Los Angeles: Four billion dollars for victims of sexual abuse!

Los Angeles: Four billion dollars for victims of sexual abuse!

The district of Los Angeles has decided to pay four billion dollars to the victims of sexual abuse in youth institutions and children's homes. This historical unification includes almost 7,000 cases and is classified as unprecedented. The "Los Angeles Times" reported that a new law of 2020 has loosened the limitation periods for abuse cases, which gave many men and women the opportunity to make their tragic experiences public. However, the agreement must still be checked by a damage regulatory committee and a supervisory body.

The representative of Los Angeles called the agreement historically, even if the financial burdens for the already battered district are significant. With medium cuts from Washington and the challenges of surface fires, the district is under high pressure.

abuse in the MacLaren Children’s Center

The MacaLaren’s Center, which is titled as a "horror house", is particularly affected by the allegations. An investigation has shown that over decades there was no systematic review of employees for criminal backgrounds. Reports of sexual abuse and violence within this facility are alarming. A woman who was there as a teenager tells of attacks by an employee of the home and threats when she wanted to report the incident. Their fate is just one of many that illuminates the dark past of the MacLaren Children's Center.

After the closure of Maclaren in 2003, around 200 former residents went public with allegations of abuse. Eight women and four men, including sisters, recently filed a lawsuit against the district. The lawsuit deals with attacks and forced acts that took place between 1988 and 2001. A particularly shocking case reports of a victim of abuse that suffers at the age of only five years, while another child was punished after it had reported an attack.

The authority for Los Angeles (DCFS )'s child and family services did not comment on the ongoing procedures, but has been criticized in the past regarding its investigation into allegations of abuse. A lawyer describes the states in the Maclaren as "practically a children's prison". A report from 2001 demonstrated that many of the home employees had crimped out, which shows the poor supervision and the inadequate background exams.

a network of abuse

The incidents in the MacaLaren Children’s Center are part of a major problem in child and youth welfare, which is threatened by a nationwide network of social workers, authorities and scientists. A study by the University of Hildesheim has revealed that sexualized violence in child and youth welfare was systematically covered until the 2000s, also under the sex scientist Helmut Kentler, who died in 2008. This network comprised several cities and operated a so-called Kentler experiment, in which children and adolescents were specifically conveyed to pedophile nursing fathers.

On behalf of the Berlin education administration, a new study showed that more than 17,000 victims of sexual violence were documented in youth welfare in 2022. Kerstin Claus, the Federal Government's independent representative, emphasized the urgency of dealing with a proper processing of these incidents. The reports and studies interweave a picture of inadequate control, unwilling processing and a deeply rooted system that has failed for decades to prevent or punish violence.

The handling of these topics requires political will for a comprehensive information in order to take hold of those responsible and to ensure that such grievances are prevented in the future.