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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2013 - 2014
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | June 18, 2013 03:16 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Representative Mike Regan |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Title 18 Section 2910 (regarding luring a child) |
| Barely a week goes by without a report of someone attempting to lure a child into a vehicle or elsewhere. In all too many cases, sexual predators take advantage of a young child’s innocence and willingness to be helpful and succeed in enticing them into a car or a vacant building, often with tragic results. Incredibly, luring a child into a motor vehicle or structure is only a misdemeanor of the first degree, regardless of the intention of the actor or the age of the child. A person who entices a 17 year old into a vehicle to smoke a joint commits the same offense as a person who asks a 9 year old to get into a car to help find a lost puppy. Though a Misdemeanor of the first degree carries up to 5 years and a $10,000 fine, under the Sentencing Guidelines, the presumptive sentence is probation to 9 months in a county jail. I plan to introduce legislation which recognizes the seriousness of this offense when it involves young children who are most vulnerable to predators. My bill will make a violation of Section 2910 of the Crimes Code, Luring a child into a motor vehicle or structure, a Felony of the Second Degree (maximum 10 years/$25,000 fine) if the victim is less than 13 years of age. It will also provide that it is no defense to the felony charge that the actor reasonably believed the child was 13 or older. As a second degree felony, the Guideline range would be expected to increase to 12-24 months in jail, or higher. |
Introduced as HB1594