Jackson Free Press

The office of Mississippi's Attorney General Jim Hood has long been an advocate for victims of crime in the state. As such, Hood and his team of attorneys write and promote new and stronger laws during every Legislative session.

This past year was no exception. Among the laws Hood counts as wins for the 2013 session are those in the areas of human trafficking, child pornography and domestic violence.

"We will see several laws become stronger July 1 thanks to bi-partisan support this past legislative session," Hood said in a release.

Among the bills Hood's office advocated was HB 673, which strengthened Mississippi's human-trafficking law. The bill created minimum penalties and established fines along with harsher penalties when minor victims are involved. Among its provisions, it also specifically provided for forfeiture of traffickers' assets and created a fund to be used to support services for victims of trafficking and to support the efforts to implement the tougher law.

"We focused on strengthening penalties for this crime and updated some of the antiquated language in our current law," Hood said.

Hood also revised Mississippi's domestic violence law to add human trafficking to the list of crimes for which the general two-year statute of limitations is not applicable and to increase the period of time for third or subsequent offense punishment increases for both simple and aggravated domestic violence from five years to seven years.

SB 2631 created A DV task force made up of 26 members to be appointed by the governor. SB 2197 revised the child-pornography law, and HB 710 expanded types of offenses under the crime victims' compensation law to include a child who is injured in the process of boarding or exiting a school bus in the course of a violation.

"This legislation was initiated to make sure that compensation benefits would be available for a child who is injured or killed when there is a vehicular offense that is a violation of Nathan's Law," Hood said.