The Senate Judiciary Committee heard laws Wednesday cracking down on child and financial abuse.
Three laws seeking to prevent and crack down on child and financial abuse garnered support in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.
They also drew emotional testimonies from victims of abuse or individuals who have had abuse negatively affect their lives.
House Bill 182, sponsored by Rep. Krista Griffith, D-Fairfax, changes child abuse in the third, second and first degree to child abuse in the fourth, third and second degree, respectively.
It also changes the new third degree child abuse to a class D felony from a class G felony.
Someone convicted of a class G felony could serve up to two years in prison, while someone convicted of a class D felony could serve up to eight years in prison.
HB 182 also creates a new crime of child torture, a class B felony. This class carries a minimum sentence of two years and a maximum of 25 years in jail.
House Bill 183, also sponsored by Griffith, would update the definition of child endangerment to include intentionally giving a child a controlled substance that the child isn’t prescribed.
It adds additional penalties depending on the harm to a child due to exposure to controlled substances, with a child’s death leading to a class B felony, serious physical injury leading to a class C felony, and physical injury leading to a class D felony.
Advocates for the bill spoke to address the fact that babies often have serious negative health outcomes when a parent is using cocaine, fentanyl or another controlled substance while pregnant or in the early years of a child’s life.
“In 2022, there were 62 reports of child victims of drug ingestions requiring medical treatment,” said Tonya Kelly, executive director at the Child Protection Accountability Commission.
House Bill 151, sponsored by Rep. Eric Morrison, D-Glasgow, aims to protect women from financial abuse.
“Financial abuse against women is a pervasive and alarming problem that must be tackled head on,” said Melanie Ross Levin, director of the Office of Women’s Advancement and Advocacy.
Financial abuse, she said, involves controlling or exploiting a woman’s financial resources, often with the intention to limit her independence, coerce her into submission or maintain power and control within an intimate relationship.
“It can manifest in various ways such as restricting access to bank accounts, undermining employment opportunities, ruining credit or manipulating property ownership,” she said. “It perpetuates a cycle of dependency and vulnerability, hindering a woman from achieving financial security, independence and overall restricts their ability to make choices that are in their best interest and prevents them from escaping abusive situations.”
The law adds the intentional restriction of another adult’s access to economic resources resulting in a loss of financial autonomy to the definition of abuse for protection from abuse proceedings.
It specifies that tangible property of the petitioner includes legal documents belonging to the petitioner. Under the law, Family Court would be authorized to order respondents to return specific legal documents, a practice that already exists, but is not in code.
Senate committees do not take public vote. Rather, the outcome of the bill is revealed hours after the meeting on the bill’s tracker which can be found on the General Assembly website by searching the name of the bill.
Several committee members acknowledged the importance of having laws that prevent abuse and establish proper punishment for abusers.
If released, HB 182, HB 183 and HB 151 will head to the Senate floor for discussion, and if they pass through the full Senate, they will land on Gov. John Carney’s desk for signature.
Raised in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, Jarek earned a B.A. in journalism and a B.A. in political science from Temple University in 2021. After running CNN’s Michael Smerconish’s YouTube channel, Jarek became a reporter for the Bucks County Herald before joining Delaware LIVE News.
Jarek can be reached by email at [email protected] or by phone at (215) 450-9982. Follow him on Twitter @jarekrutz
Share this Post