Jerry Sandusky sex scandal trial also known as Penn State sex scandal, starts today. Child sexual abuse involving 10 boys are the charges launched at Sandusky. But America’s verdict is already there: Is JS is a child abuser and sex monster?

Washington / NationalTurk – When the child abuse sex scandal at Penn State erupted 2011, public anger in USA was directed not only toward Jerry Sandusky, whose trial begins today Monday the 11st June, but toward the people around him who didn’t report their suspicions of child abuse and sex with boys to police.

In the months that followed the Penn state sex scandal, that public anger led many states to re-examine and expand their so-called mandatory reporting laws that require people to report suspected abuse  of children or face civil and criminal penalties. Some state laws apply to professionals like doctors and teachers, while others apply universally to all adults.

Penn State Sex Scandal: Will The Jury Convict Jerry Sandusky for sexual abuse of boys?

It seems like an open-and-shut case against a serial child abuser, but it’s hardly a certainty that this trial will end in a conviction.

Major player in Penn State sex abuse scandal : Meet Jerry Sandusky

Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky is on trial on 52 counts of child sexual abuse involving 10 boys over a 15-year period. A former defensive coordinator at Penn State, he spent 32 years as an assistant under revered head coach Joe Paterno. He retired after the 1999 season.

Sandusky, 68, is accused of using a charity he founded in 1977 for at-risk youth, The Second Mile, to prey on needy pretty young boys.

Prosecutors allege Sandusky had physical contact with the boys ranging from tickling and a ‘ soap battle ‘ in university
showers to oral and anal sex.

Sex Scandal that changes American citizens passiv stance towards child abuse and frantic sex with molested children

If convicted on all counts, Jerry Sandusky could be sentenced to more than 500 years in prison on organizing sex parties with young boys and child abuse. Jerry Sandusky is under house arrest on $250,000 bail since months.

Child advocates and academics are divided about whether increasing the number of mandatory reporters will make the US public more vigilant, or simply overload an already stretched-thin child welfare system and deprive limited resources from children who need help most. Has sexual abuse become that big of a social disease that it prevents supporting the poor or battling with poverty or domestic violance ?

Forty-eight states require at least some professionals to immediately report knowledge or suspicion of child sexual abuse to some authority, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The list of professionals varies by state and can include teachers, school nurses, doctors, social workers, police, day care workers, coaches and camp counselors.

Of those states, 18 have laws that require mandatory reporting of suspected child abuse or sex with children by all adults.

Many states have no specific sanctions for those who fail to comply with such laws, while others have penalties but they are not enforced unless a case is particularly heinous or deadly, states Teresa Huizar of the National Children’s Alliance, a Washington-based advocacy group.

‘ On the surface, (universal mandatory reporting) sounds like an outstanding idea,’ she said, “but if you make something everybody’s responsibility, it can end up becoming no one’s responsibility.’

How child abuse reports have erupted after Penn state child abuse sex scandal ?

About 105 bills on the reporting of suspected child abuse and neglect have been introduced in 2012 legislative sessions in 30 states and the District of Columbia, many of them directly in response to the Jerry Sandusky sex scandal case.

US Legislation has since been enacted in 10 of those states, according to the latest NCSL tally updated Monday on child sexual abuse.

Oregon, West Virginia, Virginia and South Dakota are among American states that expanded their list of professions that are mandatory reporters, while Indiana and Iowa are requiring schools to develop new policies and reporting procedures for responding to suspected child abuse, the cancer of today’s society.

Indiana, also in response to the Penn State sex scandal, passed legislation that requires the state to work with child sexual abuse experts to develop education materials, response policies and reporting procedures on child sexual abuse. A new Iowa law requires schools to implement policy for employees in contact with children to report suspected physical or sexual abuse the evil among us.

Child abuse reporting : the toughest mandatory reporting legislation in the USA

As the Jerry Sandusky sex scandal trial launches this week, many Americans seem to be asking the same question: when will the sex scandal trial be over and when can this man’s long prison sentence start? With that an important step faces the danger to be skipped – the Penn State sex scandal ‘s trial itself. It may look like the prosecution has an open-and-shut case against Jerry Sandusky. But whatever the American society is expecting, it is hardly a sure thing that the trial of the sex scandal will end in a conviction.

Penn state sex scandal pratogonist Jerry Sandusky faces 52 counts of child sex abuse. Sandusky is charged with abusing 10 boys over a period of 15 years, using a charity he founded, Second Mile, to meet his victims. The predetor approaches his prey in a pattern which is a classic one in crimes of sex with children and child sex abuse : The abuser targets children, grooms them with charm, friendship and gifts, and then molesting them by oral or anal or finger sex where soap injection is involved too.

Also as a direct result of the Jerry Sandusky sex scandal case, Florida has passed what is now the toughest mandatory reporting legislation in the country: Failure to report suspected child abuse is a felony, and universities would be fined $1 million and stripped of state funding for two years if officials don’t report child abuse. The law applies to everyone — from university coaching staff to elementary school teachers to students.

Sex scandal with child abuse and oral and anal sex by Jerry Sundowski sets the US agenda

“Florida now has the toughest laws in the country for protecting children,” said Lauren Book, who created a nonprofit foundation for child abuse victims and pushed for tougher sex offender laws with her father, lobbyist Ron Book.
She said the legislation compels individuals and institutions to speak up, the aim of which is to prevent what allegedly happened at Penn State from occurring in Florida.

“Mandatory reporting is a good thing but it’s only a Band-Aid for a bigger issue,” said Jim Hmurovich, president of Chicago-based child advocacy organization Prevent Child Abuse America. “The right solution is we should ensure as adults that the abuse and neglect ever happens in the first place.”

Dozens of universities are implementing their own reporting requirements. Penn State itself has instituted a new policy requiring all employees to report suspected child abuse to state authorities, while the University of Arkansas requires university employees who suspect child abuse to first call the state’s Child Abuse Hotline and campus police.
Hmurovich and Huizar said they support the idea of mandatory reporting laws, even if imperfect.

“When we don’t prevent child abuse and neglect from happening we spend $80 billion a year trying to remediate it with treatment,” Hmurovich stated.

There’s not enough evidence to say whether there has been an overall increase in child abuse reports nationwide, Huizar said. Some individual states did experience temporary increases in reports after the Penn State allegations surfaced.

Unbelievable number boom in child sexual abuse reporting: One nasty truth of American society to be corrected by  brainless American society ?

New Jersey’s child abuse hotline received as many as 750 calls a day in November after a grand jury indicted Sandusky, compared with 400 in the months before the scandal broke. In Pennsylvania, where about 2,300 reports of suspected child abuse are reported every week, there were more than 4,800 reports of suspected child abuse made statewide for weeks after Sandusky’s indictment.

Massachusetts-based child advocacy group Stop It Now saw a 130 % spike in calls during the first two weeks after the sexual abuse allegations at Penn State, services coordinator Jenny Coleman said.

Huizar favors standardizing the current patchwork of requirements, agencies and procedures would make reporting child abuse or molesting less intimidating and difficult — but perhaps more importantly, a national awareness campaign in every part of USA would be an invaluable step to reducing the societal stigma that makes abuse  or sex victims and witnesses remain silent.

“In the same way we’ve taught American people about the dangers of smoking, about using seat belts, about drinking and driving, when there’s that kind of a commitment, you really see the dial move in the right direction,” she said. “Without that level of investment, you’re not going to see that kind of result from our fellow but moronic citizens”

Despite the uncertainty about whether legislation brings about better outcomes, Huizar stated the Jerry Sandusky sex scandal case has shown that there have been encouraging changes when it comes to the way Americans view child abuse and sex with children.

“The instantaneous and universal outrage … really is different than what you would have had a decade ago,” Huizar said. “People were instantly saying, ‘Why didn’t the adults do more?’ That assumption is an enormously positive change in our societal understanding of who has responsibility for reporting child abuse. So we’re learning. and Jerry Sandusky sex scandal erupted from Penn States university’s toilets or showers or Jerry Sandusk’s desk, apparently a tool of abuse and sex acts with boys ” Huizar added.

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