In Connecticut, the civil Statute of Limitations cut-off age for reporting child sexual abuse is 48. Connecticut in 2019 updated the law by extending the cut-off age to 51, but this change only applies to offenses committed after Oct. 1, 2019.

Now, advocates hope to persuade state legislators to eliminate or further extend the Statute of Limitations, something that 24 states, including New York and New Jersey, have done.

This hour on Where We Live, we hear from survivors of child sexual abuse and also a trauma expert. We discuss delayed disclosure – the phenomenon common to adult survivors of child sexual abuse who wait for decades before disclosing that they have been victims of abuse. Data show that the average disclosure age of child victims of sexual assualt is 52 – according to research cited by Child USAdvocacy.

Data from the Department of Justice suggests that 86% of child sexual abuse goes unreported altogether.

We also look into whether eliminating the statute of limitations can enable us, as a society, to keep children safe from hidden sexual predators.

Resources: 

CT Alliance Against Sexual Violence
1-888-999-5545 for English
1-888-568-8332 para Español

CT SNAP (Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests)
Co-Leaders Gail Howard, Lori Temple, Beth McCabe

GUESTS:

Lori Temple: Member and Co-Leader of CT SNAP – Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests 

Steven Marans, PhD.: Psychoanalyst and Professor of Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine; Co-Director of the Yale Center for Traumatic Stress and Recovery

Kathyrn Robb: Executive Director, CHILD USAdvocacy; Survivor of child sexual abuse

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