"Convicted child molestors who are members of the victim's household
should not receive lighter sentences than convicted child molestors who
are strangers to the victims. This bill will close the loophole and give
child molestors who know their victims the punishment they deserve."
--Gloria Allred
Attorney at Law
PROTECTING CHILDREN IS NONPARTISAN!
ORGANIZATIONS ENDORSING THE "CIRCLE OF TRUST" BILL (S.B. 33)
As of September 7, 2005
A Minor Consideration (child stars)
Bikers Against Child Abuse
California Alliance Against Domestic Violence
California Commission on the Status of Women
California Correctional Supervisors Association
California District Attorneys Association
California Protective Parents Association
California State Sheriff's Association
California Women's Law Center
Center for Family Connections
City Council of the City of El Cerrito
City Council of Santa Monica
City Council of West Hollywood
Courageous Kids Network
Crime Victims United of California
The Doctors at Valencia Pediatric Associates
The Equality Campaign
Feminist Majority
Gloria Allred, Attorney at Law
Incest Survivors Speakers Bureau
Justice for Children
Los Angeles City Attorney's Office
Los Angeles District Attorney's Office
Mayor Abbe Land, City of West Hollywood
Mothers of Lost Children
National Association to Protect Children
National Council of Jewish Women/California State Public Affairs
Officers of Avalon
Oxnard Police Department
Peace Officers Research Association of California
Prevent Child Abuse California
Prostitution Research and Education, San Francisco
Punk Voter
Punks Protect Kids
Rainbow Community Center of Contra Costa County
Rape Treatment Center at Santa Monica-UCLA
Responsible Citizens, Inc.
SafetyEd International
San Fernando Valley/Northeast Los Angeles chapter, California NOW
Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence-Los Angeles
SNAP-Northern Califorina (Survivors' Network of those Abused by Priests)
Solano County (California) Board of Supervisors
Survivorship
|
What People Are Saying...
(Note: these individuals do not necessarily endorse S.B. 33)
Elizabeth Kim, The Recorder
(Northern California's leading legal newspaper)
"In 1981 the state Legislature passed a law that should rank high in the legal Hall of Shame, granting probation for people who molest children within their own families... One wonders what on earth those legislators could have been thinking. If anything, the scales should be tipped toward heavier punishment of molesters within a family than those without."
Senator Gil Cedillo (D-Los Angeles)
"Senator Battin has worked very thoughtfully on this, and made sure that it was narrowly--but appropriately--crafted, and I want to encourage my colleagues to support the proposal."
Victor Vieth, National Center for the Prosecution of Child Abuse
"As I travel around the country, many child abuse prosecutors express confusion over the disparate treatment of child abuse victims and the lack of public outcry. If those who enforce the laws are often frustrated by them, heaven help the boy or girl victims who live with disparate protection."
Andrew Vachss, Children's Attorney and Author
"Which is more destructive to our species: the random sexual assault of a child or the sexual assault of a child by the very individual whom all laws command to protect that child?"
Jane E. Stevens, California Alliance Against Domestic Violence
"Just as spousal battery and domestic violence were matters reserved 'for the family' a mere two or three decades ago, in California incest also appears to be a family matter--or so it is under current law."
Gregory Weber, Assistant Attorney General, Wisconsin
"Many state codes create a foul distinction between child sexual assaults... These state laws consider incest to be a less serious form of sexual assault."
Alison Arngrim, Actress and Activist
"A child who is molested by a stranger can at least turn to their family for protection and comfort. Where does a child turn when the attacker
is their own family? Refusing to send the perpetrator to jail sends a message to the victim.
Your attacker is right. He can do anything he wants to you and get away with it."
Randy Burton, Former Prosecutor, founder of Justice for Children
"Whether the reason is due to a collective sense of denial that adults actually sexually abuse their children or some misplaced notion of the importance of preserving biological families no matter how dangerous or twisted they may be, the message to children is it is OK for your biologicial father, brother, uncle, or the live-in boyfriend of your biological mother to rape you and the Authorities and Society, generally, will do nothing meaningful about it."
Marilyn Van Derbur, Child Advocate, Incest Survivor and former Miss America
"I am stunned and outraged to learn that in many states, the penalty for raping a child is probably probation if the perpetrator is related to the child. If the perpetrator is not related to the child, the maximum penalty is 20 years plus."
Lisa Madigan, Attorney General of Illinois
(speaking on the Illinois incest loophole, which was closed in 2003)
"The law as it stands now is unacceptable. It's time to close this loophole. We need to change the law so that all abusers of children face the toughest penalties possible, no matter what their relationship to the victim."
