Legal Momentum's Legal Director, Jennifer Becker, testified yesterday in front of the New Jersey Senate Judiciary Committee about a bill establishing the crime of sexual extortion. The bill would specifically make it a third-degree crime to coerce a victim into acquiescing to sexual requests by threatening to release sexual images of the victim, or by threatening the victim’s “person, property, or reputation.” The offense would become a second-degree crime if the victim is a minor. The bill passed unanimously in the Committee and now advances to the Senate for a full vote. 

“Sexual extortion doesn’t fit squarely within New Jersey’s criminal laws,” testified Jennifer Becker, an attorney at the women’s defense fund Legal Momentum, at today’s hearing. “S653 is critical to ensuring that the laws in New Jersey keep pace with the manner in which perpetrators are abusing victims.”