Vermont Adopts New Child Safety Law

By David Clohessy
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
June 4, 2013

http://www.snapnetwork.org/vermont_adopts_new_child_safety_law

We are grateful to Vermont lawmakers for extending the criminal statute of limitations on child sex crimes. We hope they will do the same with Vermont’s archaic, arbitrary and predator-friendly civil statute of limitations.

Often, child sex abuse victims are reluctant to report to overworked and underfunded police and prosecutors. Often, they feel safer contacting civil attorneys. And victims often believe – correctly – that a civil suit can be the quickest and most effective way to warn unsuspecting families about child predators.

Men and women who were sexually assaulted as children deserve options. They deserve a chance to expose their predators in court – both criminal and civil.

We hope Vermont lawmakers will soon give more of them that chance.