15 exonerees attend conference at UTA — During a prolonged standing ovation, the Texas exonerees were brought forward one by one. By the time the introductions were done, 14 men and one woman, each having served years in prison for crimes they did not commit, stood together on a stage at the University of Texas at Arlington. “On this panel there is 200 years of incarceration,” one of them, Anthony Robinson, told a large crowd of students, educators, relatives and government officials. “Two hundred years of suffering. Two hundred years of ignoring a problem that is screaming to be dealt with.

Abuse Shelter Watchdogs: See no Evil, Speak no Evil — Domestic violence shelters are rife with mismanagement and fraud. They push a radical gender ideology on the unsuspecting, discriminate against male victims, and employ woefully unqualified staff. And they ridicule traditional religion as “oppressive” to women – all to the tune of $100 million in federal taxpayer money each year. So how do shelters get away with this nonsense? Where’s the accountability? And why are the government-mandated watchdogs giving these shelters a free pass?

Bishop to defrock priest who filmed abuse of boy — A SENIOR Catholic bishop is preparing to hold a secret ecclesiastical trial in his diocese to defrock a priest who filmed himself sexually abusing a school boy on his mobile phone. Bishop of Kilmore Leo O’Reilly has reported the case of Cavan-born convicted paedophile Fr Michael Molloy to the Vatican. The moves to defrock the priest follow the establishment of a similar tribunal to investigate abuse complaints against a priest in the diocese of Cloyne by Archbishop Dermot Clifford, who was assigned by Pope Benedict XVI as apostolic administrator.

Catholic order pays out for abuse — A Catholic religious order is to supply a 161m euros (£145m) package of measures as reparation for child abuse in Ireland. The Christian Brothers said the decision had been taken in response to the Ryan report which revealed decades of abuse at religious institutions. The report, published in May, laid out a picture of systematic abuse. In a statement the order said its move followed its “shame and sorrow at the findings of the Ryan Report”.

Deadline near to file church abuse claims — Native Americans sexually abused by Jesuit priests have eight days left to seek damages from the bankrupt church. The Society of Jesus, Oregon Province filed for bankruptcy protection in February in the wake of more than 200 lawsuits alleging that priests sexually abused children in northwestern states. One condition was that victims have until Nov. 30 to file an abuse lawsuit against the Jesuits. After that, no claims can be brought against them. The Jesuits have since 2001 paid out more than $25 million to sex abuse victims.

Irish Catholic Church hid sex abuse for decades: official — Ireland’s Catholic Church apologised Thursday after a damning new report showed it covered up child sex abuse over more than three decades. The Irish government also said sorry for failing to protect children in the wake of the latest report, published six months after a first landmark study revealed widespread abuse of children in Catholic care. “I offer to each and every survivor my apology, my sorrow and my shame for what happened,” said Diarmuid Martin, archbishop of Dublin since 2004. “I am aware that no words of apology will ever be sufficient,” he said, adding that “the fact that many abusers were priests constituted both an offence to God and an affront to the priesthood.”

Married RE teacher Madeleine Martin jailed after seducing schoolboy, 15, on Facebook — Madeleine Martin, 39, had sex with the boy in the back of her car in a country park, at a shopping centre and inside the mother of two’s family home during a brief relationship. The religious education teacher also persuaded the pupil to have her name tattooed on his arm after they became involved when she was assigned to mentor him at an all-boys school. She was yesterday jailed for 32 months and put on the Sex Offenders Register after admitting ten counts of sexual activity with a child under 16. Manchester Crown Court heard how Martin fell for the boy after she was assigned to help him with his difficulties with school work last year.

Mars Hill woman sentenced to prison for rape — A Mars Hill woman is now an inmate at The North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women in Raleigh after being sentenced to up to 10 years for statutory rape. Amanda Metcalf, 24, formerly of 217 Brook St., Mars Hill, was sentenced to at least 94 months and no more than 122 months in prison when she appeared before Superior Court Judge Philip Ginn last week in Madison County. Metcalf was arrested in April and charged with felony statutory rape after a boy told Madison County Detective Mike Boone that he was 13 when he and Metcalf had sex.

Men demand laws that punish women — Men have been urged to discard their egos and report any form of abuse by their female counterparts so gender-based violence programmes can include them. Because men tend to sweep such abuses under the carpet, it appears as if the available programmes exclude them. During a gender-based workshop on Wednesday male participants who were drawn from BCL and Botswana Prisons indicated that they succumb to abuse by women but because of their traditional upbringing they suffer in silence for fear of being treated as weaklings.

Men’s Rights — Earlier this month DoubleX, Slate’s short-lived female-oriented publication (launched six months ago and about to be folded back into the parent site as a women’s section), ran an article ringing the alarm about the dire threat posed by the power of the men’s rights movement. But the article, written by New York-based freelance writer Kathryn Joyce and titled “Men’s Rights’ Groups Have Become Frighteningly Effective,” says more about the state of feminism–and journalistic bias–than it does about men’s groups.

Military suicides increase as U.S. soldiers struggle with torment of war — The Army and the Marine Corps, which have borne the heaviest burden in Iraq and Afghanistan, have been hit the hardest, reporting a record number of suicides in 2008. This year, the toll is on pace to climb even higher. When combined, the figures paint a stark portrait of loss. More than 2,100 members of the armed forces have taken their own lives since 2001, nearly triple the number of troops who have died in Afghanistan and almost half of all U.S. fatalities in Iraq.

Mother Love / Female Abusers — It was in a high school literature class that I was first introduced to the Oedipus Complex, defined as “a boy’s unresolved desire for sexual gratification through the parent of the opposite sex, especially the desire of a son for his mother”. It was in a college film class that I was shown a famous French film entitled “Murmur of the Heart” which took the Oedipal theme and played it out in a contemporary middle class setting. In this film, the sensitive youngest son of a beautiful, tempestuous Italian woman is ushered into manhood by her as he recovers from a heart murmur at a countryside sanitarium. The film would have you believe that although mother and son both realized that they had crossed a forbidden line, neither was scarred by the experience, and that in fact the son was now able to go on and become a man. At the time, I never questioned the implications of this theme.

Number of men on receiving end of domestic abuse soars — THE number of men in the Lothians who say they are victims of domestic violence has more than trebled in the past decade. New figures show 1,207 men admitted being on the receiving end of domestic abuse last year, compared with just 374 in the year 2000. Statistics for the whole of Scotland suggest a similar trend. Today the Scottish Government said it might consider further research or action.

Shieldstown woman arrested for abusing eight-year-old nephew — A woman of Shieldstown, West Bank Berbice was arrested on Wednesday following reports that she was abusing her eight-year-old nephew while he was in her care. The boy, who was at times chained and locked away, was rescued after his plight was highlighted on Wednesday during a seminar held for International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women at the Fort Wellington Boardroom. The Probation Department was contacted and officers subsequently informed police, who found marks of violence on the child’s body. Stabroek News was told that the boy was removed from the home and is staying with an uncle.

The “Battle of the Sexes” is over — and our side has lost — Here is the latest version of our “battle of the sexes” post. We are constantly updating this list, so in the comments below, suggest your own points for inclusion in the next revision.

Trial Begins In Woman’s Molestation Case — A woman charged with having sex with two 12-year-old boys is now on trial. In her opening arguments, the prosecutor called Sheila Granger a child molester who used kindness to prey on both boys. But the defense called the state’s case against Granger twisted. During opening arguments, the prosecutor told the jury Granger had multiple sexual encounters with the boys, who were both boyfriends of Granger’s 12-year-old daughter over a one-year period. The first alleged victim also played on the football team Granger’s husband coached.

Woman Draws Prison Sentence For Sexual Assault — A Rogers woman was sentenced to 10 years in prison Thursday after admitting to sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy. Anita Kay Fine, 40, pled guilty to sexual assault in the fourth degree and possession of a controlled substance. She also was charged as a habitual offender. Fine was originally charged with rape, a class Y felony, but agreed to plead guilty to the lesser charged under a plea agreement her attorney Shane Wilkinson reached with Chief Deputy Prosecutor Stuart Cearley.

Youth worker reportedly spent weekend having sex with teen — Thelma Nicole Miles is accused of having sex with a 14-year-old boy that she was supposed to help care for. The 29-year-old woman remains in the Bexar County Jail. According to investigators, Miles met the teen at the Abraxas Youth and Family Services in San Antonio, a Texas Youth Commission facility, where she worked as a medication technician. The center is meant to help children and teenagers who have been physically or sexually abused or who have had an addiction to drugs or alcohol.

Although I live in the United States, I keep a look out for organizations that service male victims abroad. While the US lacks sufficient services for male victims, the situation is much worse in other countries, particularly those where feminist politics have a much stronger hold. To my knowledge, this appears to be true in Australia. The One in Three Campaign is the first I have heard of any overt attempt to address physical, emotional and sexual violence against males.

From the website:

WHAT IS FAMILY VIOLENCE?

Family violence and abuse is a serious and deeply entrenched problem in Australia. It has significant impacts upon the lives of men, women and children. It knows no boundaries of gender, geography, socio-economic status, age, ability, sexual preference, culture, race or religion. Domestic violence (also known as intimate partner violence or IPV), and most elder abuse, child abuse and sexual abuse are all different forms of family violence. Thankfully reducing family violence against women and children has been firmly on the agendas of government for many years. Now is the time to move to the next, more sophisticated stage of tackling the problem: recognising men as victims as well.

AT LEAST ONE IN THREE VICTIMS ARE MALE

Contrary to common beliefs, up to One in Three victims of sexual assault and at least One in Three victims of family violence and abuse is male1 (perhaps as many as one in two – see our overview of research page). While many services have quite rightly been established over the past three decades to support female victims of family violence, the needs of male victims remain largely unmet. Historically government policies have been based on the assumption that the vast majority of perpetrators are male and the vast majority of victims are female, and the policies of current governments are still based on this erroneous position. Indeed, regretfully, the National Council to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children did not include male victims in their otherwise laudable March 2009 recommendations which have been enthusiastically supported by the federal government. Now is the time for action by politicians and community leaders to recognise that a comprehensive approach is required to combat the scourge of family violence.

REDUCING FAMILY VIOLENCE

Family violence and abuse can never be excused or justified, however, in order to reduce the levels of violence in the family, we must seek to understand the causes and contexts that give rise to it. We need to address the complexities of violence. All victims need compassionate and highly responsive support, and all perpetrators need services to help them stop their use of violence and abuse. Dysfunctional relationships in which both partners use violence need to be supported to change, as it is these environments which are clearly the most harmful to children.

THE ONE IN THREE CAMPAIGN

The One in Three Campaign aims to raise public awareness of the existence and needs of male victims of family violence and abuse; to work with government and non-government services alike to provide assistance to male victims; and to reduce the incidence and impacts of family violence on Australian men, women and children.

It is good to see this sort of campaign happening. There is no valid reason for ignoring male victims of violence, especially when there is much research demonstrating that males make up a significant, if not equal, portion of the victims. What is particularly refreshing about the One in Three campaign’s approach is that it tackles some of the misinformation that has been presented to the Australian public.

Another interesting things about the campaign is its supporters. There are quite a few well-known people backing this campaign, and hopefully their support will help the campaign be more successful. Considering that the campaign made news around the same time as Australia plans to enact compulsory feminist programs “in a major push to prevent violence against females,” it is great to see something that might prompt some changes in that plan.

From the article:

Possible classroom activities include students acting out scenes of sexual coercion after which students would suggest more appropriate behaviour.

A VicHealth report for the state Education Department calls for teachers to be trained in gender, violence and sexual health issues so they would be comfortable discussing “taboo” issues.

But it would help if teachers could “make the program fun”, the authors said.

The report says programs for all students should start at primary level and be reinforced across all year levels in subjects including drama, English, science and sport.

They would combat common attitudes among boys such as young women are either “good girls or sluts”, the report said.

It said feminist theories were best at explaining the link between gender power relations and violence against women, and must underpin the programs.

But the authors of the “Respectful Relationships Education” report admitted there was considerable community hostility to feminism, even among teachers and students.

The hostility comes with good reasons. Programs like the one Michael Flood wants instituted are little more than demonization and blaming tactics meant to belittle and attack boys. They are incredibly insensitive, completely ignoring female-on-male violence and ignoring the fact that many of the boys who will be subjected to these programs are victims of emotional, physical and sexual abuse, often by their mothers. The language and tactics used in these programs can have a disastrous effect on boys who have been or are being abused, essentially blaming the boys for what was done to them and leaving them with the impression that they either deserved it or their experiences do not count as abuse.

Flood halfheartedly tries to address this problem:

Report author Dr Michael Flood admitted there was always the risk of a backlash, but said it was crucial that students were taught that sexist attitudes and unequal relationships between the sexes were central to explaining violence.

“We need to do that in ways that are careful and respectful and don’t make boys in particular feel blamed and demonised for the problem,” he said.

“Not by shoving capital ‘F’ feminism down their throats.”

Yet that is exactly what will be done. Recently I emailed Flood in regards to his XY Online site. For a site supposedly concerned about men’s issues there is a complete dearth of articles, research, links and information about male victimization, male rape, male suicide and other issues that affect boys and men. The bulk of the content on the site revolves around feminist propaganda attacking males and masculinity. As I said to Flood in the email, the site leaves the impression that male victimization essentially does not exist and unfortunately the language used on the site can be quite triggering for male victims, especially since the many of the articles belittle and minimize male victims’ experiences.

Even in Flood’s responses to the live blog comments he could not manage to explain away the obvious biased nature of what he intends. The effect it can have on boys, especially young boys who cannot articulate the reasons they may be hurt by Flood’s intentions, is severe. I wrote about one such program that was done in my cousin’s school and how it harmed him. In my correspondence with Flood he seemed rather dismissive of acknowledging abuse against males and particularly dismissive of acknowledging that women commit such acts. One must wonder just what he has planned in regards to teaching boys about “respecting” girls while teaching girls to express their sexuality and wills however they wish regardless of the impact it has on boys.

There has been a little bit of an uproar at some British universities. Several young men attending the universities decided to form men’s groups to address the various issues men face. This, of course, resulted in an interesting, albeit expected, reaction:

After decades of feminism, equal rights and “women-only” support networks, a lower, deeper voice is attempting to make itself heard at some of Britain’s leading universities.

Male students are “manning-up”, setting up men’s groups to celebrate and explore the concept of masculinity amid accusations of sexism and gender stereotyping.

Manchester University has created the first official MENS Society – Masculinity Exploring Networking and Support – despite outrage from critics who claim the existence of such a group undermines women’s ability to speak out for equality.

Meanwhile, at Oxford University the formation of Man Collective – Oxford (MC-O), launched “as a response to the current state of masculinity” has been branded “reactionary and ridiculous”.

Detractors allege they are just a front for macho activities and beer-drinking marathons, but supporters insist they are essential as young men struggle to cope with the pressures of being a man in the modern world.

The gist of the complaints is that men are not really facing any problems, and so the societies, groups and clubs are simply covert attempts to either engage in wanton male recklessness or to undermine women’s rights. None of the detractors offered any tangible evidence of this, only the claim that men’s groups are by nature anti-woman and are therefore unneeded. Virtually all the complaints listed in the article come across as, ironically, reactionary and ridiculous, and not just from an academic sense. In an academic sense their response is baffling because part of the point of college is to examine different facets of an issue. To wholly bar one group’s perspective without even looking at its validity is academically reprehensible.

In a political sense, however, it is beyond ridiculous because it shows just how convoluted academic feminist thinking is. The reaction one reads in the article is akin to the reaction one hears from various religious groups when gay marriage is brought up. It is completely disproportionate to anything actually suggested or done by gay advocacy organizations. Nothing the men’s groups have done or suggested in any way detracts from feminist positions on women’s needs and rights. Simply acknowledging the issues and needs of one group does not belittle or take away from the needs of another group, although it is does cause the focus to shift to a more balanced perspective, meaning that all sides will be looked at instead of just one.

One of the creators of one of the groups wrote a response to his detractors. In it Ben Wild states:

I am the founder and chair of the UK’s first ever university MENS society. In our successful attempts to have this society established, we have come across some inexplicably vitriolic opposition. Anti-MENS groups have been established, members of the student union have fought to silence us, and we have been misrepresented, misquoted and lied about in a variety of sources.

Why? How can a society, established by a teetotaller, that actively campaigns against alcohol abuse with sponsored sober pub crawls in order to raise money for local alcohol abuse shelters, be accused of being a veiled drinking club?

How can we be accused of discrimination when 90 of our 306 members are female and we have always expressly stated that we are open to everyone, regardless of gender?

Why are we being accused of forcing men into a specific gender identity when we will be running workshops that teach practical skills such as cookery, stitching, bike repair and DIY, regardless of the gender categories that these activities traditionally fall into, as well as holding lectures and screening documentaries exploring the historical perceptions of masculinity?

And why are some people unsure of what a MENS society can address, when issues such as prostate and testicular cancer, higher suicide rates, domestic violence towards men, male-on-male rape, statistically overwhelming male-on-male violence, falling male performance in education, custody and paternity leave inequalities, alcoholism, higher rates of depression, and the social stigma directed towards men in supposedly feminine jobs such as nursing, affect thousands of men every day, and yet are being ignored?

In answering these questions I do not wish to insult our opponents. I bear no grudge against them. The reaction of our opponents is ultimately, I believe, born of a genuine concern for women’s rights. They are afraid that this is a slippery slope. They are concerned that attention will be drawn away from important issues of discrimination that still affect women. They need not be.

Unfortunately, the reaction of his opponents is not born of a genuine concern for women’s rights. To the contrary, it is born out of a simplistic, exclusionary view of gender politics. Wild’s opponents think that issues like prostate and testicular cancer, higher suicide rates, domestic violence towards men, male-on-male rape, statistically overwhelming male-on-male violence, falling male performance in education, custody and paternity leave inequalities, alcoholism, higher rates of depression, and the social stigma directed towards men in supposedly feminine jobs such as nursing are not issues men and boys actually face or his opponents consider them negligible.

It is not a matter of overt contempt, although judging by some of the comments that is likely at play in some of the responses. Rather, it is a matter of politic and ideological framing, one in which men have been rendered “the enemy” and “the oppressor,” and one in which anything associated with or specifically for men is labeled “anti-woman.” It is not very likely that any of Wild’s opponents bothered to look at anything his organization does because his opponents already drew their conclusion the moment they heard what concerns his organization intended to address.

So technically speaking, his MENS society is anti-feminist as its concerns extend primarily to men’s issues and needs, which apparently feminists do not think needs to be acknowledged, let alone addressed. What is important about Wild’s group and the others like it is that they focus on men’s issues and needs, not that they focus on appealing to feminists who want nothing to do with them in the first place and consider the issues  addressed by men’s groups laughable at best or attacking feminists groups in an effort to undo the bias and misinformation feminists perpetuate.  Again, the groups focus on men’s issues. Hopefully Wild keeps that in mind as his group continues on. It sounds as if he is being more diplomatic than playing to feminists, which is good, because men do need their concerns addressed on their terms and organizations like the MENS society will go a long way in helping men find their voice.

I have posted a lot of these lately, however, I think it is important to keep reiterating the need to acknowledge female sexual violence. Here is an excerpt from the article:

As of 1995, 4,500 sex offenders were incarcerated in Canada – only 19 of these offenders were female. Could it be true that only 0.4 per cent of sexual crimes committed in Canada are committed by women? Is it possible that the proportion of women incarcerated is reflective of the proportion of women actually committing sexual assault in Canada? It is difficult to answer these questions concretely, especially since underreporting skews sexual assault research for both male and female offenders.

According to the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC), however, “many researchers consider [David] Finkelhor and [Diana] Russell’s (1984) estimates of the prevalence of female sex offending to be the most accurate to date. Their tentative evaluation is that females may account for up to 13 per cent of the abuse of females and 24 per cent of the abuse of males, either acting alone or with a partner. Finkelhor and Russell also estimated that approximately 6 per cent of sexual abuse against females and 14 per cent of sexual abuse against males is thought to be perpetrated by females acting alone.”

Even if we consider that these figures might be somewhat overestimated, it is safe to say that the proportion of females incarcerated for sexual assault is very low – especially considering that the number of males incarcerated for sexual assault is only a fraction of those who offend.

Joanne-Lucine Rouleau, an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at Université de Montréal, has only treated 15 to 16 female offenders in her career, compared with hundreds of male offenders. While Rouleau admitted that not enough research had been performed in the area of female sexual offenders to come to any substantial conclusions about the reasons for these disproportionate numbers, she offered a profile of the female sex offender that may shed light on the issue. According to Rouleau and other sources, the age of female perpetrators generally ranges between 22-35 years old, as opposed to 14-90 years old for male offenders. Female sex offenders generally target children and adolescents, both male and female, who have some previous relationship with the perpetrator. Female offenders make very few random predatory attacks, typically using their positions of authority – parent, teacher, babysitter – to gain access to their victims. (It should be noted that this is also the case for most or many male sexual offenders.)

I suppose night problems are typical for people who share my experiences. For the past few weeks I have had my fair share of them. It started with dreams about living in that house. They were not specifically about anything in particular, just living there again in that situation. While the dreams were unnerving, it got worse when the night sweats began. This happened several times. I would wake up disoriented, jittery, numb (especially in my arms and chest) and on edge. Each time I initially had no idea where I was. Twice I called out for my father. In the last week have I not slept much at all. I do not sleep much to begin with, but this is much less than usual and I think it may be affecting me now.

It is an odd thing because this feels almost like living there again. I did not sleep much back then. At night I worried about what might happen to my brothers and cousins. I also worried about waking up to it happening to me.  It is a disgusting feeling to know someone can do that and one must simply take it. I hated waking up to it so much that I would force myself to wake up every couple of hours. After a while my body adjusted and I would wake up every hour or so. Occasionally back then I would wake up in cold sweats or my father or brothers would wake me up. It annoyed my father, who is a light sleeper. My brothers and I would joke that we could not take a deep breath around him or he would wake up. My sweating and constant waking up meant he would not sleep much. Oddly enough he generally was not angry with me when that happened.

At the time, however, I quite liked sleeping. I liked letting my mind wander. I suppose the other reason is because it meant not having it done anymore. I was slightly disappointed that as I got older the bed and the couch shrunk. Perhaps my body is relapsing because it is getting old. Reoccurring thoughts about living there happen more frequently than they used to, almost as much as they did when I first got out of the situation.

All of this is a reminder to me that no matter my attempts to move past it or forget about it that those experiences will always be with me and will always effect me in some manner. While I am much better at coping with them now, they are not going to go away. There is no simply “getting over it.”

It really is odd, however, how things like this effect people. I spent most of last night watching TV with my brother. He had a nightmare about back then and could not get the image out of his mind. We watched quite few of last year’s so-so blockbusters. Some were better than I expected. Others were quite bad. We also sat through most of Moby Dick, which my brother surprisingly liked.

Evan Chandler, father of boy who accused Michael Jackson of molestation, commits suicide — The father of the first boy to accuse Michael Jackson of sexual molestation has committed suicide by shooting himself in the head. Evan Chandler, 65, was suffering from an unspecified “serious medical condition” when he was found dead in bed at his luxury waterfront flat in Jersey City with a .38 calibre gun in his hand.

Gay priests ‘no more likely to abuse children than heterosexuals’ — A study commissioned by the US Roman Catholic Church has found no evidence that gay priests are more likely to sexually abuse children than heterosexual clergy. Researchers at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice said their full report won’t be available until next year but added so far, nothing had suggested that homosexuality was likely to lead to abuse. The suggestion that only gay priests abuse boys within the church is often repeated. In October, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican’s permanent observer to the UN, said that between 80 to 90 per cent of all abuse of boys aged between 11 and 17 was by gay men.

Green: Self-serving myths women tell themselves — In an ego-based world, we tend to see everything from the perspective of “me.” So it’s not surprising that men and women want to be believe that the opposite sex exists to meet their needs. Nothing shows this more tellingly than the gender myths men and women perpetuate about each other. Here are just a few that women love to repeat about men.

Indian boy mirrors plight of millions of kids — Arun Kumar was born to disabled parents, beaten by his grandparents, ran away from home, got a job in a garment factory and had all his savings stolen by the police. He was only 11. Today, at 13, he shares a cramped, dingy shelter with 63 other runaways and former street kids in New Delhi. He is one of the lucky ones. Twenty years after the United Nations adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child, multitudes of children across the globe are still suffering from poverty, abuse and disease.

Longmont woman accused of sex assault to take a deal — A 54-year-old Longmont woman who was accused of drugging and raping a male friend last year is expected to agree to a plea deal later this week. Janice McCarl had been scheduled for trial beginning Monday, but that was canceled, and a judge scheduled a time for McCarl to return to court on Friday to accept a plea deal. Details of the agreement aren’t known. If convicted of felony sexual assault, McCarl could have been sentenced to up to 16 years in prison, if a judge found exceptional aggravating circumstances.

‘Men do cry’, says Bangalore’s men’s rights group – As the world celebrates International Men’s Day Thursday, a Bangalore-based group wants an end to stereotyping male gender, and says men too get hurt, both emotionally and physically. The group is demanding justice for various social abuses against men. ‘Men are always stereotyped. They are considered as perpetrators of injustice against women, they are supposed to take financial care of the entire family and not cry even in harshest of conditions,’ Kumar Jahgirdar, a senior member of All India Men’s Welfare Association (AIMWA), formed to protect male rights, told IANS. ‘We want to say that men do cry and they too suffer,’ added Jahgirdar.

Richmond mom who murdered son is found insane — A Richmond woman charged with abusing, torturing and murdering her 8-year-old son in 2006 was found not guilty by reason of insanity Monday and may spend the rest of her life in a state mental hospital. In a two-part hearing in Martinez, Teresa Moses, 26, was first convicted of first-degree murder in the slaying of Raijon Daniels, whom she allegedly kept locked in his room and beat repeatedly. “No contest,” Moses said when asked her plea by Judge Charles “Ben” Burch of Contra Costa County Superior Court. Under an agreement by attorneys from both sides, Burch then cited findings by three doctors in determining that Moses was “not guilty by reason of criminal insanity” because she was incapable of controlling her conduct at the time she killed Raijon.

Sex abuse claims uncovered: Freeburg superintendent was under investigation before his suicide — In the weeks before Freeburg District 70 Superintendent Robin R. Hawkins committed suicide, Illinois State Police investigated allegations against him of sexual abuse that spanned decades. State police investigative reports obtained by the News-Democrat under the Freedom of Information Act showed agents interviewed Hawkins on April 13 and searched his home and the school and took several computers to analyze for evidence. Twenty days later, Hawkins’ body was found on a Sunday morning sitting in a 1964 Mustang convertible in a barn on his property near Belleville. The cause of his death appeared to be suicide by carbon monoxide asphyxiation.

Woman charged with sex abuse of boy — A 47-year-old woman is accused of having sex with a 16-year-old boy. Laura A. Bailey of 596 E. London Court, Round Lake Beach, faces two counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, a Class 2 offense. Lake County Assistant State’s Attorney Stephen Scheller said Bailey was brought into custody Tuesday after admitting to engaging in sex with the teenager on multiple occasions during September. Authorities were notified of the relationship when rumors surfaced that Bailey was having sex with students who attended one of the Grayslake high schools.

Woman gets nine years — A Mutare woman was on Wednesday slapped with a nine-year prison term for sexually abusing her sister’s 15-year-old son over a seven-month period and infecting him with a sexually-transmitted infection. The 26-year-old woman took advantage of her sister’s absence to become intimate with the teen. She would play pornographic movies before enticing the boy into sleeping with her. The woman was convicted on her own plea of guilt to aggravated indecent assault when she appeared before Harare regional magistrate Mr Peter Kumbawa, who jailed her for nine years effective.

Over the years I have come across a host of excuses for why women who rape children should not got to jail. This one is a first:

Judge Howard Mason said he took the unusual step of wholly suspending the jail term for Jenny Lee Mitchell, 41, because of her tragic background of horrific abuse and alcohol dependency.

The judge said Mitchell, of Sebastopol, Ballarat, was extremely drunk when she had sex with the 14-year-old and afterwards expressed remorse and apologised, the Herald Sun reports.

The incident happened in March last year after Mitchell bought a slab of vodka Cruisers and shared it with a 17-year-old boy, who was staying with her at her unit, and his younger friend.

—

“You have been very much a victim,” the judge told Mitchell.

“The incident was spontaneous (and) you were acting out of character.”

The judge said her life had been blighted by alcohol abuse, suicide attempts and she suffered head injuries and fits.

The judge said the Crown conceded the case was exceptional because of Mitchell’s background.

He jailed her for two years but suspended the term for two years.

According to the article, the woman anally raped the 14-year-old (she plead guilty to one count of sexually penetrating a child under the age of 16). One would think that would be enough to justify two years in jail, but the judge apparently thought otherwise.

The abuse excuse is rather common among child rapists, and while it is entirely possible that this woman experienced the things she claims she does, to see a judge accept past violent acts and binge drinking as excuses for raping a 14-year-old boy is despicable. It is not even a valid excuse considering that hundreds of male child rapists have had as bad and worse experiences, yet they go right to jail.

What is worse is the slap in the face to the victim because the judge in effect stated that this child rapist’s alcoholism and abuse is far more important than any harm she does to others. The judge essentially gives her a pass. Had this been a man it is not likely he would have gotten off with nothing. Cases like these show that despite some of the more recent developments in awareness about female child rapists there is still a lot of work to be done.

It appears that across the pond the issue of female child rape has gained some traction. The recent case involving a ring of pedophiles, two of whom are female, and the recent statistics from ChildLine seem to have pushed this issue to the forefront in a way it has not happened before in the UK (and certainly not in the United States). It is doubtful that the tide will change overnight, but it certainly does appear to be changing. More people are taking this issue seriously, at least to the extent that they will believe women prey on children (even if those people still think the abuse is less harmful).

Another article about this matter presents one man’s account of how his abuse affected him:

Bill Jenkins’s memories of the childhood abuse he suffered are as sharp as the pain that accompanies them.

He remembers the diamond pattern on the linoleum bathroom floor tiles, the Moby Dick mural on the wall, the door handle which seemed so high up next to his six-year-old frame.

He vividly remembers, too, how he was expected to bath and touch his naked abuser, an ordeal which left him confused and ashamed, and changed the course of his life. ‘The vision in my head is crystal clear,’ he says.

What took place in the bathroom of that house in Sussex 50 years ago is shocking enough, but what makes it even harder to comprehend is that Bill’s abuser was his foster mother – a woman entrusted with caring for him when his own parents couldn’t.

‘My lasting feelings about my childhood are feelings of fear,’ says the 55-year-old from Thorpe in Surrey.

‘I was always frightened of her and what she forced me to endure affected the rest of my life, but as a society we have a mental block about female abusers. We are shocked when we see it happens. We can’t believe that women are capable of such things.’

He goes on to say later in the article:

Bill Jenkins, who channelled his anger about his own experiences into setting up Securus, a company selling internet protection software for schools and businesses, admits the abuse he suffered as a child had enormous implications in adulthood.

‘I didn’t realise for a long time that by instinct I was a woman hater, because my experience of this woman meant that I thought women were just to be used for sex,’ he says.

‘In my early years, that was it. I got married and had two children, but I couldn’t understand that a large part of marriage is based on friendship. I was never able to give myself totally to my wife. I always held back.’

Bill’s first marriage broke up and he has been married to his second wife for 20 years. ‘I was very open with her from the start,’ he says. ‘But even so, even being aware of that, I find it hard to give myself totally.’

He lives with the memory every day, but adds: ‘Being able to confront your demons is important. That’s the only way to put them behind you. I can’t change what went on, but accepting it helps you cope.

‘The past loses its power over you. I am happy to talk about it now because it helps me and I hope it helps others to seek help.’

Bill’s experiences are unfortunately not unique. Many boys and men suffer in silence, forced to cope with their pain, anger and fear alone. Often society focuses more on the aftermath of the abuse, such as Bill’s feelings towards women in response to his abuse, rather than focusing on the abuse itself. Granted, no one particularly wants to talk about the abuse itself, from those who suffered abuse to those who know and love them.

When I first shared my experience with my friends, I expected them to hate me. When I saw that they did not and instead cared about me, it frightened me and I was very careful about what I shared. Part of that was from my shock that anyone would feel that way towards me. The other was that I saw how much it hurt them to hear about what happened. I had never seen that kind of response from people who had not been through the same thing.

Nevertheless, those are the things that need to be talked about. Not necessarily in detail, but at least with enough information to show the impact being abused has. The fear Bill mentioned contradicts what people assume about female abusers. If it was harmless, if it had no real impact, why would this child be afraid? We have been conditioned to assume that sexual abuse must equal physical pain, yet it is not always or even predominantly the physical pain that is the most lasting. It is the psychological damage that often causes the most harm.

Likewise, we have been conditioned to assume that women equal safe and non-violent. Society does have a mental block when it comes to female abusers, and for a host of various reasons. However, it is not likely that people do not believe women are capable of such acts so much as people are unwilling to believe women are capable of such acts.

None of that, however, changes the impact female abuse has on the victims. It does not change the fear, the righteous anger, the shame, the self-blame. All of that remains whether people wish to address it or not. It does not change what those women do, either. Whether it is fondling a child, performing oral sex on a child, forcing the child to perform oral sex on her, forcing vaginal intercourse on the child or using her fingers or sex toys to penetrate a child, all those things still happen regardless of whether people wish to address them or not. What ignoring those things does is allow people to remain ignorant of “how” a woman can sexually abuse a child. In a strange twist of logic, people seemingly assume that if something is unimaginable it cannot and does not happen.

Unfortunately, that is not true. Unfortunately countless boys and girls are subjected to sexual abuse at the hands of women who force them to do a host of disgusting acts. The fear and the same and the anger are something no one, particularly not a child, should have to bear in silence.

Last week I posted about the statistics from a UK abuse support organization. The numbers showed that ChildLine received more calls from children, predominantly boys, reporting sexual abuse at the hands of women, predominantly mothers. The numbers demonstrated that while the reporting of female-perpetrated abuse to authorities and law enforcement maybe be low, the actual rate of abuse is much higher. When considered with the recent arrests of three alleged pedophiles, two of whom are female and were the only ones alleged to have abused children, this can paint a very frightening picture that no adult can be trusted.

This, of course, is hardly true. Most people do not abuse children. Even though it is possible that virtually anyone could or will if in the right (or more appropriately, wrong) circumstances, the fact that most people are not child abusers should never be forgotten. It would be terrible for people to create a scenario in which every woman is considered untrustworthy based on the acts of a handful of women.

That said, I expected to see an article or two basically downplaying the ChildLine numbers and shifting the blame and responsibility off female pedophiles onto males. It took less than a week:

An expert on female sex offenders has warned against parents becoming “hyper-vigilant” in response to recent high-profile child abuse cases.

Dr Theresa Gannon – senior lecturer in forensic psychology at the University of Kent – says society risks coming to a standstill if people become so cautious they feel unable to trust anybody with their children.

—

“I think these high-profile cases do highlight the need to watch out for people regardless of gender but what we don’t want to get into is a situation where both males and females are vilified, because hyper-vigilancy like that would bring society to a standstill.”

The latter statement is rather curious. It reads as if Gannon thinks it is perfectly acceptable to vilify males and be hyper-vigilant against them, but not females. It stands in contrast to the numbers reported by ChildLine. It also stands in contrast to the reaction virtually any accusations involving male pedophiles or rapists conjures. There are hosts of articles about the evils of masculinity and maleness, articles about how “rape culture” drives men to rape women, articles about how people need to be wary of the men in their children’s lives, etc. At no point does one see psychologists dissuade this sort of thing. More often than not they are part it, quite frequently sharing their opinions about the untrustworthiness of males, despite the fact that the vast majority of men are not abusers or rapists.

It is difficult to imagine that if any other organization reported a 132 percent rise in unsolicited complaints about male abusers that anyone would rush to make a statement downplaying the important of those numbers.

Gannon goes on to explain her logic:

A contributor of many important publications about sex offenders, Dr Gannon recently interviewed 22 female paedophiles to try to understand how and why they abuse children.

She said: “We found that although females hold some key similarities to male sexual abusers, there are also some key differences.

“For instance, more than half of the women I spoke to worked in unison with a male offender. You rarely have men working with other men in this way.

“That was interesting because people think that if you leave a child with a male you should be extra vigilant, but less so if there is also a woman present.

“Obviously having a woman there does not necessarily mean a child is safe, so it’s just about being aware.

“Knowing these key differences is crucial for raising public awareness of female-perpetrated sexual abuse so it can be reported to the appropriate authorities.”

Interviewing 22 women convicted of child abuse is hardly substantive analysis. It bears to keep in mind that these are women who were arrested, charged and convicted (or plead guilty to lesser charges). That is a typically rare thing. The majority of victims of female pedophiles and abusers never report their abuse, so in a way using women who are serving time as the barometer for the typical behavior of female child abusers makes very little sense, particularly when one considers this:

Dr Gannon said: “It was totally up to the women who took part in my interviews whether they wanted to speak to me or not, but a lot of them just wanted to tell someone their story.

“A lot were in denial, others blamed it on a male who was also involved and others agreed that they had committed an awful crime.”

What convicted pedophile would not jump at the chance to present herself as a victim and gain attention? How convenient is it for women who rape to claim the man made them do it when the very people studying them already assume that?  What is the likelihood that these women who admit they acted on the own volition when it is possible such an admission could put their plea agreements in jeopardy or potentially result in new charges being filed, such as perjury charges?

One must keep in mind that professionals like Gannon draw their conclusions based on information from women who do not want to go to prison, do not want to receive longer sentences and women who likely perceive themselves as victims. In other words, telling professionals like Gannon that men made them do it benefits those female abusers.

It is simply amazing that on the heels of self-reported numbers that anyone would seek to downplay female abuse or try to shift the blame to men. The key factor that is worth noting is that ChildLine’s numbers are rather specific in terms of who the perpetrators are. One would think that if the majority of the cases of abuse reported to the organization involved women abusing only or mostly with men the children likely would have mentioned that at some point or have been asked about it. The fact that we do not see those numbers does not mean it is not possible that women are abusing predominantly at the behest of men, but it rather convincingly suggests that, like with male abusers, female abusers tend to act alone.

The importance of what those children reported cannot and should not be downplayed. This does not mean that people should react with the same insanity with which they respond to male abusers (which is itself completely overblown and preposterous), but that people should take these numbers as a sign that the notion women are less likely to abuse or are inherently safe is patently false. They are no more dangerous and yet no more safer than men.