Community Voices: Legislation may aid child sex abuse victims

Atlanta Journal-Constitution
April 18, 2015

http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local/community-voices-legislation-may-aid-child-sex-abu/nkw8z/

April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month, a time to recognize how important it is for communities and families to work together to prevent all types of child abuse: neglect, physical abuse, psychological abuse and sexual abuse.

Research conducted by the Centers for Disease Control estimates that one in four girls and one in six boys are sexually abused before the age of 18. Only one in 10 children ever tell anyone, and of those who do, over half, 58 percent, delay disclosure for five years or more.

In fact, according to Angela Williams, a Marietta mother of two, and founder of Voice Today, which advocates for victims of childhood sexual abuse, the median age for a victim to disclose childhood sexual abuse is 40.

And so, Williams, an ordinary east Cobb mom, has been on an extraordinary mission to help bring a voice and justice to victims and survivors who are silenced by a legal system that has imposed arbitrary deadlines of inadequately short civil statutes of limitations.

Currently, a victim of child sexual abuse has only five years after they’ve turned 18 to pursue civil legal remedies for the justice they seek. This means that after age 23, survivors of childhood sexual abuse are victimized again by a system that prohibits them from seeking legal recourse against their abusers, and allows these child sexual predators to live freely among us.

Research estimates that perpetrators have on average 117 victims, while serial molesters can have up to 400 victims over their lifetimes.

But Rep. Jason Spencer, R-Woodbine, sponsor of House Bill 17, the Georgia “Hidden Predator Act” may help shed a small, but meaningful spotlight on these secret sex offenders, while helping better balance the scales of civil justice for victims of childhood sexual abuse.

HB 17 opens a two-year window of discovery, in cases going forward after July 1, 2015, that effectively allows victims access to civil recourse once their abuse and resulting injury has been established by medical or psychological evidence.

Statistically, 90 percent of perpetrators are known, loved and trusted by the child, the family, the community, and are family members, family friends, neighbors, babysitters and care providers. As a result, research shows that victims won’t openly identify abusers until adulthood, usually in their 40s and 50s, after lifetimes of addiction, depression and other injuries are incurred.

The Hidden Predator Act also opens a retroactive civil window, from July 1, 2015 to July 1, 2017, to anyone who has a claim to bring forward against their perpetrator, if they were shut out of court under Georgia’s current short statute of limitations.

And finally, HB 17 opens indefinitely previously sealed records to the victim or their legal guardian, so that these records, and any investigatory files, may be used as evidence in civil proceedings.

Georgia currently ranks among the worst in the country in a recent 50-state survey of civil statute of limitations for child sexual abuse.

HB 17 received final passage on the final day of the 2015 Legislative Session, and this April is the 40th anniversary of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act. Gov. Deal has 40 days from April 2 to sign HB 17 into law, and lift Georgia out of the civil statute of limitations cellar of child sex abuse.