{"id":111767,"date":"2022-04-13T00:52:39","date_gmt":"2022-04-13T04:52:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=111767"},"modified":"2022-04-13T00:52:39","modified_gmt":"2022-04-13T04:52:39","slug":"senate-passes-crime-victim-protection-package","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=111767","title":{"rendered":"Senate Passes Crime Victim Protection Package"},"content":{"rendered":"

(HARRISBURG)<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0The Pennsylvania Senate, today, passed a package of four bills designed to assist crime victims by providing stronger protections, increasing support, and improving access to services, according to\u00a0Senator Lisa Baker (R-20)<\/a>,\u00a0Senator Ryan\u00a0Aument\u00a0(R-36)<\/a>,\u00a0Senator Kim Ward (R-39)<\/a>,\u00a0Senator Pat Browne (R-16)<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Senator Elder Vogel (R-47)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Senator Lisa Baker (R-20), chair of the\u00a0Senate Judiciary Committee<\/a>, emphasized that protecting children and adult victims of abuse has been a focus of the Judiciary Committee for the last several sessions. The measures advanced by the full Senate this week address some of the pressing needs voiced by many victims and advocates.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn addition to streamlining the process so more victims of domestic violence can benefit from the program,\u00a0Senate Bill 1179<\/a>\u00a0takes a very important step forward in helping to better protect children and victims of human trafficking,\u201d Senator Baker said. \u201cThe need was brought to our attention by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senate Bill 1179 was introduced jointly by Senator Baker and Senator\u00a0Aument. The bill extends the address confidentiality provisions of the \u2018Domestic and Sexual Violence Victim Address Confidentiality Act\u2019, to include the victims of child abduction and the victims of human trafficking.\u00a0\u00a0In addition to the expansion of this coverage, the bill updates the Act to allow for applications for address confidentiality to be submitted electronically.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s already incredibly difficult for victims of sexual and domestic violence to get to a place of safety and freedom,\u201d Senate Majority Caucus Secretary Ryan\u00a0Aument\u00a0said.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cOur bill makes that process simpler so victims can focus on healing and rebuilding their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senate Bill 118<\/a>, sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward, expands Megan\u2019s Law to require offenders convicted of any sex trafficking-related offenses to register.<\/p>\n

\u201cSex trafficking is a significant issue in Pennsylvania as our state ranks 9th in the nation for the most reported cases of human trafficking,\u201d Senator Ward said.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cMost human traffickers are repeat offenders and most use psychological ploys of tricking, defrauding, manipulating, or threatening their victims to the point that many victims don\u2019t realize they are being trafficked,\u00a0in particular minors.\u00a0\u00a0We must serve as advocates for these victims by immediately registering offenders when trafficking incidents are reported. SB 118 does just that by helping victims when they cannot help themselves, by amending Megan\u2019s Law to include sex trafficking of minors to the sex offender registry, offering one more resource to reduce such heinous acts and help victims.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senate Bill 1040<\/a>, sponsored jointly by Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Pat Brown and Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward, seeks to ensure that in the tragic event of a murder, communication with the family of a victim takes place before the law enforcement agency otherwise publicly releases the victim\u2019s or intervenor\u2019s identity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe family of a murder victim should never find out about their loved one\u2019s tragic death from the news or on social media,\u201d Senator Browne said. \u201cThis legislation will require law enforcement to make reasonable efforts to ensure that a surviving family member of the victim is properly notified before releasing their identity to the media. It is my hope that this measure will help to ease some of the shock and pain of grieving families.\u201d<\/p>\n

Expanding access to quality care for victims is also a crucial part of this package. Senate Deputy President Pro-Tempore Elder Vogel introduced\u00a0Senate Bill 1172<\/a>\u00a0to enact the Sexual Assault Emergency Services Act.\u00a0\u00a0This legislation expands access to Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (\u201cSANEs\u201d) to better provide quality care for victims. SANEs have specialized training in trauma and forensic nursing and are vital to a complete care system for survivors of sexual assault.<\/p>\n

\u201cSenate Bill 1172 sets up a critical foundation for the development and augmentation of sexual assault care here in the Commonwealth,\u201d Senator Vogel said.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m gratified to see it join this package of bills empowering victims and survivors of crime.\u201d<\/p>\n

All four bills now advance to the House of Representatives for consideration.<\/p>\n

Information provided to TVL by:
\nMatt Szuchyt
\nDeputy Director of Policy & Communications
\nSenator Pat Browne
\nMajority Appropriations Chairman
\nPA 16th Senatorial District
\nwww.senatorbrowne.com<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(HARRISBURG)\u00a0\u2013\u00a0The Pennsylvania Senate, today, passed a package of four bills designed to assist crime victims by providing stronger protections, increasing support, and improving access to services, according to\u00a0Senator Lisa Baker … Continue reading Senate Passes Crime Victim Protection Package<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108760,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[482],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-release-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/harrisburg.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111767"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=111767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/108760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=111767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=111767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=111767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}