Cite as: 539 U. S. 607 (2003)
Kennedy, J., dissenting
In contrast to the designation of the crime, which carries a certain measure of social opprobrium and presupposes a certain punishment, the statute of limitations has little or no deterrent effect. See Note, Retroactive Application of Legislatively Enlarged Statutes of Limitations for Child Abuse: Time's No Bar to Revival, 22 Ind. L. Rev. 989, 1014 (1989) ("The statute of limitations has no measurable impact on allegedly criminal behavior, neither encouraging nor deterring such conduct"); Note, Ex Post Facto Limitations on Legislative Power, 73 Mich. L. Rev. 1491, 1513 (1975) ("[W]hile many defendants rely on substantive definitions of proscribed conduct, few rely on many of the numerous laws regulating the enforcement processes"). The Court does not claim a sex offender would desist if he knew he would be liable to prosecution when his offenses were disclosed.
The law's approach to the analogous problem of reliance by wrongdoers in the civil sphere is instructive. We have held that expired statutes of limitations can be repealed to revive a civil action. See, e. g., Chase Securities Corp., 325 U. S., at 314; Plaut v. Sprendthrift Farm, Inc., 514 U. S. 211, 229 (1995). These holdings were made in the areas of contracts and investments where reliance does exist and does matter. We allow the civil wrong to be vindicated nonetheless. If we do so in the civil sphere where reliance is real, we should do so in the criminal sphere where it is, for the most part, a fictional construct.
When a child molester commits his offense, he is well aware the harm will plague the victim for a lifetime. See Briere & Runtz, Post Sexual Abuse Trauma: Data and Implications for Clinical Practice, 2 J. of Interpersonal Violence 367, 374-376 (1987); 1 J. Myers, Evidence in Child Abuse and Neglect Cases § 4.2, pp. 221-223 (2d ed. 1992); Browne & Finkelhor, Initial and Long-Term Effects: A Review of the Research, in A Sourcebook on Child Sexual Abuse 143, 150- 164 (D. Finkelhor et al. eds. 1986). The victims whose interests § 803(g) takes into consideration have been subjected to
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