Legislature(1997 - 1998)
03/11/1998 01:30 PM Senate JUD
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
SB 323 - SEX OFFENSES & OFFENDER REGISTRATION
SENATOR PEARCE came forward to present SB 323, saying the use of
children in the production of sexually explicit material is a form
of sexual abuse than can result in physical and psychological harm
to the children involved. SENATOR PEARCE said individuals who are
attracted to children often seek out this type of sexually explicit
material. Access to the Internet has become one of the preferred
methods of obtaining this kind of pornography and law enforcement
agencies across the country are finding thousands of pieces of
child pornography in their investigations. SENATOR PEARCE noted
that Congress passed the Child Pornography Prevention Act in 1986
and several states are taking action to strengthen their
pornography laws.
SENATOR PEARCE explained that the Alaska penalty for distribution
of child pornography is not more than five years, and law
enforcement officers are having trouble proving distribution and
are having to charge offenders with lesser crimes, such as
possession of child pornography, which is merely a class A
misdemeanor.
SENATOR PEARCE stated that SB 323 increases the penalties for both
possession and distribution of child pornography to class B
felonies, punishable by not more than 10 years in prison. SB 323
also creates the crime of indecent exposure in the first degree if
an offender knowingly masturbates within the observation of a
person less than 16 years of age. SENATOR PEARCE said this offense
would also be a class B felony, and the existing offense of
indecent exposure becomes a class C felony when committed before a
person less than 16 years of age, and a class A misdemeanor when
committed before a person 16 years of age or older.
SENATOR PEARCE said the bill also requires sex-offender
registration for the offenses of indecent exposure in the first and
second degree, and the possession of child pornography. Currently,
only offenders convicted of the crime of distribution of child
pornography have to register.
SENATOR PEARCE remarked that the existence and distribution of
child pornography creates the opportunity for many types of harm in
a community and presents a clear and present danger to all
children. She stated this bill is intended to help protect children
by inhibiting the creation and distribution of child pornography.
Strengthening the penalties for these crimes will send a clear
message that the degradation and exploitation of children will not
be tolerated.
SENATOR PEARCE added that the original idea for the bill came from
an Anchorage police officer frustrated with the difficultly of
proving distribution of child pornography. SENATOR PEARCE said this
individual officer has seen thousands upon thousands of different
pictures in the possession of a single child pornographer.
SENATOR PEARCE said the bill brings in some other areas due to the
fact that the drafter thought some of the ancillary crimes should
be looked at in order to maintain consistency in sentencing.
Number 095
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR commented on the frustration he experienced, as a
judge, sentencing people guilty of these same crimes. He said, in
one particular case, an offender was apprehended in what appeared
to be the execution of an even more serious crime and CHAIRMAN
TAYLOR sentenced him to the maximum available penalty, ninety days.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR said, after imposing this maximum penalty, he was
disqualified by every public defender in Anchorage for this act.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR said this law would provide another level of
consideration when faced with this type of offenders, who are often
serial offenders. He believes this is an important piece of
legislation and thanked SENATOR PEARCE for bringing it forward.
SENATOR PEARCE noted that the drafter had made an error in drafting
the bill, she offered amendment #1 as a technical change,
addressing this error.
SENATOR MILLER moved amendment #1. Without objection, it was so
ordered.
Number 177
OFFICER GLENN KLINKHART testified via teleconference from Anchorage
and thanked SENATOR PEARCE for the bill. He said his involvement
with the prosecution of these crimes began three years ago when he
joined the police force. Up until then, he was totally unaware of
the volume of child pornography and pedophiles out there. He said,
unfortunately, he could be kept continuously busy working these
cases. OFFICER KLINKHART said the U.S. Customs officers have also
reported a marked increase in this type of crime.
OFFICER KLINKHART reported about a man in Eagle River who plead
guilty to possession of child pornography in addition to other
charges and was found to possess pornographic pictures equivalent
to the volume of 17 reams of paper. OFFICER KLINKHART said these
pedophiles trade pornographic pictures like baseball cards and, at
any given time, several Alaskans can be found downloading
pornographic pictures in Internet chat rooms.
OFFICER KLINKHART said several reasons explain why this type of
crime is found in Alaska: the young population, coupled with a high
percentage of home computers and widespread Internet access makes
this an easy crime to commit. OFFICER KLINKHART said this type of
material used to be distributed through the mail from Europe and
dealt with by the U.S. Customs service.
OFFICER KLINKHART spoke of different varieties of crimes committed
by pedophiles and stressed the need for officer training in order
to more effectively fight this type of crime. He said with more
training, there will be more arrests. As it is now, OFFICER
KLINKHART generally has to bring in federal authorities to charge
cases, as they have stricter statutes. He does not mind doing this
but the process is sometimes slow.
Number 269
SENATOR PEARCE asked about the fiscal note from the Public
Defender's Office and OFFICER KLINKHART replied that the reason
there are only two cases pending is due to the fact that they are
generally charged as federal cases, since a misdemeanor charge is
not adequate to punish these crimes.
MR. TERRY VRABEC testified via teleconference from Fairbanks and
agreed with the testimony provided by OFFICER KLINKHART. MR. VRABEC
also mentioned the fact that, in order for these pictures to be
taken, children were sexually abused. He agrees with increasing the
penalties for this type of crime, and requiring offenders to
register as sex offenders. MR. VRABEC said if there were more
police officers working on this type of case, they could catch more
offenders.
MR. PAUL SWEET testified via teleconference from Mat-Su. MR. SWEET
asked about disqualification from holding a teaching certificate
under this bill, he wondered how private school teachers, without
certification, would be dealt with.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR remarked he was not sure they could restrict hiring
by a private enterprise. MR. SWEET said then only certified
teachers would fall under the bill. SENATOR PEARCE commented that,
in schools where the state does not require certification, it is up
to the parent of students to ensure the school performs background
checks. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR added that the bill does require
registration of offenders and this list is accessible to any
interested parties.
Number 340
PAUL SWEET said there are currently about 3,500 sex offenders in
the state required to register and only about 450 of them are
actually signed up. If these people are not signed up and he is
unable to get information on them until they do, he sees this as a
problem. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR responded that those who worked on the
passage of the original sex offender registration legislation were
dismayed to find out about the glitch in the law that allowed for
misinterpretation. He said the intent was that the Department of
Corrections would register them before they were set loose, and
they have another law working its way through the process to
mandate this. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR said he shares MR. SWEET's
frustration in this regard.
MR. SWEET asked about parolees who are not included. CHAIRMAN
TAYLOR said he believed they were required to register and that was
one of the many things they were trying to work on.
MR. SWEET suggested that if they published a few names of those
offenders who failed to register, the rest of them would come
running. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR said there are lots of devices that could
be used, they're trying to do it through legislation. MR. SWEET
mentioned one sex offender who was restricted from unsupervised
conduct with children less than 14, but whose court order
explicitly allowed him to teach above the seventh grade.
MR. DON BOWMAN testified via teleconference from Anchorage and
simply stated that the Department of Public Safety and the Alaska
State Troopers support SB 323.
SENATOR ELLIS expressed concern about the definition of child
pornography. He cited a case in Oklahoma where police seized copies
of an academy-award winning film, which fell under their state's
definition of child pornography. He asked if this might happen
here, under Alaska's definition of child pornography. SENATOR ELLIS
also asked about the definition of indecent exposure, and how it
might relate to breast-feeding. He also asked about "mooning" and
how it might be looked upon.
SENATOR PEARCE mentioned there was no intention to change any
present definitions, only to address the problem of prosecuting
these crimes.
MS. ANNE CARPENETI, representing the Department of Law, came
forward and said "mooning" falls under the crime of disorderly
conduct, a class B misdemeanor.
Number 450
MS. CARPENETI explained that the definition of child pornography
defines it as audio or visual content meeting certain criteria.
SENATOR ELLIS clarified that it is not based on the gratification
of the viewer and MS. CARPENETI agreed. SENATOR ELLIS said he
wondered as he had just sent a postcard depicting kids in the
bathtub, he considered it cute but wondered how it would be viewed
by another state.
SENATOR PEARCE read the definition of pornography as material that
visually or aurally depicts conduct including sexual penetration,
lewd touching, masturbation, bestiality, sadism and masochism.
SENATOR ELLIS replied it seemed to exclude kids in the bathtub and
MS. CARPENETI agreed it wasn't babies on bear rugs.
OFFICER KLINKHART said SENATOR ELLIS made a good point and said in
his work, they use a standard of "lewd and lascivious," and look to
see what the focal point of a picture is. He concluded that he did
not think the movie incident would occur here in Alaska.
Number 504
SENATOR PEARCE commented on the wide availability of this material
through the Internet and asked OFFICER KLINKHART if they were
seeing an increase in this type of crime by adolescent males.
OFFICER KLINKHART replied the offenders were primarily males over
the age of 30. He sees this crime as a precursor to child
molestation.
SENATOR PEARCE moved CSSB 323(JUD) from committee with individual
recommendations and accompanying fiscal notes. Without objection,
it was so ordered.
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