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Help the children. Not the molesters!

Arguments and Reponses

Here are some of the arguments against eliminating the statutes of limitation and the responses:

It is not fair because at some point the responsibility should end and a time limit does that by freeing a person from some charges that cannot be defended against by dimming memory or lost witnesses. In the case of child abuse, however, the memory never dims for the victim or the molester, unless he has molested so many children he cannot remember them all individually. Witnesses are not involved because the crime occurs in secrecy.

It would be too difficult to investigate and prosecute old cases. We don’t for that reason have a statute of limitations in homicide cases. We think enough of murder victims to seek justice forever but don’t think enough of children to do so? Are not the souls of those children murdered by the sexual abuse thereby affecting them for the rest of their lives? Haven’t we allowed the molesters to interfere with the sexual development of our children and given them a way to avoid responsibility?

It would cost too much because we would have too many cases to deal with and too little resources. Aren’t the children worth providing additional resources, if needed? We provide resources now because of the resulting harm to the victims, their lack of ability to trust anyone, their drug and alcohol problems, mental problems and the fact some of them become child molesters themselves. Aren’t those costs much greater to society? Are you aware of all the resources provided to molesters?

If the law should be changed it should be limited to “serious offenses” like the rape of a child and not extend to “mere touching”. Those terms are used to determine the length of the sentence to be imposed after a conviction, not to indicate the effect of the conduct on the victim. The barrier has been broken by the molester when the “mere touching” occurs; it is the purpose of the grooming used by the molester and is a crime. If the molester can accomplish more such as rape, sodomy, violence, photographing to distribute to other molesters, publishing on the internet, then the molester has been even more successful.

It would re-victimize the victims by having them go through the criminal justice process a long time after the molestation occurred. Shouldn’t that be the choice of the victim? Since when do we get to decide for them? Are they still to be treated like children, the same as when they were not believed or were too afraid to tell thinking for some reason they were somehow guilty of causing the abuse? Is it right to re-victimize them by closing the courthouse doors to them when they are ready to come forward?