I teach a class called Introduction to Victimology. Which means, once a week for the past 15 weeks or so I’ve been reading and speaking about…or listening to stories about things like: domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse (neglect, emotional abuse, physical abuse) and elder abuse.
Right about now, I’m ready to flip a lid and so are many of my students.
What I know for sure is that a lot of people are abused, neglected and sexually assaulted. Yet finding informative and interesting resources on these topics has been a challenge.
As an instructor, I have access to a lot of stuff for free. Free videos, free downloads, free books and even access to other libraries in the nation. So, it should be pretty easy for me to find stuff about child abuse right?
I mean, after all 1 in 3 women and 1 in 5 men is sexually assaulted in their lifetime and according to my textbook, “899,000 children were determined to be victims of child abuse or neglect in 2005″ and “42% of child fatalities were attributed to neglect” that same year. So it’s something teachers who are training counselors should know a lot about. Agreed? Think of how much trauma is going on out there behind all this abuse. Not just the survivors but their loved ones as well.
Yet, the truth is, even though I have a Master’s degree in counseling and trained for more than 3,000 hours as a therapist, I was only required so much as a weekend speed course about child abuse AND domestic violence. On top of that, even though I have advanced degrees and work at a college, it hasn’t been easy for me to find interesting, informative resources about child abuse for my students. (One exception is Miss America by Day with Marilyn Van Derbur on video, which I purchased with my own money).
While I was researching today, I found out about a book, The Mary Ellen Wilson Child Abuse Case and the Beginning of Children’s Rights in 19th Century America by Eric A. Shelman. It’s based on the story of a child living in 1874. She was so brutally abused for so long that neighbors began to suspect something was terribly wrong. Law enforcement went to her home to find her bruised, bloodied and chained to a bed. They didn’t want to get involved. Eventually after many attempts to save the girl, she is removed from the abusive setting. After moving to a safe place, she flourishes.
I swear to you, it is a twin sister of the book A Child Called It by Dave Pelzer published in 1995 (for those of you keeping track, it’s a 121 year difference). Dave Pelzer’s book sold millions of copies. How many people do you think read Mary Ellen Wilson’s story? How many could even get it? I can’t get it and I’m a college instructor in 2008 with access to top-notch resources.
Now I could buy the book on Amazon for 45 bucks if I wanted to but I’m on a tight budget thanks to the economy and my shopaholicism so I’m trying to get it via the interlibrary loan instead.
Heck, maybe I’ll put in a request to have my department buy it. Hopefully their budget isn’t cut the way the instructional media section of the library is. Just for example, I was trying to access the website that lists instructional videos and it kept coming up dead. So I called Donna to see what was up and she said the site has been discontinued. Not even SHE has a way to access the instructional videos database on our campus. Can you imagine?
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P.S. This whole topic right here is absolutely related to the way Fungus 53 was taken off satellite and why I want it back on the air. Anytime anyone talks about abuse of power they get silenced, one way or another. If you truly want a free country you should sign the petition to punk rock back on the air.
P.P.S. My book, From Sabotage to Success is really good at helping you overcome the after-effects of abuse like low self-esteem, procrastination and worrying.
P.P.P.S. I did a 7-minute recording on child abuse and I’m available to speak on this topic if needed.
William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe has opened in 7 cities, and will open in 13 more in the coming weeks and months. 
The Flobots understand the power of music on the masses and they use this power wisely. I recently joined them at 
It’s been almost two years since I held a subscription to In Style magazine. Ever since then, they’ve been sending me letters like this, letting me know that they want me back. 
