BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 90
Page 1
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, "�t]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
FN:
0001906