By Steven Smith, Attorney & David Wolf, Attorney
Published by Child Injury Lawyer Network
Police have charged a teen with sexually abusing children at a Seneca County New York day care center. According to the Seneca County Sheriff’s Department, a 14-year-old boy has been charged with juvenile delinquency for committing acts that would amount to seven counts of child abuse and seven counts of endangering the welfare of a child if he were an adult. Deputies allege the teen had sexual contact with several children on several different dates over the last nine months; the boys range in age from six to nine-years-old. The day care center has not been identified, but investigators said it is located on the south end of Seneca County. Seneca County Child Protective Services and the State Office of Children and Family Services are working in conjunction with the Seneca County Sheriff’s Department during the investigation.
A juvenile sexual offender is defined as “a youth, from puberty to the legal age of majority, who commits any sexual act with a person of any age, against the victims will, without consent, or in an aggressive, exploitive or threatening manner.” During the last decade, many clinicians began recognizing and addressing the seriousness of juvenile sexual offenses. Studies have shown that most incarcerated adult sex offenders began committing sexual crimes during their early adolescence. More recently, the increased awareness of the number of molestations committed by teens has alerted the child abuse community for the need to intervene with juvenile offenders.
For more information on this topic, see Deputies say teen sexually abused kids at Seneca Co. day care.