The Utah Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force was established on January 19, 2000 as a program within the Attorney General's Office for the purpose of protecting children from sexual abuse and exploitation by offenders who utilized the internet to victimize them. [1] In their first year, the ICAC task force opened up 153 cases and made 40 arrests.[2]
In the following year, Rep. Duane Bourdeaux (D-Salt Lake) introduced H.B 181 Penalties for Soliciting Minors on February 1, 2001 during the 42nd legislative session. The offense of enticing a minor was created with statute 76-4-401 enacted to address the new and evolving threat of offenders using the internet to lure minors into sexual activity.
The rise of electronic communication, such as online chat rooms and text messaging, allowed offenders to initiate contact with children in a way that was not previously addressed by state law. Key reasons for the legislation include:
Specifically targeting the use of computers, the internet, and text messaging to "solicit, seduce, lure, or entice" a minor for sexual activity. As technology changed how people communicated, the Utah Legislature recognized the need for a new law to cover crimes that were being committed digitally. The law provided a legal framework to prosecute individuals for inappropriate conversations and acts with minors conducted via electronic means.
Previously, a prosecution might only occur if the offender completed the sexual act with a minor. The 2001 law closed this gap by making the act of online enticement a crime in itself, even if the offender is detected before an in-person meeting. The legislation also clarified that it is not a defense to the crime if a law enforcement officer or undercover operative is involved in the investigation. This provision supports police efforts to detect and prosecute these crimes using online sting operations.
Before the new law took effect, local prosecutors had to secure federal indictments, the state was only allowed to charge these men under federal law. The federal law had been useful in prosecuting these criminals but now state officials can investigate, arrest and prosecute locally. "The state law is timely and more appropriate to have in the books. Crime is on the rise and to have both a local and federal law is a plus," Rep. Bourdeaux said. "Now we have a state law that says it's wrong to try to solicit sex with a minor over the Internet," Murphy said.[3]
With passage of H.B. 181 and , H.B. 237, Sex Offender Registry, felony convictions of enticing a minor, 76-5-420 Lewdness Involving A Minor, and 76-7-102 Incest became a registrable offense subject to a lifetime registration. In 2021, Senator Jacob Anderegg (District 22) introduced S.B. 215 to amend the process for offenders on the lifetime registry to petition for removal after 20 years.
01/23/01 Numbered
01/23/01 Bill Distributed
01/24/01 House received from General Counsel
01/24/01 House read 1st time (Introduced)
01/30/01 House sent to standing committee
02/01/01 House Comm - Substitute Recommendation
02/02/01 Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee recommends H.B. 181, read the second time with Substitution.
02/13/01 read the third time, Sub. H.B. 181, as amended, then passed on the following roll call: Yeas, 70; Nays, 0; Absent or not voting, 5.
02/27/01 Senate passed, 1st Sub. H.B. 181, signed by the President and the Speaker.
Effective Date: 4/30/2001
In 2003, Rep. Duane Bourdeaux (D-Salt Lake) introduced H.B 334 which amended the offense of enticing a minor over the Internet to provide that an attempt, conspiracy, or solicitation to commit this offense may be prosecuted under this provision.
Penalties for soliciting minors, This act creates the offense and penalty regarding enticing a minor over the Internet for sexual activity. Amends 77-27-21.5; Enacts 76-4-401 Effective April 30, 2001 2001 Utah Laws 353.
Research Articles
Wolak, J., Finkelhor, D., & Mitchell, K. (2011). Child Pornography Possessors: Trends in Offender and Case Characteristics. Sexual Abuse, 23(1), 22-42.
Anthony M. Dillof, Possession, Child Pornography, and Proportionality: Criminal Liability for Aggregate Harm Offenses, 44 Fla. St. U. L. Rev. 1331 (2018) .
Olivia Cullen , Keri Zug Ernst , Natalie Dawes , W. Warren Hill Binford , Gina Dimitropoulos. 'Our Laws Have Not Caught up with the Technology': Understanding Challenges and Facilitators in Investigating and Prosecuting Child Sexual Abuse Materials in the United States. (November 26, 2020).
Carissa Byrne Hessick, Disentangling Child Pornography from Child Sex Abuse , 88 WASH. U. L. REV. 853 (2011).
Adams, Alison (2009) "Seen but Not Heard: Child Sexual Abuse, Incest, and the Law in the United States," Utah Law Review: Vol. 2009: No. 2, Article 30.
Cassidy Eckrote, Enticing the Supreme Court to Hold That Physical Contact is Not Required to Violate the Child Enticement Statute, 127 DICK. L. REV. 791 (2023).
Lewdness involving a minor became a state statute in 1988. It was added onto the list of registrable offenses in 2001 with the introduction and passage of H.B. 237 Sex Offender Registry. This change expanded the state's sex offender registry laws and was part of a larger trend in the U.S. toward stricter registration requirements, driven by public outcry following high-profile cases of violence against children.
H.B. 237 broadened the range of offenses that required registration, to capture a wider range of behaviors that legislators considered to be a threat to children. Increased media attention on child safety and the tragic stories of victims created public pressure to protect communities from sex offenders. This led state legislatures to pass laws that added more offenses to the list of registrable crimes, aiming to increase public safety and awareness.
Following Femedeer v. Department of Corrections decison on August 29, 2000, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the constitutionality of Utah's sex offender registration and internet notification scheme. The ruling resulted from the passage of H.B. 362 Sex Offender Public Records in 1998 requiring the Department of Corrections (DOC) to make public its registry of persons convicted of certain sex offenses. Unlike public notification laws in other states, Utah’s law did not require any sort of assessment to determine individuals’ risks of re-offending before publicizing their names and addresses.
The Utah DOC decided to satisfy its statutory obligations by posting the sex offender registry on its official website, thus making the information available not only to those who demonstrated a need to know it, but to anyone, anywhere, and for any purpose.
The court's decision spurred legislative action to amend the sex offender registration statute the following legislative session, which the Utah Legislature subsequently updated in 2001 to include 76-5-420 Lewdness Involving A Minor, 76-5-417 Enticing a Minor, and 76-7-102 Incest, as a registrable offenses.
The inclusion of "lewdness involving a minor" in the list of registrable offenses reflected a societal and legal shift towards treating offenses against children with greater severity and creating mechanisms to monitor and deter potential offenders.
Lewdness involving a child became a registrable offense to create a more severe punishment for specific acts of lewdness that target or involve children, even if the act itself does not fall under the existing categories of sexual abuse or assault. It addressed gaps in earlier laws by ensuring that lewd conduct directed at children under 14 carries mandatory sex offender registration.
On February 7, 2024, Rep. Colin Jack (R-Washington) brought H.B. 424 before the House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee to modify and tighten restrictions on sex offense laws with amendments to statute 76-5-420 lewdness involving a child. This bill expanded what kind of behaviors could be prosecuted under lewdness involving a child.
The impetus for this bill stemmed from two drag shows which took place in St. George, Utah the previous year on June 30, 2023 and September 25-26, 2023. These drag shows were colorfiul in nature and similar to what would be seen during Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Louisiana or on Fremont Street in Las Vegas, Nevada. These are not family friendly events, yet they were allowed to be held in family friendly areas.
During the Committee meeting, while the word “drag,” was not mentioned, it became very apparent on what Rep. Jack’s focus was regarding the bills intent. Rep. Jack detailed images his constituents sent him over the previous year from the June and September drag shows which spurred the reactions against the drag show.[1] H.B. 424 passed the committee on party-line votes, was ushered into the House and Senate chambers and quickly voted on. It passed the legislature and was signed into law by Governor Cox on March 13, 2024.
On May 17, 1996, President Bill Clinton signed federal Megan's Law, an amendment to the Jacob Wetterling Act, that set the guidelines for the state statutes, requiring states to notify the public, although officials could decide how much public notification is necessary, based on the level of danger posed by an offender.[1]
Under pressure from Congress, Utah passed H.B. 492 to come into compliance with the Adam Walsh Act. Rep. Paul Ray (District 13) introduced the bill to modify the Criminal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure regarding the registration of sex offenders and the content of the sex offender registry. This bill added statutes 76-5-302 Aggravated Kidnapping and 6-9-702.7 Voyeurism into the list of registrable offenses. The Rep. Litvak indicated that as a result of this legislation, Utah's rules will "be as stringent, if not more stringent, than other states."[2]
The 1998 amendments to the state's sex offender registration law expanded the scope of offenses that required registration and made several substantive changes to the registry.
2/1/2008 Bill Numbered by Title Without any Substance
2/1/2008 Numbered Bill Made Available for Public Distributi
2/14/2008 House/ read 1st time (Introduced)
2/20/2008 House Comm - Amendment Recommendation
2/21/2008 House/ read 2nd time
2/26/2008 House/ read 3rd time
2/26/2008 House/ passed 3rd reading
2/26/2008 Senate/ received from House
2/26/2008 Senate/ read 1st (Introduced)
3/5/2008 Senate/ read 2nd & 3rd (Suspension)
3/5/2008 Senate/ pass 2nd & 3rd (Suspension)
3/18/2008 Governor Signed
On May 17, 1996, President Bill Clinton signed federal Megan's Law, an amendment to the Jacob Wetterling Act, that set the guidelines for the state statutes, requiring states to notify the public, although officials could decide how much public notification is necessary, based on the level of danger posed by an offender.[1]
Under pressure from Congress, Utah passed H.B. 492 to come into compliance with the Adam Walsh Act. Rep. Paul Ray (District 13) introduced the bill to modify the Criminal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure regarding the registration of sex offenders and the content of the sex offender registry. This bill added statutes 76-5-302 Aggravated Kidnapping and 6-9-702.7 Voyeurism into the list of registrable offenses. The Rep. Litvak indicated that as a result of this legislation, Utah's rules will "be as stringent, if not more stringent, than other states."[2]
The 1998 amendments to the state's sex offender registration law expanded the scope of offenses that required registration and made several substantive changes to the registry.
2/1/2008 Bill Numbered by Title Without any Substance
2/1/2008 Numbered Bill Made Available for Public Distributi
2/14/2008 House/ read 1st time (Introduced)
2/20/2008 House Comm - Amendment Recommendation
2/21/2008 House/ read 2nd time
2/26/2008 House/ read 3rd time
2/26/2008 House/ passed 3rd reading
2/26/2008 Senate/ received from House
2/26/2008 Senate/ read 1st (Introduced)
3/5/2008 Senate/ read 2nd & 3rd (Suspension)
3/5/2008 Senate/ pass 2nd & 3rd (Suspension)
3/18/2008 Governor Signed
The Utah Criminal Code was adopted in 1973, it included a new provision for Incest under Utah Code 76-7-102. This codified incest as a felony offense. It was added onto the list of registrable offenses in 2001 with the introduction and passage of H.B. 237 Sex Offender Registry. This change expanded the state's sex offender registry laws and was part of a larger trend in the U.S. toward stricter registration requirements, driven by public outcry following high-profile cases of violence against children.
H.B. 237 broadened the range of offenses that required registration, to capture a wider range of behaviors that legislators considered to be a threat to children. Increased media attention on child safety and the tragic stories of victims created public pressure to protect communities from sex offenders. This led state legislatures to pass laws that added more offenses to the list of registrable crimes, aiming to increase public safety and awareness.
In June 1998, John Daniel Kingston, leader of the polygamist LDS sect based in Utah, commonly known as the Kingston Group or "the Order," was arrested for felony child abuse. [1] During the trial, new light was shed on the secretive world of polygamy and allegations of incest and child abuse within the Kingston clan. The case fueled public public conversation in Utah about the state's approach to fundamentalist polygamy, a practice long outlawed by the mainstream Latter-day Saints church. The case became about incest as Kingston's daughter testified about the inter-family relationship.[2] In June 1999, a member of the Kingston clan was convicted of incest with his 16-year old niece. At the time of the trial, there were approximately 20,000 to 30,000 polygamists with roughly 1,000 members in the Kingston clan.[3]
With renewed public attention on polygamy and incest triggered by the legal proceedings against the Kingston Group, several lawsuits and reports had detailed accounts of coerced, underage, and incestuous marriages within Utah-based fundamentalist sects.
The court's decision spurred legislative action to amend the sex offender registration statute the following legislative session, which the Utah Legislature subsequently updated in 2001 to include 76-7-102 Incest, 76-5-417 Enticing a Minor and 76-5-420 Lewdness Involving a Child, as a registrable offenses.
In 2009, the law was expanded to include acts of artificial insemination. This change was prompted by cases where incestuous relationships using artificial insemination could not be prosecuted under the previous version of the law, which focused on the act of sexual intercourse.
We use cookies to analyze website traffic and optimize your website experience. By accepting our use of cookies, your data will be aggregated with all other user data.