Bill > A3301

Introduced Session

This bill creates the separate crime of victimization of a senior citizen or a person with a disability, which would be graded one degree higher than the offense that was committed. A person would be guilty of victimization if the person commits, attempts to commit, conspires with another to commit or threatens the immediate commission of an offense specified in chapters 11 through 18 of Title 2C of the New Jersey Statutes (criminal homicide; assault, reckless endangerment and terroristic threats; kidnapping and related offenses, coercion; sexual offenses; robbery; bias intimidation; arson, criminal mischief and other property destruction; and burglary and other criminal intrusion) against a senior citizen or a person with a disability. If the victim of an underlying offense is a senior citizen or a person with a disability, the actor would be strictly liable for the victimization offense and it would not be a defense that the actor did not know that the victim was a senior citizen or a person with a disability. Under the provisions of the bill, victimization is a crime of the fourth degree if the underlying offense is a disorderly persons offense or petty disorderly persons offense. Otherwise, it is a crime one degree higher than the most serious underlying crime, except that when the underlying crime is a crime of the first degree, victimization is a first degree crime and the defendant, upon conviction thereof, may be sentenced to an ordinary term of imprisonment between 10 years and 30 years, with a presumptive term of 20 years. The bill also provides that when the underlying crime was solely a third degree violation of N.J.S.A.2C:18-2 (burglary), it is an affirmative defense that the property entered was an unoccupied motor vehicle or other unoccupied structure. In a prosecution when the underlying crime was solely a violation of N.J.S.A.2C:17-3 (criminal mischief), it is an affirmative defense that no person other than the actor was present at the time the offense was committed. In addition, a conviction of victimization would not merge with a conviction of any of the underlying offenses. The court would impose separate sentences upon a conviction for victimization and a conviction of any underlying offense. A "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. A "senior citizen" is defined as a person 60 years of age or older.

AI Summary

Committee Categories

Reginald Atkins (D)*,  Alex Sauickie (R)*,  Dawn Fantasia (R), 

Reported out of Assembly Committee, 2nd Reading (on 06/24/2024)

Official Document