H.B. 235 78(R)    BILL ANALYSIS


H.B. 235
By: West, George "Buddy"
Criminal Jurisprudence
Committee Report (Unamended)



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

Sex offenders commonly use pornography and obscenity to "groom" children,
thereby peaking the child's interest in sexual activities and
desensitizing them to aggressive sexual solicitation.  There is a well
documented association between child pornography/child obscenity and
sexual offending.  

House Bill 235 creates an offense of intentionally or knowingly displaying
or distributing obscene material to a child younger than 18 years of age.
This new offense is a state jail felony, which would be an enhancement
from the existing obscene display or distribution statute, which is
currently a Class C misdemeanor. This new offense carries an affirmative
defense to prosecution identical to the one found in the sexual assault
statutes. H.B. 235 also makes this new offense applicable under the
habitual offender enhancements and under the list of sex offenses that
require sex offender registration for life.   

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any
additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or
institution. 

ANALYSIS

House Bill 235 amends the Penal Code to make it an offense to
intentionally or knowingly display or distribute obscene material when a
child who is known to be under the age of 18 is present during display or
distribution. 

The bill also repeats the same affirmative defense to prosecution
currently existing in sexual assault statute; that the actor at the time
of offense was the spouse of the victim, or that the victim is 14 years
old or older and the actor at the time was no more than 3 years older than
the victim, and of the opposite sex, and did not use force or threat
against victim, and was not a registered sex offender. 

H.B. 235 makes this new offense applicable under the habitual offender
enhancements in Section 12.42 of the Penal Code, and under the list of sex
offenses that require a sex offender to be registered for life in the Code
of Criminal Procedure.   

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2003.