Rep. D'Amico sponsors new legislation that will help victims of sexual assault.

State Rep. John D’Amico, D-Chicago, announced his support Tuesday of new legislation that will help encourage victims of sexual assault to report incidents and hopefully lead to more prosecutions.

“As a community, we have a responsibility to stand with victims of sexual assault, and currently our justice system is coming up short,” D’Amico said. “We need to make it easier for victims to come forward and report the crimes so law enforcement can successfully prosecute those responsible. Too often, the process of reporting sexual assault is too traumatic for survivors. We don’t want them to relive their attack and so this legislation will take a better approach that will help encourage reporting.”

D’Amico is sponsoring Senate Bill 3096, which reforms the response of law enforcement officers, 911 operators, investigators and others who interact with survivors of sexual assault. The new guidelines will be evidence-based, trauma-informed, victim-centered policies that have been developed by a bi-partisan working group of advocates, law enforcement representatives and prosecutors. The proposal also enforces stricter consequences if law enforcement fails to take possession of submitted DNA evidence in a timely manner, or fails to take a report based upon testimony of a sexual assault victim. The Bureau of Justice Statistics reported that nationally only 34 percent of sexual assault victims reported their assault to law enforcement in 2014.

“Protecting survivors of sexual assault must and always be a top priority,” D’Amico said. “This legislation would benefit those who have already been traumatized by sexual assault, and shouldn’t have to jump through bureaucratic hoops to get justice. The longer it takes to collect and process evidence, the longer a dangerous predator is allowed to walk free in our community.”

For more information about these laws or any state-related issues, please contact D’Amico’s fulltime constituent service office at 773-736-0218 or johnd@ilga.gov.

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