Sexually exploited minors are often arrested on prostitution charges and put behind bars. But in one LAPD unit, officers are trained to recognize exploited teens and put them in touch with social services, instead of juvenile court.
Mental Health
For her three-part series on the health effects of rising violent crime in Merced County, reporter Ana Ibarra interviewed victims and family members struggling with pain and raw emotion. Here she shares a few of the reporting lessons she learned along the way.
Every year, thousands of kids appear before Arkansas judges, having broke laws that apply only to children. The courts are expected to treat them differently from children who commit adult crimes. Yet hundreds of these kids end up in the same lockups as those who've raped, robbed and murdered.
Victims of childhood sexual abuse are far more likely to become obese adults. New research shows that early trauma is so damaging that it can disrupt a person’s entire psychology and metabolism.
“Every day is stressful out here," says 49-year-old Kim Stanley, who is homeless and suffers from mental illness. "You’re tired; you’re exhausted ... and when people treat you badly for no reason, you’re crushed; you’re overwhelmed and crushed.”
Parents. Teachers. Psychologists. Psychiatrists. Pediatricians. Therapists. Social workers. Students. State leaders. Nonprofit executives. They had come to discuss the mental health of Southern Nevada’s children, seeking answers to the question of how the state can do better.
Detroit has the highest rate of asthma among young children in America’s 18 largest cities, a problem that experts link to urban ills that could affect their health and learning for the rest of their lives.
“In many African American communities, mental health issues have a history of being undertreated and underdiagnosed.” That was the beginning of the host intro for my radio series on mental health care within African American communities, and a focus sentence that led me throughout my reporting.
Three cases down and a dozen more to go, Judge William Voy surveys the movement below his bench on a Monday afternoon. The fourth defendant on his calendar, a 13-year-old boy, enters from a side door connecting Family Court to the juvenile detention center. He’s no stranger to Courtroom 18.
An unusual parenting intervention aims to strengthen the bonds between homeless parents and their children. The program hopes its participants’ parenting will become less harsh, and that there will be fewer reports of abuse and neglect after they move out.