Kidnapping victim Elizabeth Smart is the featured speaker on Tuesday at Penn State University as a three-day conference focusing on child sex abuse awareness wraps up.

On Monday, former Olympian and boxing champion Sugar Ray Leonard addressed the conference and spoke about being a sexual abuse victim as a teenager. Leonard said it is still difficult for him to talk about his ordeal and said he cried when he first heard about Jerry Sandusky's victims.


Penn State is hosting the conference on the research and prevention of child sexual abuse, and officials said they see it as a major step in becoming a national leader on the issue.


Organizers of the three-day gathering, which started Sunday night, said they hope the conference sheds more light on a problem that gained a lot more attention after former assistant coach Sandusky was arrested on child sex abuse charges last November.


The forum includes academic and clinical experts on child molestation and trauma. Organizers said they hope the conference serves as a catalyst to opening a national discussion and addressing knowledge gaps about the problem of child sex abuse.