In just under five weeks, the Missouri Children's Division will have new legal authority to investigate complaints that a child under 14 sexually abused another child.
Nearly three weeks ago, Gov. Jay Nixon signed the bill making that change.
"I think this is a quantum shift in how our society thinks about this issue," Emily van Schenkhof, deputy director of Missouri Kids First, told the News Tribune recently.
Julie Donelon, executive director of the Kansas City-based Metropolitan Organization to Counter Sexual Assaults (MOCSA), added, "In the past, there was no response to these children. And the system didn't have an appropriate way to identify them or to deal with them - or to help their parents work on these behaviors with their children.
"So, I think, this is a critical step in that move forward."
Sen. Jeanie Riddle, R-Mokane, and Rep. Bill Lant, R-Pineville, sponsored bills backing the idea, with Riddle's measure winning final passage.
"Sexual abuse is a devastating experience at any age," Riddle said in a news release after Nixon signed the bill into law. "However, experiencing this at a young age can have crippling effects throughout the child's entire life.
"Children are not capable of dealing with violations of this nature."
Under Missouri's current law, state officials or local law enforcement are authorized to take action on a complaint when the person accused of causing abuse had "care, custody and control over" the victim.
However, that's not the case when two juveniles are involved.
So, Kelly Schultz, director of the state's Office of Child Advocate, told the Senate's Seniors, Families and Children Committee in a letter last March, "Currently there is no standardization in our response to allegations of juveniles with problem sexual behaviors. ...
"If a child sexually harms another child, it is coded as a "non-caretaker referral' by Children's Division and sent to law enforcement, (which) may respond and interview the children.
"However the focus is typically on identifying an adult that may have committed a crime causing the juvenile's sexual behavior."
Schultz said approximately 3½-4 percent of calls each year to the state's Child Abuse and Neglect Hotline "contained allegations of juveniles with problem sexual behaviors."
Van Schenkhof estimated approximately 600 cases each year.
However, both women told lawmakers last spring passing the new law would give the state more accurate statistics - that likely will be higher than the estimates.
After the new law goes into effect Aug. 28, the Children's Division is to immediately tell the appropriate local office about any report received alleging a juvenile with a problem sexual behavior. The local office is to use a "family assessment and services approach" to respond to and investigate the report.
The state's juvenile officers often would get called under the current law, and Missouri's independent Juvenile Justice Association supported and testified for the bill as it went through the Legislature this spring.
"It will finally provide a more consistent response across disciplines when non-caretaker reports are received for sexual behavior," MJJA's executive director, Marcia Hazelhorst, said in an email Friday. "In particular, when reports are received of a young child acting out sexually, there will be a consistent response/intervention from Children's Division.
"It is not appropriate to address these as delinquent behavior, which makes Children's Division the entity most equipped to provide services to the child and family."
If an adult - or a child 14 and over - is accused of the abuse, local law enforcement and juvenile officers have the power to seek charges in the appropriate juvenile or adult court and have the legal system impose punishment.
During the Legislature's debates this spring, some lawmakers worried young children would be branded as criminals by the investigators if the new law went into effect, but supporters said the new law's family assessment and services approach is intended to find ways to treat a problem and heal a family, not create a criminal record.
Over the years, some people - including lawyers and judges - have opposed the idea because children are too young to be aroused by their physical contact.
However, Kids First's van Schenkhof - who has a master's degree in public health - said the law isn't intended to deal with curious children who are "playing doctor."
"Where you start seeing youth with problem sexual behaviors is when you start seeing repetitive behaviors, coercive behaviors, behaviors between juveniles who are not of the same power level," she said, acknowledging - at least at the beginning - the problem may be hard to identify. "You find your child is doing this one time, it's probably not a big deal.
"If it starts to be a pattern that emerges and you cannot redirect them, then you've got a problematic behavior.
"When you see things like coercion or threats, then you've got a problem."
MOCSA's Donelon, who holds a master's degree in social work, said, "I think that the motivation for youth with problematic sexual behaviors is much different from adults - so, it's not about sexual gratification with these children.
"Oftentimes, these children are children who may lack social skills, or who may be socially awkward, and may have been exposed to sexualized material or something of that nature."
Or they may be acting-out because of domestic violence or constant fights among the adults they live with.
That's another reason for the law's family assessment and services approach, supporters said - so families are more willing to work with the state and get the help that's needed.
At some point in the not-too-distant future, Donelon and van Schenkhof both said Missouri will need more mental health professionals trained to work with children.
"Right now, we don't have enough treatment providers with the expertise and the specialization to be working with children and their families in these situations," Donelon said. "I've been in the field for many years, and these children have always been under-identified and overlooked by the system.
"That's why I think Senate Bill 341 is critical in identifying these children, and then, the next step is making sure that we have the mental health services there to provide the support for them and their families."
Van Schenkhof added, parents, lawyers, judges, religious leaders and society in general will have to be educated.
"It is about trying to get on better terms, as a society, about what sexuality looks like," she said, "and how closely that is tied to sexual abuse when you're talking about children.
"And how we want our children to be able to make good decisions, and how we want to keep our children safe from people who want to hurt them," regardless of the age of the person initiating the abuse.