The Senate Judiciary Committee heard testimony Monday on how raising Alaska's age of consent to 18 would affect criminal investigations and prosecutions.

The committee took public testimony on House Bill 101 during its third hearing on the legislation. The bill would raise the age of consent from 16 to 18 with a six-year age gap provision. It passed the House unanimously.

Sean Case, chief of police for the Anchorage Police Department and president of the Alaska Association of Chiefs of Police, said his detectives anticipate only a handful of additional cases per year as a result of the legislation.

"The majority of our offenders in these types of cases are typically in their late 20s to early 30s," Case said. "They are adults who knowingly exploit the vulnerability of minors. These are not pure relationships. They are predatory dynamics that take advantage of youth who are still developing emotionally and cognitively."

Case said some rural jurisdictions have expressed concern that the bill will increase their workload more than in Anchorage. He said families in smaller, close-knit communities will be more likely to report to law enforcement.

Brenda Stanfill, executive director of the Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, said the bill would require mandatory reporters to report relationships that are currently legal. She said a therapist who learns a 16-year-old is having consensual sex with a 30-year-old boyfriend would have no requirement to report that to law enforcement under current law.

"If this was to pass, I would then have a requirement to report to law enforcement," Stanfill said. "So I do believe we will see more investigations looking into whether this is a relationship that should be further explored as a crime."

Stanfill said the bill is not intended to say that 16- and 17-year-olds cannot make their mind up about who they see and who they have sex with. It just requires that who they have sex with is not six years older than they are.

"What this bill is intended to do is to stop predators from preying on 16 and 17-year-olds who may find themselves in situations that they do not know how to get out of," Stanfill said.

Randy Brager, executive director of Abused Women's Aid in Crisis, said the bill gives the criminal justice system another tool by removing the burden of proving non-consent with 16- and 17-year-old victims.

"In most sexual assault cases, the question is not whether sexual activity occurred," Brager said. "Both parties often agree that it did. A SART exam may be conducted and DNA collected, but what does it actually prove when it tells us what we have already been told, that sex occurred? It does nothing to establish whether that act was consensual and that is where these cases fall apart."

Brager said Alaska has the highest rates of sexual assault in the country, yet prosecution rates remain in the single digits.

Several public testifiers spoke in support of the bill. Joey Telson of Ketchikan, a former law enforcement officer, said she was a victim of predatory behavior at age 16. Leila Johnson, director of a domestic violence and sexual assault shelter in Hooper Bay, said many of the survivors her program serves were first harmed as minors.

The committee did not take action on the bill. Committee Chair Claman said the bill would be put aside for further review.