SENT. GUIDELINES: CHILD WITNESS - H.B. 5291 (H-2): COMMITTEE SUMMARY
House Bill 5291 (Substitute H-2 as passed by the House)
Sponsor: Representative Barb Vander Veen
House Committee: Criminal Justice
Senate Committee: Judiciary
CONTENT
The bill would amend Chapter XVII of the Code of Criminal Procedure ("Sentencing Guidelines") to require that a sentencing court score offense variable 5 for "violent crimes", to revise that offense variable, and to revise the conditions for applying sentencing guidelines points under that offense variable.
Currently, offense variable 5 is psychological injury to a member of a victim's family. Under the bill, it would be psychological injury to a member of a violent crime victim's family or a child. Currently, offense variable 5 must be scored for homicide, attempted homicide, conspiracy or solicitation to commit homicide, or assault with intent to commit murder. Under the bill, offense variable 5 would have to be scored for all violent crimes. "Violent crime" would mean the commission of a crime against a person in which physical force or violence was used or threatened.
Currently, a sentencing court is required to score offense variable 5 by determining which description in Table 1 applies and assigning the number of points attributable to the one that has the higher number of points.
Table 1
| Serious psychological injury requiring professional treatment occurred to a victim's family | 15 points |
| No serious psychological injury requiring professional treatment occurred to a victim's family | 0 points |
Under the bill, instead, a sentencing court would have to score offense variable 5 by determining which description in Table 2 applied and assigning the number of points attributable to the one that had the highest number of points.
Table 2
| Serious psychological injury that required or could require professional treatment occurred to a violent crime victim's family or to a child, if the injury to the child resulted from the child witnessing a violent crime | 15 points |
| A child witnessed a violent crime | 10 points |
| A child observed the physical results of a violent crime against a family member | 5 points |
| None of the above descriptions applied | 0 points |
MCL 777.1 et al. - Legislative Analyst: Patrick Affholter
FISCAL IMPACT
The bill would have an indeterminate fiscal impact on State and local government.
To the extent that the bill would require the court to score offense variable 5 for all violent crimes rather than only those specifically mentioned under current statute, it could increase the length of sentences violent offenders receive and therefore increase State and local criminal justice costs.
To the extent that the bill would revise the descriptions and point values under offense variable 5, it would have an indeterminate impact on State and local criminal justice costs. The proposed revisions could change the length of sentences that offenders receive, but there are no data to indicate whether the amendments would have an overall positive or negative impact on sentence length.
- Fiscal Analyst: Bethany WicksallS0102\s5291sa
This analysis was prepared by nonpartisan Senate staff for use by the Senate in its deliberations and does not constitute an official statement of legislative intent.