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Child Abuse Sexual Assault

#SCOTUS Today

This morning I bundled Sasha up and sent her out the door to watch arguments at the Supreme Court in Paroline v United States. If you’re not familiar with this case, check out the summary at SCOTUSblog. In the most simplistic terms it’s about restitution and the continued impact images of child sexual abuse and exploitation have on victims.

Now, there’s no question I’m a tad biased, but if the subject matter is of interest, I would encourage you to also check out the amicus brief (PDF) my wife wrote in this case on behalf of her organization. Pages 9-20 provide an excellent overview of the technology that enables images to be shared. And for a little less jargony take on the case and the issue in general, check out this article in the NY Times Magazine published last year. As clinicians it’s critical we’re able to see the long view of trauma. We don’t usually know how our patients fare months, let alone years later. But knowing the full extent of the trauma they may experience allows us to be better at caring for them in the moment and better at identifying coexisting or resulting healthcare issues. So restitution may not be my concern as a healthcare provider, but the reasons restitution is needed? That certainly is.

Additional press coverage:

Court To Decide On Child Porn Victim Restitution (NPR)

Utah law professor to make case for child-porn victims (Salt Lake Tribune)

Court to decide on child porn victim restitution (Washington Post)

2 replies on “#SCOTUS Today”

Thanks for sharing the NYT article, Jen- such a sad story of how much the crime continues to impact child victims throughout their lives- glad to see that Sasha is working to get this righted for these cases! And thanks for the reminder that this can impact the health and well being of our patients….

Thanks for the comment, Kim. She had a pretty amazing experience there, although probably the highlight was sitting 10 ft away from Justice Sotomayor. It was, as my daughter dubbed it, a fan girl moment for Sash.

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