Illinois § 5

§ 5.

Legislative findings. The General Assembly finds: (1) Sexual assault and sexual abuse are personal and 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. (2) The trauma of sexual assault and sexual abuse often leads to severe mental, physical, and economic consequences for the victim. (3) The diminished ability of victims to recover from their sexual assault or sexual abuse has been directly linked to the response of others to their trauma. (4) The response of law enforcement can directly impact a victim's ability to heal as well as his or her willingness to actively participate in the investigation by law enforcement. (5) Research has shown that a traumatic event impacts 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. (6) Victim participation is critical to the 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. (7) Identification and successful prosecution of 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. (Source: P.A. 99-801, eff. 1-1-17.)