HRS 0709-0905 ANNOTATIONS

This section seeks to expand the protection which the law affords to incompetents by making it roughly equivalent to that afforded to minors. A child who suffers from a mental or physical disease, disorder, or defect is protected as a child from certain dangers by §§709-902 through 904 which make abandonment, persistent nonsupport, and endangering the welfare of a minor penal offenses. A person who is physically incapacitated or mentally incompetent is afforded protection against sexual assault and abuse by chapter 707, which makes such conduct, as it relates to such persons, an offense. However, in cases not involving sexual activity or not specifically involving minors under §§709-902 through 904, there is, without §709-905, a gap in the coverage of the Code. This gap also existed in prior law.