[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 57 (Wednesday, April 9, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5053-S5054]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             PROTECTING CHILDREN AGAINST CRIME ACT OF 2003

  Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, as you know, April is Child Abuse 
Prevention Month, and this week is National Crime Victims' Rights Week. 
Furthermore, just last week, I joined with my friends and colleagues, 
Senators Lincoln and Shelby, in announcing our creation of a new, 
bipartisan Senate

[[Page S5054]]

Caucus on Missing, Exploited, and Runaway Children. And, just 
yesterday, I introduced the Protecting Children Against Crime Act of 
2003, S.810.
  I thank Senators Grassley, Hutchison, and Shelby for joining me as 
original cosponsors of the Protecting Children Against Crime Act of 
2003. This important legislation would help protect our nation's 
children from the most heinous of criminals--child abductors, child 
pornographers, and others who would exploit or abuse children.
  Every day, our local police and prosecutors are on the front line in 
the fight against the criminals who target children, and they deserve 
recognition for their hard work. However, the data suggest that law 
enforcement is fighting an uphill battle--child victimization remains a 
large, pervasive, and extremely troubling problem in the United States.
  According to the Congressional Research Service, up to one in three 
girls and one in seven boys will be sexually abused in this nation 
before they reach the age of 18. Many child molesters prey upon dozens 
of victims before they are reported to law enforcement. Furthermore, 
some child molesters evade detection for long periods because many 
children never report the abuse. In fact, Bureau of Justice Statistics 
suggests that between 60 percent and 80 percent of child molestations 
and 69 percent of sexual assaults are never reported to the police. Of 
those sexual assaults that are reported, 71 percent of the victims are 
children.
  We also have a long way to go on behalf of missing children. 
According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, in 
2001, 840,279 persons--adults and juveniles--were reported missing and 
entered into the FBI's national crime computer. As many as 725,000 of 
those reported missing were juveniles. On average, 2,000 children per 
day were reported missing to law enforcement in 2001, according to the 
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
  Most missing children are eventually returned safely to their 
parents, but a small group of them are victims of more predatory 
abductors. The average victim of abduction and murder is a ``low risk'' 
11-year-old girl from a middle-class neighborhood with a stable family 
relationship who has initial contact with an abductor within one-
quarter mile of her home--this is according to a report by the U.S. 
Department of Justice and the Washington State Attorney General's 
Office.
  For all of these reasons, it is vitally important that Congress do 
everything in its power to support parents and law enforcement in their 
efforts to protect our nation's most vulnerable citizens. Enacting the 
Protecting Children Against Crime Act of 2003 would be a step in the 
right direction.
  Among its major provisions, this legislation would eliminate the 
statute of limitations, under our federal criminal code, for 
prosecuting certain sex crimes against children and child abduction 
offenses. This provision recognizes that victims of such crimes often 
do not come forward until years after the abuse, out of shame or a fear 
of further humiliation. It is important that a sexual predator still be 
held accountable once a sexual abuse victim courageously chooses to 
come forward.
  In addition, this bill would call for those who produce or distribute 
child pornography to be included in the national sex offender registry. 
As stated by the United States Supreme Court more than two decades ago, 
child pornography ``is intrinsically related to the sexual abuse of 
children.'' Families need to know when a child pornographer moves into 
the neighborhood.
  To assist States in finding their missing and runaway children, our 
bill also would authorize a new, grants-to-States program that 
encourages technology enhancements in the States' Amber Alert 
Communications Plans. Similar language, authored by Congressman Mark 
Foley, already has passed the House of Representatives as part of the 
Child Abduction Prevention Act, H.R. 1104. This language builds on the 
national Amber Alert legislation authored by Senator Hutchison and 
passed by the Senate earlier this year. Under the bill I introduced 
yesterday, this new grant program would be authorized at $5 million per 
year in each of fiscal years 2004 through 2007.
  Finally, our bill would require the National Research Council of the 
National Academy of Sciences to conduct a study for Congress on the 
feasibility of having Internet Service Providers monitor online traffic 
to detect child pornography sites. The study also would examine both 
the extent to which credit cards are used to facilitate the sale of 
online child pornography and options for encouraging greater reporting 
of such illicit transactions to law enforcement officials.
  Our bill would help ensure that our children are protected from the 
most treacherous of criminals. This is a fight we need to win and a 
fight for which we must give our law enforcement officers every tool at 
our disposal. I urge my colleagues to support the enactment of S. 810.

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