GEORGIA
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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.
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