The LA Times is reporting a story out of the University of Michigan of a Pediatric resident who was allegedly found to be in possession of child pornography. In June 2011 a resident in the Pediatrics department saw what seemed like pornographic images of children on the computer of Stephen Jensen.
AnnArbor.com reports:
He’s accused of having child pornography on a thumb drive he left in a laptop in the hospital’s Pediatric Emergency Department. Jenson was originally arrested and charged in Washtenaw County, but those charges were dropped once the federal count of receipt of child pornography and possession of child pornography was filed.
According to an affidavit filed with the U.S. District Court, investigators recovered 97 images and four videos of suspected child porn on various electronic storage devices owned by Jenson.
This event was reported to supervisors in the University of Michigan hospital system and went through 8 people within the department without being reported to authorities. Finally, in November of the same year, police were notified and Jensen was arrested.
A university physician eventually did report the incident to police, in part because of the child sex abuse scandal involving retired defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky at Penn State University.
Do you believe the Penn State controversy will help institutions realize how important it is to report suspected crimes as they happen?
Is this University of Michigan case a sign of how things are hopefully going to change?
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“Is this University of Michigan case a sign of how things are hopefully going to change?” No way – it’s just evidence of the levels of massive systemic and endemic failure that are only just coming to public attention.
To me it looks like a fear response. Michigan have a big issue – they failed. Dressing it up as a positive reaction to PSU is false, disingenuous and reads as media spin. There is nothing positive in any institution failing as Michigan has.
What is the reasonable level of failure? What is the reasonable level of delay? The answers are “None” and “None”!
“After a series of misunderstandings and confusion over who was responsible for the case — and a lack of clear evidence beyond the woman’s allegation — no one reported Jenson to the police.”
In the UK – if an individual witnesses what came to light in Michigan, they as the first reporter are given feedback as matters progress. That is a safeguard to make sure the person holding the Whistle can blow it to external agencies if matters do not progress in the right direction. Has that safeguard been missed in the US?
In this case, as child porn possession is a criminal matter, the first port of call by any administrator would be either local police or FBI. Is the training and supervision at Michigan so poor that such basic knowledge is not known to employees at so many levels?
Is the University of Michigan hospital “Pediatric” centre so poorly informed on child abuse – paedophilia – that they don’t know who to call when it’s suspected or reported?
I find it shocking that I actually have to ask that question! It’s just about the most central issue in the whole case.
I have another question. Isn’t it mandatory to report all suspected cases of child abuse to the correct authorities?
It needs to be asked as Health Care is supposed to be the primary route and safety net for catching the victims of such activity. I have to wonder just how many cases will now have to be reviewed – and how many children re-examined? How many children and families need to be interviewed and even counselled because a convicted paedophile was working with children in the University of Michigan hospital “Pediatric” centre with unfettered access to children!
I keep saying that you find Lions Where the Zebras are. When will some grasp that you find paedophiles where there are children of all stripes?
From June to November – just how many children and families were placed at risk – both inside and outside of the hospital?
The fear response may have brought this incident out of the dark – but all incidents should be caught and fear of fall out should not be a factor – rational and reasonable progression to the correct investigatory authority and experts should be. The fact that the follow up had to be made 6 months is an issue that needs full investigation. There has been massive systemic failure – and where there is one there will be many more!
That is two major Educational Institutions caught out in a matter of months. Tip of the ice berg! My hope is that more such failures come to light. It would seem that the coaches whistle has been stolen and now is in the hands of the Whistle Blowers.
The biggest issue here is that Suits have caught on and will be doing everything possible to cover up and hide these levels of institutional failure in their own organisations – and make sure that exposure to litigation and financial loss is minimised. That is where the real whistle blowing is needed and urgently. So many are being caught in the Headlights of media coverage, they are missing the bigger risks and the cover ups that will be happening.
Pucker up and BLOW!
You mentioned that you live in the UK, and I cannot help but wonder if this is a cultural difference.
The US has a long tradition of never requiring anyone to help victims of crime. A few jurisdictions have passed “Good Samaritan” statutes in the past two decades that create a “duty to aid,” but this is a new and limited phenomenon.
Speaking as someone raised in the US, I would personally find it very difficult to turn in a coworker for a crime that does not have a direct victim (I.e. possession of images as opposed to directly molesting a child). I feel this way not out of fear, or selfishness, or I’ll will, but out of compassion. I believe we all have a fundamental right to be “left alone” and turning in a non-violent offender feels like a trespass on that right.
The way that sex offenders are treated does not help. Sex offenses carry a mandatory life sentence: even when you get out of prison you are tracked by the government, have your image posted online, published along with your address. Sex offenders are often subject to campaigns of hate years and decades after they have committed an offense.
Could I really subject someone to that? For the crime of clicking “download”?
Personally my answer is “no.” People can hate me for it, but I will not go back on my own sense of what justice is, and more importantly, what justice is not.
You say “…I cannot help but wonder if this is a cultural difference.”, to which I have to answer – you are writing in jest aren’t you? I’m finding your comment Hilarious! P^0
You may want to have a look at The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child – Article 34, 20 November 1989 – and wonder at why there are only three countries who have failed to ratify the convention. That is Somalia, South Sudan and The USA.
I understand that a Ronald Reagan supported the convention – a Bush opposed – a Clinton was cautious – then two bushes got in the way and now an Obama calls the failure to ratify ‘embarrassing’. That is some 23 years – of ‘embarrassing’.
“Could I really subject someone to that? For the crime of clicking “download”?”
Megaupload is an amusing case. I take it that a child who has been photographed naked – being sexually abused should file writ with those down-loaders who have violated copyright by copying and sharing their image without the child’s copyright being respected? By your view it’s a better bet for the child since in the US copyright post 1923 applies indefinitely – even globally. One wonders why so many US corporations went to court to get none violent servers shut down?
If you advocate the idea of none violence as the barrier, it moves into the concept (and idiocy) of victimless crime, so I hope you pay way over the odds for insurance – pay extra premiums in banking – and even have to have a pay cut to deal with just the issue of Financial Fraud! I hope you find the impact in your wallet acceptable! There is no violence involved – so it has to be fine! You just have to suck it up!
Why bitch when someone none violently removes your laptop or car when you are not looking?
Forgery and passing out fake green backs is just entrepreneurial use of a bubble jet printer? It’s none violent, so you have no reason to bitch if you find your self stuck with a £1000 of funny green paper and some funny looks at the cash register – even if they give you a violent stare and call the cops!
Someone, who none violently pours gasoline around the interior of your house and throws in a match is just experimenting with performance art? Evidently provided the arsonist is polite and none threatening, asking all concerned to vacate the area as a health and safety measure … no bitching allowed. They better be none threatening and none violent in the way they strike that match!
If your idea of none violence is the barrier, try it out next time you see a cop pull over someone for a traffic violation and argue it out with the cop! I wonder if they will find it Hilarious?
“Sir – Step Away From The Silliness?”.
I didn’t really expect you to understand, but I guess I hoped there would be an attempt to understand, rather than just snark.
First, you will please note that I take issue first and foremost with the form of punishment. This was pretty clear in my post.
You then committed a series of obvious straw man fallacies by pretending that I would never be in favor of prosecuting anyone for any non-violent crime. I never said this, but thank you for trying to put those words in my mouth.
I’m not going to defend the choice of the US not to ratify a UN convention, because to date no UN convention has successfully helped to improve the world. Take a look at the long list of signatories to the 1948 convention on Human Rights and then wonder at how religious persecution could possibly so wide spread with all those signatories. The institution is a joke, and a refusal to participate in meaningless diplomatic puffery is hardly a crime.
Finally, clearly the person creating child pornography should be stopped; yet we don’t stop there. We treat those in possession of child porn in a manner we would never treat those merely in possession of drugs. That we do not show those people the same compassion we show drug users is extremely problematic.
Consumers of child pornography are like anyone else who doesn’t fit the “majority” definition of what sexuality is: they would give anything to be “normal” but they just cannot be. We are criminalizing them for impulses they cannot help having. They should be pitied. If a lifetime of such impulses results in nothing more than possessing thumb drive’s worth of evidence, is that REALLY worth a life sentence? Are we really treating these people humanely? Or are we just letting our anger and hatred rule the day?
I didn’t really expect you to understand, but I guess I hoped there would be an attempt to understand, rather than just snark.
Mike I have read many posts by you across GMP. You are proud of your Libertarian views and wedded to the Free Market economy.
I understand a great deal more than you give me credit for – and you confuse Highly Ironic for snark. Your response has given me a great deal more understanding of what is for some a cultural difference between the UK and USA. However, your response has not addressed that, and it would be a mistake to conclude that your response and my increased understanding addresses that cultural idea.
I have been fascinated by the recent judgement and reaction from New York concerning the use of technology and the use of Child Porn. The New York Court of Appeals decision makes sense to individuals who lack a proper technical understanding of how technology works. If it’s only in the web browser cache it’s not illegal? Maybe they need to use a few browsers that have in built Kiosk functions which only store data in the cache as a supposed privacy enhancement. Consume Privately and then throw it away! Such an interesting position that may fit a Burger and Fries, but I’m not sure it adequately deals with the issue of child porn.
I’ve even been watching some of the chatter on-line and how some have decided that by running an operating system in a virtual machine – and using a browser to surf in Kiosk mode – and then saving the virtual machine state to preserve cache contents so you can go back and access them repeatedly …. well to some they think that doing that means they have not downloaded – not stored – are not in the process of retrieving! Poor deluded people who keep attempting to make the world fit their views and ideas…. so they can consume with deluded impunity!
Consumers of child pornography are like anyone else who doesn’t fit the “majority” definition of what sexuality is: they would give anything to be “normal” but they just cannot be. We are criminalizing them for impulses they cannot help having.
The word “Consumer” is highly problematic. It makes it sound as if the person just pops into a mall and whips out a charge card! The law calls them criminals. I get the idea that for some the USA is consumerville, and nothing must be allowed to get in the way of consumption – free marketing – Entrepreneurial Opportunity.
I have heard the argument that people can’t help themselves – the argument to Biology and Nature. It’s one I understand well, and which has fascinated me for years. I have been studying brains and how they interact with society for a long time. Some see brains that don’t function in normative ways as Broken and even Criminal. They argue that the person can’t help it – they are hard wired a certain way. If only It was that simple.
Take Dr (Prof) James H. Fallon – University of California, Irvine – a leading expert in the brain structure of Sociopaths. He has a complex interest in the subject. First, it’s been a long term academic field he has specialised in, Second, he has Lizzie Borden as an ancestor, and Third, Dr Fallon also has the brain structure of a Sociopath, and even exhibits behavioural patterns linked to that. There is a rather significant genetic component. So he evidently needs locking up doesn’t he?
However, as has been found, abnormal brain structure linked to genetics is only one aspect – and then you have the developmental and environmental factors to account for too! There are many cases of people who have suffered brain injury developing behavioural and cognitive patterns that place them into the category of sociopath – antisocial personality disorder. Oddly very few get locked up for the good of society, and the reason for that is they don’t act in antisocial ways that require that sanction.
I have recently been studying a paedophile case which has affected many people. I’m not going to go into full details, but it is a disturbing case. A person found to be trading child porn for download on a global basis. The material goes into sadomasochistic activity against children. It even involved the commissioning and directing of such material for specific clients – and even planning the abduction of children and their murder, through extreme sexual abuse, for the download market. Many people arrested on a global basis.
I’ve heard some attempt to defend matters by claiming that all of those involved were unable to control urges – in built and supposedly hard wired conduct – and yet all of the evidence shows that the biological and genetic are only one aspect. Hard wired to enjoy and be aroused sexually by a child being tortured and murdered for download? There were choices made.
There are choices made at varying points in time, often in adolescence, and exposure to events and people who also increase the shifts in patterns from what is seen as Normative towards extreme ends of that Bell Shaped Curve. Above all else, when that charge card was brought out and downloads initiated a choice was made to disregard the child in the image or video, and just be aroused and excited.
There were choices too to make it harder for people to locate the downloaded materials. The material was hidden on varying devices, from camera memory cards to gaming consoles – differing levels of encryption were used from none to 256 Blowfish and beyond – and even multiple encryption with files encrypted on one device, transferred and secondarily encrypted on yet another device, and then uploaded to the Cloud with yet more encryption over encrypted connections and even tunnelling and encrypted proxies leapfrogging from server to server around the planet. Funny – you only see such practices when dealing with Money Laundering and Trafficking such as Drugs. The choices people make.
Above all else, there is awareness – if there wasn’t there would not be clandestine activity – hiding and careful planning of how to not be detected. It is of interest that the cases and prosecutions which keep coming to public attention are of those who apparently lacked the self interest to down load free encryption software – and even carried Kiddy Porn about on unencrypted Thumb Drives. Why would a doctor at Michigan University Hospital need access to Kiddy Porn at work? Was he so desperate to consume that he had to get a quick fix in the communal staff room between consultations?
Some have missed the disturbing implications that come from experience and knowledge when dealing with certain behaviours.
So I wonder why the word “Consumer” has been used? Consumers are open and casual in their purchases, but so many people who are supposed consumers go to such extreme lengths to hide consumption and even explain it away.
Consumption of technology is a fascinating thing – and it allows far more consumption than people recognise!
“Finally, clearly the person creating child pornography should be stopped; yet we don’t stop there.”
Yes – that does go into cultural differences across the Atlantic. The free market model. If there is demand – supply it and make a few bucks. It has been known for some time that stopping the supplier is often the best way to protect others. Ralph Nader did that with GM – the US Government is focusing upon the same issues with all sorts of Trafficking – and has been for decades (Just Look At Prohibition and Some Mobsters and what they supplied). I do understand that there is that Free Spirit attitude and culture that exists, and how any form of government intervention is to be treated as wrong. But you will have to forgive me if I consider the use of seat belts – wearing crash helmets – paying your taxes as reasonable as they have saved lives, added to the local social and even national welfare – and even kept people alive to act as good consumers and keep the economy afloat.
It may just be an idea that stopping the consumption of child porn may also add to that consumer base productively – the cost in hard dollars in the social damage to victims tends to get missed out. That’s the cost in tax dollars for dealing with resultant delinquency and criminality – medical intervention – and don’t forget that courts, judges, public defenders and prison cells all cost money!
A few dollars to download and enjoy Vs the Long term costs and losses to the US Economy? I wonder how one calculates the cost of a download?
It’s the foot-dragging and cover-ups that are the most scandalous. Considering that there must be a million people working in higher education, you would expect mathematically to find a few active pedophiles. (Just as there are millions of priests in the world. Statistically, you’d expect to find a few pedophiles.) I’m not shocked that any giant, national industry would employ some pedophiles. The shock is the response of the institutions. I know they have to treat everyone as innocent until proven guilty, but not filing any kind of report is just a horrible lapse of judgment. Sure, you might be afraid of a lawsuit from the accused, but imagine the lawsuit from the parent of a victim who was victimized AFTER you got the first allegations. Due diligence, people.
“child porn his computer.”
Let’s take a breath for a moment and recognize how EASY it is to put files of any kind onto someone else’s computer without their knowledge. I don’t know the details of the U of M case, but maybe the delay in reporting was because the insitution had to nail down where the thumb drive came from.
If a thumb drive with porn on it is enough to destroy a career, I can imagine a really easy frame-up. An unlocked door, a computer left on, and an internet search, and bye-bye rival. Who’s going to say he’s innocent until proven guilty? Who would believe him when he said he’s being framed? Lynch the monster.
The instant a man is accused of being a pedophile, everyone immediately sees it in his eyes. You can just tell from looking at him. And now the bastard is trying to shift the blame somewhere else….
I COMPLETELY agree with you, wellokaythen. 100%. There is no reason to stage a take-down of this doctor in question. It really isn’t even about him, but rather about the system that allowed this to go unchecked for 6 months, and also the impact of PSU scandal in empowering people to look into something that doesn’t seem right.
We certainly do not have all the facts, and this doctor deserves due process before he is shamed or convicted in the court of public opinion.
Nah – the delay in reporting has been tracked and admitted to!
The matter has already been looked into – and the primary failure has been traced to a legal counsel employed and who interviewed the witness to the contents of the Thumb Drive – decided they owned the case – and then decided there was no action to take!
Pity – the law required the reporting of even suspicion.
It’s one of those “For want of a nail …” situations.
The Legal Counsel no longer works for the University. It is reported that their absence in unrelated to the failures which have been uncovered.
Another significant cause of failure has been linked to the Universities practice of employing external security firms – and that these firms were of the view that the reporting was to be undertaken by the University itself and not the Security Company. Systems that were interlinked and should have been used were not, due to confusion over who was responsible for input. Another nail that got lost!
It is reported that the University is now hammering home the concept that anyone suspecting that a nail is missing is to report it to the right people first – and the University second!
There is ongoing criticism of The University because their reports and updates of the case keep pointing to so many causes, and yet they keep missing the Bigger Picture! Thay keep saying that no one was at fault, they only had faulty procedures.
Wow – where did those procedures come from I wonder? Were they written by Little Green Men?