BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                  AB 90
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          CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
          AB 90 (Swanson)
          As Amended  August 16, 2011
          Majority vote
           
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          |ASSEMBLY:  |79-0 |(May 31, 2011)  |SENATE: |36-0 |(August 29,    |
          |           |     |                |        |     |2011)          |
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           Original Committee Reference:    PUB. S.  

           SUMMARY  :  Includes, within the definition of criminal 
          profiteering activity, any crime in which the perpetrator 
          induces, encourages, or persuades, or causes through force, 
          fear, coercion, deceit, violence, duress, menace, or threat of 
          unlawful injury to the victim or to another person, a person 
          under 18 years of age to engage in a commercial sex act, and 
          specifies that the proceeds shall be deposited in a 
          Victim-Witness Fund as specified.

           The Senate amendments  :
           
           1)Remove the expansion of the definition of "human trafficking" 
            as passed by the Assembly. 

          2)Specify that criminal profiteering activity shall include any 
            crime in which the perpetrator induces, encourages, or 
            persuades, or causes through force, fear, coercion, deceit, 
            violence, duress, menace, or threat of unlawful injury to the 
            victim or to another person, a person under 18 years of age to 
            engage in a commercial sex act.  

          3)Specify that the proceeds from any case in which the 
            perpetrator induces, encourages, or persuades, of causes 
            through force, fear, coercion, deceit, violence, duress, 
            menace, or threat of unlawful injury to the victim or to 
            another person, a person under 18 years of age to engage in a 
            commercial sex act, 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.  

          4)Specify that the proceeds shall be deposited in the 
            Victim-Witness Assistance Fund to be available for 








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            appropriation to fund counseling.  Fifty percent of the funds 
            deposited shall be granted to community based organizations.

          5)Clarify that any funds that would have been directed to the 
            general fund under existing law shall continue to be deposited 
            in the general fund.

           EXISTING LAW  :

          1)Provides that any person who deprives or violates the personal 
            liberty of another with the intent to effect or maintain a 
            felony violation of enticement of a minor into prostitution, 
            pimping or pandering, abduction of a minor for the purposes of 
            prostitution, extortion, or to obtain forced labor or 
            services, is guilty of human trafficking.  

          2)States human trafficking of a person over the age of 18 is 
            punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for three, 
            four, or five years.  If the victim of the trafficking was 
            under 18 years of age at the time of the commission of the 
            offense, that offense is punishable by imprisonment in the 
            state prison for four, six, or eight years.  

          3)States unlawful deprivation or violation of the personal 
            liberty of another includes substantial and sustained 
            restriction of another's liberty accomplished through fraud, 
            deceit, coercion, violence, duress, menace, or threat of 
            unlawful injury to the victim or to another person, under 
            circumstances where the person receiving or apprehending the 
            threat reasonably believes that it is likely that the person 
            making the threat would carry it out.  

          4)States any person who solicits or who agrees to engage in or 
            who engages in any act of prostitution is guilty of 
            misdemeanor disorderly conduct.  A person agrees to engage in 
            an act of prostitution when, with specific intent to so 
            engage, he or she manifests an acceptance of an offer or 
            solicitation to so engage, regardless of whether the offer or 
            solicitation was made by a person who also possessed the 
            specific intent to engage in prostitution.  No agreement to 
            engage in an act of prostitution shall constitute a violation 
            of this subdivision unless some act, in addition to the 
            agreement, is done within California in furtherance of the 
            commission of an act of prostitution by the person agreeing to 
            engage in that act.  As used in this subdivision, 








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            "prostitution" includes any lewd act between persons for money 
            or other consideration.  

          5)States any person who, knowing another person is a prostitute, 
            lives or derives support or maintenance in whole or in part 
            from the earnings or proceeds of the person's prostitution, or 
            from money loaned or advanced to or charged against that 
            person by any keeper or manager or inmate of a house or other 
            place where prostitution is practiced or allowed, or who 
            solicits or receives compensation for soliciting for the 
            person, is guilty of pimping, a felony, and shall be 
            punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for three, 
            four, or six years.  

           AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY  , this bill included in the definition 
          of "human trafficking" the conduct of any person who causes, 
          induces, encourages or persuades a minor under the age of 18 to 
          engage in a commercial sex act, as specified, with the intent to 
          effect any of the following:  pimping; pandering, as specified; 
          sexual exploitation of a child; enticement, as specified; using 
          a minor in pornography; extortion; or, solicitation of 
          prostitution.  "Commercial sex act" is defined as any sexual 
          conduct, as specified, on account of which anything of value if 
          given or received from a minor.
           
          FISCAL EFFECT  :  According to the Senate Appropriations 
          Committee, pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8, negligible state costs.

           COMMENTS  :  According to the author, "Ýt]here are an estimated 
          800,000 human beings trafficked for domestic, labor, and sex 
          slavery each year.  The inexpensive price of the victims and the 
          unlikely chance of criminal prosecution make this a lucrative 
          criminal endeavor at this time in history.  Our state cannot 
          stand by and watch hundreds of thousands of young children's 
          lives ruined because some criminals have found trafficking to be 
          more lucrative and safer than dealing drugs.  Our children are 
          not a business commodity for criminals to debate over.  Some of 
          these girls are as young as 4 years old. 

          "As Legislators, we must do everything we can to stop the 
          explosion of slavery on our streets. 

          "AB 90 is a clean and simple fix to this complex area of law.  
          Federal law clearly states that prosecutors do not have to prove 
          force or coercion when a trafficking victim is under the age of 








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          18.  State law is vague regarding force or coercion in a human 
          trafficking offense:  it requires a showing of force, yet it 
          says state law is intended to conform with federal law.  AB 90 
          will clean up this confusion by aligning state human trafficking 
          law with federal law.  Therefore, where a person under 18 is 
          involved, AB 90 will change the standard of proof to a showing 
          that the defendant "caused, induced, encouraged, or persuaded 
          the victim.

          "This important change in the law recognizes the fact that many 
          child victims of trafficking suffer from significant physical 
          and mental health problems, including post-traumatic stress 
          disorder, depression, and trauma bonding, which creates the same 
          kind of confinement as physical coercion. 

          "AB 90 will also allow prosecutors to implement the fines and 
          forfeiture provisions passed in AB 17, providing funding to 
          community based organizations supporting sexually exploited 
          minors." 

          Please see the policy committee analysis for a full discussion 
          of this bill. 


           Analysis Prepared by  :    Gabriel Caswell / PUB. S. / (916) 
          319-3744                                                    


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