United States of America v. Joshua Schatz

In the
United States Court of Appeals
For the Seventh Circuit
____________________
No. 24-2252
U NITED S TATES OF A MERICA,
Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
JOSHUA S CHATZ ,
Defendant-Appellant.
____________________
Appeal from the United States District Court for the
Southern District of Indiana, Terre Haute Division.
No. 2:24-cr-00001 — James R. Sweeney, II, Chief Judge.
____________________
A RGUED NOVEMBER 12, 2025 — DECIDED J UNE 9, 2026
____________________
Before R OVNER , PRYOR , and K OLAR , Circuit Judges.
K OLAR , Circuit Judge. Defendant Joshua Schatz pled guilty
to one count of possessing child pornography in violation of
18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(5)(B). Convictions under that statute are
subject to an enhanced mandatory minimum sentence when
a defendant has a prior state conviction “relating to aggra-
vated sexual abuse, sexual abuse, or abusive sexual conduct
involving a minor or ward.” 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(b)(2). We are
asked to decide whether the district court properly found that

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2 No. 24-2252
Schatz’s prior conviction for child molesting under Indiana
Code § 35-42-4-3(b) (hereinafter “§ 3(b)”) triggers this en-
hancement. This requires a finding, under the “categorical ap-
proach” established by Taylor v. United States, 495 U.S. 575
(1990), that all violations of § 3(b) “relate to” the conduct de-
scribed in 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(b)(2).
While this case requires a new application of the “categor-
ical approach,” we are guided by our recent en banc decision
in United States v. Liestman, 97 F.4th 1054 (7th Cir. 2024). There,
we held that a prior state conviction for possessing child por-
nography triggered a nearly identical enhanced mandatory
minimum under 18 U.S.C. § 2252(b)(1). In doing so, we inter-
preted the “relating to” language in § 2252(b)(1) to carry its
broad, ordinary meaning, rejecting a strict “congruence” be-
tween a state and federal offenses. Id. at 1062.
Liestman requires a similarly broad reading of
§ 2252A(b)(2), and under that broad reading all violations of
§ 3(b) “relat[e] to aggravated sexual abuse, sexual abuse, or
abusive sexual conduct involving a minor or ward.” Accord-
ingly, we affirm.
I. Background
Schatz was charged with one count of possessing child
pornography under 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(5)(B). He swiftly
pled guilty, preserving his right to appeal the application of
the enhanced mandatory minimum under § 2252A(b)(2). The
statutory enhancement provides that:
[I]f such person has a prior conviction under …
the laws of any State relating to aggravated sex-
ual abuse, sexual abuse, or abusive sexual

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No. 24-2252 3
conduct involving a minor or ward, or the pro-
duction, possession, receipt, mailing, sale, dis-
tribution, shipment, or transportation of child
pornography, such person shall be fined under
this title and imprisoned for not less than 10
years nor more than 20 years.
At the time of his sentencing, Schatz had one prior conviction
under Indiana Code § 35-42-4-3(b) for fondling a two-year old
child. Section 3(b) provides:
A person who, with a child under fourteen (14)
years of age, performs or submits to any fon-
dling or touching, of either the child or the older
person, with intent to arouse or to satisfy the
sexual desires of either the child or the older
person, commits child molesting, a Level 4 fel-
ony.
Schatz argued that his prior conviction did not trigger the
mandatory minimum under § 2252A(b)(2). He argued that
because § 3(b) protects victims as old as fourteen, while the
equivalent federal child-sex-abuse statute draws the line at
twelve years old, see 18 U.S.C. § 2241(c),1 the Indiana statute
did not “relat[e] to” federal definitions of “aggravated sexual
abuse, sexual abuse, or abusive sexual conduct.”
But the district court, applying our decisions in Liestman
and United States v. Kraemer, 933 F.3d 675 (7th Cir. 2019), held
that § 3(b) triggered the enhancement despite the slight
1 For minors between the ages of twelve and sixteen, federal law also
prohibits “sexual abuse,” but only where the offender is at least four years
older than the victim. See 18 U.S.C. §§ 2241(c), 2243(a). Section 3(b) con-
tains no such age-difference requirement.

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4 No. 24-2252
incongruence between state and federal prohibitions. It held
that, reading “relating to” broadly, the differences in victim
ages were immaterial, and sentenced Schatz to ten years—
consistent with the mandatory minimum. Without the man-
datory minimum, Schatz’s guideline range would have been
63 to 78 months’ imprisonment. Schatz appeals only the ap-
plication of the statutory minimum to his sentence, which was
carved out of the more general appellate waiver in his plea
agreement.
II. Discussion
Schatz’s appeal raises an issue of statutory interpretation:
whether a conviction under Indiana Code § 35-42-4-3(b) trig-
gers § 2252A(b)(2)’s enhancement for previous state convic-
tions “relating to” child sex abuse. We review issues of statu-
tory interpretation at sentencing de novo. United States v.
McSwain, 25 F.4th 533, 537 (7th Cir. 2022).
Section 2252A(b)(2) is one among many provisions of the
federal criminal code that enhances the minimum sentence
for a defendant who has a prior conviction meeting a certain
criterion or “benchmark.” See Liestman, 97 F.4th at 1057. To
determine whether a conviction triggers a statutory enhance-
ment in this case, we apply the categorical approach: “we look
only to the formal definition of the prior offense, cutting real-
world facts out of the equation.” Id. at 1056. “[A] prior offense
can trigger a statutory consequence only if its statutory ele-
ments are defined in such a way that all possible violations of
the statute, however committed, would fall within Congress’s
chosen federal benchmark.” Id. at 1056–57. This means we
look to the “least serious conduct” that can violate the statute

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No. 24-2252 5
and determine if that conduct fits or exceeds the scope of the
benchmark. Id. at 1065.
In the classic case, Congress may choose a specific offense
or set of offenses—such as “burglary, arson, or extortion”—as
the federal benchmark triggering an enhancement. See Taylor,
495 U.S. at 578 (applying 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)). Applying the cat-
egorical approach in that posture is relatively straightfor-
ward: “we compare the elements of the defendant’s prior con-
viction with the elements of the applicable federal offense.”
Kraemer, 933 F.3d at 679; see Taylor, 495 U.S. at 599. And “[i]f
the state statute of conviction has the same elements as the
applicable federal offense, the prior conviction can serve as a
predicate” for the enhancement. Kraemer, 933 F.3d at 679.
But here, the “federal benchmark” defined by
§ 2252A(b)(2) is more than a list of offenses. The enhancement
applies if there is an existing state conviction “relating to ag-
gravated sexual abuse, sexual abuse, or abusive sexual con-
duct involving a minor or ward” (emphasis added). Thus,
while separate federal statutory provisions—18 U.S.C.
§§ 2241, 2242, 2243, and 2244—provide elements for “aggra-
vated sexual abuse,” “sexual abuse,” “sexual abuse of a minor
[or] ward,” and “abusive sexual contact,” we cannot merely
compare elements. See Kraemer, 933 F.3d at 679–80. Rather, we
must first determine the scope of the federal benchmark—i.e.,
what “relating to” means. Id.; see also Liestman, 97 F.4th at
1060.
Thus, following Liestman and Kraemer, we take the categor-
ical approach in three steps: first, we determine the scope of
the federal benchmark and how broadly we must read “relat-
ing to” in the statute; second, we identify the “least serious
conduct” that violates the Indiana statute; third, we ascertain

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6 No. 24-2252
“whether that conduct bears the necessary connection to” the
federal benchmark. Liestman, 97 F.4th at 1065; see Kraemer, 933
F.3d at 679–84.
A. Scope of Federal Benchmark
The parties interpret the benchmark at issue—“relating to
aggravated sexual abuse, sexual abuse, or abusive sexual con-
duct involving a minor or ward”—in contrary ways. Schatz
argues that “relating to” is descriptive rather than expansive,
and a prior state conviction must be strictly congruent with
federal definition of aggravated sexual abuse (18 U.S.C.
§ 2241), sexual abuse (18 U.S.C. §§ 2242, 2243), or abusive sex-
ual contact (18 U.S.C. § 2244) to trigger the enhancement. The
government counters that “relating to” should be given its or-
dinary, expansive meaning, allowing a degree of overbreadth
between a state offense and the federal analogs.
We do not consider this dispute on a blank slate. In Liest-
man, we considered a similar argument that “relating to”
should be read narrowly in 18 U.S.C. § 2252(b)(1), concluding
instead that Congress intended it to have its ordinary, broad-
ening meaning. 97 F.4th at 1064. There, the defendant had a
prior conviction for possessing child pornography under Wis-
consin law, and the government sought the application of the
mandatory minimum under § 2252(b)(1), which applies to
any conviction “relating to ... the production, possession, re-
ceipt, mailing, sale, distribution, shipment, or transportation
of child pornography.” Id. at 1056. The defendant argued that
the Wisconsin statute did not “relate to” federal child pornog-
raphy offenses because it criminalized mere “accessing” of
lewd images involving children, which would not be unlaw-
ful under federal law. Id. at 1065. But we held, based on a
broad reading of “relating to,” that the enhancement still

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No. 24-2252 7
applied because “accessing child pornography still clearly
bears the requisite connection to the possession or receipt of
child pornography” and “address[es] the same harm—sexual
exploitation of minors.” Id. at 1066 (quoting United States v.
Kaufmann, 940 F.3d 377, 380 (7th Cir. 2019)).
In understanding “relating to” broadly, we began with the
phrase’s ordinary meaning: “to stand in some relation; to
have bearing or concern; to pertain; refer; to bring into associ-
ation with or connection with.” Id. at 1060 (quoting Morales v.
Trans World Airlines, Inc., 504 U.S. 374, 384 (1992)). But under-
standing that the ordinary meaning is only a “presumption,”
we then turned to “other clues in the text, structure, and his-
tory of § 2252(b)(1), as well as its place in the overall statutory
scheme.” Id.
These clues also supported giving “relating to” its ordi-
nary meaning. First, we noted that interpreting “relating to”
broadly avoided conflating the phrase with narrower con-
necting language like “involving” present in other federal
benchmarks. Id. at 1060. Second, we observed that when Con-
gress amended § 2252(b)(1) to add “relating to,” it also added
an enhancement under § 2241(c) for prior offenses that
“‘would have been an offense’ under § 2241(a) or (b) ‘had the
offense occurred in a Federal prison.’” Id. at 1061 (citation
omitted). Thus, Congress “knew full well how to condition
the applicability of a sentencing enhancement on a prior of-
fense’s congruence with federal law” and chose different lan-
guage for § 2252(b)(1). Id. Finally, we observed that when
Congress added the “relating to” phrase, few states defined
child pornography as narrowly as federal law did; we resisted
a “cramped” interpretation of “relating to” that would mean
“this portion of the enhancement had no effect in the vast

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8 No. 24-2252
majority of states at the time Congress expanded § 2252(b)(1)
to cover state offenses.” Id.
Liestman’s broad reading of “relating to” in 18 U.S.C.
§ 2252(b)(1) forecloses Schatz’s arguments for a narrow read-
ing of 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(b)(2). The relevant portions of the
two provisions are identical. The following text is the precise
language at issue both here and in Liestman, and is common
to both § 2252(b)(1) and § 2252A(b)(2):
[R]elating to aggravated sexual abuse, sexual
abuse, or abusive sexual conduct involving a
minor or ward, or the production, possession,
receipt, mailing, sale, distribution, shipment, or
transportation of child pornography, or sex traf-
ficking of children[.]
“Identical words or phrases used in different parts of the
same statute (or related statutes) are presumed to have the
same meaning.” Servotronics, Inc. v. Rolls-Royce PLC, 975 F.3d
689, 694–95 (7th Cir. 2020). And here, § 2252(b)(1) and
§ 2252A(b)(2) are more than related—they are adjacent provi-
sions in the federal code.
We could stop there, but even aside from the plain text,
Liestman’s reasoning based on the statutory context and
amendment history of § 2252(b)(1) applies with full force to
§ 2252A(b)(2). As with § 2252(b)(1), giving “relating to” its or-
dinary meaning in § 2252A(b)(2) avoids conflation with nar-
rower connecting terms. And Liestman’s reference to statutory
history, and the concurrent amendment to § 2241(c), applies
equally here—“relating to” was added to § 2252(b)(1) and
§ 2252A(b)(2) in the very same act. See Child Pornography

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No. 24-2252 9
Prevention Act of 1996, Pub. L. No. 104-208, § 121, 110 Stat.
3009, 3009–29, 3009–30.
We thus proceed with the understanding that Congress in-
tended § 2252A(b)(2) to apply despite some degree of over-
breadth between a state statute and federal sex-abuse of-
fenses. So long as the least serious conduct under § 3(b) “bears
a connection with” and “address[es] the same harm” as fed-
eral sex-abuse offenses, application of the enhancement under
§ 2252A(b)(2) was appropriate. Liestman, 97 F.4th at 1065–66
(citation omitted); see United States v. Wilson, 158 F.4th 888, 892
(7th Cir. 2025) (“[A] sufficient connection exists between two
laws when they target the same type of harm.”).
B. Least Serious Conduct
To determine the least serious conduct punishable under
§ 3(b), we begin with the plain language of the statute. The
statute prohibits “perform[ing] or submit[ing] to any fondling
or touching, of either the child or the older person, with intent
to arouse or to satisfy the sexual desires of either the child or
the older person,” where the child is under fourteen years old.
As Schatz observes, the plain text does not place any specific
requirements on the age of the perpetrator, sex of the parties,
or age difference between perpetrator and victim. And while
the threat of force, use of a weapon, or use of a drug garners
an enhancement under Indiana Code § 35-42-4-3(b)(1)–(3),
none of these factors are required for a conviction under
§ 3(b). Because of this, Schatz concludes that neither contact
nor age difference is required under § 3(b), and that a “seven-
year-old touching their own shoulders or feet … with
knowledge that it could arouse themselves or the other per-
son” is the least serious conduct.

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10 No. 24-2252
But determining the least serious conduct punishable by
the statute “requires more than the application of legal imag-
ination to a state statute’s language.” Gonzales v. Duenas-Alva-
rez, 549 U.S. 183, 193 (2007). Rather, there must be “a realistic
probability, not a theoretical possibility, that the State would
apply its statute to conduct” for us to consider that conduct in
the categorical approach. Id. The “realistic-probability princi-
ple considers the minimum conduct that realistically could
be successfully prosecuted under the statute in question.” Zara-
goza v. Garland, 52 F.4th 1006, 1015 (7th Cir. 2022). Schatz may
establish that certain conduct has a realistic probability of be-
ing punishable under § 3(b) if it “was so applied in his own
case,” of course. Gonzalez, 549 U.S. at 193. “But he must at least
point to his own case or other cases in which the state courts
in fact did apply the statute in the special (nongeneric) man-
ner for which he argues.” Id.
Schatz cannot do so here. Beginning with his proposition
that § 3(b) does not require physical contact between the of-
fender and victim, Schatz provides no example of a successful
prosecution under § 3(b) lacking evidence of such contact. In
fact, the Indiana Supreme Court held the opposite in Bond v.
State, 515 N.E.2d 856 (Ind. 1987). There, the defendant was
convicted of attempted child molesting under the version of
Indiana Code § 35-42-4-3(d) then in effect, which also pun-
ished “perform[ing] or submit[ing] to any fondling or touch-
ing, of either the child or the other person, with intent to
arouse or satisfy the sexual desires of either the child or the
older person.” 515 N.E.2d at 857. Bond argued that the evi-
dence—he had touched his own genitals in front of a minor,
followed her home, but did not make contact with her—did
not support attempted child molesting. Id. The Indiana Court
of Appeals affirmed his sentence, holding that “an adult

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No. 24-2252 11
commits child molesting when he fondles or touches himself
with a child if the person uses the child’s presence as an aid
to the arousal or satisfaction of sexual desires”—in other
words, that child molesting is a non-contact crime under In-
diana law. Id. (cleaned up) (summarizing lower court opin-
ion).
The Indiana Supreme Court, while upholding Bond’s sen-
tence, corrected the lower court’s analysis. It noted that, un-
der the Court of Appeals’s definition of child molesting,
“Bond did not attempt child molesting; he committed it.” Id.
The Indiana Supreme Court rejected the lower court’s conclu-
sion that child molesting is a non-contact crime: “We con-
clude instead that the child molesting statute contemplates
physical contact between adult and child.” Id. at 858. Thus,
Bond provides the contact requirement that may be missing in
§ 3(b)’s plain text.
Nor can Schatz establish that a conviction can be sustained
solely for touching another’s shoulders, sides, back, or feet.
He cites three cases—Altes v. State, 822 N.E.2d 1116 (Ind. Ct.
App. 2005), In re Brown, 703 N.E.2d 1041 (Ind. 1998), and Gil-
liland v. State, 979 N.E.2d 1049 (Ind. Ct. App. 2012)—for the
proposition that “fondling or touching” can include rubbing
feet or applying sunscreen. But the cases provide no such sup-
port. Altes upheld a child molesting conviction where the of-
fender “initially started rubbing [the minor’s] feet with his
hand,” but “moved on to her legs and eventually, started rub-
bing her bottom”—there is no indication in that case that rub-
bing feet alone would have resulted in conviction. See 822
N.E.2d at 1121–22 (emphases added). And neither Brown nor
Gilliland even involved prosecutions under § 3(b). While they
suggest that touching of non-intimate body parts could

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12 No. 24-2252
amount to “unwelcome sexual advances” (Brown) or could
support “knowledge of a ‘sexual relationship’” (Gilliland),
they stop far short of establishing that such conduct could re-
sult in a successful § 3(b) prosecution. Brown, 703 N.E.2d at
1043–44; Gilliland, 979 N.E.2d at 1062–63.
In contrast, Indiana courts have overturned child molest-
ing convictions where the conduct involved touching non-in-
timate body parts. See Clark v. State, 695 N.E.2d 999, 1002 (Ind.
Ct. App. 1998) (tickling underarms); DeBruhl v. State, 544
N.E.2d 542, 546 (Ind. Ct. App. 1989) (kissing neck); Jones v.
State, 990 N.E.2d 524, 2013 WL 3776991, at *4 (Ind. Ct. App.
2013) (mem.). To be sure, these cases generally turn on the
government’s failure to establish the requisite intent. But the
intent element is inextricably tied to the charged conduct in
child molesting prosecutions, where “[t]he intent element …
may be inferred ‘from the actor’s conduct and the natural and
usual sequence to which such conduct usually points.’” Nu-
erge v. State, 677 N.E.2d 1043, 1048 (Ind. Ct. App. 1997) (quot-
ing Pedrick v. State, 593 N.E.2d 1213, 1220 (Ind. Ct. App. 1992)).
In short, Schatz cannot establish a realistic probability of con-
viction under § 3(b) for contact with non-intimate body parts,
such as his examples of touching shoulders or rubbing lotion.
Schatz is correct, however, that § 3(b) may reach offenders
under the age of fourteen. In State v. J.D., the Indiana Court of
Appeals held that the statute applies “to offenders regardless
of their age and would even apply to offenders who fall
within the protected age group set forth in the statute.” 701
N.E.2d 908, 910 (Ind. Ct. App. 1998). The court accordingly
concluded that a minor could be charged as a delinquent for
molesting allegations committed between ages seven and
thirteen. Id. at 909, 912. This conclusion was reaffirmed in

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No. 24-2252 13
C.D.H. v. State, where the Indiana Court of Appeals upheld
§ 3(b) charges brought in juvenile court against a ten-year-old
boy for allegedly molesting a ten-year-old girl. 860 N.E.2d
608, 609–10 (Ind. Ct. App. 2007). The court clarified that § 3(b)
only requires the offender be older than the victim, and that
“when the legislature amended the child molestation statute
in 1994, it did away with its requirement that the offender be
of any particular age.” Id. at 611.
The government argues that we should ignore J.D. and
C.D.H. under the categorical approach because they involve
adjudications of juvenile delinquency, not adult convictions.
It cites to United States v. Gauld, where the Eighth Circuit held
that a defendant’s prior juvenile adjudication did not count as
a “prior conviction” for the purposes of the § 2252(b)(1) en-
hancement. 865 F.3d 1030, 1032 (8th Cir. 2017). But the gov-
ernment conflates whether a defendant’s prior adjudication
counts as a “prior conviction” with determining the “least se-
rious conduct” that is “covered” by the statute. See Liestman,
97 F.4th at 1065. No court, to our knowledge, has done as the
government suggests and drawn a line excluding conduct
from the categorical approach that would—as a matter of a
state’s criminal procedure—be adjudicated in juvenile court.
Doing so would add new variables to the categorical ap-
proach, which already commands its own fair share of “con-
sternation.” Id. at 1056. For example, as Schatz observes, Indi-
ana law provides that some minor offenders above the age of
fourteen may be waived into adult court if their offense meets
certain criteria. See Ind. Code § 31-30-3-2. Ruling out conduct
by minors because it would be subject to juvenile adjudication
raises the prospect of ruling in conduct by a minor who was
waived into adult court. We requested supplemental briefing

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14 No. 24-2252
on what this analysis might look like, and the parties put forth
compelling reasons why either result—excluding juvenile ad-
judications or considering juvenile waiver—would make it
difficult to apply the categorical approach while “cutting real-
world facts out of the equation.” Liestman, 97 F.4th at 1056.
We need not resolve in this case, however, whether con-
duct that would be subject to juvenile adjudication under
state law should be excluded from the categorical approach,
or how to evaluate conduct that may be subject to waiver into
adult court. Even assuming in Schatz’s favor that conduct
subject to juvenile adjudication counts for determining the
“least serious conduct” covered by § 3(b), that conduct still—
as we explain in the next section—“relates to” sexual abuse of
children. Thus, we assume without deciding that conduct by
individuals under the age of fourteen, regardless of whether
such conduct would be subject to juvenile adjudication or
waiver into adult court, is “covered” by § 3(b). Given that as-
sumption, the “least serious conduct” that has a realistic prob-
ability of conviction based on the available caselaw applying
§ 3(b), for our purposes, is the touching of intimate body parts
between children of similar ages below the age of fourteen.
C. Necessary Connection to Benchmark
Having defined the relevant benchmark and the conduct
punishable under § 3(b), we turn to whether § 3(b) categori-
cally “relat[es] to aggravated sexual abuse, sexual abuse, or
abusive sexual conduct involving a minor or ward,” despite
potentially covering conduct between peers under fourteen
that would not be unlawful under federal sex-abuse defini-
tions. Under Liestman’s broad reading of the phrase “relating
to,” we conclude that it nevertheless does.

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No. 24-2252 15
For one, the conduct in question “bears a connection” to
the conduct described in 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(b)(2). Specifically,
§ 2241(c), which defines “aggravated sexual abuse,” makes it
unlawful to “knowingly engage[] in a sexual act with another
person who has not attained the age of 12 years.” As dis-
cussed above, the minimum conduct punishable under § 3(b)
requires some touching of an intimate area, “accompanied by
the specific intent to arouse or satisfy sexual desires.” Clark,
695 N.E.2d at 1002. To the extent that such touching may be
broader than “a sexual act,” the kind of touching necessary
for a realistic probability of conviction certainly “relat[es]” to
a sexual act. See Liestman, 97 F.4th at 1065–66. And though
§ 3(b) protects victims older than federal law (fourteen years
old versus twelve) absent an age difference, that is precisely
the kind of “overbreadth” we have held still falls under the
broad scope of “relating to.” Id. at 1062; see Kraemer, 933 F.3d
at 684 (“Mr. Kraemer’s Wisconsin conviction for first-degree
sexual assault is one ‘relating to’ abusive sexual conduct in-
volving a minor despite a slight difference in the maximum
age of the victim under state and federal law.”).
Moreover, “a sufficient connection exists between two
laws when they target the same type of harm.” Wilson, 158
F.4th at 892. Even interpreted to its broadest extent, § 3(b) tar-
gets the same kind of harm as 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(b)(2). Section
2252A(b)(2) is aimed at the sexual abuse and exploitation of
children—§ 3(b) is no different. See C.D.H., 860 N.E.2d at 612
(“[T]he child molestation statute’s purpose is to prohibit the
sexual exploitation of children by those with superior
knowledge or experience who are therefore in a position to
take advantage of children’s naivety.”). Schatz does not
meaningfully contend that § 3(b), as applied in Indiana cases

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16 No. 24-2252
and actual prosecutions, diverts from the fundamental pur-
pose of federal child-sexual-abuse statutes.
Instead, Schatz argues that our decision in United States v.
Osborne, 551 F.3d 718 (7th Cir. 2009), demands a holding that
§ 3(b) does not relate to federal sex-abuse crimes. In Osborne,
we considered whether a conviction under Indiana Code § 35-
42-4-9(b) (hereinafter “§ 9(b)”) triggered the § 2252(b)(1) stat-
utory enhancement. Section 9(b), a similar provision of the In-
diana code to § 3(b), provides:
A person at least eighteen (18) years of age who
knowingly or intentionally performs or submits
to any fondling or touching with a child less
than sixteen (16) years of age with intent to
arouse or to satisfy the sexual desires of either
the child or the older person, commits sexual
misconduct with a minor[.]
The only difference between § 3(b) and § 9(b) is the age re-
quirements for victims and offenders: § 3(b) protects victims
under the age of fourteen against older offenders of any age,
while § 9(b) requires that the victim be below the age of six-
teen and the offender be at least eighteen.
We held that a conviction under § 9(b) did not categori-
cally “relate to” sexual abuse. Osborne, 551 F.3d at 721. We
reasoned that, given the ages of the potential victim and of-
fender, § 9(b) could apply to “behavior common among stu-
dents in high school, such as kissing or petting ‘with intent to
arouse ... the sexual desires’ of either person.” Id. at 720. Given
that “[e]xploratory touching between students in high school
is not a form of ‘abusive’ sexual contact, as that word is ordi-
narily understood,” the conduct punishable under § 9(b)

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No. 24-2252 17
could not be said to be a categorical match to federal “abuse”
statutes. Id.
We also, however, identified several ways in which pro-
hibited sexual contact may be labeled “abusive.” Of note, we
said that “[s]exual contact with very young girls might be
thought abusive simply because of the victim’s youth,” and
specifically noted that “Indiana has a separate statute cover-
ing sexual contact with a person 13 or younger.” Id. at 719. It
is, therefore, fully consistent with Osborne to conclude that
§ 3(b) contains the “abusive” element—a “very young” vic-
tim—missing in § 9(b). Because the victim’s age is limited to
thirteen and below in § 3(b), the kind of “common” explora-
tory touching between high school students is not that stat-
ute’s province. Rather, § 3(b), as Osborne suggested, targets
abuse by protecting the “very young” victims of molestation
who cannot consent and for whom the touching of sensitive
body parts, even by a slightly older peer, can have long-last-
ing trauma. Id.
There is no doubt that the language in § 3(b) is broad. But
the language that Congress selected in articulating the bench-
mark for 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(b)(2) is broad as well. Given how
Indiana courts have interpreted the reach of § 3(b), and our
own caselaw adopting a broad interpretation of the phrase
“relating to” in federal statutes, Schatz’s prior conviction was
a categorical match.
III. Conclusion
The district court’s judgment is AFFIRMED.

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