abuse news stories on Newser

Facebook Cracking Down on Abuse 'Trolls'

Mary Papenfuss — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 03:52:29 CDT

Vicious "trolls" who heap abuse on total strangers on the Internet for fun are being targeted in a Facebook crackdown. Tribute pages honoring the dead, such as soldiers in Afghanistan, have become a recent favorite of the ugly trolls, reports the Telegraph . Facebook users can manually delete abusive messages, but...

France May Make Nagging a Crime

Jane Yager — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 07:33:00 CST

The wrong answer to "do I look fat?" or "honey, why don't you empty the dishwasher?" could have French couples heading for court if a new bill criminalizing "psychological violence" between married couples becomes law. The legislation, put forward by the Sarkozy government, aims to combat bullying and verbal abuse...

NYC Cops Find Dead Baby of Hooker Slave

Mary Papenfuss — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 05:30:33 CST

Brooklyn police have discovered the body of a baby belonging to a woman forced into prostitution by a sex trafficking couple. The tiny body of the 2-month-old baby boy was encased in cement in a cooler in a flophouse. The baby's mom, an illegal Mexican immigrant, was beaten and forced...

Mom Charged With Sex Slavery in Girl's Death

Mary Papenfuss — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 04:47:35 CST

The mother of a 5-year-old North Carolina girl found dead appeared in court yesterday and was charged with human trafficking and felony abuse. Antoinette Davis, 25, delivered daughter Shaniya to a man "with the intent that she be held in sexual servitude ," according to court documents. Davis was calm during...

Childhood Abuse May Lead to Obesity

Kate Schwartz — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 07:50:51 CDT

Compounding the mental and physical pain that accompanies childhood abuse, a new study suggests abuse may lead to adult obesity. Researchers studied 410 children who had court-substantiated cases of physical and sexual abuse before the age of 11; 30 years later, their body mass index scores were compared with a...

US Embassy Guards in Kabul Living Lurid Lifestyle

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 17:12:06 CDT

Guards hired by the State Department to protect diplomats and staff at the US embassy in Afghanistan live and work in a Lord of the Flies environment in which they are subjected to hazing and humiliation by supervisors, a government oversight group says. In a 10-page letter to Hillary Clinton,...

Aussies Sorry for 10K Kids Shipped for 'Slave Labor'

Jason Farago — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 06:20:01 CDT

The Australian prime minister will apologize to generations of British migrants shipped to Australia as children and subjected to abuse, hunger, and slave labor. Between the 1920s and 1960s the UK sent about 10,000 children to provide Australia with "good white stock," but when they arrived they were put...

Justice Report Recommends Prisoner Abuse Investigations

Jason Farago — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 03:09:12 CDT

A report by the ethics office of the Justice Department recommends reopening a dozen cases of alleged prisoner abuse, a move that would expose CIA employees to prosecution if it's determined they tortured terrorism suspects, reports the New York Times . Legal experts predict Attorney General Eric Holder will launch a...

4 GIs Charged With Hazing Suicide Soldier

Harry Kimball — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 16:17:00 CDT

Four US Army soldiers in Iraq have been charged with cruelty and maltreatment for hazing a private who later killed himself, MSNBC reports. The NCOs allegedly hazed 19-year-old Keiffer P. Wilhelm with excessive physical exercise while showering him with verbal abuse. Wilhelm, self-conscious about his weight, shot himself in a...