720 ILCS 5/11-14.4 – Promoting Commercial Sexual Exploitation of a Child

720 ILCS 5/11-14.4 – Promoting Commercial Sexual Exploitation of a Child

This law makes it a serious crime to help or profit from the sexual exploitation of children under 18 or people with severe intellectual disabilities.

This Illinois law punishes anyone who helps, organizes, profits from, or forces a child or a person with a severe intellectual disability into prostitution or sexual exploitation. It includes very harsh penalties, especially for repeat offenders or if the person forced into prostitution is very young.

(a) A person breaks this law if they knowingly do any of the following:

1. Help arrange or promote prostitution when the person involved is under 18 or has a severe intellectual disability.
2. Make money from any kind of prostitution when the person exploited is under 18 or has a severe intellectual disability.
3. Make money from prostitution when the person exploited is under 13.
4. Keep a child under 18 or a person with a severe intellectual disability locked up or controlled by force, threats, or drugs or alcohol (not for medical use), and then:
   1. Force them to take part in prostitution;
   2. Set up a situation where they might be forced into prostitution; or
   3. Make money from their prostitution.

(b) Giving drugs or alcohol to a child under 13 or to a person with a severe intellectual disability is considered without consent if done without a parent’s or guardian’s approval, or if done by the parent or guardian for illegal reasons.

(c) In most cases, a person can defend themselves if they did not have a fair chance to see the person and honestly believed the person was over 18 or did not have a severe intellectual disability. This defense does not apply to actions described in part (a)(4).

(d) Sentence: Punishments for breaking this law are very serious.

1. Doing what is described in (a)(1) is a Class 1 felony, or a Class X felony if it happens within 1,000 feet of a school.
2. Doing what is described in (a)(2) is a Class 1 felony.
3. Doing what is described in (a)(3) is a Class X felony.
4. Doing what is described in (a)(4) is a Class X felony, with a prison sentence between 6 and 60 years.
5. If a person repeats crimes from (a)(1), (a)(2), or (a)(3), or similar sex trade crimes, it becomes a Class X felony.

(e) Anyone convicted under this law for running a place where child exploitation happens or violating (a)(4) must give up property connected to the crime.

(f) A “person engaged in the sex trade” means anyone who performs or agrees to perform sexual acts for money or other items of value, including touching for sexual pleasure.

View the full statute here.

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