BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 2035
Page A
GOVERNOR'S VETO
AB 2035 (Chesbro)
As Amended August 19, 2014
2/3 vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |78-0 |(May 28, 2014) |SENATE: |32-0 |(August 21, |
| | | | | |2014) |
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|ASSEMBLY: |76-0 |(August 22, | | | |
| | |2014) | | | |
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Original Committee Reference: NAT. RES.
SUMMARY : Clarifies that a juvenile who is determined to be a victim
of commercial or sexual exploitation may be rendered a dependent of
the court and increases training requirements on individuals
required to provide assistance and support to commercially and
sexually exploited children (CSEC) who are rendered a dependent or
delinquent of the court. Specifically, this bill :
1)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.
2)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.
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3)Permits a juvenile court, until January 1, 2017, to adjudge a
child a dependent of the court if he or she is a victim of human
trafficking, as defined.
4)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.
The Senate amendments provide that a child who is the victim of
human trafficking may be rendered a dependent of the court until
January 1, 2017.
AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY , this bill clarified that a juvenile who
is determined to be a victim of commercial or sexual exploitation
may be rendered a dependent of the court and increased training
requirements on individuals required to provide assistance and
support to CSEC who are rendered a dependent or delinquent of the
court.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations Committee:
1)Potentially significant ongoing increase in annual child welfare
services costs (General Fund) to the extent a greater number of
human trafficked minors are placed under the jurisdiction of the
juvenile dependency court.
2)One-time costs of $10,000 (General Fund) to develop the new
curriculum component to the required training program for foster
care providers. Annual costs of $65,000 to provide training for
this new component to foster caregivers.
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3)Potentially significant cost pressure (General Fund) to provide
additional services and funding, including supplemental foster
care rates for placement of child victims of human trafficking
that are not covered under the recently enacted Human Services
budget trailer bill (SB 855) [(Budget and Fiscal Review
Committee), Chapter 29, Statutes of 2014] that covers sexually
trafficked children, but not children trafficked for forced labor
or services.
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 United States (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 U.S. 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
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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_Report_
on_DMST_2009.pdf
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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 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
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<3> Web site: 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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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 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
U.S. 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
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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, 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.
GOVERNOR'S VETO MESSAGE :
Efforts have just gotten underway with the passage of this
year's budget to combat the commercial sexual exploitation
of children, who are also victims of human trafficking.
Much discussion and collaboration took place in developing
the blueprint intended to aid these young boys and girls.
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<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_Report_
on_DMST_2009.pdf
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In fact, the budget provides a growing proportion of funds
for planning, prevention and intervention activities.
This bill, however, is premature. More investigation and
discussion needs to take place before local authorities
are in a solid position to curb the tragedy of young
people who are forced to work under illegal and
unacceptable conditions.
I am directing the Department of Social Services to
assemble relevant parties to explore all avenues that can
be pursued to alleviate this suffering.
Analysis Prepared by : Chris Reefe / HUM. S. / (916) 319-2089 FN:
0005717