An Oklahoma police officer and his wife were arrested for child sexual assault and abuse in September 2024.
According to the affidavit, the police officer was investigated on allegations that he sexually abused three girls between the ages of eight and 10 who had been placed in his and his wife's care as foster children.
The affidavit included forensic interviews in which the children said the police officer had touched them inappropriately. A former foster child was also interviewed and said that the officer had raped her while she was living with the couple.
The foster children also said that the wife punished them by "making them stand facing a fall for long periods, hitting them, and pulling their hair." According to court documents, the woman had kicked and strangled previous foster children.
The police officer was charged with 22 counts of lewd acts with a child under 16 and two counts of rape in the first degree. Hadley Waldren "Prague police officer and wife charged with child sexual assault and abuse" okcfox.com (Sep. 11, 2024).
Commentary
Youth in foster care reportedly have higher lifetime rates of sexual abuse victimization than their peers not in foster care. "The sexual abuse occurs before, during, and after their placement." https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0145213424000334
And, evidence suggests youth in foster care also have a "high lifetime rate of sexual abuse (27 percent)." https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0145213424000334
A New Jersey Office of Child Advocacy report stated that ??36.5 percent of perpetrators in child maltreatment cases were foster parents. Significantly, more than two dozen states do not explicitly prohibit registered sex offenders from being foster parents. "Sexual Abuse of Children in the United States Foster Care System" ballardbrief.byu.edu (Winter 2022).
What are some signs a foster child may have been abused?
- Avoiding touch or showing discomfort when touched
- Having sexual knowledge, or engaging in sexual behaviors beyond what most children that same age would
- Having regressive behaviors such as bed-wetting, sucking their fingers, nightmares, crying for no apparent reason
- Isolating, having low self-esteem, or speaking of death
https://armswide.org/blog/spotting-signs-sexual-abuse/
