Massachusetts House OKs Stricter Abuse Laws
Prompted by the clergy sexual abuse scandal, the state House of Representatives passed new legislation on September 8th that makes it easier to prosecute sexual abuse cases against children and puts tougher restrictions on convicted sex offenders. The new measure changes the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse cases from 15 years to 27 years. The intent is to allow young victims to mature to adulthood and realize that what happened to them when they were younger was wrong. The measure also increases the number of convicted sex offenders who must wear global positioning devices after their release, bars the most serious sex offenders from living in nursing homes, requires lifetime parole for high-level sex offenders who do not register their place of residence, and requires the state to classify offenders by the severity of their offense before they are released from prison.
Many people believe that this is only a step in the right direction. There are many other steps that need to be taken in order to get justice for the victims. Some people feel that the statute of limitations for civil cases should be extended as well. Is this new law fair? Does it make more victims come forward or does it allow too much time? Will this cause faulty accusations to surface? What impact will this have on other states?
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/
09/09/mass_house_oks_stricter_abuse_laws/
1 comment:
First of all, sexual abuse is one of the most serious offenses and should be treated with zero tolerance. Therefore I am happy to see that the new laws created place tougher punishment on those who commit this terrible crime. I believe anyone who is guilty of sexual abuse/molestation should have to endure the new, strict laws and that the time period that the new laws allow for someone to come forward in reporting abuse are reasonable in that many children who are abused in this manner may not realize the gravity of the crime at a young age. However, like Taylor, I must ask how it is possible to fully prove or disprove these accusations after such a long period of time has passed.
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