BishopAccountability.org
	New Website: Sol-Reform.com, Reform the Statute of Limitations on Child Sexual Abuse Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests March 10, 2009 http://www.snapnetwork.org/snap_press_releases/2009_press_releases/031109_new_website_statute_of_limitations_reform.htm [the web site] Cardozo School of Law is pleased to announce that its new student organization, Cardozo Advocates for Kids, along with academic advisor Professor Marci Hamilton, is launching a new website today to aid victims of childhood sexual abuse. The site will be a valuable resource in the national grassroots movement to eliminate the statutes of limitations for childhood sexual abuse. The movement is responding to the now well-documented scientific fact that childhood sexual abuse victims typically take years to tell others about the abuse, especially authorities. This new information resource is available at www.sol-reform.com The site is being launched as New York is on the verge of becoming one of the leading states in this movement. New York is on the verge of passing the Child Victims Act (A02596), though it might more properly be named the Predator Identity Act. It extends the civil and criminal statutes of limitations for child sex abuse. It also opens a one-year "window" – a year when victims of child sex abuse can file civil claims even if their statute of limitations previously expired -- for the many victims who have been locked out of the courthouse by arbitrarily short statutes of limitations. There are two well-documented benefits of such windows. First, a window permits victims to identify their perpetrators in public documents. When California had a window in 2003, the public learned the names of 300 predators it had never heard before. Children and families are much safer as a result. Second, it sends victims a message that we as a society believe they were wronged and they have the right to sue those who harmed them. At the same time, it sends a message to the predators that we will not permit them to operate in the shadows anymore. For more information on statute of limitations reform and especially the pending New York statute, go to www.sol-reform.com
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.