A bill that would escalate the penalties for repeated peeping convictions made it on Monday to the General Assembly's full committee on Courts of Justice, said Charlottesville Police Chief Timothy Longo.
The bill, if passed, would charge someone convicted of three peeping offenses with a class-six felony, as opposed to the current law which charges all offenses with a class-one misdemeanor. The bill would also require the criminal to register as a sex offender, Assistant Commonwealth Attorney Ronald M. Huber said.
Currently a class-1 misdemeanor carries a maximum sentence of 12 months in jail regardless of how many times the offense is repeated, while a class-6 felony carries a maximum penalty of five years, Huber said.
A number of Commonwealth statutes, including petty larceny and indecent exposure, carry a felony charge for repeated offenses, Huber said.
"This is the only sexual crime that does not currently carry a felony charge for a third offense," Albemarle Delegate Rob Bell said.
The bill would also require these new registered sex offenders to submit their DNA to the state offices, Longo said.
Putting offenders' DNA in the database would give the police an important new tool that would certainly aid in future investigations, Longo said.
With this new provision, Longo said the police could immediately attempt to match DNA found at crime scenes to the information in the database.
According to Longo, there is a common misconception that peepers are relatively harmless, but the police have studies that show that peeping can be a precursor to more violent sexual crimes.
"One concern is that this is a gateway crime," Bell said. "Peepers can progress to burglary and eventually sexual assault."
In particular, Longo said, the new bill would aid in catching the Charlottesville serial rapist because several analyses indicate that he stalks his victims before his behavior escalates to rape.
The bill, originally conceived by Charlottesville Police Sergeant Wendy Lewis in 2001, failed when voted on by the General Assembly's Appropriations Committee in 2003 and then failed again in 2004, Huber said.
Longo said he attributes the bill's failure in the Appropriations Committee to the approximate $240,000 cost associated with the imprisonment of the additional felons.
Bell said he is hopeful the bill will pass this year because, unlike previous years, there is currently a budget surplus and the General Assembly is reviewing all of the sexual assault statutes in the state and proposing a lot of new initiatives.
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