HB 1664 -- Protection of Children

Co-Sponsors:  Scheve, Dougherty

This bill revises various child protection laws and criminal
provisions targeting children as victims.  In its main
provisions, the bill:

(1)  Requires the Division of Family Services to contact law
enforcement upon receipt of a report (including hotline calls)
of a suspected violation of certain criminal provisions
targeting children (Section 210.109);

(2)  Requires a deceased child's personal physician to notify
the division within 24 hours of the child's death if the
physician signs the death certificate after a medical examiner
or coroner determines that the child died from natural causes
while under medical care.  In all other cases, the medical
examiner or coroner must notify the division of the child's
death within 24 hours (Section 210.115);

(3)  Currently, the local office of the division must relay
reports of certain crimes involving children to local law
enforcement.  The bill adds possession of child pornography and
the newly created crime of furnishing child pornography to a
minor to this list of crimes (Section 210.145);

(4)  Extends from 2 to 10 years the period after which a person
can have an unsubstantiated child abuse report destroyed, and
clarifies that the release of findings or information about
cases resulting in a child fatality or near fatality is at the
discretion of the Director of the Department of Social Services,
based upon potential harm to other children within the immediate
family (Section 210.150);

(5)  Extends from 5 to 10 years the period in which the division
is required to retain identifying information in cases where the
division found insufficient evidence of abuse or neglect
(Section 210.152);

(6)  Requires the local child fatality review panel to review
all deaths of children under the age of 18 that meet guidelines
of the Department of Social Services, and gives the panel the
discretion to review any child death reported to it by the
medical examiner or coroner (Section 210.192);

(7)  Allows the state child fatality review panel to meet more
often than currently required (biannually), and adds juvenile
officers and the chairmen of the local child fatality review
panels to the list of persons to whom the state technical
assistance team is required to submit findings and
recommendations (Section 210.195);

(8)  Permits a prior inconsistent statement of any witness
testifying in any criminal trial to be received as substantive
evidence.  Currently, this provision is limited to prosecutions
for offenses against the person, sexual offenses, or offenses
against the family (Section 491.074);

(9)  Adds defendants convicted of class A felony abuse of a
child pursuant to Section 568.060 to the list of defendants to
whom a court may not grant probation (Section 559.115);

(10)  Amends the crime of child molestation in the first degree
by:  increasing a victim's age from 12 to 14 years; increasing
the penalty from a C felony to a B felony; and increasing the
penalty for repeat and serious offenders from a B felony to an A
felony (Section 566.067);

(11)  Creates the following new crimes against persons under the
age of 17 years:  assault of a child in the first degree, a
class A felony (Section 568.065); assault of a child in the
second degree, a class B felony (Section 568.066); assault of a
child in the third degree, a class A misdemeanor (Section
568.067); and furnishing child pornography to a minor, a class A
felony (Section 573.045);

(12)  Creates and revises various definitions (Section 573.010);

(13)  Revises the elements of promoting child pornography in the
first degree and increases the penalty from a class B to a class
A felony, and repeals the crime of promoting child pornography
in the second degree (Sections 573.025, 573.035);

(14)  Adds possession of visual depictions of minors engaging in
or observing sexual conduct to the crime of possession of child
pornography, and increases the penalty from a class A
misdemeanor to a class D felony (Section 573.037);

(15)  Adds meeting the definition of "identifiable minor" to the
ways in which the child's age may be determined in any
prosecution for child pornography in the first or second degree
or for furnishing child pornography to minors (Section 573.050);

(16)  Designates the Department of Social Services' team that
assists in local investigations of child sexual abuse as the
"state technical assistance team," and increases its scope to
include child abuse, child neglect, child exploitation, or child
fatality.  All records and reports of the team are subject to
the Sunshine Law (Section 660.520).