NYTimes: Passions Remain High as Child Victims Act Is Derailed After Bruising Fight

PAUL VITELLO writes on the struggles of one NY Assembly woman to pass a bill intended to allow or even encourage sexual abuse victims to sue their attackers. There is serious question in my mind as to whether or not this is a good idea. First, sexual assault is a crime and there are serious moral questions about reducing the penalty for such a terrible crime to a dollar amount. That's of course assuming that the perp is being punished in civil rather than criminal court. But even if they are tried as criminals, should we then force the individual to face financial ruin as well? Many people might say yes, but I suspect that comes from a personal sense of repugnance and a desire for retribution. This is a natural reaction, but it is a dangerous way to write laws. Punitive laws motivated by vengence have a way of getting out of hand, growing ever more sweepig an arbitrary. As a nation that believes in the rule of law (in the sense that, we are ruled by just laws and not by men) this is something to be feared rather than encouraged.

Secondly, on a more practical level this law seems clearly aimed at large organizations - specifically the Catholic Church. The author points out that this bill first began to circulate following the scandals of the Boston diocese. While I cannot blame the bills supporters for their outrage, the precedent this would set could backfire drasticallly. Even though I would never seek to disparage the experiences of those who have been truly harmed by the actions of the diocese, exposing this this kind of deep-pocket organization would simply create too tempting a target. It would likely be a letigiousr free-for-all which would only harm what good the church does do and benefit no one. Wanting revenge is not an unnatural response. It is only too human. But we must take care to not to imbue the law with our own shortcomings.

From The New York Times:

Passions Remain High as Child Victims Act Is Derailed After Bruising Fight

Assembly leaders pulled a bill that would loosen restrictions on lawsuits involving the sexual abuse of children from the calendar in the last session.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/10/nyregion/10abuse.html

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