Bill would end criminalizing children for prostitution

Girls gather around in a circle for a team exercise while at the Krier Center, a juvenile detention center where they currently live, in San Antonio, on Friday, July 15, 2016. The girls are part of a special court aimed at helping adolescent girls who end up in the justice system after being sex trafficked. less Girls gather around in a circle for a team exercise while at the Krier Center, a juvenile detention center where they currently live, in San Antonio, on Friday, July 15, 2016. The girls are part of a special ... more Photo: BRITTANY GREESON, San Antonio Express-News Photo: BRITTANY GREESON, San Antonio Express-News Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Bill would end criminalizing children for prostitution 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

SACRAMENTO — California would no longer prosecute minors for prostitution under a bill in the state Legislature, a move law enforcement agencies say would make it more difficult to prosecute pimps.

Supporters of SB1322 say many children caught selling sex are the victims of human traffickers and that prosecuting them for prostitution is not the appropriate or ethical response.

The bill could come up for a vote this week in the Assembly after having already passed the state Senate.

“Under the law, a child who is under the age of 18 can’t consent to sex,” said state Sen. Holly Mitchell, D-Los Angeles, who wrote the bill. “And yet we charge the child victim of commercial sex trafficking with a crime.”

SB1322 passed the Senate 28-10 in June, but faces a tougher vote in the more moderate Assembly, where some Democrats have aligned with law enforcement groups. Under the bill, misdemeanor laws involving solicitation of prostitution and loitering with the intent to commit prostitution would not apply to a those younger than 18.

California dedicates $14 million in funding for counties and child-welfare agencies to provide intervention and prevention programs for sexually exploited minors so that their cases can be handled in juvenile dependency court, not delinquency court. Dependency court focuses on minors who have been abused, neglected or abandoned, while delinquency court is for children charged with crimes.

But, Mitchell said, “Victims are still being prosecuted.”

Law enforcement groups such as the California District Attorneys Association say decriminalizing juvenile prostitution is in neither the public’s nor victims’ interest and could make it more difficult to prosecute pimps because the minors would have no incentive to testify.

“Everyone on both sides of the bill is in agreement that these kids are victims, not criminals. Where we differ is in how much faith we have in the dependency side of the juvenile system to effectively handle this population,” said Sean Hoffman, director of legislation for the district attorneys association. “If they can’t keep a victim in a facility long enough for a provider to reach that child with services, then we undermine the efforts of a number of great community-based organizations that are having tremendous success in servicing victims of human trafficking.”

Hoffman said it’s possible the state will have the resources and infrastructure in five to 10 years, so that decriminalization wouldn’t have a negative impact.

“What we’re hearing from around the state is that we aren’t there yet,” Hoffman said.

The bill is supported by many child-welfare groups that serve a growing population of child sex-trafficking victims.

Kate Walker Brown, an attorney for the National Center for Youth Law, said making the change in California’s law would codify what advocates have been saying for years — there is no such thing as a child prostitute. Instead, children who sell sex are victims of abuse and neglect and need social services.

“Victims of trafficking should not be housed in prison-like settings,” Brown said. “We hear time and time again of the harm that causes. They don’t understand why, if they are the victim, they are in the concrete cell.”

Brown said that instead of arresting a minor for prostitution, officers should call for county child welfare agents and community advocates to meet with the juvenile, a protocol piloted in Los Angeles.

Under the bill, officers could still take the minor into protective custody if they are worried about the child’s immediate safety. This way, Brown said, the minor wouldn’t be saddled with a criminal record.

“It’s hard for them to see themselves as victims,” said Adela Rodarte, assistant program director at WestCoast Children’s Clinic in Oakland, which offers mental health services to sexually exploited youth. “By the time they see us they are so embedded that they don’t realize someone is taking advantage of them. To be arrested for it — it’s punishing them for a crime someone else committed.”

Melody Gutierrez is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mgutierrez@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @MelodyGutierrez