BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1771
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Date of Hearing: May 18, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Lorena Gonzalez, Chair
AB
1771 (O'Donnell) - As Amended March 29, 2016
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: YesReimbursable:
No
SUMMARY:
This bill increases the punishment for supervising or aiding a
prostitute from up to 6 months in the county jail to up to a
year in the county jail, and adds additional circumstances that
AB 1771
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can be considered in determining whether someone is guilty of a
violation of supervising or aiding a prostitute.
Committee is proposing amendments to exempt from this section of
law minors who supervise or aid due to coercion or duress, as
defined.
FISCAL EFFECT:
Moderate nonreimbursable costs to cities and counties for
enforcement, offset to some extent by fine revenues.
COMMENTS:
1)Background. Current law provides that a person may not
direct, supervise, recruit, or otherwise aid another person in
the commission of a violation of specified prostitution
offenses. Additionally, a person may not collect or receive
all or part of the proceeds earned from an act or acts of
prostitution committed by another person. Violation of these
provisions is a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in
the county jail.
Pimping/Pandering: Pimping and pandering are felonies and may
be punished by three, four, or six years in state prison (or
three, six, or eight years if the prostitute was under 16).
Aiding a prostitute is only a misdemeanor and may be punished
by six months in the county jail and/or a fine of no more than
one thousand dollars ($1,000). Pimping is defined as either
soliciting prostitution by finding a john for a prostitute and
collecting a fee from the john or some of the prostitute's
pay, or collecting some or all of a prostitute's pay even if
you played no part in finding the john.
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The California 6th District Court of Appeal has held that a
person is guilty of supervising or otherwise aiding a
prostitute only if the person who was recruited actually
starts working as a prostitute or loitering for prostitution.
To be convicted of pimping, you have to have helped find
customers for a prostitute and received some money for your
role in the transaction. But you can be convicted of aiding a
prostitute even if you did not find the john or arrange the
transaction, and even if you receive no money for your role.
2)Purpose. According to the author, "Criminal street gangs have
been continually evolving new methods to fund gang activities
for decades. In recent years, they have increasingly migrated
to commercial sexual exploitation as a new source of illicit
income. These criminals view human trafficking as a more
profitable and lower risk enterprise than drug or weapons
trafficking. While a trafficker must invest additional
resources each time he wants to sell a gun or drugs, he can
sell a single person over and over again. "AB 1771 gives
discretion to judges to impose a longer sentence when
justified.
3)Support: According to the Long Beach City Prosecutor, "In
2010, prostitution was reportedly the second largest source of
income for gangs in San Diego, California. There is every
reason to believe this trend exists in other parts of our
state. Although gang members are increasingly becoming
involved in prostitution and sex trafficking it is not always
possible to prosecute them with felony charges.
"Unfortunately, in many cases the victim (who is detained for
suspicion of prostitution) will not cooperate with law
enforcement due to fear of her pimp, leaving misdemeanor
'supervising a prostitute' [PC 653.23] as the only viable
charging option for prosecutors. Incredibly, violation of
this section is only a misdemeanor with a cap of six months in
the county jail.
4)Opposition: According to the California Public Defenders
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Association, " AB 1771 would add to the list of circumstances
that may be considered in determining if someone is
supervising, directing or supervising a prostitute repeatedly
speaking or communicating with the working prostitute or
watching the working prostitute.
"Our objection to AB 1771 is that it is overbroad and would
further criminalize street prostitutes, many of whom are
vulnerable runaways, victims of domestic violence or substance
abusers."
Analysis Prepared by:Pedro Reyes / APPR. / (916)
319-2081