Myriad new state laws focus on child protection

There is a definite focus on vulnerability in several new California laws that were passed last year and took legal effect on January 1. We are confident that our readers across Southern California will routinely applaud that focus and attendant effort of state legislators to protect individuals who are at the greatest risk of being…

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Sex offenders targeting children: a documentary look at Hollywood

Filmmakers in Los Angeles have examined virtually every conceivable subject under the sun over the years, with no topic seemingly being taboo. And now the focus has in a very literal sense turned in on Hollywood and the movie industry itself, and in a manner that is anything but salutary or self-congratulatory. The subject matter…

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Soon to be visited: California’s time bar on certain sex crimes

It’s likely hard — in fact, insuperably difficult — for readers of our blog to contemplate what goes through the mind of a victim of sexual assault, unless, of course, they have been victimized themselves. For purposes of today’s post, we focus on the aftermath of such heinous behavior, specifically, the inability of a victim…

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California policy change on sex-offender housing, Part 2

Whither Jessica’s Law? In our earlier post from this week, we noted the evisceration of that California statutory enactment by state corrections officials acting in the wake of a state court decision rendered earlier this year. The result: An estimated 4,200 — if not more — sex offenders convicted of crimes against children previously who…

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Jessica’s Law weakened regarding sex-offender housing restrictions

“Kids in kindergarten living across the street from a sex offender is not what the people voted for in Jessica’s Law.” So says a state legislator who is clearly dismayed by an abrupt turn in established state policy that has removed living restrictions on thousands of paroled sex offenders across California. As noted in a…

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Catholic Church authorities in LA backtrack in sexual abuse case

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles has duly reflected. And with the “further reflection” recently noted by an attorney representing the archdiocese, that church body has withdrawn the earlier support it had extended to the Los Angeles Unified School District in a sexual abuse case involving a former teacher and a 14-year-old female student.…

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It’s not just trucks that are dangerous: some drivers are, too

Actually, the above headline might reasonably benefit from a slight word adjustment, namely, the substitution of “many” for “some,” given relevant statistics that help flesh out the real-world dimensions of driver-related risks in the nation’s commercial trucking industry. In the aggregate, commercial truckers would seem by all indications to warrant close scrutiny from safety regulators…

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How this one simple habit can protect your teen from sexual abuse

It’s every parent’s nightmare: discovering that a teacher, coach, pastor or other trusted adult has preyed on your teen. Yet it happens far too often. According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, 93 percent of juvenile sexual assault cases involve perpetrators who know the victim in some capacity. After hearing about another inexcusable instance…

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