Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Illinois Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) introduced bipartisan legislation Friday that “ensures that survivors of child sex abuse are able to seek justice under the federal civil remedy statute, 18 U.S.C. § 2255, without being barred by statutes of limitation,” according to a press release.
Blackburn and Durbin’s bill, The Eliminating Limits to Justice for Child Sex Abuse Victims Act of 2021, would enable survivors who were victims of over a dozen federal child sex abuse offenses to seek civil damages in federal court no matter how long it has taken the survivor to process and disclose the abuse he or she suffered, as outlined in the press release.
“The statute of limitations for sexual abuse offenses should never prohibit young survivors from getting the justice they deserve,” Senator Blackburn said in a statement. “The bipartisan effort to eliminate the civil child sexual abuse statute of limitations is a critical step to guarantee survivors their day in court.”
According to the press release by Blackburn’s office, the legislation is cosponsored by Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), John Cornyn (R-TX), and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and endorsed by the organizations CHILD USA, RAINN, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), and National Alliance to End Sexual Violence (NAESV).
RAINN statistics show that every 68 seconds, an American is sexually assaulted and every 9 minutes, that victim is a child. Furthermore, Blackburn’s press release cites that CHILD USA’s, the National Think Tank for Child Protection, data suggests that 86 percent of child sexual abuse goes unreported. The think tank goes on to note that “for victims who do report their abuse, “delayed disclosure,” or the tendency of survivors of child sex abuse to wait for years before disclosing abuse to others, is common. ”
However, as the release states, “Historically, delayed disclosure has impacted survivors’ path to justice. Survivors often were barred from civil and criminal remedies at the time they disclosed their abuse due to statutes of limitations (SOLs) that did not take into account evidence regarding delayed disclosure. In recent years, however, many states have expanded opportunities for victims to access justice by lengthening SOLs. Since 2002, 48 states and Washington D.C. have amended their child sex abuse laws to expand or eliminate SOLs in varying degrees.”
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected]
