Lawyer’s Guide to Representing Very Young Children
The American Bar Association (ABA) Center on Children and the Law recently published a Practice and Policy Brief designed for attorneys and those representing very young children in dependency proceedings. The brief outlines some of the ethical dilemmas faced by these representatives, and it outlines the four types of advocacy essential to achieving the best outcomes for young children in these cases:
Child-centered
Research-informed
Permanency-driven
Holistic
Ethical guidance for attorneys who represent children of any age in child abuse and neglect ...
Darkness of Child Sex Abuse Leads to Suicide
Bill Zeller, a Princeton Ph.D candidate and renowned internet programmer, died Wednesday from injuries sustained in a suicide attempt. He was 27.
Zeller stunned everyone with a 4,000-word suicide note detailing a childhood of physical and sexual abuse which he had never before disclosed to anyone.
Presumably, Zeller's sexual abuse was not captured on film for the entire pedophile world to share and celebrate repeatedly in perpetuity. Sadly, most child pornography defendants minimize the impact of their criminal behavior on victims who can never escape this constant ...
Life After Death: Survivor Benefits for Posthumously Conceived Kids
Last week, a federal appeals court ruled that children born though in virto fertilization long after their father died cannot be denied Social Security survivor benefits solely because they could not inherit under state law.
"It goes without saying that these technologies were not within the imagination, much less the contemplation, of Congress when the relevant sections of the act came to be, and that they present a host of difficult legal and even moral questions . . . . We [] cannot help but observe that this is, indeed, a new world." U.S. ...
Middle School Boobies
Once again, America's finest school administrators have decided to attack student speech by banning the wearing of pink bracelets to promote breast cancer awareness that are emblazoned with the phrase "I [heart] Boobies." And once again, these people seem to be concentrated in the great state of Pennsylvania.
In the first case to challenge such a ban, two girls attending an Easton, Pennsylvania, middle school contend they have the right to engage in silent speech about breast cancer in a way that will be relevant and engaging to their peers.
According to the Legal ...
Tolerating Consensual Incest
No death penalty here folks. Last week, Columbia University professor and Huffington Post blogger David Epstein was charged with having a sexual relationship with his 24-year-old daughter.
Joining such notable perverts as pedophile photographer Matthew Mancuso and child rapist Patrick Kennedy, Epstein was described by one of his students as a "very nice guy" who was recently placed on administrative leave. According to the New York Daily News, Epstein and his child had a three-year sexual relationship and often exchanged "twisted text messages."
Too bad Epstein didn't ...
Can Child Pornography Prevent Child Sex Abuse?
A controversial study published today in the Archives of Sexual Behavior suggests that free and legal child pornography can prevent child sex abuse. University of Hawaii professor Milton Diamond reviewed a study finding that the rate of child sex abuse fell dramatically in the Czech Republic when child pornography was legalized in 1990. Apparently researchers observed a similar phenomenon with the decriminalization of child porn in Denmark and Japan.
According to Diamond, "in those three countries where child porn is legal the sex abuse against children is very low and it ...
Wikileaks on Masha Allen
Long before Wikileaks founder and editor Julian Assange became the planet's most hunted man for releasing hundreds of thousands of military and diplomatic documents, he published a eerily prescient exposé on Masha Allen entitled One Child's Unending Abuse - From Disney World Girl to Drifter
In March 2008, Assange and business reporter Christopher Witkowsky, released what would become journalism's epitaph on what had been an international story influencing everyone from Senator John Kerry to Oprah to President Putin.
Masha's rapid ascent to worldwide fame in 2005 and ...
