Bill Text: MS HB571 | 2025 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Child grooming; create crime of for sexual offense.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Failed) 2025-02-04 - Died In Committee [HB571 Detail]
Download: Mississippi-2025-HB571-Introduced.html
MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE
2025 Regular Session
To: Judiciary B
By: Representative Creekmore IV
House Bill 571
AN ACT TO CREATE THE CRIME OF CHILD GROOMING; TO PROVIDE PENALTIES FOR THE CRIME; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI: SECTION 1. (1) A person commits the crime of child grooming if, with the intent to commit any sex offense as defined in Section 45-33-23 against a minor, the occurrence of which would subject the person to criminal liability, the person knowingly persuades, induces, entices, or coerces, or attempts to persuade, induce, entice, or coerce, a child younger than eighteen (18) years of age to engage in specific conduct that, under the circumstances surrounding the offender's conduct as the actor believes them to be, would:
(a) Constitute a sex offense as defined in Section 45-33-23 involving sexual activity the occurrence of which would subject the person to criminal liability under state federal law; or
(b) Make the child a party to the commission of an offense described in Section 45-33-23.
(2) Upon conviction for the crime of child grooming, the offender shall be sentenced as follows:
(a) If eighteen (18) years of age or older, but under twenty-one (21) years of age, to imprisonment for not more than one (1) year in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections or a fine of not more than One Thousand Dollars ($1,000.00), or both;
(b) If twenty-one (21) years of age or older and convicted, to imprisonment of not more five (5) years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections or a fine of not more than Five Thousand Dollars ($5,000.00), or both, for the first offense, and not more than ten (10) years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections for each subsequent offense;
(3) It is an affirmative defense to prosecution under this section that the actor is under the age of eighteen (18) and:
(a) The actor engaged in conduct described in subsection (1) with another child under the age of eighteen (18) who is not more than three (3) years older or younger than the actor and with whom the actor had a dating relationship at the time of the offense; or
(b) Who was the spouse of the person at the time of the offense; and
(c) The conduct occurred only between the person and the other child described in subsection (1).
SECTION 2. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2025.
