STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1088

                                   Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                     , 1999

                                   RE:  H.B. No. 273
                                        H.D. 2
                                        S.D. 1




Honorable Norman Mizuguchi
President of the Senate
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 1999
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Health and Human Services, to which was
referred H.B. No. 273, H.D. 2, entitled: 

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CHILDREN,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to create criminal offenses
for child abuse in the first and second degrees.

     This measure also clarifies:

     (1)  The use of force as justifiable with due consideration
          for the condition of the minor; and

     (2)  The criteria for extended terms of imprisonment by
          adding child abuse in the first and second degrees.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure
from the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney of the City and
County of Honolulu, Police Department of the City and County of
Honolulu, and three private citizens.

     Your Committee finds that the penal code is lacking in
offenses specific to child abuse and in punishment for those
offenses.  This measure closes those loopholes, serves as a
deterrent to child abuse, and punishes those who commit the most
serious abuses.


 
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     Your Committee notes that while this measure codifies penal
code changes that protect the younger segment of our State's
population, it does nothing to protect those teenagers who are
victims of child abuse.  Clearly, all of our State's children,
from birth to age eighteen, deserve the protection granted by
increased criminal penalties for child abuse.

     Your Committee further notes, however, that criminal
penalties applicable to the abuse of teenagers must be crafted
carefully in order to adequately address the problem that they
seek to solve.  Therefore, your Committee strongly suggests that
all due attention be given to examining an additional criminal
penalty that protects teen-age children from child abuse and
neglect.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by deleting its
contents and inserting S.B. No. 176, which makes the following
amendments:

     (1)  Changes the applicable age of minors from ten to twelve
          years;

     (2)  Adds a conforming amendment to section 706-660.2,
          Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS), relating to sentence of
          imprisonment for offenses against children, elders, and
          handicapped persons, by raising the applicable age of
          minors from eight to twelve years;

     (3)  Adds recklessness as an element to the offense of
          endangering the welfare of a minor in the first degree;
          and

     (4)  Clarifies the offense of endangering the welfare of a
          minor in the second degree by deleting section 709-904,
          HRS(1), relating to a person having the care and
          custody of a 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 H.B. No. 273, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that
it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B.
No. 273, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on
Judiciary.


 
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                                   STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1088
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                                   Respectfully submitted on
                                   behalf of the members of the
                                   Committee on Health and Human
                                   Services,



                                   ______________________________
                                   SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair

 
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