Federal Child Pornography Offenses – Report to Congress

This report is the result of a multi-year process in which the United States Sentencing Commission (“the Commission”) examined cases of offenders sentenced under the federal sentencing guidelines and corresponding penal statutes concerning child pornography offenses. The purpose of this report is to contribute to the ongoing assessment by Congress and the various stakeholders in the federal criminal justice system regarding how federal child pornography offenders are prosecuted, sentenced, incarcerated, and supervised following their reentry into the communi...

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Child Pornography: A Modern Day Childhood Gonorrhea Epidemic

I am reading a fascinating book by Lynn Sacco, an assistant professor of history at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, entitled Unspeakable: Father-Daughter Incest in American History. Unspeakable is an excellent book which explains how cultural mores and political needs distorted attitudes toward and medical knowledge of patriarchal sexual abuse at a time when the nation was committed to the familial power of white fathers and the idealized white family.For much of the nineteenth century, father-daughter incest was understood to take place among all classes and ...

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The Price of a Stolen Childhood

The New York Times Magazine has a feature article about the Marsh Law Firm's groundbreaking work over the past eight years to obtain restitution for child pornography victims. The story was over a year in the making. It’s a remarkable piece written by noted journalist Emily Bazelon and tells the tragic yet hopeful tale of two victims of child pornography and their quest to rebuild their lives. The article appears here and will be included in this Sunday's New York Times.

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Hildebran Elementary School Child Pornography Teacher Sex Abuse—Additional Federal Civil Rights Lawsuit Filed

In an ever-widening child sex abuse case which started with an email to the Marsh Law Firm from a parent who was concerned about child pornography in her child's elementary school, an additional lawsuit claims the former principal was notified of the abuse years ago but took no action to protect students. The family of another young child who attends Hildebran Elementary School in Burke County, North Carolina, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court sitting in Asheville, North Carolina.The lawsuit names as defendants Burke County Public Schools Board of Education, ...

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The Attorney General’s Task Force on Children Exposed to Violence

According to this report, "exposure to violence is a national crisis that affects approximately two out of every three of our children. Of the 76 million children currently residing in the United States, an estimated 46 million can expect to have their lives touched by violence, crime, abuse, and psychological trauma this year." 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, playgro...

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SEEKING JUSTICE FOR CHILD PORNOGRAPHY VICTIMS:
Marsh Law Firm Teams up with Freeman Lewis LLP in Novel Federal Lawsuit Under Masha’s Law

Marsh Law Firm PLLC partnered with Freeman Lewis LLC to file a lawsuit today on behalf of a victim of child pornography seeking damages from a defendant who was convicted of transporting child pornography in violation of federal criminal law. The civil lawsuit, “Amy” v. Joshua Osmun Kennedy, was filed in the federal district court for the Western District of Washington. The civil complaint seeks compensatory and punitive damages, as well as costs and attorneys’ fees under 18 U.S.C. § 2255 (Masha’s Law) and 18 U.S.C. § 2252A. To protect the ...

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Amicus Support Victim Restitution – Brief Filed in Supreme Court

Today, the National Crime Victim Law Institute (NCVLI) moved for leave to file, as amicus curiae, this brief in support of the Marsh Law Firm's recent Petition for a Writ of Certiorari concerning whether the Mandatory Restitution for Sexual Exploitation of Children Statute, 18 U.S.C. § 2259, excuses a defendant from paying restitution for the itemized loss categories unless there is proof that the victim’s losses were the proximate result of an individual defendant’s child pornography crime. NCVLI is a nonprofit educational and advocacy organization located ...

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