INDIANA - The Indiana legislature is making strides toward protecting the most vulnerable of crime victims, children...and while it could still be improved upon, new legislation should be a clarion call for Illinois to take such steps, too.
From Evansville Patch.com comes an article by Rebecca Bream, which outlines some of the improvements that victims of crimes of domestic violence and abuse can expect in our neighbor to the east. Here's a snip:
The Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council is praising Tuesday's passage of legislation centered on protecting crime victims across the state, especially child and domestic violence victims, by expanding their rights and increasing protections. According to a release from IPAC, Senate Bill 551, authored by Sen. Mark Messmer, R-Jasper, passed unanimously by a vote of 7 to 0, and now moves on to the full Senate for further consideration.
Here are some of the facets of the new law:
- Added protections for community members against sex offenders who failed to or improperly register on the sex offender or violent offender registry.
- Allows for child victims to bring a comfort item or specially trained comfort animal with them to court during testimony.
- Includes an enhancement for domestic battery if the convicted person has a prior strangulation conviction.
- Supports criminal investigations and prosecutions of child abuse cases by restricting disclosure of sensitive information about the child victim and defendant during the criminal investigation or prosecution of the case.
- Fixes a current law that potentially allows adults to engage in inappropriate sexual relations with 13 or 14-year-old minors.
- Addresses a gap in the current kidnapping and criminal confinement laws by creating an offense when the kidnapping or criminal confinement results in moderate bodily injuring to the victim, as IPAC said current law only provides for offenses that include "bodily injury" or "serious bodily injury."
- Eliminates the current practice where an offender who is convicted of felony domestic battery can reduce the penalty to a misdemeanor.
There's more, and you can read about it all at this link.
We're behind a movement right now in Illinois to make so-called defense attorneys responsible for monetary compensation in the ongoing abuse of children in a home where abuse is consistently reported, but the defense attorney ignores the abuse, disallows it to be entered into evidence through machinations in and manipulation of the court system, and continues to keep the offender from facing his crimes. This is a variation of the law that was just passed in New York state, wherein child sex abuse survivors can sue their abusers. We're working on that for Illinois, as well, only it's not going to be limited to sex abuse; it will include domestic violence and attendant abuse as well.
Someone, at some point in time when an abused child turns 18, will face his or her crimes. That's the goal, and it's going to be implemented. Watch for updates.