2014 -- H 7916

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LC005092

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     STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2014

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A N   A C T

RELATING TO CRIMINAL OFFENSES - TRAFFICKING OF PERSONS AND

INVOLUNTARY SERVITUDE

     Introduced By: Representatives Costa, Shekarchi, Craven, Casey, and Canario

     Date Introduced: March 12, 2014

     Referred To: House Judiciary

     It is enacted by the General Assembly as follows:

     SECTION 1. Section 11-67-6 of the General Laws in Chapter 11-67 entitled "Trafficking

of Persons and Involuntary Servitude" is hereby amended to read as follows:

     11-67-6. Sex trafficking of a minor. -- (a) Definitions. - As used in this section:

      (1) "Commercial sex act" means any sex act or sexually explicit performance on account

of which anything of value is given, promised to, or received, directly or indirectly, by any

person.

      (2) "Minor" refers to any natural person under eighteen (18) years of age.

      (3) "Person" includes an individual, corporation, partnership, association, a government

body, a municipal corporation, or any other legal entity.

      (4) "Sex act" means sexual intercourse, cunnilingus, fellatio, anal intercourse, and digital

intrusion or intrusion by any object into the genital opening or anal opening of another person's

body or the stimulation by hand of another's genitals for the purposes of arousing or gratifying the

sexual desire of either person.

      (5) "Sexually-explicit performance" means an act or show, intended to arouse, satisfy the

sexual desires of, or appeal to the prurient interests of patrons or viewers, whether public or

private, live, photographed, recorded, or videotaped.

      (b) Any person who:

      (1) Recruits, employs, entices, solicits, isolates, harbors, transports, provides, persuades,

obtains, or maintains, or so attempts, any minor for the purposes of commercial sex acts; or

      (2) Sells or purchases a minor for the purposes of commercial sex acts; or

      (3) Benefits, financially or by receiving anything of value, from participation in a

venture which has engaged in an act described in subdivision (1) or (2); or

      (c) Every person who shall commit sex trafficking of a minor, shall be guilty of a felony

and subject to not more than forty (40) fifty (50) years imprisonment or a fine of up to forty

thousand dollars ($40,000), or both.

      (d) Obstructs, or attempts to obstruct, or in any way interferes with or prevents the

enforcement of this section shall be guilty of a felony and subject to not more than twenty (20)

thirty-five (35) years imprisonment, or a fine of up to twenty thousand dollars ($20,000) forty

thousand dollars ($40,000), or both.

      (e) In a prosecution under this section, the government need not prove that the defendant

knew the victim's age.

     SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon passage.

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EXPLANATION

BY THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL

OF

A N   A C T

RELATING TO CRIMINAL OFFENSES - TRAFFICKING OF PERSONS AND

INVOLUNTARY SERVITUDE

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     This act increases the penalties for sex trafficking of a minor from forty (40) years

imprisonment to fifty (50) years imprisonment and also increases the penalties for obstruction or

interference with enforcement of sex trafficking laws from twenty (20) years imprisonment to

thirty-five (35) years imprisonment and the fine from twenty thousand dollars ($20,000) to forty

thousand dollars ($40,000).

     This act would take effect upon passage.

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