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Current Issue

Police misconduct

The city’s effort to stem police misconduct is falling short, leaving abusive officers to operate with near impunity.

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Child Sexual Abuse

November/December 2010

In investigating allegations of child sexual abuse, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services often causes trauma, and black children and families are affected most.

Table of Contents

Safe at home?

Jeff Kelly Lowenstein

In investigating allegations of child sexual abuse, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services often causes trauma, and black children and families are affected most.

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Safe at home? (En Español)

Jeff Kelly Lowenstein

En sus investigaciones de alegación de abuso sexual de niños, Illinois Department of Child and Family Services muchas veces causa trauma siendo los niños y familias negras los más afectados.

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Fighting trauma in the system

Responses vary about how best to reduce the trauma caused to children and families during sexual abuse investigations–"particularly ones facing the disproportionate number of black families.> Read More

Best Practices: Guiding steps through healing process

Hello, her name is Mary, and she's an incest survivor. It took Mary three meetings to be able to say her greeting out loud. This breakthrough came in 1999–"43 years after Mary was first sexually abused, at age 7, by one of her older brothers. Since then, she says, Survivors of Incest Anonymous, a 12-step, self-help support group modeled after Alcoholics Anonymous, has guided her through the healing process.> Read More

Breaking the silence

On the county and state level, there were fewer calls alleging abuse of Asian children than their share among the population, according to a Chicago Reporter analysis. One possible explanation for the stark discrepancy is that Asians simply endure child sexual abuse less frequently than others. But experts disagree and say that child sexual abuse is a major problem among Asian communities, but one that is rarely addressed openly.> Read More

An unclear connection

In its procedures about how to handle child sexual abuse, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services has unambiguous language about the role poverty should play in determining whether abuse has occurred. None. A Chicago Reporter analysis of allegations of child sexual abuse made to the DCFS Child Abuse Hotline paints a different picture.> Read More

Getting there

The exact dates of the abuse are just hazy shards of memory, but Maritza will never forget what happened. Two uncles and one of her father's cousins. The abuse starting when she was just 6 years old. And her saying nothing at the time, or in the years afterward. That was many years ago. But now Maritza, whose full name is being withheld to protect her identity, has broken the silence within her family.> Read More
Spin Offs

Refinance odds still chancy, even for high earners

More than 175,000 Cook County residents took advantage of record-low interest rates that hovered around 4.375 percent, by refinancing their home loans in 2009. But in Cook County, the odds of getting these new terms were stacked against African-American applicants who were less likely to see their applications approved than even the lowest-earning white borrowers.

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Spin Offs

Colleges' failing graduation rates

The amount of student loan debt has surpassed the nation's credit card debt, according to a recent article in The Wall Street Journal. But thousands of Illinois students who are racking up millions in debt won't graduate.

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Spin Offs

Food stamps go a longer way

The U.S. Census Bureau reported in September that 11.7 million households reported participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as food stamps–"a 19.8 percent increase from the previous year.> Read More
Spin Offs

Minority nurses show weak pulse

African Americans and Latinos are underrepresented among 86,300 registered nurses working in Chicago, according to a Chicago Reporter analysis of 2008 census data. African Americans made up only 24 percent of Chicago nurses while they are one-third of the Chicago working population. Latinos are 27 percent of the working population but only
7 percent of nurses.> Read More
New Voices

An eviction conviction

The Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign, a grass-roots organizing group, employs a range of tactics to fight eviction. It uses whatever legal resources are available and organizes public pressure campaigns against building management companies and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The Chicago Reporter recently sat down with founder Holly Krig to talk about the campaign.> Read More
Editor's Note

When silence is not golden

Before you read this issue, I dare you to pick up the phone and call your mom. Ask her if anybody in your extended family has been sexually abused. I bet that if you can get a straight answer, eight out of 10 of you will get a "yes." You might not get all the gritty details, but you'll finally find out that a child in your extended family was sexually abused.> Read More