This bill concerns human labor trafficking, human trafficking for sexual exploitation, and human smuggling. This bill: - defines terms; - removes the applicability of statutory defenses to offenses concerning human trafficking or human smuggling; - repeals a freestanding definition section and incorporates the repealed section's definitions into the human smuggling offenses in which the terms are referenced; - amends the following offenses concerning human trafficking, including revising the name and elements of the offense, and, for some offenses, requiring specific conduct for a violation:human trafficking for labor;human trafficking for sexual exploitation;human trafficking of a child (for labor and for sexual exploitation); andhuman trafficking of a vulnerable adult (for labor and for sexual exploitation); - divides the offense of aggravated human trafficking for labor or sexual exploitation into two separate offenses; - revises the offense of benefiting from human trafficking or human smuggling:to no longer be a separate criminal offense by removing penalty provisions; andto add human trafficking offenses concerning vulnerable adults to the list of offenses included in the statute; - creates the following new offenses:patronizing a victim of human labor trafficking;patronizing a child victim of human labor trafficking; andpatronizing a vulnerable adult victim of human labor trafficking; - amends the offenses of human smuggling and aggravated human smuggling to incorporate definitions from the repealed freestanding definitions section; - changes cross references in other statutes referencing human trafficking offenses to include citations to additional trafficking and patronizing offenses; and - makes technical and conforming changes. Recommended by: Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Interim Committee

Statutes affected:
Introduced: 26B-2-120, 53-10-403, 53-29-202, 53-29-203, 53-29-205, 53G-6-603, 76-1-301, 76-2-304.5, 76-3-203.19, 76-3-203.20, 76-5-305, 76-5-308, 76-5-308.1, 76-5-308.5, 76-5-309, 76-5-310, 76-5-311, 76-5-417, 76-14-202, 76-17-401, 77-22-2.5, 77-38-3, 77-38-601, 78B-3-113, 78B-7-201, 78B-7-502, 80-1-102, 80-2-301, 80-3-406, 81-9-402, 81-13-203