arrested and held in juvenile detention facilities even though they are victims of crime."

Worldwide, human trafficking is a $32 billion industry, involving 100,000 children in the U.S. The FBI has determined that three of the nation's thirteen High Intensity Child Prostitution areas are located in California.

Studies estimate that between 50 and 80 percent of commercially sexually exploited children (CSEC) are or were formally involved with the child welfare system. "We all need to come together to reinvent the way we respond to this problem," said Patrick Gardner, President of Young Minds Advocacy Project. "This report is a first step."

Four of the report's key recommendations highlight the urgent need for:

1. Safe, secure and specialized homes for exploited children and children at risk
2. New screening tools to help professionals working with children identify both victims and children at risk
3. Special training for "child serving" professionals and systems to identify and support vulnerable individuals
4. Increased data collection and information sharing to promote collaboration across systems and raise public awareness

"Rather than criminalizing these children and funneling them into the juvenile justice system, California's child welfare system, which is designed to protect and serve children and families who experience abuse and neglect, is the more appropriate system to support exploited children," said Walker.

"We know from our daily work that the level of system coordination required to address the emotional trauma, constant physical danger and coercive techniques used by traffickers does not yet exist in California," said Stacey Katz, Executive Director of WestCoast Children's Clinic, an agency that serves over 100 commercially sexually exploited children per year in Alameda County, California.

Katz states, "The traffickers benefit directly from these system gaps. Until the agencies responsible for serving and protecting young people come together, we will continue to see youth who are severely traumatized and whose lives are in danger. We can do better by these youth-this is not an issue of resources. It's an issue of will."

According to Leslie Heimov, Executive Director of Children's Law Center of California, "the more we learn about child sex trafficking, the clearer it becomes that we are facing a national crisis. Without safe placements, access to highly trained therapists and other experts, we are powerless to stop the brutalization and re-victimization of the youth the child welfare system seeks to protect."

For more information about this report and its recommendations, contact:

Young Minds Advocacy Project (YMAP)
Patrick Gardner, J.D. President
650.494.4930
Patrick@youngmindsadvocacy.org

National Center for Youth Law (NCYL)
Oakland, California
Kate Walker, Attorney & Equal Justice Works Fellow
510.835.8098 x 3050
Kwalker@youthlaw.org

WestCoast Children's Clinic
Oakland, California
Jodie Langs, Director of Policy & Communications
510.452.7400
Jlangs@westcoastcc.org

Children's Law Center of California
Los Angeles & Sacramento, California
Leslie Heimov, Executive Director
323.980.5762
Heimovl@clccal.org

In 1979, U.S. Surgeon General Julius B. Richmond declared violence a public health crisis of the highest priority, and yet 33 years later that crisis remains. Whether the violence occurs in children’s homes, neighborhoods, schools, playgrounds or playing fields, locker rooms, places of worship, shelters, streets, or in juvenile detention centers, the exposure of children to violence is a uniquely traumatic experience that has the potential to profoundly derail the child’s security, health, happiness, and ability to grow and learn — with effects lasting well into adulthood.

To prepare this report, the Attorney General commissioned a task force of diverse leaders dedicated to protecting children from exposure to violence and to healing those who were exposed. The report calls for action by the federal government, states, tribes, communities, and the private sector across the country to marshal the best available knowledge and all of the resources needed to defend all of our children against exposure to violence.

The Task Force's recommendations include:

• Engage youth as leaders and peer experts in all initiatives defending children against violence and its harmful effects.
• Incorporate evidence-based trauma-informed principles in all applicable federal agency grant requirements.
• Launch a national initiative to promote professional education and training on the issue of children exposed to violence.
• Ensure that all children exposed to violence are identified, screened, and assessed.
• Provide all children exposed to violence access to trauma-informed services and evidence-based trauma-specific treatment.
• Provide research funding to continue the clinical and scientific development of increasingly effective evidence-based treatments for children exposed to violence.
• Incentivize healthcare providers and insurance providers to reimburse trauma-focused services and trauma-specific treatment.
• Expand access to home visiting services for families with children who are exposed to violence, focusing on safety and referral to services.
• When domestic violence and child sexual or physical abuse co-occur, ensure that the dependency and family courts, the child protection system, and domestic violence programs work together to create protocols and policies that protect children and adult victims.
• Ensure compliance with the letter and spirit of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA).
• Develop and implement policies to improve the reporting of suspected child sexual abuse in every institution entrusted with the care and nurturing of children.
• Provide children, parents, schools, and communities with the tools they need to identify and stop bullying and to help children who have been bullied — including the bullies themselves — to recover from social, emotional, and school problems.
• Make trauma-informed screening, assessment, and care the standard in juvenile justice services.
• Guarantee that all violence-exposed children accused of a crime have legal representation.
• Help, do not punish, child victims of sex trafficking.

You can download the entire report here.