Senate lawmakers have approved the continuation of the Jolene’s Law Task Force for another year. The task force was commissioned to study the impact of child sexual abuse and make recommendations to the legislature.
Senator Deb Soholt of Sioux Falls was one of the lawmakers on the Jolene’s Law Task Force. She says child sex abuse is a complex issue. Soholt says as the task force explored the problem further members found that child sex abuse is costly to the entire state.
"We started to understand that a public health approach is needed to child maltreatment which would address a range of conditions that place children at risk for abuse or neglect," says Soholt, "Not just at the individual and family levels that we have often thought about childhood sexual abuse but to focus on it from the dynamics of community wide or population based strategies that in many respects all of us are responsible for what is happening with child sexual abuse. Our ability to handle it, our willingness to look at and strategies of intervention that will take an act of courage on all of our behalf."
One bill that came out of Jolene's Task Force requires those who report instances of child abuse be available for questions to law enforcement. Right now in health care and public school settings adults who report child abuse are only required to tell their supervisor who then reports to the police. Michael Moore is an Attorney for the State. He says it's difficult to build a case against an abuser using second hand information.
"When I'm trying a case defense attorneys will pick on that and if we don't get it right from the beginning it’s something, and unfortunately at trial, it’s something that the child is going to have to deal with," says Moore.
The Senate State Affairs Committee passed Senate Bill 70 unanimously. It now moves to the senate floor for further discussion.