Posts Tagged ‘Sexual Predator’

Documentation is crucial when dealing with victims of suspected abuse

October 14, 2008

While working in the ER of a local hospital, I witnessed a case where detailed documentation by an experienced physician helped save a 5 yr old Somali girl from ongoing psychological and sexual abuse. This little girl had been brought to the ER several times over the course of 3 months. She was brought in by her mother with several physical complaints that included lack of appetite, constipation, frequent crying and painful urination. Initial physical exams and lab tests were essentially normal. During the 4th visit, the physician decided to do a more in-depth physical assessment and full evaluation of the situation which included a psycho-social assessment of the family. The results revealed ongoing sexual and psychological abuse by a family member. The physician’s reporting and her detailed documentation of the findings help remove the perpetrator of this crime from the victim’s home and later assisted in his conviction.

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Sexual Assault: Forensic Nursing in the ER, comment

November 15, 2007

RE: The post from August 9, 2005 and titled:
Sexual Assault: Forensic Nursing in the ER, in Forensic Nursing Chronicles

Fortunately in this case, the nurse (and /or physician) had the insight to do a rape kit and take the child seriously. All too frequently we hear about children who have been repeatedly sexually abused by a relative or a family friend, only to find out that their parent or caretaker didn’t take them seriously. These sexual acts, from molestation to penetration can have serious consequences to the child later in life.
I believe events such as the one in this case occur more frequently than most people think.
The program Dateline: To Catch a Predator, has multiple stories of men showing up at the home of a young teenage girl that they were in contact with on the Internet, only to find Dateline there instead. These men are from all walks of life. Previous sex offenders, people on Parole, religious leaders, just to name a few.
This is a widespread problem, not just an isolated case here and there. I’m glad there is a push in the medical community to be more aware of and recognize child abuse, but this is just a small part of it.

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Is Myspace.com, Really that Popular?

April 25, 2007

It seems now a days, the well-known Internet site http://www.myspace.com , is becoming more of a place for sexual predator, nudists, and drug dealers rather than a place for social networking. Recently in the news here in Jacksonville and Neptune Beach, Florida, there has been several crackdowns on sexual predators posing as under aged juveniles, attempting to engage in sexual activities with minors. There was an incident where an over aged man, got to engage in a gradual conversation with a under aged boy. The over aged man told him, he would have to meet his “older brother” first, for his approval. Well to find out, the over aged man, attempted to have sexual encounters with this male. Luckily the younger boy was able to beat him off and report it to authorities. Not everyone is as lucky though. Neptune Beach police officers on a regular basis set up undercover stings to catch sexual predators and offenders to catch them in a violation. Recently there has been a lot of news about the popular social networking going on in the website. Questions have been raised tremendously about safety risks for its many teen users. Also the possibility of identify theft. There have been several other different issues that have risen from Myspace.com. There are actually young girls running away to meet these guys that they have met on this Internet site. Some have come up missing and some have been beaten, raped or molested. Several companies are bringing forth a new policy about Internet usage due to the fact that they spend a majority of their time surfing Myspace.com rather than doing their job. A big institution in Duval county, Baker county, and Nassau county, here in Florida are among the new comers that have fired, or suspended several of their employees. Most of these employees were city or government officials. I personally do have a Myspace account to keep up with current friends and friends from high school, college, or family out of town. There is a lot of spam or junk mail that does come across each screen name. There are a lot of sexual offenders that take advantage of young users and know exactly what they are doing. Most parents do not understand the use of Myspace.com. Although there is an age block when initially signing up for the service. However if a teenager or child sets up the account, they can easily not check the appropriate age. Forensic specialist, local law enforcement, lawyers, attorneys and child support team workers are working together to stop the solicitation of the sexual offenders. They are working together to find a way to be able to identify these users, and start a regulation for the offenders to identify themselves before creating an account. Several children and teenagers have been caught in using this website to identify themselves, as people who they truly are not. Myspace is helping and also trying to help authorities to stop these offenders, predators and people imposing to be who they are not and to mislead the community. Parents honestly do not know exactly what this website is about and what exactly the misfortunes it can lead in to. Families of runaways are helping as much as they can, to find their children and to put a stop to this web site. However there are other ones out there, for example- Hi 5. This website is very similar to Myspace. Authorities are setting traps to catch some of these users, and so far they are working pretty well. Forensic specialists have the ability to search and read all documentation throughout the screen names to help find out what exactly did happen and how it happened. This is also helping to find the runaway kids that are still out there.

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