UNITED STATES
Verdict
Gov. Jerry Brown’s Recent Veto of Child Abuse Legislation and What It Tells Us About the Civil Rights Movement for Children
Marci A. Hamilton
No civil rights movement worth pursuing happens overnight or easily, because it is always a fight against the entrenched powers that resist and detest change. The ups and downs are sometimes steep, with the oppressed facing devastating losses and heady triumphs along the way. In the civil rights movement for children, which is transforming children from property into persons in the United States, a critical element is giving child sex abuse (CSA) victims meaningful access to justice.
Until relatively recently, most child sex abuse victims in the vast majority of states did not have access to justice, because the statutes of limitations (“SOLs”) cut off their claims before they could make it to the courthouse. A confluence of ignorance meant that these victims were cut off from simple justice: Americans (1) had underestimated the amount of child sex abuse that actually occurs; (2) were unaware that child sex abusers typically tend to be the “nice guy” or gal that adults trust with their children and, therefore, had no idea that so many are hidden amongst us; and (3) did not know that most CSA victims need decades before they are capable of coming forward. The result has been that the legal system has unintentionally favored perpetrators, rather than victims. The perpetrator’s best friends have been short SOLs and public and private institutions that act to protect their image, wallets, and adults’ reputations rather than the welfare of children.
We now know, based on hundreds of scientific studies and experience in many states, that a CSA victim needs a great deal of time to enter the judicial system. In addition, the delay in filing charges or filing a lawsuit does not mean that the perpetrator has stopped harming children. Perpetrators will molest children into their elderly years. Letting a survivor have access to justice at any time dramatically increases the odds of identifying hidden perpetrators among us. Thus, survivors’ access to justice dovetails with the rights of children right now.
Opening the SOLs does not guarantee victims that their perpetrators will be convicted, or that they will win civil lawsuits for damages and other remedies. The SOLs only create access to justice, but access is what marks a rights-holder.
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