The Jerry Sandusky scandal has made all Pennsylvanians more vigilant about the threat of child sexual abuse. It has also raised awareness that child predators do not necessarily stand out as suspicious and that this is why it may be easy for them to gain access to children in a professional or volunteer context. Thankfully, […]
Last month, a Pennsylvania priest was arrested on charges of possession of child pornography and engaging in sex tourism. Authorities say that for more than a decade, the 69-year-old priest would travel to countries in Central America under the guise of doing missionary work with young, male orphans. Instead, he allegedly sexually abused these boys. […]
The clergy sex abuse scandal involving priests in the Catholic Church is an example of how child predators will continue to abuse children until or unless they are stopped. Over the last half-century or more, many priests who had been credibly accused of child sex abuse were not arrested or defrocked. Instead, they were quietly asked to […]
In our last post, we wrote about a recently published Unicef report attempting to quantify worldwide rates of sexual abuse against young, female victims. According to the report, approximately 10 percent of girls and young women globally (about 120 million) have been forced into sex or sexual acts before reaching age 20. To say that […]
Victims of abuse often suffer the most severe trauma when they are abused by those they know and those they should be able to trust. Whether their abuser is a parent, a teacher, doctor or therapist, the sexual abuse is compounded by manipulation and betrayal. Sadly, it appears as though a Pennsylvania therapist abused his power […]
As we learned with the Jerry Sandusky scandal, some of America’s biggest stars also have some of the biggest secrets. Another example is the late Michael Jackson, who was never criminally convicted of child sexual abuse, but who continues to face new allegations five years after his death. The most recent allegations were made by a […]
Pennsylvania is known for many things, some of which are positive and others which are decidedly not. It is difficult for much of the country to think of Pennsylvania these days without also thinking of the Jerry Sandusky scandal. Sadly, it seems as though Sandusky-like acts of child sexual abuse are more common than people realize. According […]
Soloff and Zervanos are pleased to announce breaking news in Massachusetts. A bill lifting the statute of limitations on many sexual abuse claims was unanimously passed in the Massachusetts House and Senate and awaits Governor Deval Patrick’s signature to go into immediate effect. The bill gives the survivors of sexual abuse the legal right to […]
Child sexual abuse is rarely ever a crime of opportunity. Those who abuse children are calculating and patient. As such, it is foolish to think that they would stop with one victim. For this and many other reasons, those who are aware of child sexual abuse but do not report it (when they have the […]
Whether here in Pennsylvania or any other part of the country, the sex abuse scandals involving priests in the Catholic Church have followed a familiar pattern. One or two victims come forward after years of struggling with the memory of clergy sexual abuse. Those individuals inspire others to share their own stories of abuse, often perpetrated […]