If you are in danger right now, call your local emergency number. Escrow is not an emergency service.
Is it too late to report in Philadelphia?
Probably not.
What we have read for Philadelphia says a report is accepted long after the day it happened. The full wording is below, with the source. Years late is still a report.
Checked against official sources on 31 August 2026.
the deadline in Philadelphia, quoted in full
If you were 18 or older at the time, Pennsylvania generally requires prosecution to begin within 12 years. That covers felony sexual offences such as rape or statutory sexual assault, under 42 Pa. Cons. Stat. Section 5552. If you were under 18 at the time, there is no time limit to prosecute.
We quote this rather than shorten it. A shortened deadline is a wrong deadline, and this is the sentence a lawyer would want to read.
2 different clocks
The exam window runs in hours. The deadline runs in years.
the exam window in Philadelphia
Pennsylvania hospitals generally provide a forensic medical exam within 120 hours of an assault. The exam and any medications given are always free of charge, whether billed to insurance or the state's Victims Compensation Assistance Program. You should never receive a bill for these services.
This is the clock that runs out fast. You can be examined without deciding whether to go to the police.
the limitation period
This is the deadline for the case itself — how long the law gives before a prosecution can no longer be brought. It is usually many years for rape, and often longer or unlimited when the survivor was a child.
Missing the exam window does not mean the limitation period has passed. They are separate clocks.
where to report in Philadelphia
Call 911, or the Philadelphia Police Department's Special Victims Unit on 215-685-3251, which answers 24 hours a day. You can also go to the Philadelphia Sexual Assault Response Center at 300 E. Hunting Park Ave. There Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners care for you, whether or not you involve the police. The centre shares a building with the Special Victims Unit but keeps its own private space. WOAR can send an advocate to be with you.
if the deadline has passed
A closed case is not the same as no record.
If the period above has run out where you are, a prosecution may no longer be possible. That is the plain truth and we will not dress it up. 3 things are still open to you.
a timestamped report
What you write here is dated and kept. Years later, a record that existed before anyone asked for it carries weight a memory does not.
a sealed report that can match
Seal it against an identifier — a profile link, a phone, a workplace. Nobody sees it until someone else names the same person. Their case may still be inside the deadline.
a pin on the map
Publish it and the next person searching Philadelphia can see it. He stays an alias unless a court, the police or the press have already published his name.
Many countries also treat the clock differently when the survivor was a child, when the offence is ongoing, or when new evidence appears. A support organisation in this list can tell you whether that applies to you.
who can tell you today
People in Philadelphia who do this every day.
These are independent of Escrow. They know how the deadline is read in practice where you are, and they can also just talk.
WOAR - Philadelphia Center Against Sexual Violence Hotline
National Sexual Assault Hotline (RAINN)
sources
The deadline above came from one of these.
- Philadelphia Sexual Assault Response Center
City of Philadelphia, Department of Public Health · checked 31 August 2026
- WOAR Contact Information
WOAR - Philadelphia Center Against Sexual Violence · checked 31 August 2026
- What To Do If You Are Sexually Assaulted
WOAR - Philadelphia Center Against Sexual Violence · checked 31 August 2026
- Medical
Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape (PCAR) · checked 31 August 2026
- 42 Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes Section 5552
Justia (Pennsylvania statute text) · checked 31 August 2026
other places
The deadline somewhere else.
If you were somewhere else in the United States, read the deadline for the United States. It covers the towns we have not written up yet.
- Is it too late in Atlanta?
- Is it too late in Boston?
- Is it too late in Chicago?
- Is it too late in Denver?
- Is it too late in Houston?
- Is it too late in Los Angeles?
- Is it too late in Miami?
- Is it too late in New York City?
- Is it too late in Australia?
- Is it too late in Bangladesh?
- Is it too late in Brazil?
- Is it too late in Canada?
- Is it too late in Colombia?
- Is it too late in Egypt?
- Is it too late in India?
- Is it too late in Indonesia?
This is information, not legal advice.
Nobody here is your lawyer. The deadline above is quoted from a source we read, and the date we read it is beside it. Laws change, and an office may read a deadline differently from the statute. For your own case, ask a lawyer or a support organisation in Philadelphia.
If something here is out of date, write to hello@escrow.nanocorp.app and we will check it and say when we did.
when you are ready
There is no deadline for writing it down here. A report on Escrow can be made years afterwards, and nothing happens until you say so.
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