Illinois Compiled Statutes 725 ILCS 203/5 – Legislative findings
Current as of: 2024 | Check for updates
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The General Assembly finds:
(1) Sexual assault and sexual abuse are personal and
(1) Sexual assault and sexual abuse are personal and
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violent crimes that disproportionately impact women, children, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals in Illinois, yet only a small percentage of these crimes are reported, less than one in five, and even fewer result in a conviction.
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(2) The trauma of sexual assault and sexual abuse
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often leads to severe mental, physical, and economic consequences for the victim.
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(3) The diminished ability of victims to recover from
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their sexual assault or sexual abuse has been directly linked to the response of others to their trauma.
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(4) The response of law enforcement can directly
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impact a victim’s ability to heal as well as his or her willingness to actively participate in the investigation by law enforcement.
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(5) Research has shown that a traumatic event impacts
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memory consolidation and encoding. Allowing a victim to complete at least 2 full sleep cycles before an in-depth interview can improve the victim’s ability to provide a history of the sexual assault or sexual abuse.
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(6) Victim participation is critical to the
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successful identification and prosecution of sexual predators. To facilitate victim participation, law enforcement should inform victims of the testing of physical evidence and the results of such testing.
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(7) Identification and successful prosecution of
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sexual predators prevents new victimization. For this reason, improving the response of the criminal justice system to victims of sexual assault and sexual abuse is critical to protecting public safety.
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Terms Used In Illinois Compiled Statutes 725 ILCS 203/5
- Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
- Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.