During the past year, Shared Hope International has dedicated most of its resources to a daring initiative that promises to change the legal landscape addressing sex trafficking of American children, called the Protected Innocence Initiative. On December 1, 2011, Shared Hope International released this groundbreaking research in the first-ever Protected Innocence Challenge.  Shared Hope also hosted a series of events last week including the Pathbreaker Award Reception to award Attorneys General for their leadership on the issue, a press conference at which the report was officially released to the public, and an executive briefing to discuss the findings of the report.

Children exploited in the commercial sex industry may be misidentified and arrested and prosecuted as criminals for crimes to which they cannot legally consent. Read on to learn how Shared Hope International’s Protected Innocence Initiative will work to address protective provisions for child victims.

The fourth component of the Protected Innocence Initiative is “Criminal Provisions for Facilitators.” Hotels are perhaps one of the most well recognized facilitators in the sex trafficking industry. At hotels young children are taken by their traffickers and sold to dozens of men a night. Airlines and taxis also act as facilitators in the sex trafficking industry.

Every year in the United States, officials estimate that 100,000-300,000 children are at a heightened risk for being forced into the sex industry, particularly children that run away or are abandoned by their families. In a country plagued by sex trafficking and modern day slavery, can American truly be labeled “The Land of the Free”? Learn more about how Shared Hope International’s Protected Innocence Initiative will work to strengthen states response through the criminalization of domestic minor sex trafficking.

Ever wondered how much it actually costs to treat a survivor of sex trafficking and how much money the U.S. has dedicated to helping victims of modern day slavery? Read on!