Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2001

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred S.B. No. 724 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to create new criminal offenses of abuse of a family or household member in the first degree, second degree, and third degree.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Maui Prosecuting Attorney, Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women, Battered/Formerly Battered Women's Caucus-Hawaii, Women Helping Women, Hawai'i State Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Domestic Violence Clearinghouse and Legal Hotline, Hawaii Citizens' Rights PAC, and seven private citizens. Testimony in opposition was received from the Public Defender, Honolulu Police Department, and LIFE Lessons in Firearms Education. The Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney submitted comments.

Current law provides for abuse of a family or household member, without distinction as to first, second, or third degree. This measure would make the offense into three degrees, depending on severity, essentially following current law on second and third degree assault and harassment. Your Committee notes that current law on assault and harassment can be used to charge an offense of abuse of a family or household member.

Testimony of domestic violence advocates indicates a strong desire to have a distinct and comprehensive statutory scheme for domestic violence offense. However, there was no testimony that current laws are not working, or that gradations of the offense would serve as a deterrent. Your Committee notes testimony that statutory deterrence is of questionable effectiveness in cases of offenses brought on by emotional explosion, because there is little or no time to think beforehand about the consequences of one's conduct.

However, your Committee is committed to effectively deterring domestic violence and punishing domestic abuse. To this end, and with the concurrence of the Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney, your Committee passes this measure with the anticipation that the public will know that domestic violence will not be tolerated or excused. In particular, the gradations of offense will send a clear message that any type of behavior that constitutes separate offenses under current law will now be under the umbrella offense of abuse of a family or household member.

In effect, while the name of the offense is the same, the penal statutory scheme is now more comprehensive. The gradations of the offense into separate statutory sections for the first, second, and third degrees, enacted under a new part, are borrowed from other serious crimes, which represent the severity of the crime of domestic violence.

Your Committee has amended this measure on the recommendation of the Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney by making clarifying changes and adding provisions from current law to the first degree offense relating to post arrest rights.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 724, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 724, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.