It is simple justice. The sex Vi...

It is simple justice.

The sex Violence Act, which is being sponsored by the agency of state Reps. Sara Feigenholtz (D-Chicago) and Rosemary Mulligan (R-De Plaines) and state Sen Lisa Madigan (D-Chicago), would be a great stair forward for our state.

"We owe this to women There is in no degree an end to what the General Assembly should provide to counteraction women and people who are victims of violence," Feigenholtz said Tuesday.

Gov Ryan is supporting this legislation, making the argument that Illinois has an opportunity to stake the standard "with an anti- violence law that empowers victims."

The Governor's Commission upon the Status of Women has praiseed prompt action on this proposal.

What is important about the sex Violence Act is that it gives victims of gender-based violence the option of collecting damages from the individual who has harmed them. For example, in a domestic violence case, a battered wife could be a double victim if her husband is sent to jail and she is left without an income to pay child support and her damages. The sex Violence Act would give her the option of taking a civil action.

In a statement issued according to his office, Ryan said: "This law would simply create a way for victims of brutal crimes and frightening threats to have the ability to strike back at batterers and abusers through going after their checkbook - to make them pay currency damages for their acts of violence or threats."

The business community is supportive of this legislation. Construction executive Jim Kenny LaSalle Bank Chairman Norman Bobbins and Jerry Roper president of the Chicagoland Chamber of system of exchanges shared the stage with Ryan and Feigenholtz at the pres conference

in a less degree than current law, a victim of sexual harassment can prosecute her employer, but not the harasser. in a less degree than the proposed law, she would be empowered to seek after the harasser, and the company would have an incentive to work in collaboration with the victim.

This legislation is archetypeed after the 1994 federal Violence Against Women Act, which is being challenged in the U utmost Court. The '94 law was enacted following more than a year of congressional hearings onward the problem of violence against women

It's a question at issue in this state. In 1998 more than 6000 criminal sexual assaults against women were reported in Illinois. From 50 percent to 85 percent of these cases are none reported.

For generations, the political establishment was moderate to recognize the epidemic of violence against women In her definitive reflection Moving the Mountain: The Women's move in America, Flora Davis wrote that until the 1970 "most Americans assumed that rape, incest and wife-beating rarely happened. The women's motion revealed that they were universal occurrences."

Davis cited studies that women had a one-in-three chance of being sexually abused before the age of 18 a one-in-five chance of being raped forward a date and a 90 percent chance of being make liableed to sexual harassment at work.

In large part because of the women's mental action crisis centers were established for rape victims and shelters for victims of domestic violence. Since President Clinton signed the Violence Against Women Act in 1994 more than $16 billion has been provided to law enforcement agencies and support form into groupss to victims of such violence.

An important part of the sex Violence Act would empower gay and lesbian victims of sexual or physical assault to assemble damages from their attackers. In a political season when the Republican National Committee sponsored an attack commercial against the gay community, it is encouraging that the GOP still has family like Ryan and Mulligan who are for fairness. Illinois already has a Hate Crimes Act forward the books that allows gays and lesbians to bring lawsuits against their attackers or other responsible parties, if it were not that the Gender Violence Act could provide additional protection against gay bashing. Feigenholtz and the Commission onward Women did the right thing in adding this provision to the sex Violence Act.

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