BILL NUMBER:  S3238

 TITLE OF BILL :

An act to amend the penal law, in relation to the commission of
aggravated sexual abuse


 PURPOSE :

To provide that a person is guilty of the crimes of aggravated sexual
abuse in the first, second or third degree when the victim is less
than 13 years of age and the actor is 18 years of age or older.

 SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS :

Section 1 of the bill amends paragraph (c) of subdivision 1 of section
130.66 of the Penal Law by adding a new provision to aggravated sexual
abuse in the third degree. Under the new provision, a person is guilty
of the crime when he inserts a foreign object in the vagina, urethra,
penis, or rectum of another person who is less than thirteen years old
and the actor is eighteen years old or older.

Section 2 of the bill amends paragraph (c) of subdivision 1 of section
130.67 by adding a new provision to aggravated sexual abuse in the
second degree to provide that a person is guilty of the crime when he
              

inserts a finger in the vagina, urethra, penis, or rectum of a person
who is less than thirteen years old and causes physical injury to that
person and the actor is eighteen years old or older.

Section 3 of the bill amends paragraph (c) of subdivision 1 of section
130.70 by adding a new provision to aggravated sexual abuse in the
first degree to provide that a person is guilty of the crime when he
inserts a foreign object in the vagina, urethra, penis, or rectum of
another person who is less than thirteen years old and causes injury
to that person and the actor is eighteen years old or older.

 EXISTING LAW :

Under the current law, a defendant may be found guilty of these
offenses if the crime was committed by forcible compulsion, or the
victim was physically helpless or the victim was under the age of 11
years.

 JUSTIFICATION :

Prior to the enactment of the Sexual Assault Reform Act of 2000
(SARA), a person was guilty of the strict liability provisions of rape
or sodomy in the first degree when he or she engaged in sexual
intercourse or anal or oral sexual intercourse with a person who was
less than eleven. In amending those provisions so that a person over
the age of eighteen would be guilty of those crimes when the victim
was less than thirteen, SARA served to better protect more children
from acts of sexual violence by bringing eleven and twelve year olds
under its provisions. However, SARA did not make a similar change in
the age threshold for the crimes of aggravated sexual assault in the
first, second and third degree. This bill would correct the oversight
in SARA by amending the provisions of aggravated sexual abuse in the
first, second and third degrees, to increase the victim age threshold
for these strict liability crimes from less than eleven to less than
thirteen years old.

 LEGISLATIVE HISTORY :

2003: Passed Senate
2004: Passed Senate/Assembly Codes Committee
2005-06: S.3841 Passed Senate/A.6912 Assembly Codes Cmte.
2007-08: S.384l Passed Senate/A.6912 Assembly Codes Cmte.

 FISCAL IMPLICATIONS :

None.

 LOCAL FISCAL IMPLICATIONS :

None.

 EFFECTIVE DATE :
This act shall take effect on the first of November next succeeding
the date on which it shall become a law.