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

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

Sean Case, chief of 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. Case said the majority of offenders in these types of cases are typically in their late 20s to early 30s.

"These are not peer relationships. They are predatory dynamics that take advantage of youth who are still developing emotionally and cognitively," Case said.

Case said some rural law enforcement agencies anticipate a larger workload increase than Anchorage. He said families in smaller, close-knit communities will be more likely to report cases to law enforcement than in urban areas.

Brenda Stanfill, executive director of the Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, said the bill would trigger more investigations because mandatory reporters would be required to report relationships that are currently legal. She said a therapist who learns a 16-year-old client 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.

Stanfill said the bill is not intended to prevent 16- and 17-year-olds from making their own decisions about relationships. 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 Bredegar, executive director of Abused Women's Aid in Crisis, said most sexual assault cases involving this age group are already being reported but often reduced to he-said-she-said cases because prosecutors cannot prove lack of consent beyond a reasonable doubt.

"HB 101 gives the criminal justice system another tool by removing the burden of proving non-consent with 16- and 17-year-old victims," Bredegar said.

Bredegar said Alaska has the highest rates of sexual assault in the country, yet prosecution rates remain in the single digits. He said the bill helps close that gap.

Several public testifiers supported the bill, including Joey Telson of Ketchikan, a former law enforcement officer who 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 survivors her program serves were first harmed as minors in situations with clear imbalances in age, power or influence.

The committee did not vote on the bill. The committee will continue reviewing House Bill 101 at a future hearing.