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HARTFORD — State Rep. Liz Linehan, D-Cheshire, has proposed legislation aimed at preventing child sexual abuse for each of her eight years as a lawmaker, but the four bills she’s put forth this session might be the most ambitious.
“I think everyone you talk to wants to end child sex abuse, but the problem is doing so is really hard work,” Linehan told CT Examiner. “I’ve really made it my mission that this is how I want to go down in history, as actually being able to save some lives through ending child sexual abuse whether through prevention or — what I’d really like to see — strengthening punishments.”
Linehan believes child sexual abuse is still underreported and not sufficiently prioritized because it’s an uncomfortable topic.
According to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, one in nine girls and one in 20 boys 17 years of age or younger have experienced sexual abuse or assault.
This year, Linehan is the lead sponsor of four separate bills that would require the Department of Children and Families commissioner to conduct a survey on child sex abuse to determine whether procedural changes are needed; require the Department of Public Health to continue its survey of high school students — and now, school administrators — on the topic of child sex abuse; establish a task force to study the responsiveness of state agencies to issues of child sexual abuse; and substitute language in the state statute referencing “child pornography” to instead say “child sexual abuse material.”
The measures — which Linehan said might be combined into a single bill before the session ends early next month — have all passed through the Children’s Committee. They still must be discussed and voted on in both chambers and then signed by Gov. Ned Lamont.
The impetus for several of the bills, Linehan said, relates to the arrest this year of 63-year-old Bristol resident Roger Barriault, who was charged with first-degree sexual assault and risk of injury to a minor. Police said Barriault, the girl’s legal guardian, raped her daily for nearly a decade when she was a child until she was 20 years old, impregnated her, and assaulted her thousands of times.
“The task force is to study the responsiveness of state agencies regarding child sexual abuse and comes out of that unfortunate incident in Bristol,” Linehan said. “There are multiple agencies within state government who, at some point during their work, may come across child sexual abuse. … That would be judicial, that would be DCF, the Department of Education, the Department of Social Services, the Department of Developmental Services, and probate. We need to get all of these groups together and start looking at cohesive investigative issues and if there is any need for a state policy across the board regarding child sex abuse issues. … Is there an adequate response when child safety is in question?”
If the bill passes, the task force would have 22 members, including Linehan, and various stakeholders including DCF, the Office of the Child Advocate, the Office of the Chief Public Defender, and someone from Probate Court. The task force would have to submit its report no later than Jan. 1.
Regarding the sexual abuse and assault survey, Linehan hopes the results will show school officials and administrators where additional resources need to be placed.
“Do they have enough resources?” she asked. “Do they have enough training to know how to recognize adult sexual misconduct towards children?”
Linehan, a mother of three, said changing the wording in the state statute from “child pornography” to “child sexual abuse material” might not seem like a big deal, but insisted it’s vital.
“It’s important to get away from the term child pornography,” Linehan said. “Pornography, unfortunately, has become almost synonymous with entertainment, and there are willing participants in pornography. There are not willing participants in child sexual abuse. … There is a national movement to do this. If our statutes don’t call it out as sex abuse, child sex abuse, then how are we going to expect anyone else to take it seriously?”
The bills appear to have bipartisan support, including from State Rep. Greg Howard, R-Stonington.
“A lot of times, depending on when the abuse starts, they [victims] don’t even realize that it’s wrong,” said Howard, a longtime detective with the Stonington Police Department. “It’s also troubling to me the number of people who end up with mental health issues and/or drug addiction or substance abuse problems as a result of them being abused as a child. I think that’s certainly something that is underreported. … It is imperative that the work we do up here has a profound effect going into the future.”
Connecticut Child Advocate Sarah Eagan told CT Examiner that the child sexual assault prevention bills sponsored by Linehan “are all the building blocks of a comprehensive child sexual abuse prevention system.”
Eagan said fighting child sex abuse takes a longtime commitment by all stakeholders.
“Combatting and preventing child sex abuse is not a one-year initiative,” she said. “Child sexual abuse is a major part of many children’s life experience. People don’t want to believe it, yet every bit of data and research we have nationwide tells us that is true.”
The East Hartford-based Connecticut Alliance to End Sexual Violence is a statewide alliance of individual sexual assault crisis programs. The group has an annual budget of about $9 million and served nearly 7,000 victims and survivors in fiscal year 2022.
The alliance’s executive director, Beth Hamilton, told CT Examiner this week that there must be tough conversations between stakeholders and state agencies that care for children.
“The proposed task force will require state agencies to come together and will also look at the responsiveness of those state agencies,” Hamilton said. “That is going to require us to have some really difficult conversations, like are there places that folks are not getting the accountability that they need and where are folks falling through the cracks. We need to make our state a better place at responding to sexual abuse of children.”
Hamilton believes Connecticut is ahead of the curve compared to other states on issues like prevention, particularly around college campuses. However, she added, the state lags when it comes to a better sexual education curriculum for all grades.
“One area where states are doing better than us is that they have health-based sexuality curriculum in classrooms, including things like sexual violence prevention,” Hamilton said. “As far as I am concerned, conversations about healthy sexuality should start at age zero and go until we die.”