Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2001

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Health and Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 711 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure, as received, is to provide criminal penalties for:

Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by Hawaii Catholic Conference, Hawaii Family Forum, Sex Abuse Treatment Center, Aloha Pregnancy Care and Counseling Centers, Hawaii Youth Services Network, and two private citizens. Testimony in opposition to this measure was submitted by the Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women, the Police Departments of Honolulu and Hawaii, Libertarian Party of Hawaii, Coalition for the Prevention of Sexual Assault, American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii, and a private citizen. Comments were submitted by the Office of the Public Defender.

Your Committee finds that Hawaii's age of consent is among the lowest in the nation. Your Committee further finds that that minors many times get lured into sexual relations with some one whose age is significantly higher. Although the current measure attempted to address this issue, Your Committee believes that H.B. No. 236 accomplishes our goals with clarity and preference to many of the testifiers.

Your Committee has amended this measure by replacing its entire contents with H.B. No. 236, which provides that a minor (fourteen years of age or less) cannot legally consent to having sex with a person who is five years older and not legally married to the minor.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health and Human Services that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 711, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 711, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary.