Legislative Priorities

Iowa Coalition Against Sexual Assault
*Priorities for the 2012 Legislative Session*

1.    HELP RAPE VICTIMS: Ensure stable funding for sexual assault crisis centers.

• Funding continues to be a major concern for the Iowa Coalition Against Sexual Assault (IowaCASA). Iowa must renew the state’s commitment to victims of crime by continuing to provide general fund monies for victim services. During the 2009 legislative session the Iowa legislature considered programs assisting victims of sexual assault and domestic violence important enough to warrant funding by a specific, separate line item in the state budget. As the state works to make difficult budget decisions, it must continue to be a priority of the state to continue to fully fund the budget line item and issue no additional cuts above the 10% previously ordered by Governor Culver. 

2.    HELP PREVENT RAPE: Ensure stable funding for sexual assault crisis centers' prevention programs

• The Iowa Coalition Against Sexual Assault, a statewide organization of 28 sexual assault crisis centers, is asking for an annual amount of level funding for efforts to prevent sexual violence.
   
• Last year, the legislature provided funding in the amount of $232,477 to assist prevention efforts in Iowa.
   
• Currently there are seven (Atlantic, Clinton, Des Moines, Ottumwa, Marshalltown, Spencer, and Waverly) sexual assault crisis centers in Iowa, providing services to 30 counties, who do not receive any prevention funding.

3.    ENSURE JUSTICE FOR VICTIMS: Eliminate the statute of limitations

• Our member organizations counsel adults in their thirties and forties on abuse issues stemming from childhood abuse. Prior to that age range, victims often try to cope on their own and seek help only after those coping skills either stop working or fail. For many victims, the memories of abuse don’t come until later in life, often prompted by concerns for children and grandchildren who are the age that the reporting adult was when abused as a child. Such trans-generational abuse falls outside the current statute of limitations.
   
• Iowa Code section 802.2 allows a 10-year period of statute of limitations to file an indictment or an information in cases of sexual assault in the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd degrees, regardless of whether the victim is under the age of 18.
   
• Iowa Code section 802.2A allows a 10-year period of statute of limitations to file and indictment or an information in cases of incest or in cases of sexual exploitation by a counselor, therapist or school employee.
   
• Iowa Code section 802.3 states that in all cases except those enumerated above, an indictment or an information for a felony or aggravated or serious misdemeanor shall be found within 3 years after its commission. Assault with the intent to sexually assault without injuries, indecent contact with a child, lascivious conduct with a minor, and sexual misconduct with offenders and juveniles fall within the serious or aggravated misdemeanor categories which means the statute of limitations for these crimes under current Iowa law is three (3) years.

4.    PROTECT VICTIMS: Provide a civil protective order to victims of sexual assault

• Currently, no-contact orders are available for sexual assault victims only in cases where their case is prosecuted. Rape is recognized as the most underreported crime in the United States – it is estimated that only one in seven rapes is reported to authorities. Sexual assault inflicts humiliation, degradation and terror on victims. Research shows that sexual assault is often unreported for a number of reasons, including:

→Lack of faith in police and the justice system
→Fear of not being believed
→Fear of coping with the medical and legal procedures
→Fear of reprisals
→Fear of family and friends finding out
→Humiliation and shame
→Prevalent social attitudes, which blame the victim for sexual assault

• Victims who do not report crime, or whose case is not prosecuted, still desire safety and protection from future interactions with the offender. In these cases, the victim should be able to seek a civil remedy requiring only that the offender stay away from the victim. In Iowa, this option is only available if the rape can be classified as domestic abuse under Chapter 236, leaving victims who do not fit under this chapter with no remedy.