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A bill in the Oregon legislature would get rid of the statute of limitations for sex crimes against children. Currently, victims who are under 18 at the time of the crime have until they turn 30 — or 12 years after the initial reporting of the crime, whichever comes first – to press criminal charges. A similar bill seems to be stalled in the Washington state Senate after passing unanimously in the House.
Some in Oregon have deemed HB 3057 "the Goldschmidt bill," after the disgraced former governor, who admitted to having a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old. The victim, who died earlier this year, only spoke publicly about the crime after the statute of limitations had expired. If the bill passes, it would not be retroactive. So, Goldschmidt would not face criminal prosecution.
Those who voice concerns about eliminating the statute of limitations for the sexual abuse of children argue that doing so would open the door to the possiblity of more wrongful convictions. They point out that many of these cases rely on one person's word against another and that over time, evidence that could be crucial to the defense may not be available after a certain period of time.
Were you a victim of a sex crime when you were a child? Did you press charges? Why or why not? Have you been accused of sexually abusing a minor? What difference would it make to you to remove the statute of limitations for underage victims?
GUESTS:
- Randy Ellison: Survivor of childhood sexual abuse and president of the board of Oregon Abuse Advocates and Survivors in Service
- Dave Hunt: Democratic Leader of the Oregon House (D-Clackamas County)
- Bronson James: Defense attorney with JDL Attorneys
- Daniel Reisberg: Reed College professor and chair of the department of psychology, research psychologist specializing in perception and memory
Tagged as: children · crime · politics · sex offender
Photo credit: Scott* / Creative Commons
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Concur -
Niel Goldshmidt would disagree however...
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Hard to be against extending or eliminating "the statute of limitations for sex crimes against children."
But punishment does not undo the crime and the ensuing trauma, no matter how long it takes.
What I think gets missed or lost or maybe just forgotten when people talk about revenge and punishment for crimes is the idea of preventing the crime in the first place. So what is being done towards prevention?
Can sex education help the kids prevent it?
And what can divert the potential offender away from doing the crimes?
I suspect that that old saying "An ounce or prevention is worth a pound of cure" is true about this.
Education and prevention is far more effective and costs less than waiting until after the crime is done and then paying all of the police, detectives, prosecutors, judges, and then corrections and jails costs. Um, and the costs of psychotherapy for the victim.
So what is being done about education and prevention?
Trying to punish a person into good behavior after he/she has done some wrong just seems to me to be the stupidest approach of all. I don't want them to do the wrong in the first place.
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Are you joking? Saying the child should do something to prevent being sexually abused is the most asenine thing I've ever heard. So I'll assume you're joking.
Child molesters cannot be prevented from doing what they do short of death or institutionalization. They are master manipulators and con artists. They find extremely vulnerable children. By vulnerable I mean the mom is a drug addict or mentally unstable or extremely impoverished with so many kids she can't attend to all of them.
They seduce, coerce, manipulate and threaten these already vulnerable children for months or years. Child molestors don't stop with just one child they molest many children during their lifetime until they are jailed or die.
The children often grow up to have serious problems with drugs, sexual behaviors, crime, and mental health issues.
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No person goes through life without experiencing some tough times. To dwell on a wrong or injustice for months, years, decades, and sometimes multiple lifetimes(generational remembrance) is unhealthy.
For instance, a victim of a gun shot wound, is NOT encouraged to remember and re-live the trauma daily for years--they are urged to heal heal physically and emotionally and not prolong the wound for years. They are given a few months maximum to be sad or weepy.
Knowledge is remembering. Wisdom is selecting what to remember and what to forget.
A bigger waste than a 15 minute rape event, is 30 years of weekly counseling for PTSD for a victim trapped in victimhood.
And if Happiness is the Goal, sometimes Happiness is about Forgetting. Study the Joy in children.
Experience is not what happens to you, but what you do with what happens to you. Sometimes the best advice is "Get over it."
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By your response, it appears to me that you have never been a victim..
"Knowledge is remembering. Wisdom is selecting what to remember and what to forget." I wish that were true all the time but it's not. Sometimes those memories of an assult just pop into your mind, and depending on where you emotional are in the healing process, you may be able you recognize it for what is was, a bad memory or it may trigger you into the fear that you experienced at the time.
Most victims do “get over it”, time heals all things but professional counseling is at times needed. If a person commits a crime should there not be consequences? Who defends the child? The mother who may or may not be aware of what’s going on? At one point the law didn’t protect us, the children.
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dwelling on the injsutice is not the issue here, the issue is....is it too late to tell. Am I too late to protect others.
How can one "get over it" when you know that it continues to happen to others.
I find your comment callous and trite.
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THis kind of "tough love" advice does not take into account the reality of this type of crime and lasting effects on an individual. "Get Over It" is a recipe for PTSD and deeper problems.
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Let's say there was a 15 minute rape ephisode over 15 years ago.
IF you cannot "Get over it", proclaim how your life is ruined yesterday, today and tommorrow, how you are depressed and sad EVERYDAY and have suicide thoughts weekly, how this affects with your ability to have a normal relationship and be a good parent, how it ruins the life of your children and grandchildren and unborn generations, and how you have NO future.
Guess what? Your life IS ruined.
Whether fondling, rape, assault, bb pellet to the eye, kidnapping, torture, attempted murder, shooting, knifing and murder. NOTHING will undo a Crime.
Get Over It. Stop being a victim and start being a human being. If you let this issue dominate your psyche and your life.....IT WILL DOMINATE YOUR LIFE.
We are all dealt a set of cards in life. Character is how we respond to challenges.
Live life.
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And sometimes Happiness is knowing that there is no statute of limitations, that child molesters can be put away for life, that you have done something very, very good when you decided to press charges, that is true Hapiness.
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"Get over it."
I think better words are something like "get through it", that is, process it and deal with it and then get on with their life.
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I was a victim of a sex crime beginning at the age of four and continuing on until I was 18; I was molested by my stepfather. It took me another 16 years and counseling to get the courage to face the man who raped and molested me and several of my sisters and brothers.
I know that he was sorry, he told me that, but I still wanted to have him charged for what he did to me but was told that the statute of limitations had run out. Because of him, I had to grow up fast, I didn’t get to be the innocent child, and there was no protection for me from him. It was a part of the family secret. His actions caused mental and emotional damages to those he molested. Out of a yours, mine, and ours family that totaled nine children, he molested or attempted to molest all of us.
Even as a young adult I feared being alone with him, I would not let my children be alone with him I knew what he was capable of doing.
It was frustrating knowing that there wasn’t anything legally I could do to him. In 1992, while my niece was staying with me, she told me that her grandfather (my father) had attempted to fondle her. I had to protect her, I reported him to the state police where he was living at the time and they began to investigate him. He passed away six months later and never to pay for his actions.
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I am a survivor of sexual abuse while attending a catholic seminary in the Los Angeles area. As a former non-believer in repressed memories, I can personally attest to the fact that these crimes are so incideous, that, as a young person, our minds 'deal' with this trauma in many different ways. For that reason, I believe there should be no statute of limitations for these crimes. Thank you for this show; I will call in tomorrow morning to give a brief account of how my memory was jogged back to those terrible times.
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While I doubt that sexual abuse at the hands of clergy is not solely a Catholic problem, I am still glad I didn't grow up Catholic!
That said, I am still sorry for all the people who were put through such trauma.
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Among the things I have learned from over 30 years of practicing law is that innocent people get charged and convicted of minor and serious crimes. It does not happen all that often, but it happens often enough, and especially in sex cases where so much is dependant on interpretation of actions and fragile and malleable human memories. The simple fact is that no matter how good our system is and no matter how hard we try to avoid that tragedy, it happens. It is unavoidable. But, that is a price we must be willing to pay if we are to have a criminal justice system. Everything has a cost, and not just financial. If the statute of limitations on sex crimes is eliminated, it is true that we will prosecute and convict a few more people who committed crimes long ago. On the other hand it is inevitable that there will an increase in the number of innocent people who will be charged, spend their retirement savings defending themselves, and then being convicted and going to prison for lengthy mandatory sentences, often for crimes that never occurred but which someone had come to believe had happened. Many, as happens now, will agree to the prosecutor’s plea bargain to either avoid prison or to receive a lower sentence. If the Legislature decides this a price worth paying, so be it. My only hope is that they actually accept that extending the statute of limitations will involve the conviction of some innocent people and all that entails.
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What about the innocent children that have no voice or recourse as children or adults that suffer for the rest of their lives from the sex abuse they received as a child. If a few innocent people get put behind bars it is no different then some innocent people getting put in jail for murder. It happens but there are also the ones that were guilty and will be stopped from molesting more children because studies have shown that pedophiles do not stop molesting children because they are attracted to children not adults. They don't stop from a guilty conscience. They have to be put in jail and maybe get some counseling. Those people you refer to that committed crimes along time ago, are still committing those crimes against children and had continued from the time they molested the person who is bringing the law suite. Just as I stated above they don't stop with just one child.
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Repeal. Age should not matter. Had I known then what I know now...that it would be a good thing to tell, that no one who would think less of me if I did. I attended 3rd grade at a school in Springfield and my teacher was a predator. I often wonder and worry about all the girls who he taught after me, how far he went with them. I am as guilty for their abuse as is the abuser, because I did not tell. I am now 53 and I know he could no longer be teaching, but my heart breaks for all those other girls.
d
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I felt the same way for years -- my family was full of little girls, I was the oldest and probably the first abused, but not the last. If I had reported it all the other girls would have been spared, etc., etc. Years of therapy and a better understanding of the dynamics of this abuse have helped me come to terms with it.
I'm about your age, and I know that the culture we grew up in valued the appearance of harmony and the perfect life much more than hearing the truth. We were not heard.
It's not your fault. All this man's victim's are not your responsibility -- they're his, and the culture that oppressed children's voices and gave him safety.
I wish you peace.
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Given that the trauma carried for a lifetime is real and damaging, does your guest believe that the basic perceptions as an abused 15 year old are reliable enough to base testimony and a conviction on.
Is there any memory masking or confusion about events, dates, and people involved? The farther away in time from an event, usually the less reliable human recollection is.
Did the guest ever write down a narrative of this that can be used to memorialize his memory?
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Randy Ellison was sexually abused by a preacher, that is bad enough, but the even worse abuse is that preachers actually tell children that there is a supernatural "God". That is the "grooming process" that sets people up to accept abuse all their lives. "Religion" is child abuse! How can we stop and prevent that?
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Tom your off topic
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luisa
If you won't look at what enables abusers you won't find the root causes of the problems.
I suggest that the fact that he was abused by a "preacher" is a huge hint of where to look. Religion.
And so that is "on topic".
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luisa
Religious leaders are well trained in how to get children to believe what they say and without any evidence at all. And that early training of children sets them up to accept lies and abuse all of their lives. That is "Grooming".
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The first battery of questions Ms Harris put to Randy Ellison pushed him to speak to the "whys" of his long time silence.
One word suffices as an answer - trust!
The dynamics of the maturing brain of teens - meaning mind & emotions - is an organic developmental process leading to the emergence of the adult faculties of autonomy and responsibility. Violence visited upon a person at this time in life is horrifying and deeply scarring. When the person who violates a teen is a person whose even purpose and presence in the teen’s life is premised on trust, the violence endured by the predators target is both physical person and psychological. The damage to the process of cognitive maturation necessarily has life-long impact for the subjects of attack.
The immediate and long term effects are many, but among them is the crippling of the normative development of a person's ability to foster trust. "Trust", is an essential and assumed component of adult relationships - whether romantic, personal or professional – and is a requirement for civil society’s functioning. The extent of the corruption of the target’s ability to trust begins with his or her ability to trust him or herself. “Trust” is a wholly foreign concept and emotional capacity for those violated in the manner Mr Ellison described. Until the subject of a sexual predator’s attacks has regained the capacity to trust him/herself, any option to seek legal remedy – criminal or civil – is for all practical purposes impossible.
Meanwhile, time passes and the predator continues his/her behavior of identifying, isolating and violating new targets of violence. To this point, research backed by the evidence put forward in courts around the world has shown that the sexual predators will violate over 100 victims over the course of the lifetime.
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I was abused several times by 3 differant people as a child. I am 57 now and after years of alcohol and drug abuse I am finally getting help. I always felt that I should "just get over it". Like another caller I have found it impossible to really connect with anyone in my life - I spent 35 years moving from place to place and wondering why I never "fit in". It is easy for s/o who has not experianced this abuse to imagine you can put it behind you. In a country that believes it has high moral values it is absurd how much sexual abuse of children goes on and how unsympathetic people are about this.
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I agree wholeheartedly with you as a former CASA, Guardian Ad Litem and Child Welfare caseworker I am sickened by how mush sexual abuse of children is going on and even more disgusted by mothers who know it is happening and don't step in to save their children.
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I really don't understand why Bronson James is protesting so much and giving exaggerated examples of what this bill might enable--two people in a nursing home in court over a "hand on breast over clothes" incident 60 years previous.
That's not what this is about and he is intelligent enough to know that.
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I think Ellison does not have a proper understanding of forgiveness. Forgiveness is for the one who forgives. Someone, maybe Gandhi, said words something like "holding onto resentment if like drinking poison and hoping the other person dies". Forgiveness allow the abused person to go on and live their life.
And never "forget" what the abuser did. Which is what I believe Ellison really means.
And I suggest considering that the abuser is a damaged person or they would not hurt another human being. So Compassion teaches us that they ought to be stopped from further abuse, and helped if possible. But no free pass for the wrong they did.
The abuser and the abused are both damaged humans.
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What are the rules and standards of evidence in the prosecution of these kinds of cases and how do you distinguish between false and accurate memories?
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I think that victims/survivors of childhood sexual abuse should have the right to see justice served no matter how much time has passed. As a survivor myself, I have found myself 40 years later curled in a fetal position under the bed after having flashback trauma in the middle of the night. I don't dwell on the abuse or the negative effects, but the long term effects of childhood abuse carry well into adulthood. My experiences as an adult are similiar if not almost identical to Randy's. There is the lack of intimacy in relationships, inability to develop deep or lasting friendships, deep guilt, multiple moves across the country, and multiple job and career changes.
I would not choose to file charges as the person who abused me was charged and prosecuted for other similiar offenses.
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As for the cap on statutory limitations, the notion of such a cap is nothing less than an enabling facility for predatory sexual criminals and the institutions that harbor, hide and/or protect them.
Arguing in support of a legal convenience that aids and abets sexual predators and the institutions that protect them is - at best - inhumane. Sexual molestation is a crime and predatory pattern of behavior that flourishes in secrecy and actively seeks to exploit all disparities in power between the perpetrator and victim. Keeping and enforcing a statutory limit on the prosecution of sexual predators cements just one more lever of power disparity to be exploited by predators and the institutions that protect them from the children they scarred for life.
In the end, teenaged victims are not conversant in the subtleties of the law. Predators, by definition, use every weapon at their disposal to capture and control their prey including the specifics of the law. In short, caps subject teenaged victims of a sexual predator’s violence to the law of the jungle from which the victim him/herself is then responsible for escaping.
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I wonder if there can be something set up so that an abuser can come forward and be helped to stop abusing, with the possibility of some reduced sentence, therapy, or both? I'd rather they be brought into the light of day than keep hiding and abusing. And maybe they can be studied for potential ways to prevent others from abusing.
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Not as easy as just forgetting.
As a therapist I specialize in working with adult survivors of trauma, particularly childhood abuse.
Regarding the question "Why don't you just forget about it?" :
Premature sexual experiences, and traumatic memories are not set aside over time, nor fade like other bad experiences. Unfortunately, the way our brains and nervous system are wired to recognize emergency, these experiences can become MORE debilitating over time.
Early sexualization of children can compromise their developing sense of self. Ability to set healthy boundaries, to know where they begin and others end, to be able to truly say "yes" or "no" are all scrambled.
If any sense of safety is involved, neurobiology keeps this experience as raw data, not organized and coherent like the rest of memory.
Children, attempting to create some sense of control over their own lives, will often try to shoulder responsibility, and imagine it to be their own fault. Hence the child will have the sense of shame that rightly belongs solely to the perpetrator.
Others, in an attempt to retain feelings of love and trust on adults they depend on, will dissociate from the experience until they are stronger and long out of the situation.
All of this can take so long to sort out, that it can be years before the survivor has enough sense of self, and safety, to be able to speak out. In light of this, and because perpetrators can be active over decades, I favor repealing the statute of limitations.
Katja Biesanz
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This is Brian, I was on at the end of the show ... I just wanted to end with this: A statute of limitations on sex crimes means that the perpetrators can look forward to a day when they're free from the threat of being arrested and charged.
I have no such statute of limitations on my memory; I am affected by this in some way most days, especially when it's in the news. Even after years of counseling. Yes, I cope ... but I still remember.
Thank you so much for this program. The more light we shed on this crime, the more people become aware, the more pressure we put on people to behave themselves.
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I have two daughters who were abused by their own father for years. He is still and has been free to molest more children because my daughters were unable to prosecute him due to the statute of limitations. I think that once one person comes forward and an abuser is named more people who were molested by them will come forward too and that is a pretty powerful testimony. It is hard to deny in front of a court that one persons memory is wrong when there are more then one saying the same thing.
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I was sexually molested fromt the ages of about 7-9. Around 9 I told my mom about the abuse and she confronted my stepfather. The abuse stopped and my parents within a few years bitterly divorced. My mother was advised at the time by family members not to press charges. They felt to have to re-live the abuse on the stand would be potentially damaging. My mother opted instead to take me to a local family doctor who explained I had wiped the memory completely from my mind. He then told her not to worry about it, that is was probably best that I didn't remember the abuse. However, well into my 20's my personal life was in disarray. I went into therapy and realized my childhood abuse needed to be dealt with. I was in therapy when my niece was born. After her birth my stepfather and my brother's biological father absence re-entered my brother life and showered his child with attention. He lured my brother with birthday cards and Chrstmas cards filled with cash encouraging frequent family visits to his house, and it got me worried.
When my niece was 3 I decided to finally speak out and report my childhood abuse to the local Sherrif's Office. I reported the abuse and I told them about what my mother had recently revealed about my stepfather's past. She told me she had met with my stepfather's ex wife after she found out about my abuse. His ex wife explained how he abused their faternal twins and also her daughters from a previous marriage. In fact, she caught hm in the act with her step daughter but instead of reporting the abuse decided to leave him and take her children away from him. She was afraid to tell only confiding in her family she cried and apologized to my mother. I explained all this in detail to the Sheriff's Office and my concern for my niece. The Sheriff asked me how I was I told him I was 25. He said it was past the legal statue and the best I could do was try and put it behind me. I also explained to the police that my former stepfather worked (at the time he has since retired with full pension) in a public highschool as a janitor with access to children everyday. The Sherrif's Office explained it was my word against his and that unless someone younger or within the statute of limitation came forward there was nothing they could do.
It really bothers me that someone who had clearly destoryed so many lives not only got away with it, but was able to work in such close proximity to children. I recently returned to therapy still working through my past abuse. I think my story is probably not that uncommon and if the law were overturned it would allow people to come forward to convict child abusers.
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I agree the statute of limitations should be eliminated, in both criminal and civil sex abuse cases. Too often children are terrified to come forward, for a variety of reasons. Often, too, the abusers continue to harm other children. There are benefits to society in allowing victims to come forward when they are ready. However, it would be very important in these cases to ensure the rules of evidence still apply, and that the standards of proof remain the same. Due process should remain the same, no matter how much time has passed. If the rules of evidence apply, it should protect against memories that are less than perfect.
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I was sexually molested from the ages of aboout 7-9. Around 9 I told my mom about the abuse and she confronted my stepfather. The abuse stopped and my parents bitterly divorced. My family advised her to not press charges because it would be painful for me to recall the abuse on the stand. Instead, my mother took me to local family doctor who explained to her I had repressed the memory of the abuse. He told her it was best I had forgotten and to move on with our lives. As an adult I began having extreme anxiety and began therapy. I realized my silence about the abuse was coming back to haunt me. I also revealed as an adult that my stepfather's adult son had also abused me. During the same time, my brother's his first child was born. My stepfather re-entered my brother's life and began visting more often.
Finally, when my niece was 3 I decided to report my childhood sexual abuse to the local Sheriff’s Office. I was 25 at the time. My mother recently revealed she has spoken with my stepfather's ex wife right after my abuse. She told my mother he has abused her two step daughters and their fraternal twins. She explained she caught hm in the act, but instead of reporting it the police she decided to leave him. My mother also revealed that my stepbrother now grown had recently been caught abusing his own daughter. My stepfather at the time worked for a local high school as a janitor in close proximity to children the school completely unaware of his past. I explained all this in detail to the Sheriff's Office they explained to me there was nothing I could do it was past the statue of limitations. I was so humiliated they let me cry and recall my abuse what my mother had told me and then said sorry we can't help you. When I think about it now, it makes me sick to my stomach. I would have wanted to press charges and if the law were to be repealed I will.
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I'm from a wealthy family; sexually molested in my crib 'til age 10. Due to statue of limitations (SOL), can't press charges; had to be by age 21...all I wanted was to get away from my family. Now I'm completely unnable to trust men, can't afoord sufficient counseling. My brother, the perpetrator, inherits families business; a multi-millionaire in a 9000 sq ft mansion w/ vacation homes in Mexico. He molested his daughters, but realized SOL too late, too. I live in a trailer, go to a food bank. My brother admitted to family that he abused me, but said, "we were just kids, no big deal". He's 11 years older, I was 1, he was 12. I'll never overcome PTSD, constant fear/anxiety; they proved childhood abuse at an early age damages brain development. My IQ is 131...I wonder who/what I might have been, had this not happened. We must do more to prevent this, but it's a multi-faceted problem. Thousands of emotionally crippled victims can't function in relationships, are lonely. I'm crippled w/ no legal recourse. Family protects my brother so aristocratic community won't find out the truth. I'm shunned.. My parents never protected me, now SOL + they protect him ! Perpetrators know SOL; so their victims are helpless. Takes YEARS to figure out why one's depressed, can't trust, why relationships fail...then, it's too late! I'm angry at our "justice" system. Innocent children should not have to pay for crimes of their fathers/brothers/etc. the rest of their lives. We need counseling...it's costly, we can't afford adequate treatment. Perpetrators should pay, not us. Laws protect the violater. Insurance companies fight eliminating SOL...sick...why do I have to struggle to live just because I didn't file a case before I was 21? My innocence was stolen. I can't get it back. Sex w/ my brother before I walk/talk? NOBODY understands what it does to your psyche except those who suffer these crimes. I don't care about prison, I just want financial compensation for treatment. I want to be in love, but can't overcome my phobias. PLEASE, use every angle to fight, start by lifting SOL so perps don't think they can get away with murdering a childs soul because too much time elapsed. There should be NO SOL. Molesting a child is like killing one, ...I wish I was dead. Is that justice? My brother has wife, family, grandchildren. I have nobody..nothing.
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Comments are now closed.
I think the statute of limitations on reporting sex crimes should be repealed -- especially in the case of minors. I also think that there should be no statute of limitations on any crime of sexual violence, whether it is sexual assault, rape, or whatever.
I consider myself fortunate to never have been the victim of sexual assault, and to never have had anyone I was close to be sexual assaulted.