Victims' rights groups are praising a new bill allowing expert witnesses to testify for the prosecution in sexual assault cases in Pennsylvania.

Sponsors said the legislation would allow expert witnesses to help victims at trial by describing for jurors the dynamics of sexual violence and -- for example -- offer possible explanations for why a victim did not immediately report the attack to police or go to a hospital.

Legislators have been trying to make the bill to the governor's desk for six years, and Gov. Tom Corbett signed it into law last week.


Proponents said the measure approved last month by the Legislature without debate would end what they call the commonwealth's stigma as the only state without such a law.

Erika Jugan, who has been with Victim Services in Johnstown, said the bill will help juries make decisions in sexual assault cases by bringing in an expert to discuss what victims really go through.


"It's going to help us by benefiting our victims. That's always No. 1 in our hearts and in our minds," Jugan said. "When the jury doesn't understand that it's normal to wait ten year's it's normal to send that person a Father's Day card or still interact with them, it's hard for them to make an informed decision."


Jugan said often it's the victim's word against the alleged offender's word. But with the recent Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal making national headlines, she believes that help push the legislation forward.

"I think hearing the experts testifying not in court but in the news or on TV in general about what sexual abuse victims go through it may have really opened the eyes of those legislators," she said.

Rep. Cherelle Parker of Philadelphia, who was behind the legislation, said in a recent news release, "We needed to move forward and provide victims with the help they need to bring their perpetrators to justice and move on with their lives."


Corbett said at last Tuesday's ceremonial signing at the Harrisburg YMCA's Violence Intervention Prevention Program center that "the law needs truth, but it also needs context."


The law goes into effect Aug. 28.