The New Battle Over Old Child Sex Crimes

FRANK FINNEGAN WAS 7 YEARS OLD WHEN HE WAS FIRST molested by a local priest. As a child, he didn’t know how to prevent the repeated assaults, which went on for almost two years, or how to go about reporting the crime.

- Haley Sweetland Edwards

So, like most child sex-abuse victims, he kept quiet. It wasn’t until he was in his late 40s, preparing to send his own children off into the world, that the memories of the trauma became impossible to ignore. “It’s like there was finally room in my brain,” says Finnegan, who now works as a truck driver. So he contacted a lawyer, braced himself and filed suit.

But Finnegan was too late. In Pennsylvania, where he grew up and raised his own family, victims of child sex abuse have only until they turn 30 to bring a civil case. (They have until they turn 50 to pursue criminal charges, but that didn’t help Finnegan, whose abuser was long dead.) As a result, Finnegan’s case was thrown out—not on the merits, but because of the time, it took to come to terms with the trauma.

There was no avenue to appeal. No one would be held accountable for what happened to Finnegan, now 57. “It’s not right,” he says. “Why is this legal?”

It may not be, in some states, for much longer. Many state lawmakers have opened the door in recent years to belated criminal prosecution, and now several are moving to allow civil suits in decades-old cases. Fifteen states took up bills this year that would change statute of limitation laws, making it easier for victims of child sex abuse to seek justice.