NEWARK (NJ)
Star-Ledger
January 6, 2019
New Jersey has an archaic, soul-mangling law that prevents most victims of sex abuse from seeking justice in civil court – no matter what their age, without regard to whether their assailant was a clergyman, a Little League coach, or Uncle Fred.
Many states have fixed this problem. But a half-dozen proposed solutions have failed in New Jersey since 2002, and when lawmakers fail in this particular area, they effectively protect child predators rather than the abuse victims.
It’s time our legislative leaders acknowledge that choosing rapists and their enablers over children is a lamentable departure from decency. They must learn from the tragedy that exploded in Pennsylvania last summer, when a grand jury found that 1,000 children had been sexually abused by more than 300 priests in six Roman Catholic dioceses over 70 years, and that the crimes were concealed by church officials.
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