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	Guest View: a Change Long Overdue National Catholic Reporter October 11, 2011 http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20111011/OPINION/110110303/-1/TOWN1001 Imagine turning 43 and, through the simple act of a birthday, losing the right to seek justice against someone who raped you. Seem impossible? It should be. But Massachusetts law is clear on the matter. If you are the victim of sexual abuse as a child, you have until the age of 43 to report the crime. A new law that would eliminate the statute of limitations in such cases is an important step in the long march toward making sure that those who would prey on the young know that there is no safe haven for them. The change would allow victims from Camp Good News in Sandwich, for instance, to pursue legal action against their alleged abusers. One alleged victim said he had decided to not pursue a case, in part, because the statute of limitations had expired. But there is far more at stake here than the claims by the nine individuals who have stepped forward over the past year. One Boston attorney said that more than 85 percent of the childhood assault clients he represents only come forward many years after the abuse has taken place. In most cases, this means that the predator is legally beyond the reach of prosecution. Such legal restrictions no doubt embolden those who would prey on the most vulnerable members of society. They know that victims sometimes bury the abuse deeply in their psyches, hiding it away from others, as well as from themselves. Sponsored by state Rep. Ronald Mariano, D-Quincy, the new law would not prevent an accused perpetrator from attempting to use a statute of limitations defense while on trial; he or she could argue that too much time has passed since the alleged abuse for a court to determine guilt. Unlike now, however, the passage of time in and of itself would not be enough to prompt a dismissal of the case. Detractors of the effort claim that the change could clog the courts with cold cases that would be virtually impossible to prove one way or the other. One argument holds that evidence from decades ago would have long since disappeared, and that time will have similarly eroded the memories of would-be witnesses. Those arguments stand up only to a point. If we truly believed that such were the case, why is there no statute of limitations in cases involving murder? Surely the same concerns about evidence and witnesses would be equally valid. The only difference between a murder victim and a child victim of rape is the level of death, and the fact that only the latter will live with the crime years after it has been committed. Abuse victims must carry around their scars, both physical and mental, for the rest of their lives. Some choose to self-medicate, while for others, the abuse manifests itself in the form of insecurity, restlessness, or the inability to form close relationships. It seems only fair that the abusers know that they too will, at the very least, spend a lifetime looking over their shoulders, never knowing when overdue justice might finally catch up with them.
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