Take a look at this blog post about Child USA’s report on New York’s Child Victim Act, which provided a revival window to give survivors a of child sexual abuse a second chance to seek justice for claims that were barred by New York’s previous legal deadline/statute of limitation.
The report revealed that the majority of survivors it sampled first told someone about their abuse at age 34, but did not file a lawsuit until age 56, on average. Lawmakers need to take a trauma-informed approach when drafting child sexual abuse legislation, as was done in New York. And investigators in cold case murders involving and surrounded by such abuse–abuse that escalated to murder–shirk their duty to society when they dismiss information from survivors because it is “too old” or “too unbelievable” or “too repressed” for them. Get somebody whose specific training involves the understanding of these crimes and the deep trauma that causes a child to stay silent for many years, if not decades. When someone is ready to talk, listen. And resist your impulse to dismiss. There is a bigger picture and it must be understood.
Take a listen to the most recent of Open Investigation, Episode 4, Scope and Severity:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/scope-and-severity/id1757196345?i=1000671391202
Scope and Severity says it all, and it includes Michigan.