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Help the children. Not the molesters!

Please help us! We Cannot Speak For Ourselves

It is said that politics is the art of compromise. After the Washington legislature compromised in 2009 by merely extending the statutes of limitation for sex crimes committed against children under the age of 18 for 7 years, they apparently are not ready to take any further action.

Therefore, children in Washington are being denied equal protection and the ability to seek equal justice because after the 2003 change in federal law with respect to federal crimes there is no statute of limitations. So, if a sex crime is committed against a child under federal law there are no time limitations for criminal prosecution of the molester; however, if that same crime is committed against them under state laws, after they reach the age of 28, they cannot seek justice. Law enforcement will not even investigate the case. In other words, children in Washington have more rights if they are molested on a military base, other federal land, or on an Indian reservation. This is unfair to them and does not serve as the deterrent it could be to child molestation. In addition, we do not know which molesters living in our communities are sex offenders who could not be prosecuted because of this limitation and may molest again.

The children of the state of Washington, ask you to act on their behalf to help protect them from child molesters. To paraphrase - all it takes for evil to prevail is for good men and women to do nothing.

Please join in the effort to convince Washington state legislators that children are truly our most precious resources and are entitled to every protection we can give them against child molestation. The criminal statutes of limitation that now apply to the sexual molestation of children under the age of 18 should be eliminated.

Why should sex crimes committed against children under the age of 18 be subject to an artificial time period called a statute of limitations so after the passage of that time there can be no prosecution of the crime? The victim lives with the effects of the abuse for the rest of their lives. Why do we reward the molester just because the abuse was not immediately discovered and brought to the attention of law enforcement authorities, or the victim was too afraid or ashamed to come forward and may not be able to for several years? After all, the victims were children.

Homicide cases have no statute of limitations because we think they are such serious crimes a prosecution can occur at any time after the act when there is sufficient credible evidence to charge the killer. Don't we think enough of our children to apply the same rule to their sexual molestation? Does the child have to die in order to impose responsibility on the molester when the victim is able to come forward?

Please contact and urge the Governor and the state legislators to change the law. We have the responsibility to safeguard our children by convincing our representatives to enact a law eliminating the statutes of limitation for sex crimes committed against children under the age of 18.

Click on the "How You Can Help" link to see how you can be involved