By MATT PIKE
Several new public safety laws went into effect at the end of last month in Missouri.
Two updated statutes, designed to protect children, increase the age of the victim of enticement of a child from younger than 15 years old to younger than 17 years old.
Seargent Shane Hux with Troop H of the Missouri Highway Patrol says lowering the ages widens the number of victims.
“You know whenever it comes to internet crimes, sex trafficking, which is always great that you encompass more children in those statutes,” Hux tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post.
Hux says one other update is to the sexual trafficking of a child first degree statute, which increases the age of the victim from under the age of 12 to under the age of 14.
Hux says increasing the ages protects more juveniles.
“Before, if someone was 16 years of age they would have not fallen under that specific charge of enticement of a child, because the statute said less than 15,” Hux explains. “So now it encompasses all 15- and 16-year-olds on that specific charge.”
Hux says an important part of the updated statute is the charges against those convicted
“Five to 30 years within the Department of Corrections if found guilty, but a minimum of five years without parole,” Hux says. “So, it’s not like someone is going to be sentence to five years and then be out in a year and a half, they have to do a minimum of five years.”
Also increased was the age of victims of child sexual trafficking from under the age of 12 to under the age of 14. The potential prison sentence has also been increased; a minimum of 30 years and up to life in prison.
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt.
