NEW HAMPSHIRE
Concord Monitor
By ALLISON STEELE
Monitor staff
March 04. 2005 8:00AM
A new Web site inspired by the Catholic clergy sex abuse scandal will allow victims of sexual abuse to report crimes anonymously to the state attorney general's office. Law enforcement officials and victim advocates hope that the confidentiality of victimpower.org will provide a form of gentle encouragement for victims, who can feel too paralyzed by feelings of shame to come forward.
Unlike anonymous hotlines or other methods of offering tips, the site will allow victims and investigators to communicate with each other. Investigators can answer questions and victims can tell as many or as few details as they wish. That back-and-forth may help investigators gather information about particular abusers and could lead to arrests, even if some victims choose to remain anonymous.
"Often there's no way of pursuing tips because there isn't enough information," said Senior Assistant Attorney General Will Delker, one of the prosecutors who led the state's 2002 investigation into reports of clergy sex abuse in New Hampshire. "This may be a tool to help change that."
Victimpower.org was created by Diane Williams Galebach and her husband, a couple from Andover, Mass., with a large Catholic family who were outraged by the clergy abuse scandal. They funded the nonprofit site out of their pocket, designed it with help from some college students and launched it two months ago.