BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1505
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Date of Hearing: May 14, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Mike Gatto, Chair
AB 1505 (Garcia) - As Amended: April 24, 2014
Policy Committee: Public
SafetyVote: 4-2
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill excludes from the definition of reportable sexual
assault under the Child Abuse Neglect Reporting Act (CANRA) acts
of sodomy or oral copulation, unless the act involves either a
person over 21 or a minor under 16. This is the same standard
applied to intercourse for purposes of CANRA.
FISCAL EFFECT
Negligible.
COMMENTS
1)Rationale . The author's intent is to create a uniform standard
for CANRA mandated reporters that does not include consensual
sex acts between minors and young adults less than five years
apart in age.
2)Current law requires a mandated reporter to report to law
enforcement whenever, in his or her professional capacity, the
reporter has knowledge of or observes a child who the reporter
reasonably suspects has been a victim of child abuse or
neglect. Under CANRA, child abuse or neglect includes physical
injury or death, neglect as defined, willful injury of a
child, endangering a child as defined, unlawful corporal
punishment, and sexual abuse.
Sexual abuse is defined, pursuant to CANRA, to include rape,
statutory rape involving a person who is 21 years of age or
older with a minor who is under 16 years of age, incest,
sodomy with a person who is under 18 years of age, and lewd or
AB 1505
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lascivious acts upon a child who is 14 or 15 years of age by a
person who is at least 10 years older than the child.
3)Support . The CA Psychological Association writes, "For years,
professionals in the field have felt that the current statute
discriminated against LGBT youths, and could put practitioners
at risk of professional and legal discipline for not reporting
what they did not deem to be child abuse, but that a strict
interpretation of the statute deemed to be child abuse. The
Department of Consumer Affairs issued a recent legal opinion
which clarifies that consensual or anal copulation between two
minors does not need to be reported if the professional deems
it is not abuse; much like how non-abusive consensual
intercourse is not reported as child abuse. In its legal
interpretation, they stated that 'a mandated reporter is
required to report only those situations where the reporter
has reason to know or suspects abuse from sexual conduct
between the minor and an older adolescent or an adult and
those contacts which resulted from undue influence, coercion,
use of force or other indicators of abuse.' However, the
statute remains intact, and could be interpreted by
practitioners, attorneys, and future department heads in a
different manner."
4)Is this bill necessary? A 2013 Department of Consumer Affairs
(DCA) opinion, referred to by the CA Psychological
Association, above, concluded mandated reporters are not
required to report consensual sex between minors of similar
age for conduct defined as sexual assault unless the
practitioner reasonably suspects the conduct resulted from
force, coercion, or other indicators of child abuse.
A 1986 California Appeal Court ruled in Planned Parenthood
Affiliates v. Van de Kamp that the legislative intent of CANRA
was "to allow the trained professional to determine an abusive
from a nonabusive situation. Instead of a blanket reporting
requirement of all activity of those under a certain age, the
professional can make a judgment whether a minor is having
voluntary relations or is being sexually abused."
Analysis Prepared by : Geoff Long / APPR. / (916) 319-2081
AB 1505
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