Lawmakers are closer than ever to criminalizing marital rape, sexual abuse in West Virginia

West Virginia lawmakers are closer than ever to criminalizing marital rape and sexual abuse, as a bill that would remove that exemption from the current law is up for final passage in the House of Delegates on Friday.

“The fact that marriage still serves as a defense to sexual assaults or the definition of sexual contact, which we use in our sexual abuse statutes, is something whose time has passed,” said Sen. Charles Trump, R-Morgan, a co-sponsor of the bill.

SB 190 would eliminate the “is not married to” clause from the current law which has, for decades, exempted spouses from being criminalized for raping, assaulting, or abusing their partners.

Last year, an identical bill sponsored by Sen. Ryan Weld, R-Brooke didn’t get much traction. Trump made an effort to amend the language into a different bill , but the amendment failed in the final days of the session.

This year, he feels more hopeful as SB 190 passed the Senate 22-9, and is on the House floor. Another House bill — which would establish a “Women’s Bill of Rights” — was also amended to close the marital rape loophole , but that bill has not been taken up by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Janet Kawash is the director of the West Virginia Crime Victims Compensation Fund , a governmental agency that provides financial support to victims of crimes. She said that, while her agency would not be directly affected if SB 190 were to be made into law, it could motivate more people to come forward.

“With victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, there is possibly a reluctance to come forward and get law enforcement involved,” she said. “This bill would, I think, possibly encourage people to step forward and seek assistance.”

Measuring domestic violence in West Virginia

Between 10-14% of women have been raped by their spouses in the U.S, according to data from the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence, and nearly a third of American men experience physical violence, sexual violence or stalking from an intimate partner, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention .

In West Virginia, 7.4% of sexual assaults are allegedly perpetrated by an intimate partner, according to the West Virginia Foundation for Rape and Services .

Earlier this session, lawmakers considered eliminating the group tasked with studying domestic violence deaths in the state: the West Virginia Fatality and Mortality Review Team .

Mortality review boards or teams collect data in order to identify the responses to domestic violence cases and the response from law enforcement and other agencies, according to the National Library of Medicine .

Without a review board, there would be no way to determine if there is a need for specific resources that not only are beneficial to victims and survivors, but to the state agencies that aim to save lives.

But HB 4874 was amended to retain the Fatality and Mortality Review Team, which examines domestic violence deaths as well the deaths of children, infants and women who die in childbirth. The bill has passed both the House and Senate and is awaiting the Governor’s signature.

Joyce Yedlosky, team coordinator for the West Virginia Coalition Against Domestic Violence, said her organization relies heavily on the reports from the panel. She was worried about the original version of the bill, but said the changes retain the main purpose of the team.“This may impact the process for the review, but we do recognize that DV is a critical health issue, so that move does not seem to impact the focus of reviewing the deaths,” she said in an email.

Lawmakers are closer than ever to criminalizing marital rape, sexual abuse in West Virginia appeared first on Mountain State Spotlight , West Virginia's civic newsroom.