A Fatal Grace: The Mcmartin Preschool Abuse Case

363 Words1 Page

“There are generally three parties to child abuse: the abused, the abuser and the bystander,” according to Louise Penny, author of A Fatal Grace. In this case, however, there was no bystander. That is the reason that this case’s verdict was so hard to reach. Seven years and $15 million later, that verdict was reached. It was the influenced words of the children versus the words of the accused. (The McMartin Preschool Abuse Trials: A Commentary, Douglas Linder) In late 1983, a call was placed by a parent, Judy Johnson, of a 2 and a half year-old attendee of McMartin Preschool. This worried woman stated that her son had been molested by 25-year-old, school aide and son of the owner, Ray Buckey. After this incident was reported, a letter was

Show More
Related

  • Unsolved Case of Jon Benet Ramsey´s Murder

    2222 Words  | 5 Pages

    The brutal murder of 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey on Christmas night in 1996 shocked America to its core. Just as the Lindbergh baby kidnapping and murder seven decades earlier had seared the nation’s consciousness, this murder – of a beautiful and talented child in a wealthy Boulder, Colorado home --renewed every parent’s worst nightmare. It has been nearly three years since this violent crime occurred and no one has been brought to justice.

    Read More

  • Summary Of Jerry Sandusky's Bystander Effect

    203 Words  | 1 Pages

    When Mike McQueary witnessed the rape of a 10-year-old boy, he did not report it to the cops nor did he try and resolve the issue himself (Szalavitz). Instead of using common sense, Mr.McQueary’s mind might have shifted the situation into “interpretive” denial, causing the brain to portray the situation in a different way and with a different meaning behind it (Szalavitz). Sadly, Mr.Queary wasn’t the only one who chose to ignore Jerry Sandusky’s unforgivable actions. A janitor, who was working at Penn State, also failed to report another assault of a child, allowing for endangerment of the kid. Although the charging of Jerry Sandusky is recent, there is an infamous Bystander Effect case that will bring shivers down anyone’s spine. Whenever

    Read More

  • Child Abuse In California's Life In A Child Called It By Dave Pelzer

    1769 Words  | 4 Pages

    David suffered physical, mental, and emotional abuse from the age of four to 12-years-old. As his teachers and principal, neighbors, and even his maternal grandmother and father stand by and let the abuse happen, it makes me wonder what they could have done differently. For example, David’s father saw the abuse firsthand and he would try to intervene to help him out initially. David’s father was caught by the madness of his wife in calling him, ‘the boy’ and ‘It’. As much as his father tried to comfort David, he did not have the will to stand up against his wife. Another example, the maternal grandmother commented on bruises visible on David’s body and she did not take action to report her daughter for abusing her grandchild, David. Instead, David’s grandmother stated that she should stay out of it and let David’s mother raise her children as she saw fit. I believed the unreported instances observed by the public to be just as substantial a crime as the child abusers themselves. Also, the Department of Children and Social Services were contacted because of the alleged child abuse events that occurred previously; however, he was not taken from the home because the social worker of the agency sided with David’s mother. The social worker did not complete a thoroughly

    Read More

  • Lessons Learned from the Story of Mary Ellen Wilson

    774 Words  | 2 Pages

    What would you do if you were a witness to child abuse today? Would you turn your head as if it were not your business, would you intervene immediately, or would you report the abuser to the authorities? It was approximately 1869 - 1870 when a woman named Charlotte Fiehling "cringed at the sound of the child's beating. She had heard it before, but had never laid eyes the child. The little girl was no more than five or six if she was a day, judging by her size, and her poor legs were striped with the welts of a whip, her body bruised from blows. Her hair matted and infested with vermin, no doubt, and she did not appear to have had a bath of any kind for many days, if not weeks" (qtd. In Shelman 187). This little girls name was Mary Ellen Wilson. Prior to 1874, the United States did not have any laws to protect children from abuse. Though society is still learning, we have come along way. There are still many cases of child abuse, but as a society we now have ways to intervene, and prevent this abuse and neglect. It was in 1874 when the first court case of child abuse was argued. It was the case of, Mary Ellen Wilson. Mary Ellen as a young girl was severely beaten with whips, burned with the iron, cut with scissors, not to mention the sexual, and emotional abuse. It was in 1874 that a major change in our legal system took place in society. The change was a realization to our legal system that we have to do something about children like Mary Ellen. We have learned many lessons from this alarming event. Now we have choices, now we can help, and now we have child protection services. This case has delivered us, as a society, many messages. I am going to point out two major lessons I found are crucial to how we do thi...

    Read More

  • Review Of A Child Called It By Dave Pelzer

    789 Words  | 2 Pages

    I chose the Dave Pelzer testimony to review because of its varying slant on the typical societal perception of child abuse which predominately deems maltreatment as either occurring from infancy, or instigated by males. Evidencing this misconception, Dave’s childhood is portrayed as idyllic until, around aged four, life rapidly deteriorates when his mother develops mental health and alcohol issues and turns from being devoted and loving into a sadistic, controlling and manipulative woman. At the hands of his own mother, Dave is singled out from his two brothers for being ‘naughty’, scapegoated and subjected to appalling treatment which leaves him physically, emotionally

    Read More

  • Texas Department of Family and Protective Services

    1259 Words  | 3 Pages

    Hurley, Jennifer (1999). Child Abuse Opposing Views . San Diego : Greenhaven Press, Inc. print.

    Read More

  • The Mcmartin Preschool Trial

    891 Words  | 2 Pages

    As Linder explains Billy’s mother took him to the doctor after school because he said his anus itched. The doctor encountered spots of blood that wasn't supposed to be there. It was result of this doctors visit they came to a conclusion of what had happened earlier that day at school (Linder, "Chronology of the McMartin Preschool Abuse Trials"). A worried mother, Judy Johnson was determined to make this situation known. Linder confirms that Johnson called the police after leaving the doctor’s office because she suspected that Billy’s symptoms consisted of were caused by the faculty at the school earlier that day (Linder, "Chronology of the McMartin Preschool Abuse Trials"). As Kathryn Shelton, a research associate at the O’Neil Center at Southern Methodist University and Richard B. Mckenzie, a professor emeritus in the Merage Business School at the University of California, Irvine notes, this being the first accusation of child molestation brought it straight to trial (Shelton and

    Read More

  • Nixmary Brown Case Study

    1252 Words  | 3 Pages

    Children suffer and endure torture in the hands of the people that are close to them. Conferring to Arthur (2012) for instance, Nixmary’s stepmother molested and denied her the fundamental rights of protection from harm and danger. Instead of providing moral support to Brown, her stepmother abused her sexually at a tender age. Parents and guardians must offer protection and psychosocial support to their children to empower them to be safe. The seven-year-old girl suffered silently in the hands of her stepmother without telling her story to anyone. The case reveals

    Read More

  • Child Abuse And Neglect In The Brandon's Case Study

    702 Words  | 2 Pages

    Obviously, working with survivors of child sexual abuse, neglect, and trauma: The approach taken by the social worker in the Brandon’s case shall begin with “assessment and beginning treatment of the family because child abuse is one of a wide range practice situation in which systems concepts can be applied to help to understand the dynamics involved” in the road for healing and recovery from the physical and psychological effect of the trauma by providing adequate resources available for counseling and therapy due to the devastating impacts of child sexual abuse can be heartbreaking for the victim and the family. However, social worker approach to understanding and responds efficiently by being empathetic to the complex situation as a result; the perpetrator is the father such as in the case of Brandon (Plummer, Makris, & Brocksen, 2014).

    Read More

  • The Mendez Brothers Trial

    1323 Words  | 3 Pages

    On August 20th, 1989 Lyle and Erik Menendez killed their parents inside their Beverly Hills home with fifteen shot gun blasts after years of alleged “sexual, psychological, and corporal abuse” (Berns 25). According to the author of “Murder as Therapy”, “The defense has done a marvelous job of assisting the brothers in playing up their victim roles” (Goldman 1). Because there was so much evidence piled up against the brothers, the defense team was forced to play to the jurors’ emotions if they wanted a chance at an acquittal. Prosecutor Pamela Bozanich was forced to concede that “Jose and Kitty obviously had terrific flaws-most people do in the course of reminding jurors that the case was about murder, not child abuse” (Adler 103). Bozanich “cast the details of abuse as cool, calculated lies” (Smolowe 48)...

    Read More

  • The Stockholm Syndrome: Beauty And The Beast

    730 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Shirley’s study she took the survivors and asked them 5 questions; Your experience of child sexual abuse. How this has impacted on your life? What have you done to recover from child sexual abuse? What has been most helpful? If you had the power to change the criminal justice system, what would you change? Each of these responses were taped and then transcribed. Throughout the experience Shirley discovered that many of the victims had a hard time justifying their responses and no matter how they put it, their answers didn’t make any sense when spoken aloud. Shirley also came to the conclusion that the victim’s family members or close friends either helped influence the victim’s decision whether to report the abuse or not. This usually came down to the fact that the bystanders should’ve been able to protect the victim but couldn’t due to loyalty towards the abuser or simply because they didn’t know that the abuse was occurring in the first

    Read More

  • Yummy's Neglect

    1310 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Nearly 700,000 children are abused in the United States annually, and about four out of five abusers are the victims’ parents”. When a child is abused or neglected by a parent, they will most likely adopt these habits in some form. This is why, “14% of of all men, and 36% of women in prison in the U.S. were abused as a child. Abused children are also at more of a risk to misuse drugs, and nine times more likely to become involved with criminal activity” (Childline.com). Henceforth, when a child is abused or neglected, the child cannot be blamed for how they act. The actions these children make are not entirely their choice, but induced by the environment they live in. In the graphic novel, Yummy, the Last Days of a Southside Shorty,

    Read More

  • Psychologically Vulnerable Group of People

    874 Words  | 2 Pages

    Bull, R, 2010, The Investigative Interviewing of Children and other Vulnerable witnesses: Psychological Research and Working/Professional Practice, Legal and Criminological Psychology, volume 15 (Pages 5-23)

    Read More

  • Social Responsibility To Report Of Child Abuse Cases

    820 Words  | 2 Pages

    When it comes to child abuse cases, people have different viewpoints on how things should be handled. One thing that people have tried to fight is the thought of bystanders being held responsible is impractical. “The theory of social responsibility and ethics applies in both individual and group

    Read More

  • The Role of the Teacher in Reporting Cases of Child Abuse and Neglect

    2406 Words  | 5 Pages

    Child abuse is a growing problem that affects children of all genders, ages, races, religions, and classes. It generally can be defined as “the non-accidental physical, sexual or mental injury or neglect caused by basic omissions of the child’s parents or caretakers”(Colorado State Department of Education, 1998). Narrowing the causes of child abuse to one in particular would be impossible, due to the wide range of factors that contribute. Today, teachers hold an important and unique position, for they are required to have an understanding of the laws and regulations in which to detect and report any suspected cases of child abuse. In Baltimore County, there have been recent efforts to train and educate public school employees on the awareness of child abuse, and the ethical procedures necessary when filing an actual report. As stated by Linda Lumsden, “the school is one social institution outside the family with which nearly all children have consistent, ongoing contact (1991).

    Read More

More about A Fatal Grace: The Mcmartin Preschool Abuse Case

Open Document