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2015 SESSION

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SB 1188 Commercial sex trafficking; penalties.

Introduced by: Mark D. Obenshain | all patrons    ...    notes | add to my profiles | history

SUMMARY AS PASSED:

Commercial sex trafficking; penalties. Creates new felonies for trafficking of persons for commercial sexual activity. The bill provides that any person who solicits, invites, recruits, encourages, or otherwise causes or attempts to cause a person to engage in prostitution with the intent to receive money or other valuable thing or to assist another in receiving money or other valuable thing from the earnings of the solicited person from an act of prostitution is guilty of a Class 5 felony. Felonies are increased if such behavior is done by an adult and the person solicited is a minor (Class 3 felony) and if force, intimidation, or deception is used against the person solicited (Class 4 felony). The new crime was added to the definition of violent felony for the purposes of the sentencing guidelines, predicate criminal acts for street gangs, the Virginia Racketeer Influence and Corrupt Organization Act, multijurisdiction grand jury, and asset forfeiture and, if a minor is solicited, the Sex Offender Registry. The bill also amends two existing Code sections on receiving money for procuring a person for prostitution and receiving money from the earnings of a person engaged in prostitution to increase penalties if the crime involves a minor. This bill is identical to HB 1964.

SUMMARY AS PASSED SENATE:

Commercial Sex Trafficking; penalties. Creates new felonies for trafficking of persons for commercial sexual activity. The bill provides that any person who solicits, invites, recruits, encourages, or otherwise causes or attempts to cause a person to actively participate in prostitution with any third party with the intent that the person solicited will later pay or give any earnings received from an act of prostitution to another person is guilty of a Class 6 felony. Felonies are increased if such behavior is done by an adult and the person solicited is a minor (Class 5 felony) and if force is used or threatened against the person solicited or the person's family or household member (Class 4 felony, Class 3 if a minor). The new crime was added to the definition of violent felony for the purposes of the sentencing guidelines, the Virginia Racketeer Influence and Corrupt Organization Act, multijurisdiction grand jury, and asset forfeiture and if a minor is solicited, the Sex Offender Registry. The bill also amends two existing Code sections on receiving money for procuring a person for prostitution and receiving money from the earnings of a person engaged in prostitution to increase penalties if the receipt is from a minor. The provisions of the bill are contingent on funding in a general appropriation act.

SUMMARY AS INTRODUCED:

Sex trafficking; penalties. Creates new felonies for trafficking of persons for commercial sexual activity. The bill provides that any person who recruits, transports, harbors, receives, provides, obtains, isolates, maintains, patronizes, solicits, or entices a minor to engage in commercial sexual activity is guilty of a Class 2 felony, the punishment for which includes a mandatory minimum sentence that is based on the age of the minor. The bill also provides that any person who engages in the same conduct with any other person knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that coercion or fraud will be used to cause such person to engage in commercial sexual activity is guilty of a Class 2 felony. Finally, the bill provides that any person who receives money or its equivalent that he knows or has reason to know was derived from the trafficking of persons for commercial sexual activity is guilty of a Class 3 felony.