“To increase penalties for crimes against children.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section increases criminal penalties for transporting individuals for prostitution or other immoral purposes (Mann Act offenses), promoting or facilitating sex trafficking, coercion and enticement into prostitution or sex trafficking, and sex trafficking of children (18 USC 1591)—which prohibits knowingly recruiting, enticing, harboring, etc., a minor under age 18 or using force, threats, fraud, or coercion to cause a commercial sex act—to authorize punishment by death or life imprisonment (from prior maximum terms), as follows: (1) 18 USC 2421(a), to death or life (from up to 10 years); (2) 18 USC 2421A(a), to death or life (from up to 10 years); and 2421A(b), to death or life (from up to 25 years); (3) 18 USC 2422(a), to death or life (from up to 20 years); and 2422(b), to death or life (from not less than 10 years or life); and (4) 18 USC 1591(b)(1), to fine and death or life (from fine and not less than 15 years or life); 1591(b)(2), to fine and death or life (from fine and not less than 10 years or life); and 1591(d) (obstruction of enforcement), to fine and death or life (from fine, up to 25 years, or both).
This section amends penalties in 18 U.S.C. §2423 as follows: (1) in subsection (a), for knowingly transporting an individual under age 18 in interstate or foreign commerce with intent that the individual engage in prostitution or any criminal sexual activity, to punishment by death or life imprisonment (from not less than 10 years or life); (2) in subsection (b), for traveling in interstate or foreign commerce with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct, to punishment by death or life imprisonment (from fine, up to 30 years imprisonment, or both); (3) in subsection (c), for a U.S. citizen or permanent resident engaging in illicit sexual conduct abroad, to punishment by death or life imprisonment (from fine, up to 30 years imprisonment, or both); and (4) in subsection (d), for certain organizational actors furthering illicit sexual conduct via interstate or foreign commerce, to punishment by death or life imprisonment (from fine, up to 30 years imprisonment, or both). The section also amends penalties in 18 U.S.C. §2426(a) for repeat offenders under these provisions to punishment by death or life imprisonment (from three times the otherwise applicable term of imprisonment).
This section revises the penalty for ancillary offenses under 18 U.S.C. §2423(e)—arranging, inducing, procuring, or facilitating interstate or foreign travel for illicit sexual conduct for commercial advantage or private financial gain—to a fine under the title and punishment by death or life imprisonment (from a fine under the title, imprisonment for not more than 30 years, or both).
This section revises criminal penalties for sexual abuse offenses under 18 U.S.C. §§ 2241-2245 to a fine under the title and punishment by death or life imprisonment, as follows: (1) for aggravated sexual abuse of a child under §2241(c), to death or life imprisonment (from not less than 30 years or life); (2) for sexual abuse of a minor (§2243(a)), a ward (§2243(b)), or an individual in federal custody (§2243(c)), to a fine and death or life imprisonment (from a fine, up to 15 years imprisonment, or both); (3) for abusive sexual contact under §2244(a)(3), (4), or (6) or §2244(c), to a fine and death or life imprisonment (from a fine, up to two years imprisonment, or both); for abusive sexual contact under §2244(a)(5), to a fine and death or life imprisonment (from a fine and any term of years or life); and (4) for sexual abuse offenses resulting in death under §2245(a), to a fine and death or life imprisonment (from death or any term of years or life). (Thus, these changes make the death penalty available or mandatory alongside life imprisonment for offenses including knowingly engaging in a sexual act with a minor aged 12-15 who is at least four years younger, a person in official detention under the offender's authority, or an individual under arrest, supervision, detention, or federal custody by a federal officer; abusive sexual contact; and such offenses resulting in death.)