In Georgia, people can be charged with incest if they have sex with a relative who is related by blood or marriage, but the law stops short of banning sex between adopted family members.
Senate Bill 335, which passed the Georgia Senate unanimously on Wednesday, aims to fix that “loophole.”
Senate Public Safety Chairman John Albers, a Roswell Republican, told his colleagues that people who have sex with adopted family members should be charged with incest.
“Adoptive parents that will start either in fostering or go straight to adoption are true heroes to take a child and give them that home, and 99.999-plus percent of them do a phenomenal job,” Albers said. “However, there is that rare occurrence where someone has crossed the line and done something blatantly wrong.”
Most times, an investigation is done because it involves an adopted minor, but there are some instances where the victim of incest is an adult, Blue Ridge District Attorney Susan Treadaway told a Senate panel earlier this year when describing why the law was needed.
“For those not at the age of consent, which is 16 in Georgia, we have those children who have been adopted into families who are age 16, 17 and 18, who are being victimized by adopted family members,” she said.
While it remains illegal for adult relatives who are not married to have consensual sex, Treadaway said the only reason a relationship would be questioned is if someone asked a law enforcement agency to do so. SB 335 would also extend the law to nonmarried people who are related through adoption.
“There is almost always going to be some catalyst so that conduct would come to light (where) an investigation would even be necessary,” she said.
The penalties for incest would remain the same under the proposal. Currently, someone is guilty of incest if he or she “engages in sexual intercourse or sodomy” with a family member. If convicted of incest, they could be sentenced to between 10 and 30 years, unless one person is under 14. Then he or she could serve no less than 25 and up to 50 years in prison.
The bill now goes to the House for its consideration.
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