Honorable Pete Flores, Chair, Senate Committee on Criminal Justice
FROM:
Jerry McGinty, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
HB1778 by Thompson (Relating to human trafficking, prostitution, and child pornography and to the prosecution of sexual or assaultive offenses or the prosecution of a failure to stop or report those offenses; amending and harmonizing certain statute of limitations provisions; creating a criminal offense; increasing a criminal penalty.), As Engrossed
The bill would expand the conduct constituting the first degree felony offense of trafficking a child or disabled person by excluding from consideration whether the actor was aware the victim was a child or a person with a disability, and would relax eligibility criteria for punishment of the offense with a 25 year minimum sentence to include when only part of the offense conduct was committed in certain locations, and would expand those locations to include certain student pick-up or drop-off zones and a school bus or similar school vehicle.
The bill would expand the conduct constituting the second degree felony offense of solicitation of prostitution to include when the actor does not pay a fee to a person who is or who the actor believes is younger than 18 years of age.
The bill would create the first degree felony offense of continuous promotion of prostitution, committed when a person engages in conduct constituting the offense of promotion of prostitution two or more times in a period thirty or more days in duration.
The bill would expand the conduct constituting the felony offense of possession of child pornography by lowering the quantity threshold for the number of qualifying images and, in the case of first degree felony punishment, by including material depicting certain sexual assault conduct.
The bill would increase the penalty for the second degree felony offense of possession or promotion of child pornography to a first degree felony when the intent of the actor is to promote the material and would establish a fifteen year minimum sentence for the offense in cases when the quantity of images exceeds a certain threshold or when the material depicts certain sexual assault conduct.
The bill would expand the conduct constituting the Class A misdemeanor offense of failure to stop or report aggravated sexual assault of a child to include non-aggravated sexual assault as well as simple assault against persons of any age and would increase the punishment to a third degree felony.
Creating a new offense and expanding the conduct constituting and increasing the penalty for existing offenses may result in additional demands upon state and local correctional resources due to a possible increase in the number of individuals placed under supervision in the community or sentenced to a term of confinement.
In fiscal year 2024, there were 2,443 arrests, 230 placements onto adult community supervision, and 321 individuals admitted into an adult state correctional institution for offenses of trafficking a child or disabled person, solicitation of prostitution, possession or promotion of child pornography, and failure to stop or report aggravated sexual assault of a child.
In fiscal year 2024, there were 85 referrals and 2 individuals admitted into a juvenile state correctional facility for offenses of possession of child pornography and promoting prostitution; no individuals were referred or admitted into a juvenile state correctional facility for the offenses of trafficking a child or disabled person, solicitation of prostitution, or failure to stop or report aggravated sexual assault of a child.
The impact on state correctional populations or on the demand for state correctional resources cannot be determined due to a lack of data to estimate the prevalence of conduct outlined in the bill's provisions that would be subject to criminal penalties.