abuse

24Oct

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

IN OTHER NEWS, SPORTS

Abuse Is Baked Into American Sports – Nobody Said Anything For Fear Of Being Benched

As someone who has been researching, writing and teaching about women’s and girls sports for the past 15 years, I wasn’t surprised by the recent revelations of sexual and verbal abuse by National Women’s Soccer League coaches. There’s a tendency to explain such horrific behavior in strictly individualistic terms – as a sign of personality disorders or moral deficiencies. But this kind of response misses the larger picture of how organized sports itself contributes to abusive and even sadistic behavior. My book on the hypercommercialization of girls sports identified many instances of verbal and physical abuse of girls and young women at both the youth and college levels. More recently, some colleagues and I have been exploring the structural causes of college athlete stress and anxiety....

4 Essential Reads – Pope Benedict Accused Of Mishandling Sex Abuse Cases

21Jan

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

IMPACT

4 Essential Reads – Pope Benedict Accused Of Mishandling Sex Abuse Cases

When Pope Benedict XVI resigned in 2013 – the first leader of the Catholic Church to do so in more than half a millennium – the sexual abuse crisis had already roiled the church for years. During the conservative theologian’s papacy, the church revised canon law and announced new guidelines in an effort to respond to clergy abuse. But a new report accuses Benedict of having mishandled at least four cases of sexual abuse when he was an archbishop in Munich, Germany, in the 1970s and 1980s. The investigation, which covers abuse in the diocese from 1945 to 2019, concluded that the former pope failed to properly act on claims or punish priests – claims Benedict has rejected. The accusations against a living, if retired, pope underscore how dramatically the sex abuse crisis has shaken the ch...

No Haven In Family Courts For Victims Of Domestic Abuse

2Dec

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

SOCIETY

No Haven In Family Courts For Victims Of Domestic Abuse

The #MeToo movement may have shifted the balance of credibility on sexual abuse and harassment at work more toward victims and away from alleged perpetrators. But the same cannot be said regarding men’s violence and abuse at home: In fact, women’s reports of domestic violence are still widely rejected, especially in one critical setting: the family court. When women, children or both report abuse by a father in a case concerning child custody or visitation, courts often refuse to believe them. Judges even sometimes “shoot the messenger” by removing custody from the mother and awarding it to the allegedly abusive father. For instance, courts reject 81% of mothers’ allegations of child sexual abuse, 79% of their allegations of child physical abuse, and 57% of their allegations of partner a...

The Use And Abuse Of ‘Outdated’ Citizen’s Arrest Laws Set’s The Stage For Vigilantism – Ahmaud Arbery’s Accused Killers Go To Trial

18Oct

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

SOCIAL JUSTICE

The Use And Abuse Of ‘Outdated’ Citizen’s Arrest Laws Set’s The Stage For Vigilantism – Ahmaud Arbery’s Accused Killers Go To Trial

Seth W. Stoughton, University of South Carolina The murder trial of three men accused in the death of unarmed Black jogger Ahmaud Arbery gets underway on Oct. 18, 2021, with the issue of what makes for a lawful citizen’s arrest set to be central to court arguments. Arbery was shot dead on Feb, 23, 2020, after being pursued through a residential area of Brunswick, Georgia. The three men accused in his killing – Greg McMichael, Travis McMichael and William Bryan – contend that they had reason to believe Arbery was responsible for home break-ins in the area. Arbery, they claim, was shot as he tried to resist a legal citizen’s arrest by wrestling a shotgun from Travis McMichael. Whether the defendants acted lawfully will depend, in large part, on the strength of their citizen’s arrest clai...

Essential Reads: The Catholic Church Sex Abuse Crisis

11Oct

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

IN OTHER NEWS

Essential Reads: The Catholic Church Sex Abuse Crisis

Molly Jackson, The Conversation Revelations about sexual abuse in the Catholic Church have been emerging for decades. But in the seemingly never-ending stream of investigations and accusations, some stand out. That will likely be true of the report released Oct. 5, 2021, which estimates that more than 200,000 children have been abused by clergy in France since 1950. The authors of the French study spent three years reviewing testimony from nearly 6,500 people. They then came up with their overall projection based on broader demographic data, and made dozens of recommendations: from case-by-case compensation to more sweeping reforms, such as that French bishops consider ordaining married men and giving women a louder voice in church decision-making. The French report’s specific findings...

Common In Workplace Abuse – R. Kelly Was Aided By A Network Of Complicity – That Enabled Crimes To Go On For Decades

28Sep

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

CELEBRITY NEWS

Common In Workplace Abuse – R. Kelly Was Aided By A Network Of Complicity – That Enabled Crimes To Go On For Decades

Peggy Cunningham, Dalhousie University and Minette Drumwright, University of Texas at Austin R&B singer R. Kelly was found guilty of racketeering and sex trafficking charges on Sept 27, 2021, having been exposed as the ringleader of a decades-long scheme to recruit girls, boys and women to have sex with. During the six-week long trial, jurors heard harrowing testimony from a succession of survivors of Kelly’s abuse. Witnesses also revealed how members of the 54-year-old’s entourage assisted, enabled and helped cover up the singer’s crimes. As professors who have researched unethical behavior for many years, we found the patterns revealed in Kelly’s trial to be classic examples of how unethical, even criminal, conduct can persist in organizations for long periods of time, often as an...

Britney Spears Conservator-Ships Can Lead To Abuse – Here’s Why

19Jul

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

CELEBRITY NEWS

Britney Spears Conservator-Ships Can Lead To Abuse – Here’s Why

Naomi Cahn, University of Virginia “I’m here to get rid of my dad and charge him with conservatorship abuse,” Britney Spears told a California court on July 14, 2021. She said that he was ruining her life, and in previous testimony she claimed that a team led by her father controlled her schedule, prevented her from having another baby and bullied her. She may soon get her wish after the judge in the case said she could hire her own lawyer, former prosecutor Mathew Rosengart, who plans to file paperwork soon to end the conservatorship on her behalf. To terminate a conservatorship, California law simply requires the filing of a petition demonstrating that it is no longer required. Spears’ case is unusual: Conservatorships are typically not imposed on someone who doesn’t have severe cogni...

A Long History Of Medical Abuse Suggests Why Many Black Americans Aren’t Rushing To Get The COVID-19 Vaccine

24Feb

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19

A Long History Of Medical Abuse Suggests Why Many Black Americans Aren’t Rushing To Get The COVID-19 Vaccine

Black Americans have been the least inclined of any racial or ethnic group to say they’d get vaccinated against the coronavirus. The proportion of Black people who said they’ll probably or definitely take the shot has risen over time – but even by mid-January, with two COVID-19 vaccines authorized for emergency use in the U.S., only 35% of Black survey respondents said they’d get it as soon as they could, or already had gotten the shot. At the same time, the COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately harmed Black, Indigenous and other people of color in comparison to white members of American society. With Black Americans being hospitalized at rates 2.9 times higher than white Americans and dying from COVID-19 at rates 1.9 times higher, you might assume that Black people would be lining u...

Political Violence And Abuse Of Women In Congress Undermines American Democracy

21Oct

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

POLITICS

Political Violence And Abuse Of Women In Congress Undermines American Democracy

From plans to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s being called a “f—ing b—” by her colleague Rep. Ted Yoho, it’s been a nasty year for women in American politics. Now, some women who’ve been targets of such misogyny want to put this problem on the congressional agenda. On Sept. 24, House Democrats Rashida Tlaib, Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Jackie Speier introduced a resolution – a largely symbolic congressional statement that carries no legal weight but provides moral support on certain issues – recognizing violence against women in politics as a global phenomenon. House Resolution 1151, which is currently under consideration by the House Judiciary Committee, calls on the government to take steps to mitigate this violence in the United State...

By filing for bankruptcy, the Boy Scouts may compensate more survivors of sexual abuse

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

BUSINESS

By filing for bankruptcy, the Boy Scouts may compensate more survivors of sexual abuse

The Boy Scouts of America has filed for bankruptcy to figure out how to fairly compensate thousands of survivors of alleged sexual abuse who accuse the Scouts of neglecting to protect them. Revelations regarding decades of the abuse of children and long-running institutional failures to stop the abuse are raising questions about the future of the Boy Scouts and what will become of its troops. The Scouts’ initial bankruptcy documents state that 275 lawsuits are pending in state and federal courts across the country, and that attorneys for survivors estimate another 1,400 claims will be filed. The Scouts disclosed that they have spent US$150 million on settlements and legal fees between 2017 and 2019. I’m a legal scholar who has studied the bankruptcy cases filed by hundreds of nonprofit...