*1 in 3 girls and 1 in 7 boys survive sexual assault before the age of 18*

*Girls ages 16-24 are at the highest risk for being a victim of sexual assault*

*1 in 6 boys by the age of 16 will experience sexual assault*

*1 in 12 adult males admit to experiencing sexual abuse in their childhood*

*According to the FBI - false reports for the crime of rape are the same as any other crime*  

• I believed I was going to be murdered on that day.  You can not imagine what that does to a person’s psyche, let alone what it does to a young child.   
• Most convicted rapists (Research shows between 55-80%) had access to consensual sex at the time they decided to rape someone.  Rape is not about sex - it is about the perpertrators' own weakness, anger and need for absolute power and control.
• The Center for Disease Control (CDC) changed its primary focus to PERPETRATOR PREVENTION back in year 2000.  Sexual violence will not end by focusing on victims alone.  Attitudes and perceptions all need to be changed.  Sexual Abuse is not a disease.  It is preventable - unlike cancer!   
•  Our society seems to understand that it takes years, sometimes decades for a rape victim to come forward and tell their story, yet our laws don't reflect this.  We know this happens to children - we know the problem is getting worse since the inception of the Internet - we know it takes years at the very least for most victims to come forward, if they do at all.  So why are our laws still placing a time limit on the victim's healing? 50% of the calls received by the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center are from adult victims who were abused in their childhood, more than 15 years earlier.    
• It is a medical fact that on a physiological level a child's brain is not done growing.  As a result, children and teenagers lack the ability to foresee consequences for their actions or lack there of.  They are impulsive and compulsive and are unable to see what is around the corner.  That is where adults come in and it's about time that we start truly addressing this issue.  It is time that our laws dictate how we as a society truly feel about these monsters. Are we really going to stand by and let these cowardly adults take advantage of our children and then allow them to take advantage of the very justice system WE built on the premise of an individuals right to not have to live their life in fear?!  
• When I was raped it was illegal for me to operate a vehicle, consume alcohol and to vote in an election.  Yet the law states that I should have been able to make one of the most important decisions in my life.  The decision not to report my rape to the police was made out of fear.  I was also naive to the entire process of reporting this type of crime.  I was under the assumption that reporting the rape at the hospital would be good enough to ensure the mere preservation of the evidence. 
• We group rapists and murderers together in our prisons and refer to them in the same category in conversation.  Murder has no statute of limitations.  Rape needs to be the same.  A piece of me was murdered on that day and I know all other victims would agree.   
• I am unaware of any other law where the statute of limitations has been changed three times in the last 20 years.  We are looking at the 2nd time in the last 4 years.  Many states are looking into this already.  I like to think that the Commonwealth has always been a state that can see the forest through the trees.  It is time we stop wasting the tax payers money and do what is right in protecting our children from these sexual predators.
• The men coming forward as a result of being molested by priests as little boys were the latest catalyst to change the statute of limitations.  It presently stands at 27 years - for victims under the age of 16.  Any child 16 or older is still presently limited to a 15 year statute of limitations.  Since I was raped one week from my 16th birthday, I only had 15 years to come forward.  Had I been raped just 8 days prior, I would have had 27 years to come forward and I would have a chance to get this monster off the streets.  Instead our laws tell us that nothing can be done to protect children now because I did not have the superhuman strength to come forward when stated to do so.