A California legislative committee debated Tuesday why a proposed prostitution law targeting people who pay to have sex with children doesn’t make it a crime to seek out 16-and 17-year-old prostitutes.
Republican members of the Public Safety Committee brought up the “elephant in the room,” which is that the bill’s original text called for sex buyers who seek out youths ages 16 or 17 to be automatically charged as felons.
Conservatives criticized existing law, which allows judges to choose whether the “johns,” or sex buyers, are charged with either misdemeanors or felonies. They said many of those cases end up with johns only being cited and never serving any jail time.
“The greatest demand, I have learned, is among 16 and 17 year olds — these are girls,” said Assemblyman Tom Lackey, a Republican who represents parts of Kern, Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties. “These are people that our society should be doing everything they can to protect, so why are we protecting the predator by removing this tenet? It’s a question I don’t have the answer to.”
Assemblywoman Maggy Krell, the Sacramento Democrat who authored the bill, said she had to amend her legislation to get a committee hearing.
Ms. Krell said she was not happy about removing the provision, but added that she didn’t want it to derail the remainder of the bill, which cracks down on johns who loiter in prostitution hot spots.
The committee voted to pass the bill through. It will be heard next in the Appropriations Committee.
Sex trafficking is a growing concern in California, especially after the state decriminalized loitering for prostitutes in 2023.
Leigh LaChapelle, who works for the nonprofit Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking, said her organization opposes the bill because it could criminalize 18- and 19-year-olds in romantic relationships with younger teens.
But Yasmin Vafa, the executive director of nonprofit Rights4Girls who supports the bill, countered that there is no scenario where prosecutors would bring felony charges against two people dating each other consensually.
Assemblyman Nick Schultz, the Burbank Democrat who chairs the committee, concluded the hearing by pushing back against what he called “misinformation” surrounding the legal protections for johns who pay for older teens. He said those suspects are still eligible for statutory rape and other child sex crimes for engaging with the underage prostitutes.
Mr. Schultz said a hearing will be held this fall to revisit the amendment stricken from Ms. Krell’s bill.
