SUNBURY - Northumberland County District Attorney Tony Rosini announced Friday that the Pennsylvania District Attorney's Association has voted to support legislation to provide for specific crimes for assaults on children.
"It's amazing that Pennsylvania has never enacted legislation to specifically cover assaults on children," Rosini said. "We need this specific crime to protect our children."
Rosini said he has discussed the issue with state representatives Lynda Schlegel Culver (R-108) and Kurt Masser (R-107), who are both very supportive of enacting legislation that will provide for a separate crime for assaulting a young child.
Rosini said there have been some attempts to cover children in the crimes code. For example, Pennsylvania has an offense called endangering welfare of children. However, this offense only covers a parent, guardian or other person supervising the welfare of a child. It does cover an assault by any other person.
The district attorney said there are other provisions in the crimes code and sentencing guidelines that provide for enhancements for sentences or grading for crimes against children, but no provisions that help with the actual elements of the assault on a young child.
Rosini emphasized that what would be a minor assault on an adult can have serious consequences on a child. "Recently, we had an individual who threw a baby on a bed, causing the child to bounce up in the air," he said. "Something like this may not cause harm to an adult, but the child sustained bleeding on her brain. The long-term effects of this act will not be known for several years."
New laws proposed
Rosini said at the summer meeting of the district attorney's association, he requested his fellow district attorneys to support legislation that would help protect children my making assaults on children a more serious offense. He said the motion was unanimously passed as everyone felt that new legislation was necessary.
Rosini said he's hopeful that similar legislation can be introduced in the Senate.
The current proposed legislation creates two distinct offenses for assaulting a child, which is defined as a person under 12 years of age. The offense of "assault of a child" would make it a felony of the third degree to assault a child and increase the penalty to a felony of the second degree if the child is under the age of six.
A third-degree felony carries a maximum term of imprisonment of seven years, while a second-degree felony carries a penalty of up to 10 years incarceration.
The second proposed offense of "aggravated assault of a child" covers assaults that cause serious bodily injury to a child. Under this provision, intentionally causing serious bodily injury to a child would be a felony of the second degree, except where the child is under six years old. Then, the grading is increased to a felony of the first degree that carries a maximum penalty of up to 20 years.