One in Ten

Latest Episodes:

Exploring the Memoir of a Stolen Boyhood with Author Stephen Mills Apr 28, 2022

Show notes

Today’s episode is a conversation with author and survivor Stephen Mills about his recently published memoir, Chosen. For those who haven’t yet read his book, which we highly recommend, it recounts Mills’ abuse at the hands of a camp counselor over several years, and his long journey towards healing. While many institutional abuse cases involve boys, there are very, very few published accounts of male survivorship. And, if we’re to help boys who have been abused, then it’s critical for us to understand how this experience may differ from that of female survivorship. Mills’ account is deeply moving, and it challenges all of us to better protect boys in the first place, and better help them heal if they have been abused.

Topics in this episode:

Why we need this story (1:17)
Stigma and shame (3:42)
Grooming family and community (6:50)
Longing for justice (17:34)
Pushing institutions to change (26:17)
Public policy wishes (29:45)
Advice for child abuse professionals (34:39)
Learn signs and tactics (41:46)
For more information (47:01)

Links:

Stephen Mills is the coauthor with Roger Fouts of Next of Kin: My Conversations with Chimpanzees. He has advised and written for an array of public interest organizations in the fields of human rights, civil liberties, and the environment. Since 1983, he has worked with the Natural Resources Defense Council, building campaigns that have mobilized millions of people in support of environmental protection, and he serves as an ambassador for CHILD USA.

StephenMillsAuthor.com includes resources for survivors, families, and everyone and information on ways to take action to prevent child sexual abuse

“At a Place Where He Was Supposed to Be Safe, He Was Molested,” by Bruce Feiler, The New York Times, April 26, 2022

Other memoirs mentioned: Notes on a Silencing by Lacy Crawford; Half the House: A Memoir by Richard Hoffman; and The Tricky Part: One Boy’s Fall from Trespass into Grace by Martin Moran

Child Victims Act of 2019 (New York)

CHILD USA has information on child protection laws across the country, including statutes of limitation reform

U.S. National Blueprint to End Sexual Violence Against Children and Adolescents from Keep Kids Safe

For more information about National Children’s Alliance and the work of Children’s Advocacy Centers, visit our website at NationalChildrensAlliance.org. Or visit our podcast website at OneInTenPodcast.org. And join us on Facebook at One in Ten podcast.

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Reframing Childhood Adversity Apr 14, 2022

Show notes

April is Child Abuse Prevention Month, a great time to talk about the way we message around child abuse and childhood adversities. The ways in which we’ve messaged about childhood adversity in the past may have served us very well, helping people come to terms with how important the topic is, the scope of the problem, and the lifelong impacts of it. But they may not be serving us very well now.

What if, in describing the problem as enormous and making that the centerpiece of our messaging, we’re making people think that the problem is intractable and they’re powerless as an individual person to make a change? Or, in focusing on the stories of individual families in order to gain empathy for them, what we really seem to be implying to the public is that there’s no room for public policy solutions, that this is a matter for each family to solve by themselves. We talked to Julie Sweetland, senior advisor at the FrameWorks Institute, about how to reframe childhood adversity.

Topics in this episode:

Origin story (2:21)
Common communication traps (6:15)
Threat of modernity (14:28)
Key recommendations (19:09)
Systemic racism (32:16)
Hope and resilience (35:45)
Collective responsibility (39:55)
Evidence-based communication (42:00)
For more information (43:52)

Links:

Julie Sweetland, Ph.D., is a sociolinguist and senior advisor at the FrameWorks Institute.

ACEs: adverse childhood experiences

“Reframing Childhood Adversity: Promoting Upstream Approaches,” by Julie Sweetland, FrameWorks Institute (February 16, 2021); a presentation of the report is also available on the FrameWorks site

Harvard University Center on the Developing Child

National Scientific Council on the Developing Child

Prevent Child Abuse America

Social Current

CDC: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Zero to Three

Ascend at the Aspen Institute

Building Better Childhoods

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Does America Believe Female Sexual Abusers Actually Exist? Apr 01, 2022

Show notes

Does America believe female sexual abusers actually exist? When we think about child sexual abuse, don’t we automatically picture in our mind a father, a stepfather, a Boy Scout leader, a male neighbor, a coach, or a priest? Our minds go there for a very good reason, and that is that 97% of convicted sexual offenders are, in fact, male. But we know that female-perpetrated child sexual abuse does exist.

What are the sort of perceptions—and misperceptions—that abound around this? What are the myths that exist about female-perpetrated sexual abuse? And how do these perceptions differ depending on who the woman is? What if it’s an aunt, or female clergy, or even a teacher? Maybe, most interestingly, as you’ll hear, a teacher most of all. We know from research that the traumatic impacts of female-perpetrated abuse are real and long-lasting. Does the general public actually believe the same? And how do we address the biases around this that may prevent victims from being believed and helped? Take a listen to our interview with Dr. Caitlyn Muniz.

Topics in this episode:

Why research this topic (1:58)
The focus on teacher/student cases (3:59)
Effect of authority roles (6:21)
Research findings (10:27)
What the general public might think (20:00)
Disclosures and reactions (24:30)
Cultural biases harm victims (34:23)
Advice for child abuse professionals (41:19)
Future research (44:00)
Share the episode (47:16)

Links:

Caitlyn N. Muniz, Ph.D., is assistant professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at The University of Texas at El Paso
“The Influence of Authority Role and Victim Gender on Perceptions of Female-Perpetrated Child Sexual Abuse,” Caitlyn N. Muniz, Ráchael A Powers, Child Maltreatment, July 26, 2021

researchgate.net/profile/Caitlyn-Muniz

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The Surprising Prevalence of Sibling Sexual Abuse Mar 10, 2022

Show notes

When we think about problematic sexual behaviors in youth, we often think of a neighbor child, or someone at school. Someone acting out in the community with a child of our own. But rarely do we think about sibling sexual abuse, which we think of as somehow very rare. As you’re going to hear in this episode, it isn’t. It’s not uncommon.

Some of the most difficult cases we deal with at Children's Advocacy Centers are sibling sexual abuse cases. Mom and Dad come in, horribly upset. You have one child who is the victim, and they want to support that child. But at the same time they were terribly concerned about the child who had harmed their other child. The child who had thought it up and acted it out. And trying to think about how to prevent them from winding up and suffering all the pain and indignities of the criminal justice system.

What do we do in these cases that can actually be productive? How do we understand them moving forward? And how do we address the research gaps that leave us not always knowing entirely what to do?
Topics in this episode:

Why there's so little research on sibling sexual abuse (2:15)
Key findings about the research (8:00)
Poor mental health outcomes (15:26)
Risk factors in large families (23:50)
What can we do to protect children? (32:13)
For more information (35:36)

Links:
Nina Bertele is a research fellow at Charité - University Hospital Berlin (Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin)
Anat Talmon, Ph.D.

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The True Cost of Olympic Gold Feb 24, 2022

Show notes

In recent years, how we look at the Olympics and elite sports has begun to change—driven by cases like that of Larry Nassar, the team doctor who for years and years got away with sexually assaulting and sexually abusing girls and young women. Marci Hamilton, the founder and CEO of CHILD USA, a think tank dedicated to child abuse and neglect, lead a case autopsy, conducted by subject-matter experts to find out how this was allowed to happen. And how can we prevent it from ever happening again? The Game Over Commission explored the toxic culture of sports, which values medals and money over athlete well-being. Hamilton joined us to discuss what the commission discovered, and what must be done to allow children and young adults to experience the joy of sports without the danger of abuse. Take a listen.
Topics in this episode:

The Larry Nassar case (2:28)
Game Over Commission (3:44)
Toxic culture in elite sports (7:27)
The economics of sports and pressures on athletes (12:41)
Near-zero regulation (17:44)
What parents need to know (27:17)
Total power, zero oversight: Team doctors (29:17)
Best child protection policies? (38:55)
Bankruptcy used against victims (40:44)

Links:
Prof. Marci A. Hamilton at the University of Pennsylvania is the founder, CEO, and academic director of CHILD USA, a nonprofit academic think tank. She is the author of Justice Denied: What America Must Do to Protect Its Children.
The biographies of those who testified before the commission are available online, including those of Larissa Boyce and John-Michael Lander.
Footage of the hearings is also available on the CHILD USA site.
In January 2022, Game Over Commission released a case study on the abuse perpetrated by Larry Nassar.
Bishop Accountability

AAU – Amateur Athletic Union
IOC – International Olympic Committee
NCAA – National Collegiate Athletic Association
USOC – U.S. Olympic Committee
USOPC – U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee
Listen to our earlier interview with Dr. Marci Hamilton, “Radically Vulnerable: Achieving Justice for Survivors,” Season 1, Episode 10 (September 30, 2019)
For more information about National Children’s Alliance and the work of Children’s Advocacy Centers, visit our website at NationalChildrensAlliance.org. Or visit our podcast website at OneInTenPodcast.org. And join us on Facebook at One in Ten podcast.

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Sticks and Stones … But What If Words Do Hurt? Feb 10, 2022

Show notes

Over the past 18 months, systemic and structural discrimination have received widespread—and, let’s face it, much-needed—media attention and public discussion. But what hasn’t had the same level of attention is interpersonal discrimination. The nasty comments. The othering. The exclusion—not at the hands of a faceless bureaucracy, but in our own communities, between individual people. Now, many of us were raised with a sort of “sticks and stones can break our bones, but words can never hurt us” sort of bravado. But what if words, and actions, about our personal appearance, race, gender, and age did create long-term harm? What if instead of simple slights that we should shrug off, these were recognized as vulnerabilities for the development of mental illness or substance abuse in young adulthood? We spoke with Yvonne Lei, a medical student at UCLA and lead researcher on a study of interpersonal discrimination and its effects on young adults.

Topics in this episode:

Interpersonal discrimination (1:43)
Adolescents and interpersonal discrimination (6:47)
The ah-ha moment (12:39)
Research findings (14:33)
Frequency and cumulative effect (19:24)
Lasting effects (21:45)
Implications for health care professionals (25:53)
This is our workforce (28:10)
A call to action (32:24)

Links:

Yvonne Lei is a medical student at David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles

Lei, Yvonne, et al. “Discrimination and subsequent mental health, substance use, and well-being in young adults.” Pediatrics 148.6 (2021).

“Discrimination increases risk for mental health issues in young adults, UCLA-led study finds,” by Evelyn Tokuyama, UCLA Newsroom, November 7, 2021

Adam B. Schickedanz, MD

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How Accurate Is Memory After 20 Years? Jan 27, 2022

Show notes

Over the past two decades, and in many cases because of statute of limitations reform, many adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse have come forward to seek justice, disclosing painful memories of traumatic events from decades before. And while, thankfully, the general public has grown in its understanding of how and why abused children might delay disclosure well into adulthood, a question that frequently comes up in legal procedures is: How accurate and reliable are memories of events long past? We speak with renowned memory researcher Gail Goodman, who’s also the director of the Center for Public Policy Research at UC-Davis.

Topics in this episode:

Understanding trauma and memory (1:40)
Misperceptions (4:06)
Encoding traumatic memories (8:01)
Research on memories after 20 years (12:42)
Legal implications (30:25)
Public policy (35:04)
Future research (37:20)
Share this episode (41:04)

Links:

Professor Gail S. Goodman is director of the Center for Public Policy Research at the University of California, Davis.

Wu Y, Goodman GS, Goldfarb D, et al. “Memory Accuracy After 20 Years for Interviews About Child Maltreatment.” Child Maltreatment. December 2021. doi:10.1177/10775595211055184

Carole Peterson, Ph.D.

Mitchell L. Eisen, Ph.D.

Karen Saywitz, Ph.D.

National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect, the Children’s Bureau, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Deborah Goldfarb, JD, Ph.D.

Julia (Yuerui) Wu

Kathy Pezdek, Ph.D.

National Institute of Justice

National Science Foundation

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Prevention, Healing, & Justice: A Blueprint for Action Dec 26, 2021

Show notes

We're all too familiar with the statistics and issues around child abuse in the U.S. But what do we really know about violence against children globally? Are there approaches other countries take that we should apply in our country? Are there successes we should emulate and pitfalls to avoid?

And what would it mean if thousands of organizations working to keep kids safe really banded together and demanded government changes to better support families and protect children? Together for Girls, National Children’s Alliance, survivor organizations, and many more are doing just that in the U.S. through the Keep Kids Safe Coalition and its blueprint for federal policy action. We're tackling all branches of government in a quest to eliminate sexual violence against children and youth. To find out how you can help, take a listen.

Topics in this episode:

Dr. Ligiero’s and Together for Girls’ core work (1:31)
Why the U.S. lacks comprehensive data (6:24)
Surprising results about boys (8:01)
Successful strategies, lessons learned (12:01)
Keep Kids Safe Coalition (20:50)
The blueprint for national action (29:20)
How you can get involved (44:13)
The end of season 3; see you in January (46:51)

Links:

Dr. Daniela Ligiero is the executive director and chief executive officer of Together for Girls, a global partnership working to end violence against children and adolescents

Violence Against Children and Youth Surveys from the CDC

The U.S. National Blueprint to End Sexual Violence Against Children and Adolescents is from the Keep Kids Safe Coalition at keep-kids-safe.org

Gender Policy Council

CHILD USA

November 30, 2021, article by Lizzie Johnson in The Washington Post about a coach accused of sexual abuse

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Do Anti-Poverty Programs Reduce Child Abuse? Dec 09, 2021

Show notes

We’re always very careful to say that poverty doesn’t cause child neglect and abuse. And we don’t want to conflate these things or have people think that we’re blaming people for being poor. Yet we do know that poverty—particularly chronic and extreme poverty—can create an environment in which neglect and child maltreatment can thrive. Given that connection, could investments in anti-poverty programs actually reduce child maltreatment?

This is a key question, especially given that rates of neglect have only seen modest reductions in the U.S. over the past 40 years. And it was what Dr. Hank Puls, professor of pediatrics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine, set out to research. Are we missing an opportunity to not only reduce poverty but also the suffering that comes from child maltreatment when we don’t invest heavily enough in these programs?

Topics in this episode:

A pediatrician determined to reduce child abuse (1:55)
State anti-poverty programs (3:24)
Costs and benefits (11:00)
Advocacy, and inequities (29:01)
What do child advocates need? (38:04)
Share this episode with a friend (45:52)

Links:

Hank T. Puls, M.D., is a professor of pediatrics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine

“State Spending on Public Benefit Programs and Child Maltreatment,” Henry T. Puls, Matthew Hall, James D. Anderst, Tami Gurley, James Perrin, Paul J. Chung. Pediatrics November 2021; 148 (5): e2021050685. 10.1542/peds.2021-050685

A Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty, from theNational Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

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Multidisciplinary Teams: What's the Secret Sauce? Nov 25, 2021

Show notes

In today’s episode, we speak with Dr. James Herbert, senior research fellow at the Australian Center for Child Protection, the first Children’s Advocacy Center (CAC) in Australia. Now, for those of us in the CAC movement or on multidisciplinary teams (MDTs), we sometimes take our work together for granted. The teamwork, the support—the conflict!—and the difficult decisions we make together to protect children. But imagine for a moment coming to that work completely fresh and as a research scientist, as Herbert did, and truly trying to unpack what makes it work.
Now, we know that research has established that MDTs create better outcomes in child abuse cases. But what is that secret sauce that does make it work? How do teams make their decisions in these high-stakes cases? And what research is still needed to help us better leverage the combined knowledge and skills of the team? Most importantly, how does improving the understanding of the MDT model help us better serve abused children?
Topics in this episode: