Recent Changes to Pennsylvania Law
Pennsylvania’s recent history regarding statute of limitations law:
- Before 1991, child sexual assault victims were given two years to report inappropriate touching and five years to report a greater abuse such as sodomy or rape.
- In 1991, lawmakers extended the statute, giving victims until their 23rd birthday to press charges in major sexual assaults, and until their 20th for lesser crimes such as inappropriate touching.
- In 2002, the time frame for the most serious attacks was lengthened to 12 years after the victim’s 18th birthday.
- In 2007, the statute was extended to give the Commonwealth until the child victim’s 50th birthday.
Source: Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape
Why child victims often report years later:
- Adult victims are often motivated to pursue civil or criminal action when they learn that their perpetrator still has access to children in her/his job or personal life.
- Child victims often do not discover the connection between their psychological difficulties and their experiences of being sexually abused as a child until well into adulthood.
- People who commit sexual offenses often invest a lot of effort into grooming and manipulating victims, who are taught to believe that the abuse is their fault and that they will be in trouble if they disclose. It may take time for the victim to understand what happened to them.
- Some victims worry that disclosing their abuse will cause upheaval or turmoil in their families.
- Most victims fear that they won’t be believed.
- More than 90 percent of child victims know their offender, and these offenders are often adults who have power over the child or have won the child’s trust, as well as the trust of other adults around the victim
- People who sexually abuse children often give mixed messages to the child I love you/I am entitled to abuse you. This is the person that the child has been taught to love, respect and trust, and it is difficult for a child to disentangle these messages.
Source: Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape
Websites
Foundation to Abolish Child Sex Abuse
www.abolishsexabuse.org
SOL Reform News | Professor Marci A. Hamilton
www.sol-reform.com
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