Child Abuse, Abuse | featured news

A suburban Des Moines couple is under arrest after their adopted teenage children reported being locked in the basement and fed under a locked door as punishment. The 45-year-old father and 44-year-old mother are charged with false imprisonment and neglect or abandonment of a dependent person.

Police say Escalona was so mad that her daughter soiled her pants that, as punishment, she super glued the girl’s hands to the wall then beat her in front of her other siblings... Escalona’s kids told investigators their mother kicked the girl in the stomach and repeatedly hit her.

Teachers hurled insults like "bastard," "tard," "damn dumb" and "a hippo in a ballerina suit." A bus driver threatened to slap one child, while a bus monitor told another, "Shut up, you little dog."...

A severely malnourished 15-year-old Wisconsin girl told police her father and stepmother had forced her to live in the basement for years and that they beat her, starved her and even forced her to eat her own feces.

Pope Benedict XVI accepted the resignation Thursday of an Irish bishop who admitted he didn't challenge the Dublin church's policy ...

The Vatican for the first time released guidelines that explicitly say that bishops and other high-ranking clerics should report cases of abuse to police if required by law.

Ireland’s Catholic leader expressed shame over investigating but not reporting abuse cases 35 years ago.

The Vatican denounces what it calls aggressive attempts to drag Pope Benedict XVI into the spreading scandals of pedophile priests in his German homeland.

Prosecutors in Missouri have filed 15 additional sex charges against a father and his adult sons who were already accused of sexually abusing children.

In the latest issue of Essence magazine, Latifah says the abuse occurred over a period of time, and at the hands of a teenager charged with watching her.