The case: Michelle Knight
Michelle knight is a 34 year old Caucasian women who was born April 1981, later on moving to Cleveland Ohio where she was raised (Knight, 2015). Growing up she recalls not having a good relationship with her mother, she remembers “a chaotic childhood marked by neglect and abuse” (Connors, 2014). In school she was bullied and eventually sexually assaulted “By a group of males “resulting in her dropping out of school and later finding out her had become pregnant as a result of the assault (DURANTE, ROBSON & WARREN, 2013). Soon after she gave birth to a baby boy she named joey, when joey was around two years old he was taken to the hospital and treated for a broken leg, Michelle stated that her mother’s boyfriend purposely did it while under the influence of drugs. (Anderson, 2013).Child protective services was called and joey was temporarily taken out of Michelle’s custody until further notice (Anderson, 2013).
On August 23, 2002 Michelle had a mandatory meeting with child protective services in order to have joey placed back in her care, already late for court she stopped and asked for directions from a stranger later identified as Ariel Castro ( Connors, 2014).). She was lured into his car with fake intensions of him dropping her off at her appointment, instead he drove to his house where he then held her captive for the next eleven years (Connors, 2014). Michelle was forcefully “restrained and imprisoned”, raped multiple times a day,
Testimony this Thursday morning began with a New York State Police Investigator who is part of the computer crimes unit. She said her analysis of Michael Beard's phone is that there was quiet a bit of deleting and a lot of powering off, including more than 100 deleted calls.
In her article “Gendered Racial Violence and Spatialized Justice,” Sherene H. Razack explores the murder of Pamela George; the way that her murderers’ sentences were lessened because of a variety of factors pertaining to Ms. George’s life; and the fact that the murderers were young, white, and middle-class men.
A woman, named Dellena, was involved in sex trafficking business. She made a documentary titled, “Human Trafficking Survivor Story: Dellena, California,” where she shares her experience as a victim. As a little girl, her mother was very negative and always put her down. Her parents were divorced when Dellena was just a child. Not before long her mother remarried. Dellena’s new stepfather molested her and her sister at the age of seven. Soon after her parents remarried, she was put in the foster care system for five years and her mother never once came to see her. One day her mother showed up and told Dellena she was going home. Dellena said, “The reason my mother wanted me home was because my stepfather wanted me home because he liked twelve-year-old girls. That was the perfect age for him” (“Human Trafficking Survivor Story: Dellena, California”). After being molested again, she ran away from her home. On the streets she met a 21-year old, who took her
Cyntoia Brown’s story is another sad example of male privilege and the valuing of a man’s life over a woman’s. Brown had a hard life growing up; she suffered from Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and grew up in a very abuse home. When she was a teenager she ran away from home, which ultimately led to her entering a life of prostitution. After leaving home, she met a 24-year-old man named “Cut Throat” who abused her and forced into prostitution. When she was 16 her pimp sold her to a 43-year-old man who picked her up from a Sonic parking lot and brought her back to his house. Upon entering the house, Brown noticed a gun cabinet in the man’s room. She attempted to fight off the predator’s advances, but ultimately feared for her life and pulled out a gun and shot and killed the rapist. Cyntoia was arrested and charged with first-degree murder for killing the child molester who was attempting to rape her. The prosecution stated that Cyntoia did not kill him out of self-defense, but rather as an attempt to rob him since she took his wallet after shooting him. Brown has currently been in jail for over ten years and will not be given the possibility of parole until she is 69 years old. After the initial trial people were unhappy with the sentencing which led Tennessee to change their laws and ban mandatory life sentences for juveniles without parole. Recently, Brown’s case has been brought back into the spotlight due to many A-list celebrities tweeting about the incredible injustice.
The Duke Lacrosse team and the prosecutor were involved in a racially driven rape case at Duke University in Durham, NC in 2006. The focus of the investigation by the District Attorney was to convict three of
As an undergraduate at SUNY Potsdam, I took various sociology and human services classes. However, I was mostly fascinated by the family violence theme discussing different forms of abuse within the household and how children can become victims of such acts. Eager to expand my horizons, I first decided to become a volunteer in a program called “Adopt-A-Bear Cub, which is an after-school program at Saint-Lawrence Elementary School for children who are at risk. I mentored a second-grade boy from a disadvantaged background and
For this experience, I have visited Wynona’s House Child Advocacy Center, often referred to as Wynona’s House. This was the perfect opportunity to go to such an agency because April is Child Abuse Prevention Month. During my visit, I interviewed two women that worked at this agency: Ashley Pires, and briefly, Karen J. Zambrano. Ashley Pires is the Family Advocate and Karen Zambrano is Wynona House’s Forensic Interview Specialist.
A hispanic female named Anna Garcia who was 38 years of age, was found dead on the date of August 14, 2015 in Anytown, U.S.A. She was 64 inches in height and 165 pounds. The case of Anna Garcia first began on a hot, 92°F summer morning. A next door neighbor, Doug Greene, had decided to call police at 9:45 am to place his concern about Garcia because of her dog that had been barking all morning, which was highly unusual. Being that he had not seen or heard from her since the previous morning, he called her, then went over to her house to make sure nothing was wrong. Both the police and EMT arrived at 9:56 am. When questioned by police, Greene informed them that he had seen her the previous morning around 6:30 am walking her dog. He also stated that he saw her wearing a sweater, which was found odd because of the current heat wave. The front door had to be broken down in order to enter the house. Upon entering the house, they found Garcia lying face down in the entry hallway. Inside, the house was a temperature of 73°F. Immediately after Anna Garcia was
Rita Price, writer for The Columbus Dispatch, recounts a horrific story about siblings who suffered numerous accounts of abuse. After being beaten with baseball bats, burned with irons, starved, and forced to drink their own urine, the Ferguson children were finally able to come forward and testify against their adoptive parents in order to send them to prison. The children did not believe they had a voice, and the abuse went unnoticed for years. The Ferguson children, along with many others in similar situations, do not feel they have anyone to turn to. After going through foster care systems and the adoption process, the children had already experienced large amounts of change and stress, only to be left with negligent parents. In
Alejandro C. is a 36-month-old Hispanic male who was placed in foster care after being taken from his mother, Ms. C. Ms. C’s family had anonymously called the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) reporting allegations of severe neglect. The family stated that Ms. C., a methamphetamine addict, would leave Alejandro alone for long periods of time without any supervision.
Lucius Isaiah Gibson IV, age 16, was arrested Tuesday, July 12, 2016, on the allegation that he committed sexual assault on a 3 year old girl at the home day care center known as “Jacque's Teddy Bear Child Care,” ran by his mother (Alani, 2016). The home day care facility is located at 1538 Amaryllis Court in the Thousand Oaks East Subdivision (Alani, 2016). On June 9th detectives first interviewed the 3-year-old victim, who name is not mentioned (Alani, 2016). According to the police report, the girl stated to the officers that, Gibson went into the “nap room” and assaulted her several times (Alani, 2016). Gibson’s argument to the arresting officers was that he did “expose himself in front of the children,” however, he denies touching or
I would go for a targeted communication strategy to each of the different stakeholders. The first one will be to Jessica’s parents to re-explain the true nature of these unfortunate circumstances. I would explain to them the entire process and where we went wrong and apologize. I would also convey that the unfortunate circumstances were not specifically targeted at them but it was a bad lapse in the entire process and while we can help at this particular time with your daughter, we will reevaluate the entire process to ensure that nothing like that ever happens again. I would also inform them that from now on, to reflect the changing demographics in the area the hospital covers, the hospital will be offering language classes to all their staff to better communicate with people from different social and cultural
In order for a trial to be brought, the police and prosecutors might be able to prove that the elements of the particular offence are present. In this criminal case both Actus reus, Mens rea as well causation was clearly shown through the behavior of Katherine Knight.
According to Pecora, Sanders, Wilson, English, Puckett & Rudlang-Perman (2014), “Every year in the USA, about 695,000 unique children are confirmed as victims of child maltreatment (US Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Administration on Children, Youth and Families, Children’s Bureau 2011) (p. 321). Such startling statistics suggest that child abuse is not just a public health issue; it is an epidemic. However, research reveals that prevention is possible through a collaborative effort made by parents, schools, the government, social services, and the
Karen Johnston is a director of a health planning agency which employs approximately 18 staff members and also serves on the Community Advisory Board (CAB). This program typically incorporates two student interns from her health planning agency. The CAB is a vital program as it advises the program faculty on issues that concern curriculum, internships, job placements, and scholarships.