Missouri’s Task Force on the Prevention of Sexual Abuse of Children has made 22 recommendations to the Governor and legislature.
The Task Force was created by lawmakers in 2011, and brought together advocates, legislators, educators and professionals to better protect children in Missouri from sex abuse. Joy Oesterly with Missouri Kids First says shortly after the task force was created, the sex abuse scandal at Penn State broke, bringing national attention to the problem.
Oesterly says the recommendations focus on community-based support, mental health services, changes in statute and preventative education. She also stresses the importance of mental health services — both for child victims as well as youth who exhibit inappropriate or illegal sexual behavior. She says hope and recovery is possible for the future of both of them.
Here’s a list of the recommendations:
1: Community-based child abuse prevention education needs to be expanded and be comprehensive in nature.
2: All schools and youth-serving organizations should have specific child sexual abuse prevention policies.
3: Existing state child abuse prevention programs should include programing targeted at preventing child sexual abuse.
4: Expand home-visiting programs and specifically include child sexual abuse prevention in these programs.
5: Create and implement standardized training for all mandated reporters.
6: Fund the creation and implementation of standardized, discipline-specific training for members of the multi- disciplinary team (MDT) and judges.
7: Identify and fund discipline-specific expert technical assistance for MDT members.
8: Establish discipline-specific best practices or standards for multi-disciplinary teams, law enforcement, prosecutors and medical providers.
9: Establish mechanisms for addressing the secondary trauma experienced by individuals who work to address and prevent child sexual abuse.
10: Assess for and address domestic violence when investigating child sexual abuse and providing services to victims and caregivers.
11: Identify and fund evidence-based early intervention and treatment for youth with illegal/inappropriate sexual behaviors.
12: Identify and fund the expansion of mental health services to children who have been sexually abused.
13: Create and fund a child sexual abuse public awareness campaign.
14: The General Assembly should consider increased investment in preventing child sexual abuse in order to reduce the substantial financial, health and social costs associated with childhood trauma.
15: Private foundations in Missouri should increase funding to prevent and address childhood trauma.
16: Submit to Missouri voters a proposed constitutional amendment allowing evidence of signature crimes, commonly referred to as propensity evidence, to be used in child sexual abuse cases.
17: Modify 210.115 RSMo. to require mandatory reporters to directly report suspected child abuse and neglect to Children’s Division.
18: Clarify the term “immediately” in the mandatory reporting statute, 210.115 RSMo., and school reporting statute, 167.117 RSMo.
19: Clarify 544.250 RSMo. and 544.280 RSMo. to allow for hearsay evidence at preliminary hearings.
20: Amend 491.075.1 RSMo. to clarify that the statute allows for the use of child witness statements relative to prosecutions under Section 575.270.
21: Modify the definition of deviate sexual intercourse in 566.010 RSMo. to include genital to genital contact.
22: Modify 556.037 RSMo. to eliminate the statute of limitations for the prosecutions of first-degree statutory rape and first-degree statutory sodomy.
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4 comments:
Where's the New York Commission? Cuomo? Silver? Anybody home? Does anybody give a shit? Gay marriage - hooray!
Spare us the phony displays of righteousness Avi until you do the right thing about child molesters
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/14/opinion/religions-place-in-american-life.html
To the Editor:
Frank Bruni seems to regard the fact that most of the American electorate believes in God, and prefers that holders of public office have a similar belief, as an affront to religious freedom.
It’s nothing of the sort, of course, but rather something called democracy.
For some of us, moreover, the majority of Americans’ belief in a higher power is an important part of what makes America special. And, yes, blessed.
(Rabbi) AVI SHAFRAN
Director of Public Affairs
Agudath Israel of America
New York, Dec. 11, 2012
Shmarya has entered the Twilight Zone after having spun this horrible story that the criminal is the victim and millions of Jews who are furious over this crime are somehow evil aggressors. Maybe Hamas should appoint him their Chief of Communications
http://www.timesofisrael.com/hundreds-protest-in-tel-aviv-demand-migrant-deportations/
Calling for the deportation of Sudanese and Eritrean migrants from Israel after an Eritrean man raped an 83-year-old Tel Aviv woman last weekend, hundreds of demonstrators marched from the city’s Hatikvah neighborhood to its central bus station Monday night.
The event, called “Blowing up the Silence,” was organized by MK Michael Ben Ari, of the newly formed Otzma Leyisrael party.
A heavy police presence watched over the demonstrators, who operated under the slogan “Getting Sodom and Gomorrah out of Tel Aviv and returning it to Africa,” called on the prime minister to “go home,” chanted “Sudanese to Sudan and leftists with them,” and said “Eli Yishai has failed,” according to Walla News.
Ben Ari told the crowd that southern Tel Aviv neighborhoods had been taken over by infiltrators saying, “When there are no police and there is no government, only we can stop the next rape.”
Interior Minister Eli Yishai earlier called on the justice and foreign ministries to give him the authority to deport all remaining African migrants, whom he and other right-wing politicians consistently refer to as infiltrators.
“This shocking rape illustrates the lost sense of security Israeli citizens feel in areas with a high concentration of infiltrators,” Yishai said. On Monday it was reported that Yishai’s Shas party had created a campaign video that focused on the ostensible danger posed to Israeli society by migrants.
The rape apparently took place over several hours in the 83-year-old woman’s apartment. The suspect allegedly bolted after a member of the woman’s family came for a visit and caught him in the act.
Using DNA samples, police were able to track the suspect down. The samples matched genetic material in the police data bank, because the man had previously been arrested in connection with other sexual assaults.
A Tel Aviv court remanded the man into custody for four days, and the judge ordered a battery of medical tests to rule out the presence of sexually transmitted diseases.
The victim was admitted to the hospital, and has not yet been released.
Israel has been constructing a barrier along its southern border with Egypt to better protect against Sinai-based terror attacks and to stop illegal immigrants from entering the country. The number of migrants from Africa illegally entering Israel dropped from over 2,000 in January to 36 in December, according to TV’s Channel 2. All 36 of the migrants were arrested and taken to a recently constructed detention facility in the Negev desert.
Thousands of African migrants, mainly from Sudan and Eritrea who entered the country in recent years, tended to migrate towards the city centers and particularly the poorer southern neighborhoods of Tel Aviv.
Veteran residents have held numerous protests in the past two years, expressing frustration at the government’s inability to alleviate what they consider a threat to their livelihoods and their sense of personal security.
Last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Israel’s ability to curb the influx of migrants and said Israel was conducting negotiations with several African countries aimed at repatriating the migrants.
During the summer, Israel repatriated several hundred migrants to the newly formed South Sudan.
In the case of migrants from Sudan and Eritrea, who make up 90% of the total migrant population, Israel cannot legally deport them, due to a risk to their lives in their home countries.
Avi Shafran's Ami magazine’s recently interviewed Weberman’s defense attorney - but not the attorney for the prosecution.
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