The Criminal Justice System in Sex Trafficking in the United States

Sex trafficking is a form of human trafficking and slavery where individuals are forced, coerced and frauded into commercial sex, according to the National Human Trafficking Hotline. This can involve people of any gender, age, race, and socio-economic status and people under 18 years old are considered victims of sex trafficking regardless of the use of force, coercion or fraud.

The city of Philadelphia’s Department of Health and Human Services defines sex trafficking as “the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for a commercial sex act.” This involves a web of traffickers that targets vulnerable individuals and keep them in the commercial sex ring with threats, violence, false promises, and debt bondage.

Sex trafficking has been classified as an epidemic in the United States in a report read in the House Rules Committee by the Just Ask Trafficking Prevention Foundation. The report states that the U.S was in the top three countries for human trafficking victims of origin. The report also cited a 2018 study by the Global Slavery Index that estimates about 400,000 individuals being trafficked into the commercial sex industry in the U.S. in a day. According to the NHTRC, California has the highest number of reported human trafficking cases with 749 cases, followed by Texas with 561 cases in 2019. Since 2007, the organization has had 56,504 cases reported to them.

Human trafficking is also a problem across different countries of the world. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime released a research report called a Global Report on Trafficking in Persons in February 2009 on data from 155 countries. The report found that 79 percent of human trafficking is sexual exploitation, which is the most common form, followed by forced labor which is 18 percent. By and large, there is not enough awareness about this topic in many countries to help law enforcement in tracking accurate data and curbing the issue.

Frontline, a PBS documentary station, produced a documentary about sex trafficking in America focusing on the epidemic in Phoenix, Arizona, a city with a high rate of the issue, with an inside look on the law enforcement’s efforts to curb the crime and the criminal justice’s process to bring the offenders to book. The documentary explored the story of an Arizona teenager, Kat, who was sold for sex to many customers across different motels and homes for many weeks until she was rescued after the police were alerted. The police worked with her statement to identify her pimps, level charges against them and arrest them to be prosecuted in court. The force also went through other means of fishing out other traffickers they found online and arresting them as well. The roles they played, in this case, were vital to getting justice for Kat and other trafficked victims. They attributed to the fact that the issue had become so rampant in the state that they had to step up.

The criminal justice system in the United States is theoretically prepared to handle human trafficking situations as the law permits. United States law states in 18 U.S.Code § 1591 Sex trafficking of children or by force, fraud, or coercion — the definition of a sex trafficker and their appropriate sentences, which ranges from 15 years to life in prison. However, these processes are quite long and don’t often play out as planned.

For example, it took about one to two and a half years for the arrested traffickers to be sentenced after arrests. The suspects sit in jail for that long awaiting trial and/or sentencing and the victim is expected to go through the rigor of seeing her abusers again each time their presence is required in court. This may be emotionally taxing for victims as it was for Kat in the documentary, which her parents attested to. If the victim refuses to testify and cooperate with the police and investigators, then the state has no case and the traffickers walk free, which happens most times, one of the documentary subjects said.

The United Nations report found that although convictions of the crime are increasing, it is not compared to the size of the problem and two out of every five countries covered in the report had not a single conviction. For such a worldwide issue, it has been getting little attention in the criminal justice system. In 2006, Caliber, an ICF International company, released a report about the role of law enforcement in human trafficking for the United States Department of Justice.

For the research, they held telephone surveys and interviews, legal case reviews and discussion forums with law enforcement agencies and anti-trafficking units in key cities across the country. They found that 44 percent of participants were familiar with the Trafficking Victim Protection Act and 58 percent indicated that human trafficking was a high priority in their agencies.

The report also included challenges with human trafficking cases that agencies faced like victim distrust, lack of resources and lack of training. At the end of the research aspect of the report, the research team provided recommendations to the force on how to better handle human trafficking cases. They include an increased understanding of trafficking and the role of law enforcement in it, redefining protocols for handling such cases and increased collaboration between essential workers in the cases including prosecutors and victim service providers.

As much as the role of law enforcement cannot be overemphasized in cases like these, the Just Ask Trafficking Prevention Foundation stated in their report that “often, we become reliant on law enforcement to fix criminal problems; however, the issue of human trafficking requires a multi-disciplinary, multi-sector, collaborative approach to truly be effective in preventing the crime.” It continues by saying that a lot of Americans are under or misinformed about human and sex trafficking and therefore, cannot take accurate measures to prevent and collaborate with law enforcement to handle such cases when they arise.

“One can only address a threat appropriately when they are aware the threat exists and fully understand the methodology of the exploiters, social determinants of victims and offenders, and the impact on the person and society,” it added. More awareness on this topic is needed in every sphere of society to shed more light on the issue, and prepare society to prevent and curb the issue.

I did not know that the scope of sex and human trafficking was this wide. It also seemed like an abstract phenomenon to me or something that only happened in other countries but I am aware of organizations that have stepped up to work with law enforcement to curb this issue and how well they are fairing.

I think the criminal justice system could be better on all fronts and especially on this issue, to provide more resources where victims or citizens can report crimes and get justice for wrongs done against them. Local governments can also do well to raise more awareness on the issue and empower people with the information they need. It is a public safety issue and should be treated as such.

Works Cited

Bill Woolf, Executive Director Just Ask Trafficking Prevention Foundation, Solving an epidemic: Human Trafficking in America.

https://docs.house.gov/meetings/RU/RU02/20191211/110314/HHRG-116-RU02-Wstate-WoolfB-20191211.pdf

Caliber, ICF International Inc., Law Enforcement Response to Human Trafficking and the Implications for Victims: Current Practices and Lessons Learned.

https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/216547.pdf

City of Philadelphia’s Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services, Human Trafficking Awareness.

https://dbhids.org/human-trafficking

Cornell Law School, Legal Information Institute, 18 U.S. Code § 1591.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1591

Frontline, Sex Trafficking in America.

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/sex-trafficking-in-america/

National Human Trafficking Hotline, Sex Trafficking.

https://humantraffickinghotline.org/type-trafficking/sex-trafficking

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Global Report on Trafficking in Persons

https://www.unodc.org/documents/human-trafficking/Executive_summary_english.pdf