When Barry Goldwater ran for president in 1964, he said “the war against crime is the only needed war.” Fifty-five years later, the Republican Party platform echoed that sentiment, declaring, “we are the party of law and order.”
I could not agree more with this longstanding plank of the GOP, which is precisely why I fought for and steered to passage House Bill 2466, the Arizona Child Protection Act (AZ CPA), in the 2019 legislative session of Sen. Goldwater’s home state.
Arizona survivors of childhood sexual abuse now have the legal tools they need to hold predators and institutions accountable for decades of abuse. Not only that, AZ CPA values law and order in service of stopping child sex abuse and protecting kids.
After all, we’re talking about predators who sexually abuse children when they are most vulnerable and most trusting, often while working in institutions that promise to care for them. You can’t find a war against crime more worth fighting.
We’ve always known that such predators exist, but what we’re learning now is that the scale of this scourge is far greater than we could have imagined. The recent headlines are gut-wrenching.
But what is worse is that society has indulged this criminal behavior with laws that make it difficult if not impossible for their victims to seek, much less get, justice. Statutes of limitations laws have worked for child sex predators in a way that no adult, much less a “conservative with a conscience,” should or can sanction.
Ironically, it was Arizona, the birthplace of conservatism, that previously had some of the most lenient laws on the books. That included a ridiculously short statute of limitations for crimes against children. The old law gave victims only until their 20th birthday to bring an action against their abusers, even though all of the scientific evidence suggests that survivors don’t begin to grapple with their abuse until they are in their late 40’s. Arizona didn’t even have a separate statute for child victims of sexual assault, which meant that a victim of child rape and a customer who slipped on a wet floor at a grocery store fell under the same law.
Because of the bill the Arizona legislature just passed, against some pretty fierce opposition, I should add, survivors now at least have until age 30 to file a civil suit against a predator. The new law also creates a window, open until Dec. 31, 2020, for survivors who previously couldn’t come forward to pursue their predators for the harm they caused, no matter how long ago the abuse occurred. Of equal importance, the Child Protection Act allows survivors to take action against organizations that knew of and covered up the abuse.
In the end, my Republican colleagues, and every Democrat, voted for these reforms. And when Gov. Doug Ducey signed the Child Protection Act into law in late May, he praised the legislature for “taking a stand to hold abusers accountable and provide justice to victims of child sexual abuse.”
Arizona has long been a state of firsts. We are the first and only state to elect four women as governor. We were the first to deploy the National Guard to the Border. And we were the first “Red” state to pass a Child Protection Act. While we know we are the first Republican state to do so, we are equally certain that we won’t be the last.
Today, there are some 39 million adults who are survivors of child sex abuse. We know from the evidence that many of them are affected by long-term depression, substance abuse, suicide, higher rates of cancer, and other mental and physical health problems as a result of the trauma they suffered as children. Every day, countless more children are subject to abuse. And in too many states, the predators can still get away with it.
Our goals must be to stop abuse, period, and to protect our children.
The journey to get this bill passed in Arizona teaches a broader lesson as well. We learned that some issues transcend politics. We are proud to have spearheaded the effort to be the first conservative state to pass this law. But we also know, as Goldwater proved in deeds and action, that even in a time of deep political division and mistrust, both parties can and should join together to do what’s right for people. We showed what we can achieve when we put partisanship aside for a moment, listen to our conscience and think about our responsibilities to our constituents.
Goldwater had it right when he said that “nothing prepares the way for tyranny more than the failure of public officials to keep the streets from bullies and marauders.”
We’d only add that nothing is worse than when adults who have the power to make a difference, to take actions to stop child sexual abuse, protect kids and bring justice to those who prey on the innocent, fail to do so.
State Sen. Paul Boyer is from Phoenix and represents Arizona’s twentieth state senate district.
