Stop the InJustice

Past Initiative

Initiative Update

Stop the InJustice evolved into Safe Harbor. To learn more about Safe Harbor laws, click the button below.

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Our campaign goal

is to enact non-punitive responses to child sex trafficking victims in every state

Punishing commercially sexually exploited minors creates social and legal contradictions that undermine the fight against juvenile sex trafficking— further harming victims and hindering a needed shift in cultural attitudes. This campaign is committed to developing protective responses and avenues to connect youth to trauma informed services and eliminating the criminalization of juveniles for the crimes committed against them.

From the Survivors

“We have children who have been victimized, raped- constantly, night after night, and then they come in contact with law enforcement and they’re arrested . . . that is backwards.”

Survivor

“Behind everything that is put on the face of a trafficking survivor, what they are really like is human. When you strip everything down, they’re not a bad person, they’re not a perpetrator, they’re not a delinquent. They are not somebody who has chosen this life. They are a child and they have had experiences that no child should ever have.”

Survivor

“What we do to children in this country is very unfortunate and they pay the price for what has happened to them. The buyers get to go home and live normal lives and continue in their marriages, in their jobs and careers, and are never affected by this. But while they’re home, you have a child sitting in a jail cell. And where’s the justice in that?”

Survivor

Over One Third of States

can still criminalize children for prostitution

JuST Response Webinar Series

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Video

|2020

Defining a Just Response – Trauma Informed Care

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Video

|2020

Developing a Just Response – Utilizing Private-Public Partnerships

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Video

|2020

Implementing a JuST Response – Policy and Practice

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Research and Resources

On Protective Responses. Use the following research and resources from Shared Hope’s Center for Justice & Advocacy to understand the issue of non-criminalization and the need for protective responses for juvenile sex trafficking victims.

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Charts

|2019

National State Law Survey Charts

National State Law Surveys identify state-by-state the enactment of laws satisfying specif...

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Fact Sheet

|2016

Policy Paper Fact Sheet : Non-Criminalization of Juvenile Sex Trafficking Victims

(2016) Discussing the social and legal importance of ending the criminalization of minors ...

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Report

|2016

JuST Response Protective Response Model

A protective response model to juvenile sex trafficking encompasses state and federal stat...

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Policy Paper

|2016

Policy Paper: Non-Criminalization of Juvenile Sex Trafficking Victims

(2016) Discussing the social and legal importance of ending the criminalization of minors ...

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SEEKING JUSTICE REPORT

Seeking Justice: Legal approaches to eliminate criminal liability for child sex trafficking victims. Seeking Justice is a comprehensive resource for understanding the various statutory approaches states have taken to eliminate a minor’s criminal liability for prostitution and other offenses related to their victimization. This report also examines the importance of incorporating a trauma-informed service response.

Toolkit

Report