By Julie Asher
WASHINGTON (CNS) – Child sexual abuse in the United States is at epidemic levels.
More than 60,000 children are reported to have been abused every year, outnumbering those killed by guns or cars. Those who survive are often left not only with physical wounds, but also with psychological wounds that may never heal. These wounds exact both a profound personal and social cost.
Much attention has been focused on the issue of child sexual abuse and the Catholic Church, and rightly so. Allegations of abuse by clergy and church workers as well as cover-ups and bureaucratic mishandling by bishops, dioceses and religious orders have caused terrible pain for survivors of such abuse and their families. It also has resulted in disillusionment on the part of ordinary Catholics. The cost of this abuse and its aftermath totals more than $4 billion so far, according to the U.S. bishops’ Secretariat for Child and Youth Protection.
While the Catholic Church continues to struggle with this legacy, it has instituted a wide variety of steps to improve oversight, identify abusers and protect children.
One under-reported fact from the recent, highly publicized Pennsylvania grand jury report is that for all of the many horrors it identified, the good news was that it appeared to document the decline in current cases.
As Jesuit Father Tom Reese told America magazine in its Dec. 24 issue, every one of the accused priests in the report was either deceased or had been removed from ministry, “and only two had been accused of abusing a child in the last 20 years.”
During these same 20 years, however, an estimated 1.2 million children in this country were abused nationwide in schools, organizations, churches and families.
Understanding the plague of sexual abuse in this country means going beyond the immediate headlines and understanding what experts are saying about this scourge. It also means looking not only at the Catholic Church but at all institutions and societal structures where abuse can take place.
So far, no grand jury, congressional committee or law enforcement organization has undertaken a broad societal investigation of what is happening to children in public schools as well as private, in sports and other youth-oriented programs and organizations, in pediatric facilities and perhaps most common, in families. (In Australia, a Royal Commission investigation of child abuse in nongovernmental organizations took five years.)
“Sexual victimization of children is a serious and pervasive issue in society. It is present in families, and it is not uncommon in institutions where adults form mentoring and nurturing relationships with adolescents, including schools and religious, sports and social organizations,” said the John Jay report issued in May 2011 on “The Causes and Context of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests in the United States, 1950-2010.”
“If you want to talk about sexual abuse of minors, you’re talking about families, foster care programs, public schools,” New York Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan said in a recent Sirius XM interview. “You’re talking about organizations, every religion, you’re talking about public schools, it is a societal, cultural problem. There is no occupation that is freed from it.”
The U.S. Catholic Church “is no greater (an) offender than anybody else. In fact, some of the statistics would say that priestly abuse among minors is less than other professions,” the cardinal said.
He made the remarks in late January after the New York Legislature passed a measure to ease the statue of limitations on civil abuse cases. The state’s Catholic bishops agreed to support the bill after it was broadened to include not just the Catholic Church but public institutions.
Over the years, highly touted organizations such as the Boy Scouts, U.S.A. Gymnastics and Penn State have had abuse scandals.
Often such organizations are accused of behavior similar to what the Catholic Church has been accused of: denials, cover-ups, relocation of predators and unwillingness to tell authorities.
In July 2018, shortly before the Pennsylvania grand jury report was released, a team of Chicago Tribune reporters turned out a special series on abuse in Chicago’s public-school system: “Betrayed: Chicago schools fail to protect students from sexual abuse and assault, leaving lasting damage.”
“Whether the sexual attacks were brutal rapes, frightening verbal come-ons or ‘creepy,’ groping touches, the students often felt betrayed by school officials and wounded for years,” the paper reported.
“When students summoned the courage to disclose abuse, teachers and principals failed to alert child welfare investigators or police despite the state’s mandated reporter law,” it said.
The Tribune is hardly the first media outlet to examine abuse in the nation’s public schools. In December 2016, USA Today published its own series.
“Despite decades of repeated sex abuse scandals – from the Roman Catholic Church to the Boy Scouts to scores of news media reports identifying problem teachers – America’s public schools continue to conceal the actions of dangerous educators in ways that allow them to stay in the classroom,” it said.
USA Today’s network of media outlets conducted a yearlong investigation and “found that education officials put children in harm’s way by covering up evidence of abuse, keeping allegations secret and making it easy for abusive teachers to find jobs elsewhere.”
“As a result, schoolchildren across the nation continue to be beaten, raped and harassed by their teachers while government officials at every level stand by and do nothing,” the paper reported.
How bad may it be in our schools? According to an Associated Press 2017 investigative report, abuse cases are underreported, but what is tallied is staggering.
The yearlong investigation “uncovered roughly 17,000 official reports of sex assaults by students over a four-year period, from fall 2011 to spring 2015.”
“Though that figure represents the most complete tally yet of sexual assaults among the nation’s 50 million K-12 students,” AP said, “it does not fully capture the problem because such attacks are greatly underreported, some states don’t track them and those that do vary widely in how they classify and catalog sexual violence. A number of academic estimates range sharply higher.”
What happens when abuse is reported varies widely from school district to school district, but what The Associated Press found was not encouraging.
“Elementary and secondary schools have no national requirement to track or disclose sexual violence, and they feel tremendous pressure to hide it,” AP reported. “Even under varying state laws, acknowledging an incident can trigger liabilities and requirements to act. And when schools don’t act – or when their efforts to root out abuse are ineffectual – justice is not served.”
2018 began with sentencing of Larry Nassar, the former U.S.A. Gymnastics and Michigan State University sports doctor who was world famous because he treated the top U.S. Olympic women gymnasts. He was convicted and sentenced to 40 to 175 years in prison after pleading guilty to seven counts of criminal sexual conduct. More than 150 women and girls testified during the court proceedings that he sexually abused them over the past two decades.
The U.S. Olympic Committee has launched an investigation on the inaction of then-USOC CEO Scott Blackmun and chief of sport performance Alan Ashley in the roughly yearlong period after they were informed of the allegations against Nassar.
In late 2018, another medical doctor was in the abuse spotlight over sexual misconduct that allegedly occurred from the 1950s through the 1970s: Dr. Reginald Archibald, who ran a prestigious clinic for about 30 years at Rockefeller University Hospital in New York, where he treated children who were small for their age.
The New York Times reported Oct. 18, 2018, that “parents sought him out” to get help for their children with this condition. The hospital, according to the story, sent a letter to as many as 1,000 of his former patients in September 2018 asking if Archibald had had inappropriate contact with them. the story said the hospital knew about the possible abuse in 2004; Archibald died in 2007.
While doctors, teachers, clergy and other authority figures can be abusers, they also “can be neighbors, friends and family members,” according to Darkness to Light (www.d2l.org), a South Carolina-based nonprofit organization dedicated to child abuse prevention. “Significantly, abusers can be and often are other children.”
About 90 percent of children who are victims of sexual abuse know their abuser, and only 10 percent are abused by a stranger, Darkness to Light says: About 60 percent of those victims are sexually abused by people the family trusts; approximately 30 percent of them are sexually abused by family members.
The younger the victim, the more likely it is that the abuser is a family member. Of those molesting a child under 6, 50 percent were family members. Family members also accounted for 23 percent of those abusing children ages 12 to 17.
About one in 10 children will be sexually abused before their 18th birthday, according to Darkness to Light. “About one in seven girls and one in 25 boys will be sexually abused before they turn 18.”
Because of underreporting and a lack of systematic, nationwide data collection, estimates of sexual abuse can vary.
“Child sexual abuse is far more prevalent than most people realize,” according to Darkness to Light. “Child sexual abuse is likely the most prevalent health problem children face with the most serious array of consequences.”
Understanding the scope and scale of child sexual abuse in this country is only the start. In future articles, Catholic News Service will look at treatment for victims, the pursuit of predators, the threat of human trafficking and the impact of the internet on child abuse.

(Greg Erlandson contributed to this story.)

By Maureen Smith
MADISON – “Prevention of sexual abuse is not a mindset, it is activity. You have to do something in order to prevent.” More than 500 educators and staff members of the Catholic Diocese of Jackson went home with this advice from a half-day workshop from child sexual abuse expert Monica Applewhite on Monday, Feb. 4. The Office of Child Protection offers an annual workshop for educators. This year’s event was held at Madison St. Joseph School and was open to chancery staff as well as teachers, staff and principals from the Catholic schools here.

Applewhite has spent more than 25 years in the field of abuse prevention and research. She is based out of Austin, Texas. She started the day by detailing the history of abuse awareness and prevention in the United States. She wanted the teachers to recognize that the study of sexual abuse and the laws meant to protect children and vulnerable adults from abuse are relatively recent in historical terms and so constant study and education are an important factors to make programs more effective.
One of Applewhite’s key points in the morning presentation is that the tough work of prevention is worth the effort. One success story she profiled was Big Brothers, Big Sisters. In the 1980s “Big Brothers discovered they had become a magnet for adults seeking sexual relationships with kids,” she explained. The organization’s leadership tackled the issue head-on, transforming their model to add screening, training and better supervision. “They decided that sometimes there is no substitute for the difference a relationship can make in the life of a child,” Applewhite said.
Applewhite gave a detailed presentation on different types of sexual offenders and how each of them operates within an organization and with an individual child or vulnerable adult. She discredited many stereotypes during this part of the presentation to make the point that abusers are not the shadowy strangers many think, but are often charming and involved in the community. Many spend a long time grooming both a victim and their families. This is how some abusers are able to maintain a relationship with their victims and keep them from reporting the crimes.
The afternoon presentation shifted to wholesome relationship development. “Wholesome relationship development involves compassion and empathy and independence,” she explained. Adults who want to involve other healthy people in a child’s life and who are emotionally consistent and transparent have a child’s best interests at heart. By contrast, grooming – that is “the process by which someone prepares a child and others in their environment for abuse,” is exclusive, secretive and isolating. Grooming often involves forbidden or sexually explicit conversations and boundary testing.
There is some overlap between the two relationships, said Applewhite. Teachers and youth leaders often do have close relationships with their students. This is where policies can help define appropriate behaviors, identify risky ones and keep everyone involved safe and accountable.
She urged the educators in her audience to step back from their personal relationships when they see a behavior that might be a sign of grooming or abuse. “We have to be open to things that are wrong or weird,” she said. “We have to be willing to say something, to confront the situation,” even if it involves a friend or colleague, she added.
Having standard policies may seem inflexible when young kids are involved, but they can help with gray areas. One example Applewhite used was an adult who wrestles with teens. It may be that the adult grew up in a family where rough-and-tumble behavior was the norm, but it also represents a boundary violation. A coworker or supervisor can issue a warning based on the standard policy that physical contact including wrestling is inappropriate. The warning details for the adult what structures are in place and it allows the supervisor to keep an eye out for further warning signs. It may seem like some rules are arbitrary ‘lines in the sand,’ but, “you have to set up that arbitrary line so you can act on it,” said Applewhite.
The last part of her presentation looked at peer-to-peer abuse. Applewhite spent some time discussing normal sexual behaviors in children, including curiosity about their bodies and trying out “potty words,” and then detailed behaviors that may be cause for concern and finally, problematic behaviors adults need to report and address. A majority of abuse perpetrated against very young children comes from other older children, she explained. Identifying and addressing early problem behaviors can protect the young children and save an older child from becoming an adult abuser.
Child Protection Coordinator Vickie Carollo saw Applewhite speak at a national conference and knew she wanted to invite her to the Diocese of Jackson. “I felt like her expertise and her wonderful way of presenting this tough information would be a perfect fit for our teachers and administrators,” said Carollo. “I went home with new information and I hope everyone who attended was encouraged and learned something new,” she added.

By Maureen Smith
JACKSON – One of the main goals of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Vulnerable Adults is to provide a means for the victims of abuse to seek healing from their trauma. Experts agree that it is never too late for someone to seek therapy. In the Diocese of Jackson, counselors at Catholic Charities’ Solomon Counseling Center offer trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TFCBT), an evidence-based therapy. In fact, Solomon was one of the first centers to offer this type of therapy thanks to a grant Catholic Charities received 12 years ago.
“It was an amazing opportunity. We got trained by the developers of TFCBT, said Valerie McClellan, the director of Solomon Counseling Center and Victims Assistance Coordinator for the Diocese of Jackson. “It was really just coming out, getting disseminated at that time,” she added. All of the counselors at Solomon are trained in this therapy. While TFCBT is primarily used to treat children who have been traumatized, Solomon offers a similar therapy that can help adults.
“Many of the clients we see are also adults that have a history of childhood abuse and those are different evidence-based therapies – cognitive processing therapies (CPT) — is one that was initially designed for rape victims, but it is also been adjusted a little bit. It’s been used with veterans – really any adults who have a trauma history. And then EMDR – eye movement, desensitization, reprocessing is an evidence-based therapy. So those three are really what we use in treatment of trauma in both adults and children,” explained McClellan.
The approaches may differ, but the goal is the same. “The hope is to make meaning out of that experience,” said McClellan. “It does not, of course, wipe out that they had that experience in their lives, but it can take away what I call the emotional kick – the reaction based on that experience that is held in their body and in their souls. Any emotion is held in the body so all of these therapies teach people to calm themselves down and think about how they want to act rather than react, but the end result is to make meaning out of that. It is not going to take the memories away, but it’s going to help them redefine their life so that is not the primary driver in what they do.” Therapy, she went on to say, does not last forever. Each of these approaches has a time frame associated with it. McClellan said therapy can remove symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.
“Yes, they are going to know what happened; yes they may even have minor symptoms, but they will know how to keep themselves safe, because some of trauma is that they are taught that they are victims basically. Perpetrators pick out people and that (idea of being a victim) can be almost ingrained in somebody so they don’t know how to keep themselves safe — of course I am in no way saying that the person is responsible for what happened to them, but we teach them what are boundaries, because if you have never been taught that, you don’t know what it is. We teach them what is a safe situation, how to listen to instinct. I tell people that instinct is God talking to us. That is how we are supposed to know how to keep ourselves safe. You know how sometimes you walk into a situation and something just doesn’t feel right? Well people, particularly victims, have been taught not to listen to that voice. So part of therapy process is to listen to that voice inside them which is there to help them keep themselves safe.”
Everyone processes trauma differently and symptoms can be very different in children and adults. “There are so many extremes. Probably one of the primary ones we see (in adults) is difficulty in relationships with other people. You don’t know what boundaries are; people can take advantage of you. You don’t know how to pick a healthy partner; difficulty in work – which is difficulty in relationships. A lot of anger management issues which can, of course, cause serious problems at work; substance abuse issues – alcohol and drugs. Other mental health issues. If trauma happens at a really young age it can flip the switch so to speak for depression or anxiety issues,” said McClellan.
Her staff has developed a screening for adults who come in with some of these problems to determine if they have been abused or suffered some other trauma in their lives. Clients may not even realize how some event in their past is still showing up in their behavior today or that they can get therapy to better deal with the impact of that trauma.
“Children do not have language so, if they are being abused, if they are scared, if they are angry, whatever they are feeling, they are going to act it out. A lot of times we have kids that have been abused and their parents are extremely frustrated because they are having a lot of behavioral issues. Well, that’s how kids tell us something’s wrong,” she said. Many children come in with a diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or oppositional defiant disorder (ODD). McClellan said while these disorders are real and treatable, sometimes the behaviors are caused by trauma.
“If they have had an adult abusing them, they are going to be mad at a lot of adults. That’s really a strength. Rather than just being a victim, they are trying to fight back in the only way they know,” she said. She urged parents to pay attention to behavioral changes in their children and look for the causes rather than just label the kids as ‘bad.’
Trauma can have many sources, but there is always hope for someone who is suffering. “Although Solomon Counseling is an outpatient counseling program we are primarily a trauma treatment center. We get referrals through the Children’s Advocacy Center, they do the forensic interviews for kids that have been physically and sexually abused. We get referrals through the Children’s Justice Center at UMMC – they do the forensic medical for children who have been abused. We get referrals from law enforcement; from attorney general’s office. A lot of those who are involved in the legal aspect of hopefully making perpetrators face the crimes that they do,” said McClellan. The counselors work with children and adults and also offer other mental health services including marriage counseling and help with depression and anxiety.

By Jacob Comello
WASHINGTON (CNS) – Since the confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh last October and the 2018 midterm elections, a number of states have news laws in place to either expand or restrict abortion, including Mississippi, whose new law puts the state among the most ardent on the pro-life side of the battle.
On March 21, Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant, a Republican, signed into law S.B. 2116, a “heartbeat bill” which will prohibit abortions in the state after the point a fetal heartbeat is detected.
It was approved by a 34-15 party-line vote with most Republicans supporting it and most Democrats rejecting it. The House passed it in a 78-37 vote. Set to take effect in July of this year, it will set tough restrictions for the state’s only abortion clinic – Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
Pro-life advocates cheered the bill’s passage, among them Mississippi Bishops Joseph R. Kopacz of Jackson and Louis F. Kihneman of Biloxi.
In a joint statement, they extolled the bill for protecting “the tiniest and most vulnerable of our citizens” and expressed hope that “the courts will uphold this law and continue to pray for an end to abortion in our nation.” They concluded with a list of clinics in the state that assist women who find themselves in difficult pregnancies.
The bill makes abortions illegal as soon as the fetus’ heartbeat can be detected, which could be as early as six to eight weeks; in some cases it may be as late as 12 weeks when detected with a Doppler fetal monitor. The only exceptions would be to prevent a woman’s death or her serious risk of impairment.
The Susan B. Anthony list, a national pro-life advocacy group based in Washington, echoed similar sentiments. President Marjorie Dannenfelser said: “The people of Mississippi, like most Americans, reject the extreme status quo of abortion on demand through birth imposed by Roe v. Wade. … It is no wonder we see growing momentum to humanize our laws.”
Groups that support legal abortion already have plans to challenge the new law. According to The Washington Post, the Center for Reproductive Rights, the American Civil Liberties Union and NARAL Pro-Choice America have all labeled it unconstitutional and plan to wage a court battle against it soon. Hillary Schellner, an attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights, told The Washington Post that “this ban is one of the most restrictive abortion bans signed into law, and we will take Mississippi to court to make sure it never takes effect.”
Bryant fired back at the bill’s detractors in a tweet where he affirmed his pro-life convictions. He also mentioned that the prospect of legal challenges only served to strengthen his resolve to sign the measure even before the bill was passed, saying: “We will all answer to the good Lord one day. I will say in this instance, ‘I fought for the lives of innocent babies, even under threat of legal action.’”
A legal fight may indeed prove problematic for the bill. According to The Hill, a similar measure was approved by Kentucky’s legislators and signed by the governor March 15, only to be stopped by an order from a federal judge the same day. The legislation on hold until a hearing on it can be held. Leading the effort against the Kentucky version was the ACLU, which teamed up with the state’s only abortion clinic.
Other states in which heartbeat bills have gained traction include Georgia and Ohio. Iowa also had passed such a measure, but in January, a judge declared it unconstitutional. Other states, like Rhode Island, continue to seek policies that will expand abortion access.

By Andre de Gruy
JACKSON – Mississippi Legislature wrapped up their 2019 work early but not without passing several criminal justice-related bills. All three are now on the Governor Phil Bryant’s desk awaiting his signature.
HB 1352, the Criminal Justice Reform Act of 2019, went through several changes during the session.
The final version focused on updating drug court statutes to facilitate different types of “intervention” courts such as mental health courts as well as ensuring people have access to the programs primarily through fee waivers. The oversight commission membership was expanded to include a person with a background in mental health to reflect the broader scope. While some drug courts were allowing medically-assisted treatment the new law will mandate this when appropriate. These treatment methods although controversial have strong support from the medical community as one of the best evidence-based methods to treat opioid addiction.

Some of the other features of HB 1352 are designed to help people reentering society from jails or prison. People will no longer face a driver’s license suspension for an inability to pay a fine or for a drug conviction that is unrelated to operating a vehicle. The “Scarlet F” of a felony conviction that follows tens of thousands of Mississippians for their lifetime, preventing many from fully participating in the economy, their families, and their communities, will be easier to remove. Expungement, whipping a conviction off a person’s record, will be available to more nonviolent offenders.
People exiting prison to post-release supervision or parole will have an additional 30 days to get on their feet before they have to start paying supervision fees. Finally, people with drug convictions will no longer face a lifetime ban on receiving SNAP benefits.
SB 2781, the Fresh Start Act, is aimed at ending automatic bars to securing an occupational license because of a conviction of a crime unrelated to the field. For example, many people become skilled barbers in the correctional system yet can’t get a license upon their release.
Another important bill is SB 2328, the Forensic Mental Health Act. This bill amends forensic mental health statutes to facilitate faster administration of justice, relieve burdens on sheriffs and insure constitutional protections for criminal justice system involved people with mental health concerns. Approximately 20 percent of Mississippi’s jail population suffers with a serious mental illness. In a relatively small number, probably less than 20 people a year, the illness is so severe they are not competent to be prosecuted and cannot be restored to competency. This act is designed to speed up evaluations to make this determination and to expedite moving the person from the jail to a hospital.
In addition to the changes in the “intervention” courts in HB 1352, the Legislature appropriated additional funds to the Supreme Court to update the data system used to track and evaluate the courts and to facilitate development of mental health courts.
While all of this is good there is still much left to do. These new laws will have little if any impact on the state’s large prison population. Despite significant decreases in prison population after the 2014 reforms, Mississippi only moved from number two to three in incarceration rate. Prisons all over the state remain overcrowded, putting guards and inmates in jeopardy and diverting money from recidivism reduction and reentry programs to security needs. To avoid significant increases in corrections spending – taking money away from education, health care and other important needs – Mississippi’s institutions will need to continue reforms in 2020 with the intent of safely reducing the prison population.

(André deGruy is a member of St. Richard Parish, the diocesan Faith In Action Team and The Mississippi State Public Defender.)