CHILD SEX ABUSE STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS REFORM

THE SEAN P. McILMAIL STATUTES OF LIMITATIONS RESEARCH INSTITUTE AT CHILD USA

The Sean P. McIlmail Research Institute at CHILD USA was founded in 2018. The Sean P. McIlmail Statute of Limitations Research Institute was founded with a generous donation from the parents of Sean McIlmail, a brave clergy sex abuse victim who passed away when the stress of prosecuting Fr. Robert Brennan triggered his struggle with opioids. Sean was the only victim in Philadelphia who could prosecute due to Pennsylvania’s exceedingly short child sex abuse SOLs. The Institute, which will help preserve Sean’s legacy, is dedicated to studying and analyzing SOLs to fight for access to justice for all child sex abuse victims. Deborah and Michael McIlmail have turned their tragedy into a mission for the greater good.

WHAT IS A STATUTE OF LIMITATION (SOL)?

Statutes of limitation (SOLs) are judicial housekeeping rules: they set the deadline for pressing criminal charges or filing a civil lawsuit for child sex abuse. Unfortunately, the vast majority of victims can not prosecute or file civil lawsuits because they miss the arbitrary procedural deadline, or SOL, to file their claims.

Most victims of child sex abuse miss the statute of limitations because trauma affects them in a way that causes them to delay disclosure of their abuse until they are older. Statistically, 1/3 of the victims of child sex abuse disclose as children and another 1/3 never disclose. Studies show that the average age to disclose is 52, with the median age of 48.

SOLs prevent victims from obtaining justice and from naming their perpetrators publicly for fear of retaliation.

FACTSHEET ABOUT DELAYED DISCLOSURE

CHILD USA LEADS THE SOL REFORM MOVEMENT

CHILD USA leads the national movement for SOL reform to prevent child sex abuse and empower victims. For too long, short statutes of limitation have blocked justice for victims and simultaneously protected perpetrators and the institutions that enabled them. SOL reform serves three compelling public purposes: (1) identifying predators, (2) shifting the cost of abuse to those responsible for it, and (3) educating the public about the prevalence and harm of child sex abuse.

The trend is toward elimination of civil and criminal SOLs and the revival of expired civil claims. Forty-eight states and the District of Columbia, or 96%, have amended their child sex abuse statutes of limitation since January 2002. Yet, only one state – Vermont – has reached the pinnacle of SOL reform, which is to simply eliminate the civil and criminal SOLs and revive all expired civil claims with a permanently open revival window.

CHILD USA TRACKS AND STUDIES SOL REFORM

CHILD USA is the leading national organization tracking and studying child sex abuse statutes of limitations. We track every SOL reform bill introduced in state legislatures across the country and publish a 2020 SOL Reform Summary which provides an overview of all pending bills and highlights new laws improving SOLs for child sex abuse in 2020.

Our 2019 Annual SOL Report tracks the progress of the SOL reform movement. It provides a a national overview of the changes made to child sex abuse statutes of limiation since 2002. States are compared to one another and graded based on how far they have advanced toward elimination of the criminal and civil SOLs for present and future victims and revival of expired civil SOLs for victims from the past.

2019 ANNUAL SOL REPORT