Honorable Joe Moody, Chair, House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence
FROM:
Jerry McGinty, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
HB1762 by González, Mary (Relating to the prosecution of the criminal offense of indecency with a child.), As Introduced
The bill would modify the criminal offense of indecency with a child to remove from the requirements that must be met to establish an affirmative defense to prosecution that the actor be of the opposite sex.
Exempting certain individuals from the applicability of an existing criminal offense may result in a decrease in demands upon state and local correctional resources due to a possible decrease in the number of individuals placed under supervision in the community or sentenced to a term of confinement.
In fiscal year 2022, there were 131 individuals arrested, 75 individuals placed on adult community supervision, 80 individuals admitted into an adult state correctional institution, 427 individuals placed on juvenile probation supervision, and 20 individuals admitted into a juvenile state correctional institution for the offense of indecency with a child before the actor reached the age of 20.
While the impact on juvenile state correctional populations cannot be determined due to the lack of data to identify the sex and age of the child, it is assumed that any impact on state correctional populations or on the demand for state correctional resources would not be significant.