BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 2035
Page A
Date of Hearing: April 29, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HUMAN SERVICES
Mark Stone, Chair
AB 2035 (Chesbro) - As Amended: April 21, 2014
SUBJECT : Commercially and Sexually Exploited Children (CSEC)
SUMMARY : Establishes the State Plan to Serve and Protect
Sexually Exploited and Trafficked Minors as well as other
conforming changes to add or align existing statute to implement
policies and procedures to respond to and address Commercially
and Sexually Exploited Children (CSEC). Specifically, this
bill :
1)Establishes in statute the State Plan to Serve and Protect
Sexually Exploited and Trafficked Minors (State Plan) to
provide a framework for a coordinated effort and plan to serve
and protect sexually exploited and trafficked minors.
2)Defines a "child trafficking victim" as an individual under
the age of 18 who meets any of the following conditions:
a) Is a victim of human trafficking, as specified;
b) Is involved in prostitution, pornography, or stripping;
or
c) Is engaged in survival sex, which is defined as the
exchange of sex for money or other considerations,
including food or shelter, in order to ensure his or her
survival.
3)Permits a juvenile court to adjudge a child a dependent of the
court if he or she is a victim of sexual exploitation,
receives food or shelter for, or is paid to perform, sexual
acts, and the parent or guardian fails or is unable to protect
the child, as specified.
4)Requires the California Health and Human Services (HHS) Agency
to convene an interagency workgroup (workgroup), in
consultation with the California Child Welfare Council (CWC)
no later than January 30, 2015, to include:
a) California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS);
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b) Children and Family Services Division of the California
Department of Social Services (DSS);
c) Division of Juvenile Justice in the California
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR);
d) California Department of Education (CDE); and
e) A broad spectrum of stakeholders who are responsible for
addressing the needs of this population, including but not
limited to local government agencies, human trafficking
services providers, the California Mental Health Directors
Association, county probation officers, the County Welfare
Directors Association (CWDA), youth advocates, court
representatives, and human trafficking survivors.
5)Requires the workgroup to do all of the following:
a) Conduct a thorough review of existing programs and
services for child trafficking victims to identify areas of
need and develop strategies and recommendations, as
specified, to ensure that child trafficking victims have
access to services and supports need for their safety and
recovery;
b) Develop, in collaboration with the Child Welfare
Council, and submit no later than January 30, 2016 a
comprehensive state plan to serve and protect sexually
exploited and trafficked minors, to the Legislature,
Judicial Council, and the Governor, which shall include:
i) An evaluation of juvenile court jurisdiction
pertaining to child trafficking, including the adequacy
of existing jurisdictional statuses, as specified, and
recommendations for necessary changes;
ii) A multiagency coordinated trafficking response
protocol and guidelines for local implementation to
address the needs of CSEC and clear lines of ongoing
responsibilities among local agencies;
iii) If new specialized services and programs are needed
to ensure that child trafficking victims have access to
safe and appropriate services, the identification of
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funding sources and a timeline for the creation of those
services and programs;
iv) The identification of training needs for child
welfare staff, law enforcement, court, educational
agencies, and probation staff on child trafficking
response protocols and services, and a plan and timeline
to implement necessary training; and
v) The development of data collection and sharing
protocols among agencies.
6)In development of the plan, requires the workgroup to consider
the following:
a) Existing laws and practices in other states and
jurisdictions that have developed response protocols and
policies to respond to sexual exploitation of minors and
child trafficking, and the outcomes and unintended
consequences of those protocols and policies; and
b) The adequacy of existing response protocols and
services, including identification, screening, assessment,
immediate and safe shelter, and the range of treatment
options for child trafficking victims.
7)Adds to the duties of the CWC the requirement to provide
recommendations and updates to the State Plan.
8)Requires instruction on cultural competency and sensitivity
relating to, and best practices for, providing adequate care
to sexually exploited and trafficked minors in out-of-home
care to be included in the following training programs:
a) Group home administrator certification training
programs;
b) Pre and post-placement foster parent certified training
programs;
c) Community college relative and nonrelative extended
family member (NREFM) foster care education programs; and
d) Mandated reporter training programs.
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EXISTING LAW
1)States that the purpose of foster care law is to provide
maximum safety and protection for children who are currently
being physically, sexually, emotionally abused, neglected, or
exploited, and to ensure the safety, protection, and physical
and emotional well-being of children who are at risk of harm.
(WIC 300.2)
2)States the intent of the Legislature to preserve and
strengthen a child's family ties whenever possible and to
reunify a foster youth with his or her biological family
whenever possible, or to provide a permanent placement
alternative, such as adoption or guardianship. (WIC 396)
3)Permits the juvenile court to adjudge a minor to be a
dependent of the court if he or she has suffered, or there is
a substantial risk that the child will suffer, serious
physical harm or illness, as a result of the failure or
inability of his or her parent or guardian to adequately
supervise or protect the child. (WIC 300)
4)Permits the juvenile court to adjudge a minor a ward of the
court if he or she violates any state or federal law or any
city or county ordinance. (WIC 602)
5)Establishes sexual abuse as a crime and defines it as sexual
assault or sexual exploitation, which includes rape, statutory
rape, rape in concert, incest, sodomy, lewd or lascivious acts
upon a child, oral copulation, sexual penetration, coerced
prostitution of a child, participation or the production and
dissemination of child pornography, or child molestation. (PC
11165.1)
6)Establishes prostitution as a crime and defines it as anyone
who engages in sexual conduct in exchange for money or other
considerations. (PC 653.20)
7)Pursuant to Proposition 35 (California 2012) provides for all
of the following:
a) Any person who causes, induces, or persuades a minor to
engage in a commercial sexual act, as specified, is guilty
of human trafficking to be punishable by imprisonment in
state prison, as specified; (PC 236.1(c))
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b) Consent by a victim of human trafficking who is a minor,
and mistake of fact as to the age of the victim, is not a
defense to criminal prosecution; (PC 236.1 (e) and (f))
c) Evidence that a victim of human trafficking, as defined,
has engaged in any commercial sexual act as a result of
being a victim of human trafficking is inadmissible to
prove the victim's criminal liability for that activity;
(EC 1161)
d) Law enforcement agencies shall consider specified
indicators of human trafficking when a peace officer comes
into contact with a minor who has engaged in a commercial
sex act; and (PC 236.2)
e) Law enforcement officers assigned field or investigative
duties shall complete a minimum of two hours of training
pertaining to the handling of victims of human trafficking
by July 2014. (PC 13519.14)
8)Establishes the California Child Welfare Council to serve as
an advisory body responsible for improving the collaboration
and processes of the multiple agencies and the courts that
service the children and youth in the child welfare and foster
care systems. (W&I Code 16540)
9)Requires the California Department of Social Services (DSS) to
develop and establish a certification program to ensure that
group home administrators have appropriate training. (H&S
Code 1522.41)
10)Requires licensed foster parents to complete no less than 12
hours of foster parent training, prior to the placement of any
foster children and a minimum of eight hours of foster parent
training annually. (H&S Code 1529.2)
11)Permits the counties of Alameda and Los Angeles to establish
a sexually exploited minors pilot project to develop a
comprehensive, replicative, multidisciplinary model to address
the needs and effective treatment of commercially sexually
exploited minors who have been arrested or detained by local
law enforcement for specified crimes. (W&I Code 18259 and
18529.7)
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FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : Commercial sexual exploitation (CSE) of children is
defined as the sexual exploitation of children entirely, or at
least primarily, for financial or other economic reasons. Under
this definition, the economic exchanges may be either monetary
or non-monetary (i.e., for food, shelter, drugs).<1> Sex
trafficking of minors is defined as the "recruitment, harboring,
transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the
purpose of a commercial sex act" where the person is a U.S.
citizen or lawful permanent resident under the age of 18
years.<2>
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), there
are an estimated 100,000 children in the United States who are
abducted, manipulated or forced into prostitution and sexual
exploitation each year, and another 300,000 or more who are at
risk of commercial sexual exploitation. However, it is likely
that this number is much greater due to the difficulty in
identifying commercially and sexually exploited children. It is
also estimated that anywhere between 50 and 80% of all children
who are commercially or sexually exploited are or have at one
time or another been involved with child welfare.
It is important to acknowledge the severe emotional and
psychological trauma a child undergoes when they are a victim of
sexual exploitation. Although it is reasonable to presume that
a child would seek escape or attempt to run away from his or her
abuser, for children who are commercially or sexually exploited,
oftentimes they have already run away from an undesirable
situation. Hungry, seeking a way to survive, and otherwise
facing the world alone, many CSEC are taken in, either through
abduction or coercion, and exploited by individuals who make
promises of caring and protection. This can result in CSEC
becoming willing participants in their own exploitation, where
the psychological trauma they suffer is similar to the trauma
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<1> Estes and Weiner. "The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of
Children In the U. S., Canada and Mexico." Univ. of PA, 2002.
http://www.sp2.upenn.edu/restes/CSEC_Files/Exec_Sum_020220.pdf
<2> Smith et al. "The National Report on Domestic Minor Sex
Trafficking: America's Prostituted Youth." Shared Hope Int'l,
2009.
http://sharedhope.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/SHI_National_Rep
ort_on_DMST_2009.pdf
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that occurs in domestic violence victims.<3> Many CSEC display
symptoms of and suffer from Stockholm Syndrome, described as a
paradoxical psychological phenomenon where a positive bond
between hostage and captor occurs when the hostage views the
perpetrator as giving life by simply not taking it.
Child Welfare Services (CWS) - Dependency and Probation : In
California, there are generally two avenues that lead to a child
entering the state's child welfare or probation system. The
first is through child protective services. The other is
through law enforcement and county probation services. The
difference between the two is whether the child is at risk of
abuse, neglect or abandonment, or if the youth has been alleged
of committing a crime.
In cases where a child is suspected to be a victim of abuse,
neglect or abandonment, a county child welfare agency's (CWA)
child protective services social worker is required to
immediately investigate the complaint to determine its validity.
If suspected abuse, neglect or abandonment is found to be
valid, a child protective services social worker may remove the
child from the family and place the child into temporary
custody. Soon after that, before the juvenile court, the CWA is
required to recommend whether the child should become a
dependent of the state, can be immediately returned to their
family with or without court supervision, or placed into out of
home care, i.e. foster care. Once placed into foster care, the
child is provided a case plan that outlines his or her
placement, an array of services that he or she needs, and
assigned a social worker who is responsible for his or her
wellbeing, with the ultimate goal of reunifying the child with
their family or seeking a permanent placement, such as legal or
kinship guardianship or adoption.
For youth who are engaged by law enforcement due to an
allegation that the youth has committed a crime, a law
enforcement officer can take the child into temporary custody.
If the law enforcement is able and the crime is not serious,
generally the youth can be returned to their family if that is
in the child's best interest. However, if it is not in the
child's best interest to return the child his or her home,
where, for example, the child has no parent or relative to
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<3> Website: Motivating, Inspiring, Supporting, and Serving
Sexually Exploited Youth. "Who is a CSEC - CSEC: Framing the
Issue" http://www.misssey.org/csec.html#reference
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return to, the minor is destitute and has no home, or returning
the child to the home would result in his or her abuse or
neglect, the child can be transferred to the custody of a county
probation officer. Upon adjudication of the youth for his or
her crime, typically, unless the crime is of a serious or
heinous nature, the youth is assigned to probation and placed
into a juvenile court facility, i.e. juvenile hall, or some
other form of appropriate yet secured facility. Similar to
dependency, a ward is provided a case plan that outlines his or
her needs, placement and services.
The struggle to appropriately address and serve CSEC : One of
the primary challenges California faces today is the ability to
appropriately identify, address and serve CSEC. Although CSEC
are victims and not perpetrators of sex crimes, many youth do
not enter into dependency, but rather, have been arrested and
adjudicated as a ward of the court because, according to first
responders, law enforcement, and CWAs, our CWS lacks the
adequate ability to respond to and provide for CSEC. According
to a national report on "Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking -
America's Prostituted Children," issued by Shared Home
International and funded by a grant from the US Department of
Justice:
Law enforcement officers report they are often compelled to
charge a victim of domestic minor sex trafficking with a
delinquency offense in order to detain her in a secured
facility to keep her safe from the trafficker/pimp and the
trauma-driven response of flight? The results are
detrimental for the victim who rarely receives any services
in detention, much less services specific to the trauma
endured through sex trafficking. Also, the entry of the
juvenile into the delinquency system can disqualify her
from accessing victim of crime funds for services in some
states.<4>
This creates a paradigm whereby CSEC, who have been habitually
and repeatedly entrapped, forced to exchange sexual actions in
return for survival, is rescued by law enforcement, but is then
placed into another form of entrapment, e.g. incarceration,
---------------------------
<4> Smith, Linda A., et al. The National Report on Domestic
Minor Sex Trafficking: America's Prostituted Children. Shared
Hope International.
http://sharedhope.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/SHI_National_Rep
ort_on_DMST_2009.pdf
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because that is the only viable option law enforcement has to
protect CSEC from their abusers.
Some argue that the need to charge CSEC with a crime in order to
provide a safer and more secure environment through
incarceration is in direct correlation to the lack of a
community based infrastructure and the state statute's
prohibition on locked or otherwise secure facilities. For those
CWAs that do have systems and protocols in place to serve CSEC,
it is argued that it has taken years to have done so and only by
leveraging other resources outside of the CWS.
It is important to acknowledge the current deficiencies within
California's CWS, e.g. inadequate fiscal resources, shortage of
staff and personnel, and lack of training and experience to
address and respond to a difficult to serve population.
However, it is equally as important, if not more, to acknowledge
that the current process of arresting a CSEC can result in the
re-victimization of the youth and lead to his or her
self-confirmation that he or she violated the law and is not a
victim of commercial and sexual exploitation.
CWDA budget proposal : In response to the growing crisis of CSEC
and to build a stronger services infrastructure to serve CSEC
through dependency, the CWDA has requested an allocation of
$20.3 million in state general fund dollars for the 2014-15
budget year and $14.3 million in ongoing funds each year
thereafter. Because county CWAs are required to match general
fund expenditures on a one-to-one basis, this would result in
$40.6 million in total funds to be allocated in 2014-15 and
$28.5 million in total funds beginning in 2015-16, and annually
thereafter, to help better serve CSEC.
CWDA and other children's advocacy organizations have requested
this funding to build capacity in local county CWAs to serve
child victims of commercial sexual exploitation.
Need for the Bill : In 2011 the California CWC convened a
workgroup to assess and review how the state responds to and
addresses CSEC, and to provide recommendations on how to improve
and enhance services to CSEC. The workgroup was made up of an
inclusive and wide array of public and private social services
organizations, mental health, education, law enforcement,
health, community based organizations, the courts and child
advocacy groups. After 18 months of collaboration the workgroup
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released a report entitled "Ending the Commercial Sexual
Exploitation of Children: A Call for Multi-System Collaboration
in California," which concludes that "California must develop a
comprehensive and collaborative response to ensure CSE victims
are identified and receive the services they need to overcome
trauma and live health, productive lives." This measure is a
direct result of the recommendations from this report.
Writing in support of this measure, the Westcoast Children's
Clinic states:
Additionally, [this bill] will ensure that youth who have
been commercially sexually exploited or trafficked can gain
access to supports and services through the dependency
system. Currently in the state of California, these child
victims are arrested and funneled through the juvenile
delinquency system for crimes their traffickers force them
to commit. This bill clarifies that a child who is a
victim of sexual exploitation and trafficking falls under
the dependency court's jurisdiction, facilitating access to
the service system that is designed to support their needs
as a victim rather than a criminal.
[This bill] takes critical steps toward enacting the
comprehensive and urgent response that this problem (CSEC)
merits. Specifically, under the auspices of the California
Health and Human Services Agency, an interagency workgroup
will assess the adequacy of the services, supports and
systems available to meet the unique needs of sexually
exploited and trafficked youth. The workgroup will
subsequently develop a coordinated response to fill system
gaps and recommend policy changes where necessary.
Additionally, writing in support of this bill as its sponsor,
the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (CAST) writes:
Caring for our children through the dependency system cost
significantly less than providing services through the
delinquency system where many of these children are ending
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up now.<5> Additionally, given that recent reports have
indicated that 55-85% of children arrested for prostitution
are identified as CSEC have had contact with the child
dependency system there will likely not be an overwhelming
influx of new cases into the dependency system with the
passage of this measure.<6> In fact hopefully what will
occur is that earlier identification and prevention of this
problem will save the state additional resources. In fact a
recent report in Minnesota shows that investing in early
identification and providing services to these children
could save the state of California funds in the future. The
report highlights that a state can save $34 for every $1
spent on this issue.<7>
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Children's Advocacy Institute (CAI)
California Alliance of Child and family Services
California Coalition for Youth (CCY)
California Youth Connection (CYC)
Children's Defense Fund of CA (CDF-CA)
Children's Law Center
Children Now
Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking (CAST)
International Justice Mission
Equality California
Junior League of Long Beach
Junior League of Los Angeles
Junior League of Monterey, Inc.
Junior League of Napa-Sonoma
Junior League of Riverside, Inc.
Junior League of San Diego
---------------------------
<5> Mendel, R. (2011). No Place for Kids: The Case for Reducing
Juvenile Incarceration. The Annie E. Casey Foundation.
Baltimore, MD. Available online:
http://www.aecf.org/OurWork/JuvenileJustice/JuvenileJusticeReport
.aspx
<6> Ending the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children: A
Call for Multi-System Collaboration in California, Child Welfare
Council, pg 11.
<7>Early Intervention into the Sex Trading and Trafficking of
Minnesota's Female Youth, A Benefit-Cost Analysis, Minnesota
Indian Resource Center, 2012 p. vi.
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Junior League of San Francisco, Inc.
Junior League of San Jose
Junior League of Oakland-East Bay
National Council of Jewish Women-California
Red Window Project
West Coast Children's Clinic
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Chris Reefe / HUM. S. / (916) 319-2089