PIERRE, S.D. (AP) - Members of a state committee tasked with examining child sexual abuse in South Dakota said Tuesday that they hope their work over the next five months will shed light on the issue.
Jolene’s Task Force, which was created by the Legislature and is made up of legislators, child sexual abuse experts and other state officials, had its first meeting Tuesday.
“Child abuse exists and child sexual abuse is very much alive in South Dakota,” said Dr. Nancy Free, a child abuse pediatrician and member of the committee.
The committee will meet several more times in the coming months and produce a report for the 2015 Legislature with its findings and any policy recommendations. The task force is named after Jolene Loetscher of Sioux Falls, who was a victim of sexual abuse as a teenager and has talked publicly about her story.
Special Agent Cam Corey, a general crimes investigator that specializes in sexual assault investigations, said he hopes the task force can raise awareness so the public understands the issue is just as common in South Dakota as it is nationwide. An estimated 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys are victims of sexual abuse nationwide.
“People don’t think we have an issue in small-town South Dakota,” Corey said, adding that law enforcement officials are often unfamiliar with the issue as well.
Corey works for the Department of Criminal Investigation and runs a four-hour training session for officers on how to handle sexual assault cases. The 17-year law enforcement veteran said it’s essential officers get more training to know how to handle these sensitive cases.
Corey said law enforcement departments may have only one or two officers who are comfortable with handling child sexual abuse cases. “And they don’t work 24 hours a day,” he added.
Tuesday’s meeting was primarily an overview of how different state departments handle child sexual abuse cases.
In the coming months, the committee will address what policy changes they might recommend to the Legislature and compare South Dakota’s laws on child sexual abuse to those in other states.
Free said addressing child sexual abuse head-on is imperative for South Dakota.
“If we don’t protect our children, we will have chaos. We will have dysfunction breeding dysfunction,” Free said.
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