Sacramento Standard

Senator Shannon Grove’s Senate Bill 1414 (SB 1414) passed off the Senate Floor with a vote of 36-0. SB 1414 addresses the crime of sex trafficking and aims to increase penalties for those who purchase children for sex.

Prior to the floor vote, the Senate Public Safety Committee introduced amendments that weakened protections for children ages 16 and 17. The Senate Appropriations Committee had an opportunity to strengthen the bill language but did not do so.

SB 1414 is a bipartisan measure, jointly authored by Senator Anna Caballero (D-Merced) and Senator Susan Rubio (D-Baldwin Park), and co-sponsored by Love Never Fails and 3Strands Global Foundation.

“The crime of purchasing a child, of any age, for sex in the state of California should be a prison felony. I am incredibly disappointed in the Senate Pro Tem and Senate leadership for, once again, passing on an opportunity to restore amendments to the bill and stand up for all of California’s children. This outcome is a failure on the part of legislative leadership who caved to political pressure and did not prioritize the safety our children. We must restore this bill in the Assembly to protect every child in the state of California from the horrific crime of sex trafficking,” said Senator Shannon Grove.

The forced committee amendments include:

- Soliciting or buying children aged 15 and under for sex can only be charged as a wobbler: either a misdemeanor (punishable by a minimum of two days in jail or a fine or both) or a felony.

- Buying 16- and 17-year-old children is only punishable as a misdemeanor.

- A felony charge carries possible jail time but is not prison eligible.

- Only perpetrators with a previous conviction of purchasing sex from a child aged 15 or under, on their second offense and with over a ten-year age gap to the victim, must register as tier one sex offenders.

Senator Grove’s proposed amendments would have made it a prison felony for solicitation or purchasing sex from a child of any age and removed the ten-year age gap requirement for sex offender registry.

Senator Grove will continue advocating on behalf of every child being bought and sold in California. SB 1414 will have a hearing in the Assembly Public Safety Committee in either June or early July.