Bulletin Board v198

Chicago Priest to be Deported to Native Bolivia after Serving Sex Abuse Sentence — Father Alejandro Flores is being deported to his native Bolivia after finishing a portion of his four-year sentence for sexually abusing an 8-year-old boy. Flores, 40, was a priest in the Chicago suburb of Joliet who no longer has any “sort of public ministry” according to a Chicago Catholic archdiocese spokesman. The Catholic Church is taking steps to defrock Flores who they now claim should never have been ordained. Court records indicate the Church held up his ordination so he could receive counseling for viewing pornography on line and after hearing the victim and his brother call Flores “daddy”.

Child sex abuse rampant in Afghanistan, documentary shows — U.S. Marine Maj. Bill Steuber, like most people in Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province, knew that local Afghan police were keeping young boys as sex slaves. The practice, known as bacha bazi, or “boy play,” was an open secret in Sangin, a town of 14,000 in Helmand. So Steuber sat down to confront deputy police chief Qhattab Khan, hoping he could convince him that the practice — which is as illegal in Afghanistan as it is in Canada — would cost the police the support of the local community. But what Steuber heard left him shaking his head in disbelief.

Embarrassment barrier for abused men — Men are suffering from domestic abuse, but embarrassment will usually stop them coming forward until it is extreme, police say. Men often wait until knives are pulled before seeking help, Detective Sergeant Alan McGlade from the Hamilton police Family Safety Team said. Most reports of abuse against males were either of psychological or extreme physical violence, such as stabbings. “If I think about women abusing men, some of the violence is quite serious,” McGlade said.

Bulletin Board v190

Boy reveals parental abuse via Facebook — “Hi, my name is S. and I am 14. Since I was 8, my parents beat me regularly. Whenever there was a family argument that I was not connected to and I made eye-contact with my father, he would get angry and punch me hard, sometimes with a belt.” This post, published Friday night by a 14-year-old-boy from Haifa on the police’s Facebook page, raised suspicions of harsh abuse and led to a police investigation and the subsequent arrest of the child’s parents.

Experts see increase in male sexual assault awareness — A California man who, as a child, was sexually molested by his mother, said the trauma he endured has stayed with him well into his adult life and affected his ability to comprehend his emotions and be intimate with women. The 50-year-old, who asked to remain anonymous, said he only came to the realization that his mother’s behavior was inappropriate with him as a boy, within the last few years. “I still battle with a voice that says I’m a baby,” he said, adding that coping is a continuous struggle.

Female rapists abuse soldier for 4 days — A 25-YEAR-OLD soldier was allegedly kidnapped and detained for four days by suspected female rapists, who are said to have sexually abused him several times before releasing him early this week. Police in Mutare have confirmed the incident, saying they were hunting for the suspected culprits. Manicaland assistant police spokesperson Assistant Inspector Muzondiwa Clean told NewsDay yesterday that on April 19 around midnight at Birchenough Bridge business centre, the unsuspecting soldier boarded the women’s vehicle on his way to Mutare.

37 Year Wait Petition

James Moran currently has a petition on Change.org asking for the release of documents concerning sexual abuse in Ireland. From his petition:

Chapter 20 is the last remaining, censored chapter in Judge Yvonne Murphy’s report into the handling of clerical child sex abuse allegations by the Catholic Church and State.

Chapter 20 has remained censored on foot of a High Court direction that its full publication could damage the trial of a defrocked priest charged with the sexual assault of children in the 1970s and 80s.

Former priest Patrick McCabe was sentenced last month by the Circuit Criminal Court. As a result of his trial, there is now no further need for the blanked-out chapter to remain secret.

My name is James Moran, and I am one of the survivors of sexual abuse at the hands of McCabe. I made a statement to Archbishops House in 1977. I made a statement to the Gardai (Irish Police) in 1987. Both statements were about my sexual abuse by Priests. My statements surfaced in 2003.

The Murphy Report will reveal the truth about why my statements lay undiscovered for several decades. During these years Patrick McCabe was allowed to travel abroad undetected and unmonitored.

I, and the other victims of Patrick McCabe have a right to know what is contained within Chapter 20, in order to put that part of our life’s jigsaw together. The victim’s lives are now in the public domain through the Murphy Report and we have a right, by association, to know the truths contained within.

37 Years is a lifetime of waiting. Enough is enough.

More about Moran’s situation and efforts can be found on his blog. Please sign the petition. It only needs another 500 signatures. And feel free to spread the word around. There is no reason why this information should remain hidden after other parts of the report were released.

Bulletin Board v186

4-year-old Tucson boy in abuse case dies — Jaedyn Minley loved bounce houses, but was terrified of Chuck E Cheese. Jaedyn had a significant collection of little toy cars and the diction of an adult. And on Saturday, after the 4-year-old was declared brain dead, Jaedyn was removed from life support, and his organs were harvested to save the lives of two other children and an adult. “He was the best kid,” Jaedyn’s paternal aunt, Janai Minley, said Monday.

Anti-rape bill is anti-male: Jaya Bachchan — Actor-turned-politician Jaya Bachchan on Thursday said the anti-rape bill is anti-male and that its provisions make men vulnerable to misuse of the law. Participating in a debate in Rajya Sabha on the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2013, Samajwadi Party MP Bachchan said she was not too happy with various aspects of the bill, including punishment for those found stalking women, which can lead to the misuse of the bill. It’s not just men who stalk women.

Barbara Kay: Our male-victimizing myths live on — Twenty years ago Earl Silverman of Calgary, fleeing his home to escape violence from his abusive wife, had no refuge to take shelter in. There were plenty of shelters for women victims of domestic abuse, but for men the only publicly funded services were for anger management. The message was clear to Silverman: “As a victim, I was re-victimized by having these services telling me I wasn’t a victim, but I was a perpetrator.”

Criminal justice system’s ‘dark secret’: Teenagers in solitary confinement — James Stewart, a 17-year-old from Denver who committed suicide while in solitary confinement, had never been to jail before August of 2008. That was when, under the influence of alcohol and marijuana, Stewart had gotten into a head-on car collision, killing a 32-year-old man. Because of the severity of his crime, Stewart was charged with vehicular homicide – and charged as an adult.

A Sad Day For Male Rape Victims In India

Several weeks ago, I wrote about the Indian government’s reaction to lobbying for changes to their rape statutes. I noted in the piece that women’s groups in India opposed changing the statute from “rape” to “sexual assault” because it included women as potential rapists. Their argument was that rape is an expression of patriarchal power, therein making it impossible for women to rape men, and that men accused of rape would simply accuse the women of rape, both of which are typical feminist arguments against acknowledging male victimization.

It appears the Indian government bowed to the women’s groups demands:

Bowing to pressure from women activists, the government has decided to restore the term rape in criminal law that states only men can be booked for committing the offence against women. It has also decided to lower the age of consent for sex from 18 to 16 years. These are fresh changes proposed by the Centre in its criminal laws (amendment) bill, which will replace the rape ordinance issued on February 3. […] The [JS Verma] panel — set up to look into rape laws after the December 16 Delhi gang rape — had recommended that the offence be kept gender-specific and the age for consensual sex be retained at 16 years in the Indian Penal Code (IPC). In its ordinance, however, the government replaced the term rape with sexual assault, stating that any ‘person’ can commit the offence.

A senior government official explained that a section of the current law dealing with “unnatural sex and related activity” (Section 377) already addresses sexual violence committed by women. However, the law is very specific:

What about male sex trafficking victims?

I found a YouTube video discussing the sex trafficking of boys. From the YouTube summary:

Are there male victims of child sex trafficking? Do they need help too? Interview by Fernanda Mejia (Project For Healing Humanity) with Blair Corbett (Ark of Hope for Children).

The interview does not go into depth about the topic, however, it is good to see someone talking about this issue. Like Blair, I do not believe there is a single country where the sex trafficking of boys and girls does not occur. I also doubt that girls make up the majority of victims. When one looks at sexual abuse against children, one finds that the rates of abuse between boys and girls is similar, 1 in 6 and 1 in 4 respectively. Many of the researchers who study sexual violence against boys believe the 1 in 6 rate is a low estimate, so the rate could be 1 in 5 or even 1 in 4. But as it is, 16% of boys and 25% of girls are abused, and that is just abuse in general.

How likely is it that people who willing to abuse 16% of boys would decide never to traffic them? It is not very likely. It is more probable that boys who are trafficked simply remain under the radar because no one looks or them, no one asks rescued boys whether they were sexually abused, and because few likely want to come forward out of fear that no one will believe them.

You’re not helping v.13

In India, women’s groups are protesting a new ordinance designed to address sexual violence against women. The ordinance resulted from the rape of a 23-year-old woman last year. The woman was gang raped by six males and eventually died from her injuries. This sparked much outrage in India and abroad. A commission was created to determine the best way to address this problem.

However, the government’s response has irked the women’s groups in the country. Many of the complaints are valid. For instance, the Verma Commission, the commission mentioned above, suggested that marital rape receive the same punishment as any other kind of rape. However, the ordinance instead treats marital rape as a lesser form of rape, which in turn receives a lower sentence. The commission also recommended holding higher level officials responsible for the actions of their subordinates. This stemmed from a cases in which a higher ranking police officer ordered his junior officer to sexually torture a woman. The ordinance excludes this.

There are also some ironic complaints from women’s groups. Many people who heard about the gang rape case cried for the death penalty for the men involved. The ordinance allows for the death penalty in extreme cases, however, Verma Commission opposes this. Its opposition is not because the death penalty is an extreme form of punishment, but because of the potential lower conviction rates if a jury decides to acquit rather than execute the accused.

There was also a complaint about the changing of consent laws. In 2012, the age of consent in India was raised from 16-years-old to 18-years-old. This was intended to protect girls (not boys) from abusers, yet the Verma Commissions recommended changing the age of consent back to 16 because the law is being used against boys of different races and religions.

And then there is this: