Bulletin Board v307

Boys — the silent victims of sex trafficking — The silence nearly killed Tom Jones. As a child, Jones was raped, abused and sold to men for sex. The brutality ended when he was 15. But, like many male victims, Jones didn’t seek help, didn’t tell anyone about the trauma he had suffered. Instead, he buried his pain and shame deep inside, carrying the burden alone and in silence for another 15 years. Silence did not equal acceptance.

Caldey Abbey: first male victim comes forward to describe sexual abuse — A man has come forward to describe how he was groomed and sexually abused as a child by a Benedictine monk on Caldey Island, intensifying calls for an inquiry into what happened at the abbey in south-west Wales. The victim, who has told police of the abuse he was subject to during summer holiday trips to Caldey Island, is the first man to allege he was sexually assaulted by Father Thaddeus Kotik.

South Carolina Church To Pay $300,000 And Apologize In Child Sex Abuse Case — A Baptist church in South Carolina settled a child sexual abuse lawsuit, agreeing to issue an apology, admit liability, and to pay $300,000 to the plaintiff. Bryan Barnes, spokesman for First Baptist Church of Columbia, S.C., said that church leadership issued the apology and explained the terms of the settlement before the congregation on Sunday, according to the Baptist Press.

Bulletin Board v301

“Can’t Breathe From Guilt, Pain”: Teen Boy Shares Date Rape Story — “Was it because I got my hair coloured?” thought aloud the 19-year-old Delhi boy whose conversation with his California-based friend Arnav Barbaad, sharing his ordeal of being drugged and raped, recently went viral on Facebook. In a series of conversations with The Quint, Arnav relays selective details of the survivor’s plight, with his permission.

Child sex abuse link to male victims of domestic abuse — Michael Lynch, from Men’s Action Network (MAN) spoke at the La Dolce Vita Project’s Conference about men who were victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence locally. He said that MAN had a team of 18 counsellors seeing around 70 men every week, around 10 per cent of whom would have experienced sexual or domestic violence.

Court: OK to move teen into adult system to protect him — State prosecutors took the unusual step of acknowledging Wisconsin’s troubled youth prison is too dangerous for juveniles as they argued to move a teen into the adult system for his own protection, according to court documents released Wednesday. Racine County Circuit Judge John S. Jude agreed that the prison was too dangerous and waived the boy into the adult system last February. The 2nd District Court of Appeals affirmed Jude’s decision Wednesday.

Royal commission hears of abuse at juvenile detention center

Dylan Voller testified in December 2016 before the Northern Territory royal commission concerning the abuse he allegedly suffered while at the Don Dale detention center. I previously wrote about Voller’s situation, which came to light during the summer. Several videos taken from security cameras showed some of the abuse Voller experienced. However, it was footage showing Voller strapped to a restraint chair that broke the story.

The Australian government did its best to respond to the coverage, primarily by trying to minimize what was seen in the videos. As previously mentioned in those posts, there were prior reports of abuse at the Don Dale center and other juvenile facilities. The Northern Territory appears to have a higher rate of this abuse, particularly against Aboriginal youths.

The royal commission was held in an attempt to get a better insight into what the victims claim happened. Voller offered the following testimony:

Voller alleged guards charged detainees “rent” for staying at Don Dale, taking $1.5o a day from money the detainees had earned through good behaviour.

He also said he was forced to defecate into a pillowcase after guards at the Alice Springs juvenile facility refused to let him out of his cell to go to the toilet during the night. He said detainees would repeatedly be forced to urinate through the cell bars.

He was first strip-searched at about the age of 11 or 12, he said, and it would occur every time he was moved between facilities or in and out of isolation cells, or when he coming back from the bathroom because he had been throwing toilet paper at cameras to cover the screen.

Voller also alleged officers repeatedly stripped him of clothes and bedding for hours as a form of punishment, and denied him food and water.

One youth justice officer at Alice Springs noticed he was hungry in the middle of one night and threw muesli bars and fruit through to his cell, Voller said.

It did not stop there.

Bulletin Board v300

Charity highlights male domestic abuse victims — Brian Hitchcock, who runs Coventry-based charity Men’s Aid, says men who suffer violence at the hands of wives and girlfriends have been left out of a new £700,000 programme. The ‘violence perpetrator programme’ which will cover the entire West Midlands, will target husbands and boyfriends who commit domestic violence and abuse.

Chris Johnson: Nebraska must address gender bias — The Nebraska legal system suffers from widespread gender bias against men. While gender bias against fathers in family law cases is well documented, anti-male bias in other areas is less well known. According to the largest-ever review of domestic violence research, women and men abuse their partners at comparable rates.

Group Exhumes Boy’s Casket After Almost 100 Years, Is Shocked When They Open It — When forensic analysts and Pennsylvania state police gathered at the site of a nearly 90-year-old grave to dig out the body of teenager Thomas Curry, the anthropologists believed they would find clues as to why the boy died. Instead, they were left with more questions. The scientists didn’t find the boy’s body, but instead discovered layers of wood. The wood seemed to provide weight as if to hold the body or prevent it from moving.

Male prison rape survivors speak out

Originally posted on May 20, 2015

Prison rape remains a major issue in the United States. Despite the Prison Rape Elimination Act passing several years ago, states do little to reform their prison systems. Texas Governor Rick Perry has even refused to implement the changes suggested by the act.

Yet that inaction pales in comparison to how other countries view prison rape. Many countries do not acknowledge it occurs. Those that do often do nothing to curb the assaults. This is particularly true in countries where social norms prevent victims from coming forward. Such is the case in South Africa. Fortunately, there is a new effort to raise awareness:

South African prisons are notorious the world over for their endemic sexual abuse. Despite this, prisoner rape is not well understood by the South African public and government, and does not receive the serious attention it urgently needs. This is according to a report compiled by Emily Nagisa Keehn, policy development and advocacy manager at Sonke Gender Justice and Sasha Gear, programme director at Just Detention International, South Africa.

Sonke, Just Detention International – South Africa, and NICRO have partnered to increase public awareness of sexual abuse in prison. Three men came forward to share their stories about surviving rape in prison. Vincent*, Francois and Thabo* are the first South African survivors of prisoner rape to tell their stories in this way.

The three men’s stories can be viewed below.

Hiding in Plain Sight: The Female Sexual Predator

What does it say about our society when we are only acknowledging the reality of female sexual perpetrators at the end of 2016?

As much as I detest the “it’s the current year” argument, I feel it is applicable in this instance. Despite all the progress made in victim advocacy in the last thirty years, we still hesitate to admit that women commit sexual violence. The hesitation comes in part from cultural norms about women’s capacity for violence, in part from assumptions about male victimization, and in part from a political movement that frames sexual violence as a “gendered” crime.

I have written numerous times about female sex offenders. While the topic receives less media and scholarly attention, there are plenty of studies showing the prevalence of female sexual perpetration. I previously noted that if one looks at these studies in chronological order, the reported rate of female perpetration, particularly against male victims, increases over time. The more we study the topic, the more obvious it becomes that not only do women commit sexual violence, but that they represent the majority of people who sexually assault men and boys.

As shown above, none of this information is new. I pieced it together without access to scholarly publications. Other advocates, men’s rights activists, and even feminists have done the same. The information is scattered and somewhat limited, yet it is not hard to find.

It is simply not discussed.

Bulletin Board v299

80.9% of sex convicts in Lagos prisons abused during childhood — At least, 80.9 percent of sex convicts and inmates awaiting trial for sexual and gender based violence in Lagos prisons have been abused during childhood, a recent report has revealed. The report, conducted by the Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Response Team, DSVRT, revealed that due to the early abuse, the inmates had been sexually active, leading to sexual offences being committed by them.

Archdiocese of Ottawa paid former altar boy $50,000 after sex abuse allegations — More than a decade before the Archdiocese of Ottawa told Jacques Faucher he could no longer be a priest, it paid tens of thousands of dollars to a former altar boy who had accused the reverend of molesting him. Faucher was convicted in March of historical sex offences against three other children, but newly obtained documents by the Sun show the diocese wrote a $50,000 cheque to a former altar boy when he was an adult in 1998, more than a year after he told the church about the alleged sexual abuse.

Denver man freed after 28 years in prison acquitted of rape — A Denver man who spent more than a quarter of a century in prison for a rape he long denied committing was acquitted of the crime on Monday, leaving a courtroom to applause from supporters and chants of “it’s over.” Clarence Moses-EL, 60, was freed in December, after a judge overturned his 1988 conviction on rape and assault charges and found that he would likely be acquitted if his case went to trial again.