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Child protective services (CPS) regulations and protocols are sorely outdated and ill equipped to respond to the sex trafficking of America’s children.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 efforts are a model of change for other states to consider.
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.
Many state age of consent laws undermine the federal sex trafficking law by allowing a perpetrator an affirmative 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.
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. Safe Harbor laws in each state would provide the necessary process to move a prostituted child from the juvenile justice realm into the child welfare arena.
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. The federal government can require this change as a condition for the funding provided to the states for victim compensation funds.
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