State Policy
Click highlighted states on the map below for Shared Hope International research, legislation information and alerts. You can access Protected Innocence Initiative report cards other reports
here.
State Initiatives
Shared Hope completed national and local level research for the Departments of State and Justice. DEMAND. research and domestic minor sex trafficking assessments in locations around the country led to the National Report on Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking, which outlines the top policy issues discovered through the research. The most pressing policy needs include:
- The increase in specialized shelter care for domestic minor sex trafficking victims beyond the mere 100 beds specifically provided for these victims;
- The development of alternatives to a criminal justice response, preferably through a child protective procedure; and
- A prioritization and focus on the investigation and prosecution of demand (buyers of sex with minors).
The Protected Innocence Intiative Report Cards
(available here) measures each state’s legislative framework against the minimum standards outlined in the
Protective Innocence Legislative Framework Methodology, and assigns it point values that calculate to a grade: A-F. The report card strives to provide recommendations to improve a state’s grade.
Read
"A Legislative Framework for Combating Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking", authored by Shared Hope International's Linda Smith and Samantha Healy Vardaman, and published recently in the Regent University Law Review.
The Protected Innocence Initiative is a holistic strategy to promote zero tolerance for child sex trafficking. Under this initiative, Shared Hope International will release fifty-one (51) individual Report Cards based on the Protected Innocence Legislative Framework, an analysis of state laws performed by the American Center for Law & Justice and Shared Hope International. The Report Cards set a national standard of protection against domestic minor sex trafficking. Recognizing that responses to domestic minor sex trafficking must originate at the state level, the Protected Innocence Initiative begins with establishing the base policies needed in each state to create a safe environment for children in the United States.
The methodology was vetted by experts in the anti-trafficking field, including Ambassador Mark Lagon (U.S. Department of State, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Person 2007-09) and directors from the following organizations: the National District Attorneys Association; American Bar Association (ABA) Center on Children and the Law; ECPAT-USA; the Protection Project at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (Washington DC); Children at Risk (Houston, Texas); and A Future. Not a Past (Atlanta, Georgia).
Alabama
Alaska
Colorado
Florida
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Louisiana
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Maryland
Mississippi
Missouri
Nebraska
Nevada
New Jersey
New York
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
South Carolina
South Dakota
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Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
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