Hawaii Revised Statutes
-read all statutes regarding prostitution §712-1200 to §712-1208-
§ 712-1202. Promoting prostitution in the first degree
- (1) A person commits the offense of promoting prostitution in the first degree if the person knowingly:
- (a) Advances prostitution by compelling a person by force, threat, or intimidation to engage in prostitution, or profits from such coercive conduct by another; or
- (b) Advances or profits from prostitution of a person less than eighteen years old.
- (2) Promoting prostitution in the first degree is a class B felony.
- (3) As used in this section, "threat" means any of the actions listed in section 707-764(1).
§ 712-1203. Promoting prostitution in the second degree
- (1) A person commits the offense of promoting prostitution in the second degree if the person knowingly advances or profits from prostitution by managing, supervising, controlling, or owning, either alone or in association with others, a house of prostitution or a prostitution business or enterprise involving prostitution activity by two or more prostituted persons.
- (2) Promoting prostitution in the second degree is a class C felony.
§ 712-1204. Promoting prostitution in the third degree
- (1) A person commits the offense of promoting prostitution in the third degree if the person knowingly advances or profits from prostitution.
- (2) Promoting prostitution in the third degree is a misdemeanor.
-read all statutes regarding prostitution §712-1200 to §712-1208-
Some of the problems of using current statutes include:
1) Prostitution statutes place both victim and patron in the same criminal category making it virtually impossible for HPD to recognize prostitutes as victims. These are hardly victim centered laws,
2) Promoting prostitution statutes are NOT adequate in addressing Human Trafficking as they criminalize victims as "prostitutes," which carries heavy societal bias, and their penalties do not fit the atrocities of Human Trafficking. e.g. 30 months in jail and 3-5 years supervised release. *See Rodney D. King case for past example.
3) Most times, only promoting prostitution in the 3rd degree is applied to pimps/traffickers (misdemeanor), and,
4) These laws are not preventative so authorities need to "wait" until something severe like sex assault, murder, extortion, or kidnapping occur to pin the trafficker with anything worthwhile, of course to the detriment of the victim trafficked.
Intermediate Court of Appeals Rules
Hawaii's Street Prostitution Statute Ineffective
In April 2009, the Intermediate Court of Appeals ruled that Hawaii's Street Prostitution Statute § 712-1207 invalid in prosecuting patrons of prostituted persons and mentioned that the legislature never intended to punish patrons of prostituted persons with this statute.
The ruling highlights what abolitionists have been saying for years: our current state statutes are ineffective in prosecuting crimes related to Human Trafficking and therefore we need a Hawaii Human Trafficking Statute. However, what this ruling fails to recognize is the problem that state prostitution laws combine both patron and prostituted person in the same criminal category. P.A.S.S. seeks to distinguish victim from the perpetrators contributing to the demand for prostitution/trafficking.
-read the Intermediate Court of Appeals Ruling-
Hawaii's Current Promoting Prostitution Prison Terms & Fines 
- Prostituting a child under the age of 18 (or anyone who compels an adult through criminal coercion into prostitution or profits from that coercion by another) is defined as Promoting Prostitution in the 1st Degree, a Class B Felony, which carries a penalty of up to 10 years** in prison and up to a $25,000 fine*. (Until June 2008, when SB 2212 was signed into law as Act 147, raising minors' age to under 18, the maximum age defining a minor in order to prosecute a pimp/trafficker for Promoting Prostitution in the 1st Degree was 15 and under).
- Prostituting a child under the age of 18 (or anyone who profits from prostitution by managing, supervising, controlling, or owning, either alone or in association with others, a house of prostitution or a prostitution business or enterprise involving prostitution) is defined as Promoting Prostitution in the 2nd Degree, a Class C Felony, which carries a penalty of up to 5 years** in prison and a $10,000 fine*.
- Anyone who knowingly advances or profits from prostitution is Promoting Prostitution in the 3rd Degree, a Misdemeanor which carries a prison term of not more than 1 year** and up to a $2,000 fine*.
- The current penalty for "Johns" or clients who solicit sex from a prostituted person is a Petty Misdemeanor which carries a prison term of not more than 30 days or probation and a mandatory $500 fine.
* Courts usually make the determinations of fines imposed.
** Minimum length of imprisonment is determined by the Hawaii Paroling Authority.
Hawaii Revised Statutes - Terms of Imprisonment HRS 706—659 (Class A Felony)
Hawaii Revised Statutes - Terms of Imprisonment HRS 706—660 (Class B & C Felonies)
Hawaii Revised Statutes - Terms of Imprisonment HRS 706—663 (Misdemeanor & Petty Misdemeanor)
P.A.S.S. believes that the current state penalties do not fit the crime of sex-trafficking and must be raised significantly to be just. P.A.S.S.'s local anti-trafficking legislation would carry the highest state penalty for pimps/traffickers of 20 years in prison with no parole and a $25,000 fine (Class A Felony) as mirrored by Federal Law (18 U.S.C. Section 2422(a)) maximum penalty up to 20 years for pimps/traffickers; (18 U.S.C. Section 1591), for trafficking minors under 14, or with force, minimum 15 years to life term; for trafficking minors between the ages of 14 to 18 years of age: 10 years to life term.
-Read About Past Human Trafficking Bills &
Access the Hawaii Anti-Trafficking Task Force Reports to the State Legislature-