Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Human Trafficking topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Survivor testimony supports grooming bill; sponsor asks for time to reconcile related measures
Summary
Senate Bill 25-66, which would criminalize predatory grooming behaviors before physical abuse, drew survivor testimony and sponsor requests to coordinate with a related bill; committee agreed to roll the bill to the filing calendar and work with law enforcement and other sponsors.
Senate Bill 25-66, a proposal to criminalize grooming behavior that leads to exploitation, received in-person survivor testimony and sponsor attention before the committee agreed to roll the item for further coordination.
Sponsor Senator Bowling described the bill as aimed at prosecuting predators at the grooming stage, not after abuse has occurred, and said the measure is intended to allow intervention earlier in trajectories that lead to trafficking. "We must intervene before physical abuse occurs... The law should allow prosecution at the grooming stage, not after a child is raped, trafficked, or exploited," the sponsor said.
Hope Burrell Green, a survivor of child trafficking, testified in favor of the bill and recounted decades of exploitation. "Grooming is the doorway that predators use to gain control over children before the abuse and trafficking began," Green said, urging lawmakers to strengthen statutory tools to stop exploitation earlier.
Sponsor Bowling asked to roll the bill to allow the TBI and other stakeholders to reconcile SB 25-66 with a related bill and to incorporate technical suggestions. The committee agreed to roll the bill to the filing calendar and place related measures side-by-side for drafting coordination.
