Child sex trafficking bill advances in California
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios
A bill that would reclassify child sex trafficking as a serious felony and impose longer prison terms on people convicted of the crime has cleared a key committee after briefly hitting a roadblock.
How it happened: Several Democrats on the Assembly Public Safety Committee initially voted against advancing the bill to the floor last Tuesday, citing concerns about over-incarceration and the risk of criminalizing trafficking victims who become entangled in the operations.
- But state Sen. Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield), who authored the bill, said in an appearance on FOX40 that the bill is "very, very narrow."
- "My intention and the language in this bill does not wrap up ... in any way, shape or form" victims who are forced to do things under duress, she added.
- After facing backlash, the committee passed the legislation 6-0 on Thursday, with Assemblymember Liz Ortega (D-San Leandro) changing her vote and tweeting that she "made a bad decision" voting against it initially.
- Democratic Assemblymembers Mia Bonta (Alameda) and Isaac Bryan (Los Angeles) did not vote the second time.
State of play: Under current state law, human trafficking of a minor for the purpose of commercial sex can incur a maximum of 12 years in prison.
- The sentence increases to 15 years to life if the case involves "force, fear, fraud, deceit, coercion, violence, duress, menace, or threat of unlawful injury to the victim or to another person," according to California's penal code.
- Reclassifying the crime under the proposed legislation would make California's three-strikes law — which increases sentences for people convicted of felonies if they were already convicted of a violent or serious felony in the past — apply to child sex trafficking and limit repeat offenders' ability to get out of prison early.
What's next: The bill now goes before the Assembly, where Speaker Robert Rivas (D-Hollister) has said he is "very much engaged" with the measure.
- Gov. Gavin Newsom has expressed support and stepped in to help revive the bill after the committee's first vote.
The big picture: California is one of the largest sites for human trafficking in the U.S., according to the state attorney general’s office.
- It consistently ranks first in the nation in the number of human trafficking cases reported to the National Human Trafficking Hotline.
- California is the pilot location for the U.S. Department of Justice's Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Initiative in response to human trafficking of Indigenous women and girls in the state.