BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2424|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 2424
Author: Campos (D)
Amended: As introduced
Vote: 21
SENATE PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE : 5-0, 6/17/14
AYES: Hancock, De León, Liu, Mitchell, Steinberg
NO VOTE RECORDED: Anderson, Knight
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 73-0, 5/8/14 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Inducement of prostitution: fines
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill raises the maximum fine for the felony of
abducting or fraudulently inducing a person to engage in
prostitution from $2,000 to $10,000.
ANALYSIS :
Existing law:
1.Provides that prostitution involves any lewd act between
persons for money or other consideration.
2.Defines, under decisional law a "lewd act" as touching the
genitals, buttocks, or female breast of either the prostitute
or customer with some part of the other person's body for the
purpose of sexual arousal or gratification.
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3.Provides that any person who solicits, agrees to engage in, or
engages in an act of prostitution is guilty of a misdemeanor.
The crime includes an element that the defendant specifically
intended to engage in an act of prostitution and some act was
done in furtherance of the agreed upon act.
4.Provides that where any person is convicted for a second
prostitution offense, the person shall serve a term of at
least 45 days, no part of which can be suspended or reduced by
the court regardless of whether or not the court grants
probation. The mandatory jail term is 90 days for a third or
subsequent offense.
5.Provides every person who, within this state, takes any person
against his/her will and without his/her consent, or with
his/her consent procured by fraudulent inducement or
misrepresentation, for the purpose of prostitution, as
defined, is punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for
16 months, two, or three years, and a fine not exceeding
$2,000.
This bill increases the maximum fine for abduction or
procurement by fraudulent inducement for prostitution from
$2,000 to $10,000.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No Local:
No
SUPPORT : (Verified 6/18/14)
California Communities United Institute
California Police Chiefs Association
Peace Officers Research Association of California
OPPOSITION : (Verified 6/18/14)
California Public Defenders Association
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author, human
trafficking is the fastest growing criminal industry in the
world, estimated to be worth $32 billion per year globally.
Each year between 5,000 and at least 60,000 people are
trafficked into the U.S. for forced labor or commercial sexual
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exploitation. In California, there were an average of 12,919
arrests for prostitution and forced prostitution between 2001
and 2010.
Approximately 80% of all trafficking victims are women and
girls. Many are forced into the commercial sex industry. The
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has estimated
approximately 100,000 U.S. children are exploited through
prostitution every year.
Vulnerable children like those who run away from home are far
more likely to be kidnapped and forced into prostitution. As
unwilling participants, the pimps will threaten extreme violence
to the victim or anyone the victim may know. This is the
criminal action of forcing prostitution.
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : The California Public Defenders
Association states:
Although it is a worthy goal to end the sexual exploitation of
individuals who are lured into prostitution by promises of
legitimate employment, most of whom, come from impoverished or
abusive families it should not be funded by impoverishing other
families and children. Doing so merely replicates the cycle of
poverty and abuse.
For the most part, the individuals charged under California's
human trafficking and prostitution statutes are not human
trafficking kingpins or madams, but rather are individuals with
no organized crime ties.
Further, individuals who are convicted of violations of Penal
Code Section 266a are already subject to a mandatory restitution
fine up to $2,000 and restitution to any victims. The
restitution fund fines are subject to penalty assessments.
Penalty assessments have proliferated wildly over the past few
decades, to the point where a typical total fine is now triple
or quadruple the base fine. An inevitable side effect of these
ballooning fines is that fewer and fewer criminal defendants can
afford to pay them. Three quarters of misdemeanor defendants
and 90% of felony defendants are indigent, as indicated by the
fact they are represented by public defenders. When defendants
cannot pay the fine it is unconstitutional to imprison them for
their poverty, so the fine goes uncollected and measures such as
this are virtually dead letters.
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ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 73-0, 5/8/14
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Atkins, Bigelow, Bloom,
Bocanegra, Bonilla, Bonta, Bradford, Brown, Buchanan, Ian
Calderon, Campos, Chau, Chávez, Chesbro, Conway, Cooley,
Dababneh, Dahle, Daly, Dickinson, Donnelly, Fong, Fox,
Frazier, Beth Gaines, Garcia, Gatto, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon,
Gray, Grove, Hagman, Hall, Harkey, Holden, Jones,
Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Linder, Logue, Lowenthal, Maienschein,
Medina, Melendez, Mullin, Muratsuchi, Nazarian, Nestande,
Olsen, Pan, Patterson, Perea, Quirk, Quirk-Silva, Rendon,
Rodriguez, Salas, Skinner, Stone, Ting, Wagner, Waldron,
Weber, Wieckowski, Wilk, Williams, Yamada, John A. Pérez
NO VOTE RECORDED: Eggman, Gorell, Roger Hernández, Mansoor, V.
Manuel Pérez, Ridley-Thomas, Vacancy
JG:e 6/18/14 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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