Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 7, No. 2, 2008, Page 41
Book Reviews
Justice Denied, What America Must Do to Protect Its Children
Marci A. Hamilton, Cambridge University Press. 2008. ISBN-10: 052188621X
ISBN-13: 978-0521886215 (hardback), $23 ($15.41 Amazon.com). 200 pages.
Marci A. Hamilton is one of the United States‘ leading church-state scholars, as well as an
expert on federalism and representation. She is a former clerk to Justice Sandra Day
O‘Connor. Hamilton is a Visiting Professor of Public Affairs program at the Woodrow Wilson
School and the Kathleen and Martin Crane Senior Research Fellow in the Law and Public
Affairs at Princeton University. She holds the Paul R. Verkuil Chair in Public Law at the
Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University. Hamilton is the author of the
award-winning book, God vs. the Gavel: Religion and the Rule of Law, and is a columnist on
constitutional issues for www.FindLaw.com.
In her new book, Justice Denied, What America Must Do to Protect Its Children, Hamilton
makes a strong and solid argument for ending the statute of limitations (SOLs) for childhood
sexual abuse across the United States and in all circumstances. Using language geared to
the nonlegal scholar, Justice Denied is a comprehensive tutorial into the complex legal maze
that affects the issue of child sexual abuse. It is a book every child advocate will want to
read and refer to.
Hamilton explains that SOLs are procedural timing rules that determine when one can go to
court and when SOLs expire, she says, the effect is one of ―locking the courthouse doors
and throwing away the keys.‖
In calling her book a ―how-to‖ on stopping child sex abuse, Hamilton begins by explaining
how SOLs routinely protect sex offenders, allowing them to go on to find new victims. At the
other end of the spectrum, she says SOLs compound the harm done to survivors of sexual
abuse by not giving them the justice they need and deserve.
Hamilton says there is a drive to treat childhood sexual abuse as an idiosyncratic or isolated
problem rather than the serious and massive national problem that it is. She points to the
Catholic Church‘s clergy scandal and how it was first minimized and said to be ―peculiar to
Boston‖ with its ―cultural liberalism.‖ In fact, as she reminds us, childhood sexual abuse
within the Church was found to be nationwide.
In revisiting clergy abuse, Hamilton says there is hardly an institution that has not
consciously favored its own interests over the child‘s, and that institutions must be coerced
to protect children‘s interests. In case examples, she shows how the instinct to cover up is
strong in both public and private institutions. The law must change, she states, so that it is
in the institution‘s best interest to turn in abusers.
Calling it ―morally reprehensible,‖ Hamilton explains that the United States‘ legal system
has structured itself in a way that systematically subverts the interests of children, ignoring
and suppressing the needs of the millions of childhood sexual abuse victims over the
interests of predators.
She outlines how the states must go about abolishing SOLs and what the federal
government must do, as well. By making the child the priority, she insists, these measures
would accommodate the needs of survivors, identify child predators in our midst, allow
more survivors to come forward, and deter institutions from hiding sexual abuse.
Hamilton takes aim at the insurance industry and the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic
Church as barriers to eliminating SOLs for their battling against child sex-abuse legislative
reform. Other entities she names as also creating barriers are teachers‘ unions, defense
attorneys (including civil-liberties groups), and an uninformed public.
Book Reviews
Justice Denied, What America Must Do to Protect Its Children
Marci A. Hamilton, Cambridge University Press. 2008. ISBN-10: 052188621X
ISBN-13: 978-0521886215 (hardback), $23 ($15.41 Amazon.com). 200 pages.
Marci A. Hamilton is one of the United States‘ leading church-state scholars, as well as an
expert on federalism and representation. She is a former clerk to Justice Sandra Day
O‘Connor. Hamilton is a Visiting Professor of Public Affairs program at the Woodrow Wilson
School and the Kathleen and Martin Crane Senior Research Fellow in the Law and Public
Affairs at Princeton University. She holds the Paul R. Verkuil Chair in Public Law at the
Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University. Hamilton is the author of the
award-winning book, God vs. the Gavel: Religion and the Rule of Law, and is a columnist on
constitutional issues for www.FindLaw.com.
In her new book, Justice Denied, What America Must Do to Protect Its Children, Hamilton
makes a strong and solid argument for ending the statute of limitations (SOLs) for childhood
sexual abuse across the United States and in all circumstances. Using language geared to
the nonlegal scholar, Justice Denied is a comprehensive tutorial into the complex legal maze
that affects the issue of child sexual abuse. It is a book every child advocate will want to
read and refer to.
Hamilton explains that SOLs are procedural timing rules that determine when one can go to
court and when SOLs expire, she says, the effect is one of ―locking the courthouse doors
and throwing away the keys.‖
In calling her book a ―how-to‖ on stopping child sex abuse, Hamilton begins by explaining
how SOLs routinely protect sex offenders, allowing them to go on to find new victims. At the
other end of the spectrum, she says SOLs compound the harm done to survivors of sexual
abuse by not giving them the justice they need and deserve.
Hamilton says there is a drive to treat childhood sexual abuse as an idiosyncratic or isolated
problem rather than the serious and massive national problem that it is. She points to the
Catholic Church‘s clergy scandal and how it was first minimized and said to be ―peculiar to
Boston‖ with its ―cultural liberalism.‖ In fact, as she reminds us, childhood sexual abuse
within the Church was found to be nationwide.
In revisiting clergy abuse, Hamilton says there is hardly an institution that has not
consciously favored its own interests over the child‘s, and that institutions must be coerced
to protect children‘s interests. In case examples, she shows how the instinct to cover up is
strong in both public and private institutions. The law must change, she states, so that it is
in the institution‘s best interest to turn in abusers.
Calling it ―morally reprehensible,‖ Hamilton explains that the United States‘ legal system
has structured itself in a way that systematically subverts the interests of children, ignoring
and suppressing the needs of the millions of childhood sexual abuse victims over the
interests of predators.
She outlines how the states must go about abolishing SOLs and what the federal
government must do, as well. By making the child the priority, she insists, these measures
would accommodate the needs of survivors, identify child predators in our midst, allow
more survivors to come forward, and deter institutions from hiding sexual abuse.
Hamilton takes aim at the insurance industry and the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic
Church as barriers to eliminating SOLs for their battling against child sex-abuse legislative
reform. Other entities she names as also creating barriers are teachers‘ unions, defense
attorneys (including civil-liberties groups), and an uninformed public.
