Foster Care as a Mitigating Circumstance in Criminal Proceedings
Just published in Temple Political and Civil Rights Law Review is an article, Foster Care as a Mitigating Circumstance in Criminal Proceedings. The article addresses the question: should a history of foster care involvement serve as a legitimate mitigating circumstance for a defendant in a criminal trial?
According to the article:
The sensationalism of many criminal trials, especially those of a capital nature, often result from the aggravating circumstances impacting the victim. Conversely, the mitigating circumstances that affect the accused‘s criminality rarely ...
Opprescedent Decisions Continue for Victims of Child Pornography
Last month, in United States v. Robert M. Fast, the Eighth Circuit, in a 2-1 split decision, rejected full restitution for child pornography victims, holding that:
Congress determined that these [child pornography] restitution offenses typically proximately cause the losses enumerated in subsections 2259(b)(3)(A) through (E). Congress did not mean that a specific defendant automatically proximately causes those losses in every case. The government still has to prove that the defendant proximately caused those losses.
[I]njury to the child depicted in the child pornograp...
OVC Video Series Addresses Children’s Exposure to Violence
The Department of Justice's Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) has released “Through Our Eyes: Children, Violence, and Trauma,” an online video series to address the needs of children exposed to violence and victimization.The series includes a public awareness video in which victims discuss the effects of the violence and trauma they experienced; and three topic-specific videos detailing evidence-based treatment, child advocacy strategies, and community-based approaches to help those affected.
Visit http://www.ovc.gov/pubs/ThroughOurEyes/index.html for details.
Penalties for Falsely Reporting Child Abuse
The Jerry Sandusky criminal trial is over; the civil lawsuits are in active settlement mode. Undoubtedly, the entire country is more tuned into child abuse than it ever was. The National Conference of State Legislatures reports that about 105 bills on the reporting of suspected child abuse and neglect have been introduced in 2012 legislative sessions in 30 states and the District of Columbia. 1 All of them include a penalty for failing to report suspected child abuse.
Oregon is one of the states which recently enacted child abuse reporting legislation. It added to the ...
Sixth Circuit Rejects Commonsense Approach to Child Pornography Restitution
Last week, the Sixth Circuit issued this confusing decision on child pornography restitution in the combined cases of United States v. James D. Gamble and Shawn Crawford.
The Court held that the child pornography restitution statute contains both a cause-in-fact requirement—i.e., a showing that the defendant's conduct actually caused the victim's losses—and and a requirement that the cause be proximate.
The Court found that "the statute still allows victims to collect more restitution than under earlier and concurrent restitution statutes. The statute expands ...
Ending the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in California
Today the National Center for Youth Law released a new report, Ending Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children: A Call for Multi-System Collaboration in California.
Report author Kate Walker, an Equal Justice Works Fellow and Attorney at the Center, commented that "Every day, the unthinkable happens: thousands of America's children are coerced into performing sex for hire. Exploitation can start as young as age ten. Some exploited children are brutally beaten and raped. Others are isolated, drugged, and starved until they become "willing" participants. Yet, ...