The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/tag/sex-crimes/)
Biased or unsympathetic press treatment of victims is a good predictor of a high incidence of rape, according to researchers who analyzed coverage of 310,000 cases between 2000 and 2013. It also influences police to make fewer arrests , they claimed.
According to a press release from the victim’s attorney, Thomas Hamm, a visitor to the Rikers Island facility, was beaten by two corrections officers hurling anti-gay slurs. Earlier this year, the Jail’s Action Committee released a report maintaining that conditions for visitors to Rikers “continue to be discouraging at best and traumatizing and violent at worst.”
In Part Two of our investigation of America’s sex trafficking crisis, TCR finds a burgeoning “niche” industry of private nonprofit groups—many comprised of ex-cops or military operatives—who operate outside law enforcement. One former FBI agent maintains that if such groups didn’t exist, the picture would be a lot grimmer.
More than half of Native American women have encountered sexual and domestic violence at some point during their lives, even amid a wave of efforts aimed at reducing such crimes. More than 633 are reported missing, higher than their percentage of the population.
Backpage.com founders James Larkin and Michael Lacey claim the charges against them for operating an adult-sex site were politically motivated. “This is the biggest speech battle in America right now,” said Lacey in an interview with Reason.
The trafficking of young girls for sex in the U.S. is often overshadowed by the attention paid to the $150 billion international trade. A Crime Report investigation looks at victims and their families in south Florida, now one of the nation’s major human trafficking centers.
The justice system is charging fewer young people with sexting offenses. Attorneys and advocates say it’s a good move, but warn education and counseling is even more critical as the rise in teen cellphone use coincides with an increase in the practice.
The #MeToo era has improved the climate for prosecuting accused sexual predators like Harvey Weinstein and Bill Cosby. But according to experts, the legal hurdles to conviction remain formidable.
On the heels of a federal move to shut down the Backpage website, President Trump signed a bill on Wednesday that gives federal and state prosecutors greater power to pursue websites that host sex-trafficking ads and enables victims and state attorneys general to file lawsuits against those sites.
Human trafficking expert Kimberley Mehlman-Orozco argues the commercial sex trade will move to dark corners of the web, making it harder for authorities to catch traffickers and rescue victims.