“need to Hear Encouraging News? Here’s Some.”

SNAP
May 28, 2015

http://www.snapnetwork.org/_need_to_hear_encouraging_news_here_s_some

On the surface, the words “rape” and “hope” are similar. They rarely belong in the same sentence. But here’s an exception: Recent changes in rape laws give us hope.

Thanks to the courage of victims of sexual violence, who are gaining more strength and getting more political, 28 states now have no statute of limitations on rape.

[eastoregonian.com]

Is that enough? Of course not. Is that dramatic progress over the past few years? You bet it is.

And the long-term trends look good for us. More and more lawmakers (and judges and cops and prosecutors and jurors) are seeing just how irresponsible and hurtful these predator-friendly deadlines are.

And this is true in cases of sexual violence against kids too, not just adults.

(See recent headway on this front in Georgia: https://verdict.justia.com/2015/05/14/a-mid-year-report-on-child-sex-abuse-victims-access-to-justice-in-2015)

“The moral arc of the universe is long,” Martin Luther King told us, “but it bends towards justice.”

Thanks to all of you who are, through your bravery and persistence and advocacy, helping it bend more quickly!