Assemblyman Pat Burke (D-Buffalo) announced that he introduced and passed legislation allowing more child victims to receive compensation from the state Office of Victim Services (OVS) for costs such as mental health counseling (A.7051).

“Child victims have already been through far too much, going through unimaginable situations at young ages,” Burke said. “Providing proper compensation for victims to receive counseling or travel to court appearances where they have to relive their trauma is the least we can do. The families of young victims shouldn’t be forced to shell out for support or justice.”

Burke’s bill expands the definition of “child victim” to include children who are victims of or witness to certain violations. Under current law, child victims must be a victim or witness to a misdemeanor or felony to receive compensation from OVS.

Additionally, the bill allows awards from OVS, if no physical injury occurred, to be used to cover:

• unreimbursed cost of repair or replacement of essential personal property that was damaged, destroyed or lost as a direct result of a crime;
• transportation expenses incurred for necessary court appearances; and
• unreimbursed cost of mental health counseling if counseling began within one year of the incident or discovery.

Burke’s bill is part of a legislative package passed by the Assembly expanding support and protections for victims of crimes such as domestic violence, human trafficking and rape. The package includes measures to:

• exempt those convicted of a prostitution offense, or who are identified as victims of human trafficking, from having to provide DNA to be included in the state database if the offense was a result of being a victim of trafficking (A.459-A);
• make domestic partners of homicide victims eligible for crime victims’ compensation and expands benefits to include out-of-pocket expenses (A.2566);
• allow courts to direct all or a portion of antitrust fines to OVS (A.4054);
• protect the right of crime victims or tenants to report criminal acts, including acts of domestic violence, without fear of losing their housing as the result of landlord actions or local nuisance laws (A.2665-A);
• remove the penetration requirement from the definition of rape (A.794-B);
• and expand eligibility for an award from OVS to victims of unlawful surveillance and dissemination of an unlawful surveillance (A.7079).

“We have to make sure our laws help rather than harm,” Burke said. “It all comes down to giving victims every ounce of support they need and not having them re-victimized by antiquated and unjust legislation.”

Burke has long been an advocate for the rights of child victims. Earlier this year, he co-sponsored the Child Victims Act, which allows adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse to seek justice in court (Ch. 11 of 2019). The law amends the criminal procedure law to extend the statute of limitations and allow criminal cases to begin until the victim turns 28 years old for felonies and 25 for misdemeanors. The law also allows a one-year window during which adult survivors can revive cases and pushes back the statute of limitations to permit civil actions until the victim is 55 years old. As an Erie Country legislator, Burke was the first elected official in Western New York to call on Bishop Richard J. Malone to resign after accounts and accusations of sexual abuse in the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo.^{[1]
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[1] spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/buffalo/news/2018/08/24/patrick-burke-bishop-malone-buffalo