CALIFORNIA
KPCC
Statutes of limitations set limits on how long a person has after an event to take legal action pertaining to that event.
The idea is to protect the defendants from being accused for long periods of time and to encourage plaintiffs to be diligent about pursuing legal action. But where is the line between protecting defendants from being accused of a crime for years and protecting defendants from ever seeing the inside of a courtroom.
Joelle Casteix argues these laws are more likely to do the latter in a recent L.A. Times op-ed titled “Don’t let time shield sex predators.” Casteix was a victim of sexual abuse in her teens and says while she was able to prosecute the person who assaulted her, many other victims aren’t so fortunate. She says California’s sex crimes laws are “abysmally complicated” and that the deadlines for victims to come forward are “arbitrary — and downright confusing.”
How do you feel about statutes of limitations as they pertain to sex crimes? Would you support a reform of state statutes of limitations on certain crimes? When is a statute of limitations appropriate and when is it not?
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.