|
Archives > Volume 7 Issue 28 - April 21, 2009 Melissa Huckaby linked to another victim before Sandra Cantu...
Family members of a 7-year-old Tracy, California girl who they said was taken by a woman and returned four hours later with drugs in her system described a person who appears to bear similarities to Melissa Chantel Huckaby, the woman charged with kidnapping and murdering 8-year-old Sandra Cantu, according to police logs of the incident. ABC News story here
The incident was reported on January 17 by a family in the Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park in Tracy. Huckaby and Cantu also lived in the same trailer park before police found the little girl's body on April 10. According to the police log, the woman who took the girl drove a purple Kia Sportage. Police towed a purple Kia Sportage registered to Huckaby the day after farmworkers found Sandra's body inside a suitcase dumped in a dairy lagoon. The logs also said "Child is poss[ibly] with another resident's granddaughter in a trailer." Huckaby is the granddaughter of residents of the trailer park, with whom she lived. According to the police report, after the girl returned she tested positive for benzodiazepines, depressants that are prescribed as a sedative or to induce sleep, relieve anxiety and muscle spasms, and prevent seizures. Tracy police said they could not discuss the reported abduction in January because it's part of the ongoing murder investigation. For more on this story see vol7_iss24, vol7_iss25, vol7_iss26, and vol7_iss27. Three million American kids show "multiple signs of addiction" to video games... 
A new study concludes that children can become addicted to playing video games, with some skimping on homework, lying about how much they play and struggling, without success, when they try to cut back. Washington Post news story here
In what is described as the first nationally representative study in the United States on the subject, researcher Douglas Gentile of Iowa State University found that 8.5 percent of American youths ages 8 to 18 who play video games show multiple signs of behavioral addiction. "For some kids, they play in such a way that it becomes out of balance. And they're damaging other areas of their lives, and it isn't just one area, it's many areas," said Gentile, a psychologist and assistant professor whose study was posted online today by the journal Psychological Science. To get at gaming addiction, Gentile adapted diagnostic criteria for pathological gambling into a series of questions about video game use. The questions became part of a 2007 Harris Poll survey of 1,178 children and teens. Gamers were deemed "pathological" if they reported at least six of the 11 symptoms. Symptoms included spending increasing amounts of time and money on video games to feel the same level of excitement; irritability or restlessness when play is scaled back; escaping problems through play; skipping chores or homework to spend more time at the controller; lying about the length of playing time; and stealing games or money to play more. Four times as many boys as girls were considered "pathological gamers." Gentile said he started his research with doubts about the possibility of addiction. "I thought this was parental histrionics - that kids are playing a lot and parents don't understand the motivation, so they label it an addiction," he said. "It turns out that I was wrong." What he found, he said, was that children considered pathological gamers did worse in school, had trouble paying attention in class and reported feeling "addicted." They were twice as likely to report attention-deficit disorder or attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. The study found that 88 percent of the nation's children ages 8 to 18 play video games. With 45 million children of that age in the country, the study would suggest that more than 3 million are addicted "or at least have problems of the magnitude" that call for help, Gentile said. In other news... 
Some mental health experts now believe they can tell if preschoolers are showing risk factors for becoming a psychopath, someone potentially capable of committing bone-chilling crimes without an ounce of guilt or remorse. MSNBC News story here The term psychopath, however, is generally reserved for adults, whose personalities are more firmly fixed. Lack of conscience is the hallmark of psychopathy, which is estimated to occur in about 1 percent of the adult population, says psychopathy expert Robert Hare, a professor emeritus of psychology at the University of British Columbia and author of "Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us." Unlike psychosis, in which a person is out of touch with reality and experiencing delusions or hallucinations, for example, psychopaths know what they are doing. They just don't care - and can't really comprehend - how their actions hurt others. Psychopaths lack empathy, guilt and remorse, explains Hare. But it's only a small minority of psychopaths - albeit a very dangerous, mostly male, minority - who become mass murderers, serial killers and rapists, and torturers. And, some experts say, if a budding psychopath can be identified young enough, perhaps it might be possible to change what otherwise might be their destiny. Some mental health professionals say they can recognize early markers in kids as young as toddlers for what may later develop into psychopathy, but don't like to diagnose children as psychopaths. It's a stigmatizing label that may not hold true when they are adults since children have a great capacity to change. Experts also emphasize that not all children who appear to be at risk for psychopathy go on to become psychopathic adults.
One evening last winter, Mike Harris was watching his local TV news when he saw a segment that caught his attention: Parents were using software to monitor their kids' cell phones. CNN News story here Harris, an investigator for the Child Sex Internet Investigations Unit in Jefferson County, Colorado, thought the service could be a new tool for combating sexual predators. Equipping his phone with the software, Harris posed as an underage child on social-networking sites and began luring pedophiles. He immediately got results. Since then, Harris has made 83 arrests of alleged sexual predators - 44 of them with the help of the monitoring program. Programs such as My Mobile Watchdog and Mobile Spy are becoming increasingly popular with parents as more school-age children are carrying cell phones. Parents say the services help them protect their kids against predators and also reduce "sexting," the growing practice of using mobile phones to share sexually explicit text messages and pictures. In 2008, Jessica Logan, a Cincinnati, Ohio, teen, hanged herself after her nude photo, meant for her boyfriend, was sent to teenagers at several high schools, exposing her to ridicule and taunts. The monitoring programs work like this: Once a child's phone is equipped with the software, the parent or law enforcement officer creates a list of contacts - close relatives, trusted friends - who are authorized to communicate with the minor's phone. An online file, accessed by the parent, stores all activity related to the child's phone, including text messages and shared photos. Any unauthorized number that contacts the child's phone gets flagged, and the parent or guardian receives a real-time text message alerting them to the infraction. For more information see eGuide/cell phones.
Two FBI workers are accused of using surveillance equipment to spy on teenage girls as they undressed and tried on prom gowns at a charity event at a West Virginia mall. Fox News story here The FBI employees have been charged with conspiracy and committing criminal invasion of privacy. They were working in an FBI satellite control room at the mall when they positioned a camera on temporary changing rooms and zoomed in for at least 90 minutes on girls dressing for the Cinderella Project fashion show, Marion County Prosecutor Pat Wilson said Monday. Gary Sutton Jr., 40, of New Milton and Charles Hommema of Buckhannon have been charged with the misdemeanors and face fines and up to a year in jail on each charge if convicted. Sutton has been released on bond, Wilson said, and Hommema is to be arraigned later this week. The Cinderella Project at the Middletown Mall in the north-central West Virginia town of Fairmont drew hundreds of girls from 10 high schools in five counties. Organizer Cynthia Woodyard said volunteers, donors and participants are angry. Hospice Care Corp. was sponsoring the event, offering prom dresses, shoes and accessories to girls who could not otherwise afford them. Dresses sold for as little as $5.
The father of "Slumdog Millionaire" child star Rubina Ali has allegedly offered the girl up for sale in an illegal adoption deal, the Times of London reported. Fox News story here Rafiq Qureshi reportedly put Rubina up for adoption, demanding millions of rupees worth 200,000 British pounds ($295,560), according to the newspaper. Qureshi tried to blame Hollywood executives for forcing him to put his daughter up for sale, the newspaper reported. "We've got nothing out of this film," he told News of the World. "They haven't looked after us. They gave some money at the start but they gave nothing afterwards. They've been talking about giving us a house, but all they do is talk." More on this story from the Times of London. More on this story from News of the World.
Last September, less than a month after the end of the Beijing Summer Olympics, about 40 parents materialized in front of the Bird's Nest stadium. Somber and silent, they stood in a row; each one carried a large poster with photographs of their missing young children. MSNBC News story here "Doesn't this society have a responsibility? Why let these parents suffer?" a young college student who appeared to be the parents' spokesman shouted out to the gathering crowd of onlookers. "Our Chinese government could do something as big as the Olympics, but they cannot find these kids? Why not?" Statistics in local media reports vary wildly, with some estimating as many as a quarter million children disappearing every year in China. But in a country with such a large population, even the most conservative approximation still sounds high - 20,000 children a year.
*for access to member only sites like the New York Times, use the ID "JohnDoeID" and the password "whatever". On sites asking for an email address, feel free to use "info@childprotectionprogram.org" |
Survivors And Victims Empowered
1725 Oregon Pike, Suite 106
Lancaster, PA 17601
(717) 569-0550 voice
(717) 569-3039 fax
http://www.childprotectionprogram.org