New Effort Launched to Fight Child Exploitation

The US Department of Justice has launched a nationwide strategy to combat child exploitation but many of the tools are already in use here in Western Pennsylvania. The national program includes a comprehensive threat assessment of the dangers facing children from child pornography, online enticement, and commercial sexual exploitation. Locally, the US Attorney’s office has convened the Western Pennsylvania Crimes Against Children Task Force since 1999. Child exploitation prosecutions have jumped in the region from 5 in 1999 to 267 so far this year. Officials say tat makes the Western District of Pennsylvania one of the busiest offices of its size in the nation. A Child’s Place at Mercy Director Mary Carrasco says much of that can be attributed to the taskforce, “[Child exploitation] is a growing problem but the taskforce has contributed a lot to people working together and coming up with solutions and coming up with new strategies to approach this problem. “ She says when the taskforce first started to meet, some of the members were hesitant to share information but that was quickly overcome. Carassco says as the taskforce worked together, the members found ways to improve the process so children would not have to be repeatedly questioned by different agencies. “I remember a time when we did not ask kids if they were photographed or if there was any Internet component,” says Carassco. That has been important in tracking down child sex offenders.
The improvements have come as recently as this weekend. Using a Depart of Justice grant, Pennsylvania State Police along with Massachusetts State Police and The University of Mass Amherst developed a new tool to track, in real time, individuals sharing child pornography on the Internet. It was used for four hours Sunday. The results were posted for a news conference Monday on a map (above and right) as red markers. Acting US Atty. Robert Cessar says the tool is still very new but it will be used as much as possible, “we are gong to do our darndest to make sure five years from now there is going to be a lot less red on that [map].” Cessar says the maps were not surprising but they “stole his breath away.” “You know it’s out there but until you see a pictorial, or something, it just does not register. But when you look at that, that registers,” says Cessar.
As part of the national effort each region was asked to list their five most wanted fugitives. The five posted by the Western District of PA are all men who have violated the terms of their release to remain in touch with law enforcement as registered sex offenders. Marshall’s office officials say they will use all the tools they have to find all the people on the list.

Wagner: Better Photos of Offenders Needed

Auditor General Jack Wagner says Pennsylvania’s Megan’s Law website needs to become more user-friendly.
Wagner’s special report gives the Megan’s Law website, which is operated by the State Police, a C minus.
The Auditor General says the site’s search engine needs to allow more flexibility, so misspellings and typos don’t prevent people from accessing needed information.
He’s also calling for higher-quality photographs of offenders.

"You see many examples in this report of sex offender photographs that are grainy, that are blurry. That are too light, that are too dark. The offender’s eyes are closed, offenders are wearing hats. You really can’t identify."

Wagner says the website should have multiple color photographs including profile views, of each offender, that include the date in which the photograph was taken.
Wagner’s report also recommends incorporating mapping software into the website, so users can pinpoint the exact location of sex offenders’ homes.
The State Police did not respond to calls for comment.
In a letter to the Auditor General’s office, a State Police official says the organization is working on including mapping features, but the effort has been held up by budgetary restraints.

Child Abuse Skyrocketed During This Recession

According to a multi-center study led by Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, the number of cases of abusive head trauma, formerly known as "shaken baby syndrome," increased signficantly since the beginning of the recession.
Lead researcher, Dr. Rachel Berger, a child abuse specialist and researcher at Children’s Hospital’s Child Advocacy Center, says they studied 512 patients with abusive head trauma ranging in age from 9 days to 6 years. Dr. Berger says
the number of cases of abusive head trauma rose from six per month before Dec. 1, 2007, to 9.3 per month after that date.
"it coincided with the economic recession, and that it’s not a phenomenon isolated to our region but happening on a much more widespread level. This suggests we may need to dramatically increase our child abuse prevention efforts now and in future times of economic hardship.”

Of the children studied, 63 percent had injuries severe enough that they had to be admitted to intensive care units, and 16 percent died. Dr. Berger said that in 2008, more patients at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh died from abusive head trauma than from non-inflicted brain injury.
In addition to Pittsburgh, the patients were treated at pediatric hospitals in Cincinnati, Columbus and Seattle. Results of the study are being presented by Dr. Berger today at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia.

DVD To Help Deter Abuse of Crying Babies

Nationally each year, at least 1,400 children less than a year old died from abuse, most often as a reaction to their crying. Another 28,000 are permanently disabled from injuries related to abusive head trauma, formerly known as shaken baby syndrome.
A new project in Pittsburgh aims to teach parents tolerance for infant crying and hopefully protect the child.
A Child’s Place at Mercy, the county’s official Child Advocacy Center and part of the Pittsburgh Mercy Health System, has released a 15 minute DVD designed to teach new parents techniques to help soothe a crying infant, increase the quality of parent-child bonding and help deter child abuse.
The director of A Child’s Place, Dr. Mary Carrasco, says incessant crying can make even an experienced parent frustrated and angry......
"Crying is the most frequently cited trigger for abuse that leads to infant death and serious disability. Understanding that a certain percentage of babies cry, no matter what a parent does, can help parents deal with their feelings. The DVD provides parents with suggestions for what to do in those situations.”
Dr. Carrasco says if you "are at the end of your rope, put the child down in a safe place and walk away for a few minutes...that's better than hurting the child."

Dr. Carrasco says incessant crying peaks around 6 weeks of age and is usually gone by 4 to 6 months…"so there is hope"…..but she adds that a small percentage of babies cry for no apparent reason.
She says the DVD provides proven techniques to calm a crying baby including common ones such as singing, walking and rocking the baby, and the unconventional, the sound of a vacuum cleaner or even a clothes dryer.


Parents delivering a baby at hospitals in Allegheny County over the next year are eligible for the DVD which was produced by The Fred Rogers Company and funded by the Staunton Farm Foundation with additional support from McAuley Ministries, the Heinz Foundation, and the Highmark Foundation.