Bill Text: NJ A3720 | 2024-2025 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Creates crime of fiscal victimization against senior citizens or disabled persons.
Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-1)
Status: (Introduced) 2024-02-22 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Aging and Human Services Committee [A3720 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2024-A3720-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Assemblywoman CAROL A. MURPHY
District 7 (Burlington)
SYNOPSIS
Creates crime of fiscal victimization against senior citizens or disabled persons.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning senior citizens and persons with a disability and supplementing Title 2C of the New Jersey Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. a. Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, a person is guilty of the crime of fiscal victimization against a senior citizen or a person with a disability if the person commits, attempts to commit, conspires with another to commit or threatens the immediate commission of a theft offense specified in chapter 20 of Title 2C of the New Jersey Statutes or a violation of N.J.S.2C:21-17 against an individual that the person knows or reasonably should know is a senior citizen or a person with a disability.
b. Grading. Fiscal victimization is a crime of the fourth degree if the underlying offense referred to in subsection a. of this section is a disorderly persons offense or petty disorderly persons offense. Otherwise, fiscal victimization is a crime one degree higher than the most serious underlying crime referred to in subsection a. of this section.
c. Notwithstanding the provisions of N.J.S.2C:1-8 or any other provision of law to the contrary, a conviction of fiscal victimization shall not merge with a conviction of any of the underlying offenses referred to in subsection a. of this section, nor shall any conviction for the underlying offense merge with a conviction for fiscal victimization. The court shall impose separate sentences upon a conviction for fiscal victimization and a conviction of any underlying offense.
d. For the purposes of this section:
"Senior citizen" means a person 60 years of age or older; and
"Person with a disability" means a person who by reason of a pre-existing medically determinable physical or mental impairment is substantially incapable of exercising normal physical or mental power of resistance, and includes, but is not limited to, a person determined disabled pursuant to the federal Social Security Act or any other governmental retirement or benefits program that uses substantially the same criteria for determining eligibility.
2. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
The bill provides that a person would be guilty of fiscal victimization if the person commits, attempts to commit, conspires with another to commit or threatens to commit a theft offense specified in chapter 20 of Title 2C of the New Jersey Statutes or a violation of N.J.S.2C:21-17, identity theft, against an individual that the person knows or reasonably should know is a senior citizen or a person with a disability. Fiscal victimization is a crime of the fourth degree if the underlying offense is a disorderly persons offense or petty disorderly persons offense. Otherwise, fiscal victimization is a crime one degree higher than the most serious underlying crime.
The bill also provides a conviction of fiscal victimization would not merge with a conviction of any of the underlying offenses, nor would any conviction for the underlying offense merge with a conviction for fiscal victimization. Therefore, the court would be authorized to impose separate sentences upon a conviction for fiscal victimization and a conviction of any underlying offense.
The bill defines a "senior citizen" as a person 60 years of age or older. "Person with a disability" is defined as a person who by reason of a pre-existing medically determinable physical or mental impairment is substantially incapable of exercising normal physical or mental power of resistance, and includes, but is not limited to, a person determined disabled pursuant to the federal Social Security Act or any other governmental retirement or benefits program that uses substantially the same criteria for determining eligibility.
