Sexual Abuse of Children Affects Everyone; that's Why We Need to Eliminate Statutes of Limitations for Childhood Sexual Abuse

Abolishing Statutes of Limitations in Cases of Childhood Sexual Abuse

Many people know crime victims who have been raped, sexually assaulted or sexually abused and are well aware that more often than not, it takes years for victims to come forward to seek help and counseling for the injuries they suffered and continue to suffer.  Unfortunately, under current laws in most states, including Pennsylvania, the Statute of Limitations for bringing civil claims for damages is limited.  That is why there is a nationwide movement currently to seek to change those laws, and hopefully, eliminate the Statute of Limitations altogether for these types of injuries.

In 2002, the Pennsylvania Legislature did extend the Statute of Limitations for childhood sexual abuse civil claims until the age of (30) thirty.  However, that is woefully inadequate.

Recently, I had the opportunity to meet by Constitutional Law Scholar and Professor Marci Hamilton at the National Conference for the Crime Victims Bar Association in Chicago, Illinois.  Ms. Hamilton was instrumental in helping to change Delaware’s law -- one of the three states in the country that has now eliminated the SOL for civil claims for sexual abuse.  She is actively working with a number of organizations in states across the country to effectuate these kinds of changes.   In addition, she has authored a book on the subject which is a must read for anyone who cares about this topic entitled:  Justice Denied:  What America Must Do to Protect its Children

Her book spotlights the benefits and barriers to reaching the goal of eliminating statutes of limitation for sexual abuse.  However, Ms. Hamilton predicts a coming civil rights movement for children and explains why it is in the interest of all Americans to allow victims of childhood sexual abuse this opportunity to seek justice when they are ready.

Statutes of limitation are arbitrary time limits that protect child abusers from Justice.  While statutes of limitation may serve good ends for contract and property damage disputes, they can be unfair and unacceptable barriers to justice for victims of childhood sexual abuse.

The central theme of Hamilton’s book is that SOLs for childhood sexual abuse should be treated like murder, not property crimes, because in effect the abuser murders his victim’s childhood.  Society is best served by having survivors identify their abusers, which leads to only one conclusion:  Eliminate statutes of limitations.

As Ms. Hamilton sets forth, everyone pays a price for childhood sexual abuse in lost output for survivors and mammoth medical costs of treating the physical and psychological injuries.  Here are the numbers: 25 percent of girls are sexually abused in childhood; 20 percent of boys.  Only 10 percent of those report the crime to authorities.  And then only a handful of stories appear in the news. 

Contrary to popular beliefs, sexual abusers are almost always someone the family knows who has gained the victim’s trust.  Vital parts of the relationship between the abuser and child are affection, admiration and trust.  Abusers “groom” their victims patiently until they can trap the child into sex and silence.

As a result, victims slide into suicide or drug or alcohol addiction, not to mention underperformance at work, sexual dysfunction and difficulties with intimacy that can lead to divorce and family disintegration.

Society is programmed not to see abuse, in part because the victims are children who are politically insignificant.  Plus the legal system had made it easier for abusers to move from one child to another -- and from state to state without risk of punishment, in large part because of inadequate SOLs.

Childhood abuse survivors don’t understand what was done to them until they’re old enough to know what was taken away:  their childhood.

Right now, a serious mismatch exists between the ability of survivors to come forward and the speed with which states require them to do so.  As a result, the justice system tilts in favor of the abuser and against his victims who experience this most heinous crime.  And while false accusations may occur in a few cases, proce-dural safeguards to combat them are already in place.

While most child abuse reforms to date are heralded -- (harsher penalties, civil commitment, tracking, pedophile free zones, and Megan’s Law) -- these all presume we know who the predators are. 

And in light of inadequate child abuse reporting laws, experience shows that unless the failure-to-report penalties are severe, most institutions and individuals ignore the reporting laws.  Most states consider the failure to report merely a misdemeanor with small fines.

Here is what Professor Hamilton argues:  Only if the SOLs are abolished will the other approaches become more effective at reducing the rate of child sex abuse by knowing the identity of the abusers. 

In addition to abolishing the SOLs, she sets out what that we need to provide window legislation to allow adult survivors of abuse the opportunity to collect civil damages from their abusers.  By opening this window for civil actions we

(1) make abuse survivors the priority instead of their predators;

(2) better identify child predators in our midst;

(3) find more survivors of the same perpetrator after one survivor comes forward; and

(4) deter institutions from hiding child sex abuse.