Establishes the crimes of sex trafficking of a vulnerable person and predatory sex trafficking when a person intentionally advances or profits from prostitution of a vulnerable person.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
1919
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 14, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. HEVESI -- read once and referred to the Committee
on Codes
AN ACT to amend the penal law, in relation to sex trafficking of a
vulnerable person
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 230.34-a of the penal law, as added by chapter 189
2 of the laws of 2018, is amended to read as follows:
3 § 230.34-a Sex trafficking of a child or vulnerable person.
4 1. A person is guilty of sex trafficking of a child when [he or she]
5 such person, being twenty-one years old or more, intentionally advances
6 or profits from prostitution of another person and such person is a
7 child less than eighteen years old. Knowledge by the defendant of the
8 age of such child is not an element of this offense and it is not a
9 defense to a prosecution therefor that the defendant did not know the
10 age of the child or believed such age to be eighteen or over.
11 2. A person is guilty of sex trafficking of a vulnerable person when
12 he or she intentionally advances or profits from prostitution of another
13 person and such person is a vulnerable person, as such term is defined
14 in this section.
15 3. For purposes of this section:
16 (a) A person "advances prostitution" when, acting other than as a
17 person in prostitution or as a patron thereof, and with intent to cause
18 prostitution, [he or she] such person directly engages in conduct that
19 facilitates an act or enterprise of prostitution.
20 (b) A person "profits from prostitution" when, acting other than as a
21 person in prostitution receiving compensation for personally rendered
22 prostitution services, and with intent to facilitate prostitution, [he
23 or she] such person accepts or receives money or other property pursuant
24 to an agreement or understanding with any person whereby [he or she]
25 such person participates in the proceeds of prostitution activity.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD03011-01-5
A. 1919 2
1 (c) A person is a "vulnerable person" when such person is mentally
2 disabled, mentally incapacitated, or physically helpless, as such terms
3 are defined in section 130.00 of this part.
4 Sex trafficking of a child or vulnerable person is a class B felony.
5 § 2. The penal law is amended by adding a new section 130.97 to read
6 as follows:
7 § 130.97 Predatory sex trafficking.
8 A person is guilty of predatory sex trafficking when, being eighteen
9 years old or more, such person commits the crime of sex trafficking of a
10 child or vulnerable person.
11 Predatory sex trafficking is a class A-II felony.
12 § 3. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall
13 have become a law.
