Poverty Is Not Neglect: When CPS Misidentifies Struggling Parents as Abusers Imagine a teacher notices a student wearing a coat that’s too small in the middle of winter, or a doctor observes that a child at a well-child checkup appears undernourished. Often, these professionals do what they’ve been trained to do—they call the CPS…
Category: Child Abuse
Did Child Abuse Reports Really Drop During the Pandemic? The Numbers Might Be Misleading. Since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, news outlets across the country reported a dramatic decline in the number of child abuse and neglect reports made to Child Protective Services (CPS) hotlines. But does that mean fewer children are being…
Nationwide Reforms Protect Young Athletes in Wake of Nassar Case — But False Allegations Are on the Rise January 2021 marked the beginning of a major shift in how the United States addresses athlete safety, accountability, and institutional abuse—sparked by the staggering revelations of sexual misconduct committed by former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar. His…
August 2022 marked a notable update to Michigan’s Child Protection Law with the addition of physical therapists, occupational therapists, and athletic trainers to the list of professionals designated as mandatory reporters of suspected child abuse and neglect. This change reflects Michigan’s ongoing efforts to protect vulnerable children by expanding the categories of professionals required to…
When parents hear the term Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI)—commonly known as brittle bone disease—they’re often struck by the severity of the name. And rightly so. OI is a rare genetic disorder that affects the body’s ability to produce strong bones, making individuals more prone to fractures and other complications. While OI affects approximately 1 in 10,000…
Just in case you happen to have been living under a rock for the last few years – Larry Nassar is in jail for the rest of his life, and doctors are coming under increased scrutiny now that doctor/patient sexual abuse is under the spotlight on a national level. But the ripples from the Nassar…
For most parents, the idea of being accused of child abuse is too horrifying to contemplate. The idea that someone would think that your own children aren’t safe in your care, or that you don’t love your kids, is beyond heartbreaking. But what few people stop to consider when thinking about the horror of false…
Welcome back and thanks for joining us. We’re looking at the issue of how a growing number of highly visible cases of sexual assault by doctors is changing the way people interact with their medical caregivers. As the Nassar case shows, doctors are often treated as ‘untouchable’, which is why it was so hard for…
The Catholic church has come under increasing fire in recent decades for the horrifying number of priests being accused of sexually assaulting children. What makes the allegations worse is that in many cases, it seems other church authorities were aware of the abuses, but made every effort to cover them up instead of reporting them…
Child abuse is a subject that has received a great deal of public interest and media attention in recent years. And in some ways that’s a really good thing. Instances of child abuse are rising, and the number of children in foster care needing stable homes is staggering. So it’s definitely a subject that needs…