All Blog Posts from Couric & Co.

I'm Kelly Wallace, Katie is on assignment.

It's a classic story: Boy meets Girl. They flirt, they date, it starts to get serious. But for thousands of American teens, that's when things go terribly wrong.

Dating violence is on the rise, fueled in part by email, Instant Messaging and texting, which give kids new ways to keep tabs on - and control - their partners.

On tonight's CBS Evening News, Katie interviews an 18-year-old girl who was routinely beaten and raped by the young man she considered her "boyfriend."

Even younger girls are at risk. A recent survey found that 25 percent of tweens report physical abuse in their relationships.

Laws that mandate education on dating violence have passed or are pending in 14 states. That's a start… but it's not enough.

As parents, we need to make sure all our schools teach this important lesson - and teach it ourselves at home. Sons and daughters both need to know that love should never come with bruises.

I'm Kelly Wallace, CBS News.

George Osterkamp is the CBS News producer in the San Francisco Bureau. He worked with Correspondent John Blackstone on this story for the CBS Evening News.

---

We discovered Mia through the therapist who had been helping the little girl overcome the terrible abuse she suffered when she was less than a year old. Dr. Lenore Terr, a San Francisco psychiatrist whose specialty is childhood trauma, had written a book about Mia called "Magical Moments of Change: How Psychotherapy Turns Kids Around."

Dr. Terr was the host when I met Mia and her mother, Sharon Behrens, nearly a year ago at the doctor’s office. At that meeting the women and Mia – then 18 – all seemed so self-assured and warm, it was hard to imagine the struggles the three had gone through to save Mia from the lasting damage early trauma often causes.

“She growled. She spit. She hissed. She screamed,” Terr recalled of Mia’s early days starting treatment. Terr knew the odds were against Mia, but the doctor sensed an intelligence in the frightened little girl – and in that, she found hope.

Using dolls and a tea service, Terr worked with Mia for years to overcome her fear of others.

“We made reality out of the tea party,” Terr said. “And it was no more a game. It was reality.”

Mia’s therapy was both mental and physical ...

Read full post…

(CBS)

---

Since 2001, thousands of wives and girlfriends have been assaulted at the hands of the soldiers they loved. Tonight on the a special primetime edition of the CBS Evening News, Katie Couric investigates a growing crisis in the U.S. military: the staggering numbers of military wives who have been beaten, raped or even killed since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began.

And behind those statistics are the faces of many survivors. Katie spoke with one military wife, Jessacia Patton, about how her husband changed in Iraq, the ensuing abuse … and how the military failed to help.

Last night, we posted a preview clip of one of Katie's interviews with a military wife who is a survivor of domestic violence. Below, a new clip, in which Katie asks Patton what she believes to be the military's greatest flaw in dealing with domestic violence.

Watch that clip here:

Kelly Wallace is a CBS News correspondent based in New York.

---

Stories about child abuse have always horrified me – but maybe more so now that I have two beautiful children of my own. When I hear about the incomprehensible things mothers and fathers, aunts and uncles, grandmothers and grandfathers, stepfathers and stepmothers, do to their loved ones, I look at my little ones and wonder how on earth anyone could hurt the most vulnerable, these little life forces who rely on us to take care of them and give them a happy life.

So needless to say, when I was pitched a story about how few Americans are actually reporting abuse when they suspect it, I knew it was something I wanted to do. When I learned more, including how four children die every day from child abuse and neglect – that’s right four children dying every day – I thought if there were more public awareness, maybe more lives could be saved.

I had a chance to talk with 26-year-old Julia Charles, who is one of the most inspirational young women I have talked with in my reporting career. She endured years of brutal beatings as a kid at the hands of her biological mother. She uses the term "biological mother" because she’s since been adopted by her foster mother whom she calls her mom.

"I remember scrubbing the bathtub and getting hit ...

Read full post…

Kelly Wallace is a CBS News Correspondent based in New York.

---

As a mother of two children under 2 ½, I find myself gravitating towards those stories that could impact my little girls when they grow up. Tonight’s report on The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric is one of those stories.

A new survey on teen dating violence and abuse signals what may be a worrisome trend – one in five 13 to 14 year olds say their friends have been punched, kicked, hit or slapped by a boyfriend or girlfriend. Nearly half of all tweens, kids from 11 to 14, say their friends have been verbally abused in a relationship. First, I don’t know about you, but when I was 11 or 12, I was still playing school, not dating. Secondly, it is troubling, especially as a parent, to think how many young people appear to be victims of emotional, physical and sexual abuse in a relationship. Think of the impact on their lives and on society as a whole if perpetrators of this violence grow up and continue their abusive behaviors.

Read full post…

Sandra Hughes is a CBS News correspondent based in Los Angeles.

---

The Los Angeles Superior Courtroom was so full, not all of the victims were allowed inside. They gathered to witness the announcement of the largest settlement in Catholic Church history, $660 million to be paid by the Los Angeles archdiocese to 508 victims of sexual abuse by clergy. There where so many lawyers, some had to sit in the jury box.

Despite a sometimes dry legal proceeding, emotions were raw in the courtroom. At one point, Ray Boucher, the main plaintiffs' lawyer was given the opportunity to speak and as he did some broke down and sobbed out loud. When Michael Hennigan, the archdiocese's attorney stood and faced the victims to say how much the church regretted the long wait to resolve the case, one angry man shouted “not accepted.”

Many of the victims who were inside the courtroom had been headed to trial today in the case against Father Clinton Hagenback, who is now dead.

Steve Sanchez is one of those victims. Like many, he questions the timing of this settlement. After all, the first person on Steve Sanchez’s witness list was Cardinal Roger Mahony (seen at the left). Mahoney is the head of the L.A. Archdiocese and has long been accused of a massive cover-up in the sex abuse scandal here.

After the hearing Steve told me, “Mahony got off cheap today.” “You know, $660 million and he was supposed to take the stand in our case, he bought himself off the witness stand.”

Another man, with whom I spoke, Lee Bashforth, carried a picture of himself at seven years old with now convicted sex offender Michael Wempe. Just talking about Wempe brought tears to his eyes. Bashforth was particularly offended by Cardinal Mahony, who issued a public apology yesterday.

“He’s sorry he got caught,” is what Lee said. Today in court, Cardinal Mahony didn’t say a word. But it was mentioned in court that he took two rushed trips to the Vatican to get this deal hammered out and for that, at least, plaintiffs' attorney Ray Boucher seemed willing to forgive him.

Today's settlement in the clergy sex abuse scandal -- $660 million in Los Angeles -- is both surprising and sobering. But perhaps this can serve to help protect children, instead of just the church, and lead to healing.

Click the monitor for more.