I strongly urge you and your colleagues to support the Child Victim's Act of New York in a Special Session of the Legislature this fall (A2596B, Markey / S5893, Ruth Hassell Thompson).
There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of UNKNOWN sex abusers of children living and working among us -- in schools, churches, synagogues, youth groups, and especially in families. To find and pursue them, our legislators must change the New York State statute of limitations (SOL), as two special grand juries in New York have declared.
According to the FBI, 1 in 5 of ALL children are sexually abused before they are 18! Many predators are life-long abusers, with as many as 100 victims. Yet, only 10% of this abuse is ever reported to authorities.
This epidemic is made worse by those who have criminally covered up for abusers and are themselves shielded by the state's statute. For example, two special grand juries in NYS -- Suffolk and Westchester -- have uncovered orchestrated criminal actions by religious institutions using deception and intimidation to delay victims from legal recourse until the statute of limitations expired.
"...the NYS legislature should enact a statute similar to the state of California that revives civil actions for damages for a period of one year...." -- Suffolk County Special Grand Jury.
When California enacted a similar law, it discovered more than 300 undetected predators. Delaware, a much smaller state, has discovered more than 60. Given that predators have multiple victims, thousands of children have now been protected in just these two pioneering states.
The Child Victims Act of New York will:
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