PENNSYLVANIA
The Morning Call
John Salvesen, executive director of the Foundation to Abolish Child Abuse, Bryn Mawr, Montgomery County.
Q: What is different about the crime of child sex abuse that requires a longer statute of limitations in civil cases and no statute of limitations in criminal cases?
A: It routinely takes the victims decades to come forward if they come forward at all. That’s the nature of the reaction to child sexual trauma. It takes time. A statute of limitations that limits the age by which a victim must come forward almost, by definition, excludes virtually all victims.
Q: Doesn’t waiting a long time to report a crime weaken a case?
A: These changes to the statutes don’t do anything but give victims of child sexual abuse a chance to have their case heard in court. If too much is forgotten, you’re going to lose your case. This only lets you in the door.
In many cases, you’re not relying on the memories of eyewitnesses other than the victim. There is almost never an eyewitness — it’s not like assault with a deadly weapon. The fact that there was a witness in the Sandusky case is one in a million. That never happens.
If there’s no evidence, or if it’s too old or too stale, there will be no conviction. All this does is guarantee that it actually goes to court. In the case of the Roman Catholic Church, there is a lot of evidence other than memories. They’re called personnel files.
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