Sex trafficking in the United States is a form of human trafficking which involves commercial sexual exploitation as it occurs in the United States. Sex trafficking includes the transportation of persons by means of coercion, deception and/or force into exploitative and slavery-like conditions. It is commonly associated with organized crime.
It has been estimated that two-thirds of trafficking victims in the United States are US citizens. Most victims who are foreign-born come into the US legally, on various visas. The United States Department of State estimated that between 15,000 and 50,000 women and girls are trafficked each year into the United States.
The measures against trafficking of women focus on harsher criminal legislation and punishments, and improving international police cooperation. There are vast media campaigns which are designed to be informative to the public, as well as policy makers and potential victims.
History
Early American colonists were largely male, and some men resorted to force to procure wives. Native American women were often captured to be sold or taken as wives. Poor European women were forced to migrate against their will to the United States to be wives. African-American slaves were often raped or forced to "breed" with other slaves. Many female slaves (known as "fancy maids") were sold at auction into concubinage or prostitution, which was called the "fancy trade".Moon, p 235
By the 19th century, most of America's cities had a designated, legally protected area of prostitution. The Page Act of 1875 restricted the immigration of Chinese women in reaction to racially charged fears about prostitution, sexually transmitted diseases, and American cultural morality. The Donaldina Cameron House was founded by San Francisco women to help Chinese women forced into sexual slavery.
Increased urbanization and young women entering the workforce led to greater flexibility in courtship without supervision. It is in this changing social sphere that the panic over "white slavery" began. The term "white slavery" was used to refer to white Anglo-American women coerced into prostitution.
Numerous communities appointed vice commissions to investigate the extent of local prostitution, whether prostitutes participated in it willingly or were forced into it and the degree to which it was organized by any cartel-type organizations. The second significant action at the local levels was to close the brothels and the red light districts. From 1910 to 1913, city after city withdrew this tolerance and forced the closing of their brothels. Suffrage activists, especially Harriet Burton Laidlaw and Rose Livingston, worked in New York City's Chinatown and in other cities to rescue young white and Chinese girls from forced prostitution.Brian K. Landsberg. Major Acts of Congress. Macmillan Reference USA: The Gale Group, 2004. 251–253. Print
In 1910, the US Congress passed the White Slave Traffic Act of 1910 (better known as the Mann Act), which made it a felony to transport women across state borders for the purpose of "prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose". Its primary stated intent was to address prostitution, immorality, and human trafficking particularly where it was trafficking for the purposes of prostitution. The Act was believed to have excluded victims who were not young white victims, as women of color were often blamed, arrested, incarcerated.
As more women were being trafficked from foreign countries, the US began passing immigration acts to curtail aliens from entering the country. Several acts such as the Emergency Quota Act of 1921 and Immigration Act of 1924 were passed to prevent emigrants from Europe and Asia from entering the United States. Following the banning of immigrants during the 1920s, human trafficking was not considered a major issue until the 1990s.Donovan, Brian. White slave crusades: race, gender, and anti-vice activism, 1887–1917. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2006.
The 1921 Convention set new goals for international efforts to stem human trafficking, primarily by giving the anti-trafficking movement further official recognition, as well as a bureaucratic apparatus to research and fight the problem. The Advisory Committee on the Traffic of Women and Children was a permanent advisory committee of the League. Its members were nine countries, and several non-governmental organizations. An important development was the implementation of a system of annual reports of member countries. Member countries formed their own centralized offices to track and report on trafficking of women and children. The advisory committee also worked to expand its research and intervention program beyond the United States and Europe. In 1929, a need to expand into the Near East (Asia Minor), the Middle East and Asia was acknowledged. An international conference of central authorities in Asia was planned for 1937, but no further action was taken during the late 1930s.Elizabeth Faue. The Emergence of Modern America(1990 to 1923). Encyclopedia of American History, 2003. pp. 169–170. Print
Legislation
Criminal laws exist at both the state and federal level that may be used to prosecute sex trafficking offenses. In addition, the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 provides immigration protections to victims of sex trafficking who are not lawfully in the United States. To address the issue of sexual exploitation and sex trafficking of minors, the legal system operates through two interconnected justice systems: the adult criminal justice system and the juvenile justice system. These systems are responsible for investigating, prosecuting, and punishing offenders, as well as providing support and justice to victims and survivors.
The adult criminal justice system deals with cases where the perpetrator is an adult, and the crime has been committed against a minor. It comprises a vast network of law enforcement agencies, including federal, state, county, local, and tribal police departments, and specialized investigators who are trained to investigate crimes against children. The adult criminal justice system also involves probation officers, parole officers, and corrections officers who oversee the rehabilitation and supervision of convicted offenders. Prosecutors and defense attorneys represent the opposing sides in court, and judges make decisions based on the facts of the case and applicable laws. The juvenile justice system, on the other hand, is responsible for cases where both the perpetrator and the victim are minors. It operates with a focus on rehabilitation and providing support to minors who have been subjected to exploitation or trafficking. The system comprises specialized juvenile law enforcement agencies, juvenile probation officers, and juvenile courts. The goal of the juvenile justice system is to provide a safe and supportive environment for minors to recover from their trauma, and to prevent them from becoming victims of exploitation or trafficking in the future. To assist victims and survivors, both systems include victim advocates, who provide emotional support, guidance, and access to resources such as counseling, medical care, and legal services. They also work with law enforcement agencies to ensure that victims are protected from further harm and are treated with respect and dignity throughout the legal process. Overall, the legal system's response to sexual exploitation and sex trafficking of minors is complex and multifaceted, requiring the collaboration and coordination of a range of professionals across different justice systems to provide justice to victims and survivors while holding perpetrators accountable for their crimes.
Federal law Act 18 U.S.C. § 1591, or the Commercial Sex Act, the US makes it illegal to recruit, entice, obtain, provide, move or harbor a person or to benefit from such activities knowing that the person will be caused to engage in commercial sex acts where the person is under 18 or where force, fraud or coercion exists. This law only applies to interstate trafficking.
Monitoring sex trafficking The State Department publishes an annual Trafficking in Persons Report, which examines the progress that the U.S. and other countries have made in destroying human trafficking businesses, arresting the kingpins, and rescuing the victims.Soderlund, Gretchen. "Running from the rescuers: new US crusades against sex trafficking and the rhetoric of abolition." nwsa Journal 17.3 (2005): 64–87.Feingold, David A. "Human trafficking." Foreign Policy (2005): 26–32.Horning, A., Thomas, C., Henninger, A. M., & Marcus, A. (2014). The Trafficking in Persons Report: a game of risk. International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice, 38(3).
Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000
Under the Bush Administration, fighting sex slavery worldwide and domestically became a priority with an average of $100 million spent per year, which substantially outnumbers the amount spent by other countries. Before President Bush took office, Congress passed and President Bill Clinton signed the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA). The TVPA strengthened services to victims of violence, law enforcements ability to reduce violence against women and children, and education against human trafficking. Also specified in the TVPA was a mandate to collect funds for the treatment of sex trafficking victims that provided them with shelter, food, education, and financial grants.
Internationally, the TVPA set standards that governments of other countries must follow in order to receive aid from the U.S. to fight human trafficking. Once George W. Bush took office in 2001, restricting sex trafficking became one of his primary humanitarian efforts. The Attorney General under President Bush, John Ashcroft, strongly enforced the TVPA. The Act was subsequently renewed in 2004, 2006, and 2008. It established two stipulations an applicant has to meet in order to receive the benefits of a T-Visa. First, a trafficked victim must prove/admit to being trafficked and second must submit to prosecution of his or her trafficker. Due to language/cultural barriers, mistrust in the government, and fear of persecution, trafficked victims often do not want to prosecute their trafficker. This leads to their inability to obtain the visa. In 2011, Congress failed to re-authorize the Act.
Proposed legislation In September 2017, two anti-trafficking bills were proposed during a session of congress: the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (S. 1693) (SESTA) and the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (H.R. 1865). Although US Senators Rob Portman, Richard Blumenthal and Claire McCaskill authored SESTA specifically to strengthen existing laws combatting sex trafficking, the bill was mainly met with negative responses online, with many expressing concerns that they would endanger online free speech and social media by gutting Section 230, a law that enables platforms relied on by many users on the internet.
State law Each state has its own laws for dealing with trafficking within its own state. Prosecution may occur under laws that specifically address sex trafficking, or under other laws such as laws prohibiting commercial sex services, including prosecution for any acts of abuse or unlawful detention of the victims of sex offenses.
In 31 states, victims of sex trafficking may potentially be charged with crimes they were forced to commit.
Current situation
The San Francisco Chronicle reported in 2006 that in the 21st century, women, mostly from South America, Southeast Asia, and the former Soviet Union, are trafficked into the United States for the purposes of sexual slavery. A 2006 ABC News story stated that, contrary to existing misconceptions, American citizens may also be coerced into sex slavery.