The response to the gaps in identifying and responding to our nation’s prostituted children requires action at many levels. The federal government has enacted strong victim-centered legislation; prosecutions of traffickers and pimps are proceeding. However, much remains to be done to fully realize the potential of the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act and provide the required protection to the victims of this crime.
The strategy is clear. PREVENTION includes proper victim identification enhanced by public awareness and training of those who interact with the vulnerable population of Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking victims. It is critically important to enact strong legislation that criminalizes traffickers/pimps and buyers while protecting victims. Additonally, PROSECUTIONS resulting in convictions with appropriate sentences are imperative. Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking victims require PROTECTION, including protective safe homes and tailored services that rescue and restore while removing the child from the control of the trafficker/pimp. Shared Hope International’s efforts in these areas are producing visible results, but the battle is ongoing.
Shared Hope International has outlined state and federal policy legislation recommendations. Federal policy recommendations have been tailored specifically in response to federal legislation against sex trafficking. However, because human trafficking legislation varies from state to state, our state policy recommendations serve as a guide for state governments to follow when instituting effective sex trafficking legislation.
We urge you to take action by contacting your Legislator, Congressman on Senator to emphasize the need for these policy changes in order to properly address the the crime of sex trafficking.
State Policy Recommendations
1. Overhaul of Child Protective Services Required
Child protective services regulations and protocols are sorely outdated and ill equipped to respond to the sex trafficking of America’s children. Nonetheless, a majority of trafficked children have had contact with CPS in some degree. Many are current wards of the state or were in foster care or group homes at the time of their recruitment and victimization through pornography and prostitution. CPS is underfunded and overstretched and desperately needs the training and resources to better protect their clients. Each state should review their child protective services statutes and regulations to ensure that specific protections for children who are sex trafficked are included. Florida’s example is a model of change for other states to consider.
2. Safe, Secure Shelters are Critical
Law enforcement are desperate for an alternative placement for the prostituted children they encounter every night and judges are eager to place children brought before their court on prostitution charges in appropriate treatment facilities. These children, as victims, should not be placed in juvenile detention. Safe, secure shelters appropriate for victims of trauma must be created to stop the cycle of victimization.
3. Conflict Between Age of Consent and Age of Minority Must be Resolved
Children cannot be prostitutes as they are incompetent to consent to commercial sexual activity. Many state age of consent laws undermine the federal sex trafficking law by allowing a perpetrator a defense that the prostituted child is over the age of consent. However, many states have enacted anti-trafficking laws that state that a child under 18 years of age involved in a commercial sex act is a victim of sex trafficking. Across the United States, an average gap of 2-4 years exists between the age of consent and the age of minority, creating confusion for many law enforcement officers, prosecutors and judges when determining the applicability of the trafficking laws. To eliminate this confusion and dissolve the barrier to protecting our teenagers, the age of consent should harmonize with federal anti-trafficking laws and be raised to 18 years.
4. Prostitution Laws Cannot Apply to Juveniles
There is no difference between a child who is raped and a child who is prostituted – they are both victims of a crime committed against them. However, many perceive the prostituted child as a criminal. Prostitution laws must be amended to clearly state that a person under 18 years of age cannot be charged with prostitution as that person is a child and therefore a victim of sex trafficking. The New York Safe Harbor Act is a good model for states to follow in protecting their children from the criminalization that prevents them from receiving services and appropriate protection and care.
5. Victim Compensation Funds Cannot Exclude Prostituted Children from Eligibility
Many state victim compensation funds prohibit a victim from receiving funds for services and care if they participated in a crime or were complicit in the crime which victimized them. This clearly applies to a prostituted child – a sex trafficking victim – who is often deemed ineligible for the victim compensation funds due to their involvement in prostitution. States must amend the victim compensation funds provisions to provide an exception for the sex trafficked child, thereby permitting the child to access the services they require.
Federal Policy Recommendations
The Trafficking Victims Protection Act is intended to reach all of the actors in a human trafficking situation – victim, buyer, and trafficker/pimp. However, in the case of domestic minor sex trafficking, it is only effective in reaching the trafficker/pimp. In its current form, the TVPA does not provide protection to victims because no funds have been appropriated for such services. Furthermore, the TVPA does not effectively address the buyer- the individuals driving the commercial sex act. The TVPA has been used to charge a buyer of commercial sex for sex trafficking in only a few rare cases. Federal prosecutors need direction and guidance from the Executive Office of the U.S. Attorneys to encourage them to fully utilize the powerful tool of the TVPA. Demand is the primary driver of sex trafficking – federal prosecution of buyers could be a grave deterrent to purchasing sex from a child.
Authorized funding for services for domestic victims of sex trafficking has not been appropriated. This means that foreign nationals rescued from trafficking here in the United States receives greater protection and more services than an American citizen or lawful permanent resident who have been victimized through trafficking. This is especially abhorrent in the case of American child sex trafficking victims who do not receive the secure, therapeutic shelter or services they require to heal from their trauma and become restored adults.
Federal leadership in the development of a proper legal process for the protection of trafficked children is critical. The current default placement is juvenile detention because states lack the appropriate placement facilities. Juvenile detention should not be a permitted placement for a victim of sex trafficking. The refusal to accept this default placement will drive states to develop alternative, appropriate placements.
The Department of Health and Human Services must recognize the evidence that homeless and runaway youth comprise the bulk of the sex trafficked children in our cities. As such, resources to prevent and rescue these children from victimization must be tied to the programs addressing homeless and runaway youth.
The Department of Justice in coordination with the Department of Health and Human Services must begin to comprehensively compile data on the numbers of trafficked American youth. Data collection can be tied to funding for state level child protective service agencies, as well as other agencies and organizations operating programs for homeless and runaway youth, drug treatment, sexual assault and molestation treatment, and other issues related to or stemming from the sex trafficking of a child. In addition, juvenile justice systems, including juvenile detention, should be required to report on the numbers of prostituted youth in their system. Only through a comprehensive collection of data will we understand the true scope and appropriately design protective systems and treatment for the victims of this crime.
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