PENNSYLVANIA
PennLive
By Cathleen Palm
The Center for Children’s Justice had a mixed reaction to PennLive’s Oct. 3 editorial
We can’t help but compare the outcry in Libre’s case to the stalled legislation that would give the victims of child abuse a better chance of confronting their abusers and winning some measure of redress in the civil court system.
PennLive’s editorial successfully called upon Pennsylvania lawmakers to end the injustice caused by statute of limitations for childhood sexual abuse.
The statute of limitation laws in Pennsylvania have always miscalculated the complex dynamics of childhood sexual abuse.
While there is no time limit on the wounds from such an assault on the child’s body and soul and research underscores that it can take decades for the child victim to come forward.
State law imposes arbitrary deadlines that cut off a victim’s access to justice.
These statutes of limitation have expired too quickly and have let perpetrators off-the-hook never facing the victim, a judge or jury in a civil or criminal courtroom.
Your editorial argued that the state Senate has refused to address this injustice experienced by adults previously sexually abused as children.
State senators voted for a bill that does not restart the civil clock permitting adult survivors of past childhood abuse access to a – once denied – civil courtroom.
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.