BILL NUMBER: AB 12 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 9, 2011
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Swanson
( Coauthors: Assembly Members
Blumenfield, Dickinson, Halderman,
Jeffries, Bonnie Lowenthal, and Portantino
)
( Coauthor: Senator Fuller
)
DECEMBER 6, 2010
An act to add Section 261.9 to the Penal Code, relating to human
trafficking.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 12, as amended, Swanson. Abolition of Child Commerce,
Exploitation, and Sexual Slavery Act of 2011.
Under existing law, any person who is convicted of pimping or
procuring a minor under the age of 16 for prostitution may be ordered
by a court to pay an additional fine not to exceed $5,000 to be
deposited in the Victim-Witness Assistance Fund to be available for
appropriation to fund child sexual exploitation and child sexual
abuse victim counseling centers and prevention programs, as provided.
This bill would enact the Abolition of Child Commerce,
Exploitation, and Sexual Slavery Act of 2011, and would require that
a person who is convicted of a crime involving substantial
sexual conduct, as defined, with a victim who is under 16 years of
age, or who seeks seeking to procure or
procures procuring the sexual services of a
prostitute, if the prostitute is a minor who is
under 16 18 years of age, be ordered to
pay an additional fine of not to exceed
$25,000 to be deposited in the Victim-Witness
Assistance Fund to be available for appropriation in the same manner
as specified above available upon appropriation by the
Legislature to fund programs and services for commercially sexually
exploited minors in the counties where the underlying offenses are
committed .
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. This act shall be known, and may be cited, as the
Abolition of Child Commerce, Exploitation, and Sexual Slavery Act of
2011 or ACCESS Act of 2011.
SEC. 2. (a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
(1) Sexual slavery of minors through human trafficking is one of
the most sophisticated forms of organized crime in the country and is
now globally recognized as a modern day form of slavery.
(2) Human trafficking and sexual exploitation involve the
recruitment, transportation, and sale of people, primarily women and
children, to work in the sex trade. California has become a major hub
of international and domestic interstate human trafficking.
(3) A United States Department of Justice study estimates that
over 300,000 American children are at risk of being forced into
prostitution. Human trafficking and child sexual exploitation are not
phenomena exclusive to countries outside the United States or to
states other than California. It is a universal crisis that is
occurring in our own backyards and in our city streets in broad
daylight.
(4) Children are not safe from trafficking and exploitation in
California. Some of the children trafficked are as young as four
years old, but many more are only 11 or 12 years of age.
(5) Researchers agree that internationally the median age for the
entrance of girls into prostitution is 14 years of age. In the United
States, the ages vary from state to state, and in California the
average age is about 12 years old.
(6) The business of the trafficking of children would not exist
without the demand for the services of those children by the men and
women who purchase those services on the streets. California needs to
increase the fines against persons who engage children in these
illicit activities.
(b) It is the intent of the Legislature in enacting the Abolition
of Child Commerce, Exploitation, and Sexual Slavery Act of 2011 to
recast the state's laws relating to human trafficking and child sex
slavery to treat the trafficked children as victims, rather than
prostitutes. It is also the intent of the Legislature that the ACCESS
Act of 2011 will ensure that persons funding the illicit activities
of human traffickers and paying for the services of child sex slaves
are treated as severely under the law as an adult engaging in a sex
act with a minor. The predator should be dealt with the same,
regardless of whether that person is paying for the sexual services
of the minor he or she is abusing.
(c) It is the intent of the Legislature that the ACCESS Act of
2011 further these purposes and also ensure that these victimized
children are given access to proper treatment and the resources they
need to be safe from the men and women who exploit them commercially.
SEC. 3. Section 261.9 is added to the Penal Code, to read:
261.9. (a) Any person who is convicted of a crime involving
substantial sexual conduct, as defined by subdivision (b) of Section
1203.066, if the victim is under 16 years of age, shall be ordered by
the court, in addition to any other penalty or fine imposed, to pay
an additional fine of twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000).
(b)
261.9. (a) Any person convicted
of seeking to procure or procuring the sexual services of a
prostitute in violation of subdivision (b) of Section 647, if the
prostitute is under 16 18 years of age,
shall be ordered by the court, in addition to any other penalty or
fine imposed, to pay an additional fine of in
an amount not to exceed twenty-five thousand dollars
($25,000).
(c)
(b) Every fine imposed and collected pursuant to this
section shall be deposited in the Victim-Witness Assistance
Fund to be available for appropriation to fund child sexual
exploitation and child sexual abuse victim counseling centers and
prevention programs pursuant to Section 13837. shall,
upon appropriation by the Legislature, be available to fund programs
and services for commercially sexually exploited minors in the
counties where the underlying offenses are committed.