Christine Raino, Author at Shared Hope International

December 20, 2019 by Christine Raino

When Difficult News is the Most Important News

Sometimes the most important news is the most difficult to hear. On the same day that Shared Hope International celebrated the release of our 9^th annual Protected Innocence Challenge report cards, we heard that the Kansas Prisoner Review Board had decided not to recommend Hope Zeferjohn, a child sex trafficking victim, for a pardon. After working all year to advocate for victim-centered, trauma-informed legislation, produce in-depth analysis reports, and support our partners in translating their strong laws into practice, this was indeed difficult news to hear. But it was also important to hear because it challenges us and reminds us of the challenge we face as a nation: how do we keep our focus on the purpose of passing human trafficking laws?

That purpose is, and always should be, to protect those who have been victimized and prevent others from being exploited. Most would agree that purpose seems clear and uncontroversial. However, as this relatively new area of law has developed and the knowledge gap about human trafficking persists in broader society, the implementation of laws developed for this important purpose has become increasingly complex and sometimes disconnected from the very purpose behind passing those laws.

Where this has become painfully relevant is in the context of sex trafficking victims charged with crimes as a result of their trafficking victimization. Trafficking victims charged as co-conspirators alongside their traffickers, or in lieu of their traffickers, is a phenomenon appearing in headlines, leaving many of us shaking our heads. We know this is not moving the fight forward, yet we also recognize the complexity of this intersecting victimization and criminal conduct. Simultaneously, we are also facing the fact that this is not an outlier case. Based on Shared Hope’s ongoing research into this issue, these cases are even more common than the headlines would indicate.

Evidenced by Hope Zeferjohn’s case, minors are not exempt from facing serious criminal consequences as a result of their trafficking victimization – far from it. Not only can minors face potential prostitution charges in 20 states, but the headlines also show that child sex trafficking victims are being picked up and charged as co-conspirators alongside their traffickers (e.g., see this and this), or are facing other serious charges that directly resulted from their victimization (e.g., see this, this, this, this, this, this and this). And yet, these cases are proceeding through the criminal justice system despite language enshrined in the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, the groundbreaking law that established the federal crime of sex trafficking, indicating that trafficking victims should be protected and not punished as a result of their victimization. According to the “Purposes and Findings” enshrined in Section 102(a)(24) of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000:

“Trafficking in persons is a transnational crime with national implications. To deter international trafficking and bring its perpetrators to justice, nations including the United States must recognize that trafficking is a serious offense. This is done by prescribing appropriate punishment, giving priority to the prosecution of trafficking offenses, and protecting rather than punishing the victims of such offenses.”

The Protected Innocence Challenge, which has focused on analyzing child sex trafficking laws in all 50 states and DC every year since 2011, seeks to advance that protective purpose of anti-trafficking laws at the state level. However, Shared Hope’s grades do not analyze the implementation and enforcement of those laws, including whether the laws are being implemented in a victim-centered and trauma-informed manner. For example, Kansas’ ‘A’ grade reflects the strength of the laws enacted to address child sex trafficking and respond to victims, including whether the law allows for child sex trafficking victims to be criminalized. For the last three years, Kansas has earned an “A” for having passed legislation that comprehensively addresses the crime with one glaring exception: Kansas state law fails to protect survivors of child sex trafficking from facing criminal consequences as a result of their own victimization. For the last nine years, Shared Hope has relentlessly called on legislators to develop statutory tools for recognizing and appropriately responding to sex trafficking victimization all in the hopes of ensuring that exploited children, like Hope Zeferjohn, are protected, not punished.

Recognizing that policy must be shaped by the realities of implementation and enforcement, hearing from those in the field who are on the front lines of fighting this crime is essential. To that end, Shared Hope’s policy work involves engaging with survivors, law enforcement, service providers, and policymakers. For several years now, Shared Hope has been convening the JuST Response Council, a group of individuals from around the country with expertise on issues related to juvenile sex trafficking. This group is geographically varied and they bring to the table a diverse range of professional and lived experience perspectives, including that of service providers, survivor leaders, government agencies, law enforcement, prosecutors, clinicians, policy experts, attorneys and others. Currently this group is working on field guidance for criminal justice stakeholders to help shift away from the type of retributive, victim-blaming, and not trauma-informed response that we see occurring in Hope Zeferjohn’s case. This field guidance has been the central project of the Council for over 3 years and we are excited to release the report in January 2020.

In addition to convening the Council to work through difficult policy issues, we have also been convening and consulting with stakeholders in the field for the past several months, including conducting a national survey/poll this summer, to understand how the Protected Innocence Challenge laws are being implemented. The field input we’ve gathered, along with a growing collection of unjust cases and a persistently low national score on victim protections, indicate there is a need to revise the Framework to deepen our focus on victim protections.

Therefore, perhaps it is the tragedy of Hope Zeferjohn’s case that answers our initial question. Human trafficking laws are designed to protect survivors; to keep our focus on that purpose, it is clear that we, as stakeholders, must make that the core purpose and goal of our work.

June 27, 2019 by Christine Raino

Research to Action Stakeholder Survey

Since 2011, Shared Hope International has been grading state laws related to the commercial sexual exploitation of children under the Protected Innocence Challenge Legislative Framework, which establishes the basic policy principles required to comprehensively address child sex trafficking under six key areas of law:

Criminalization of Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking
Criminal Provisions Addressing Demand
Criminal Provisions for Traffickers
Criminal Provisions for Facilitators
Protective Provisions for the Child Victim
Criminal Justice Tools for Investigation and Prosecution

During this time, states have closed gaps in critical areas, including enacting laws that specifically criminalize child sex trafficking, ensuring buyers of sex with children are treated as serious offenders, and increasingly recognizing the need for comprehensive, trauma-informed services. In fact, when Shared Hope first began grading each state, the national average was 59.1%; by 2018, it was 82.9%.

Yet, even as Shared Hope celebrates these achievements, there is much work to be done. To support the innovative work of those in the field and to drive the next wave of smart and sustainable policy change, Shared Hope is working towards the release of a new legislative framework in 2020 that will address some of the more nuanced and challenging issues related to child sex trafficking.

Since its inception, Shared Hope has been committed to doing research that leads to action. In keeping with this tradition, the revised framework will be informed, in part, by information obtained through a nationwide survey.

As a stakeholder in the fight against child sex trafficking, we hope you will participate in this 10–15 minute survey to provide valuable insight into the challenges and successes of implementing laws that combat this crime and address the needs of survivors. This research will be critical for developing a revised framework that connects Shared Hope’s policy work with emerging and established promising practices.

The survey will close on September 16, 2019. Thank you in advance for your participation in this process. We look forward to receiving your response!

August 1, 2017 by Christine Raino

Letter of Support for the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act of 2017

Dear Senator Portman and Senator Blumenthal,

A couple of decades ago sex traffickers and buyers conducted their illegal transactions in dark alleys and back streets. Today these criminal transactions have moved online. Although the location has changed, the crime remains the same and so must our response to those who facilitate and enable it.

In recognition of the tragic nature of online facilitation of sex trafficking, we thank you—and the broad, bi-partisan group of co-sponsors committed to protecting those who are bartered and sold for sex online—for introducing the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act of 2017. The undersigned organizations believe this legislation is necessary to close a legal loophole in the Communications Decency Act (CDA) that allows websites to escape liability for knowingly facilitating sex trafficking.

The CDA was enacted in 1996 to govern the nascent internet industry while promoting an open forum for commerce online. Section 230 of the CDA established immunity for “interactive computer service providers” (ICSPs) from civil and state criminal liability for third-party content in order to promote self-regulation by these online entities. However, over the past twenty years Section 230 has been broadly misinterpreted by federal courts as extending blanket immunity to websites that host ads where trafficked individuals are bought and sold.

Websites that profit from creating marketplaces for the sale and purchase of trafficking victims enjoy a lucrative business model—one with high profits and low risk. When states and victims have tried to hold these companies accountable in the courts, the CDA has blocked their efforts. In 2014, child sex trafficking victims asserted civil claims under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) against Backpage.com—the most extensive online marketplace for sex trafficking victims and the platform where the young plaintiffs had been advertised for sex—but their claims were denied based on CDA immunity. At the same time, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations was engaged in a two-year inquiry into Backpage’s business practices, culminating in a report on January 19, 2017 detailing how Backpage had knowingly facilitated child sex trafficking. Backpage has also avoided state criminal liability by attacking state laws in court and barring them from taking effect, also based on CDA immunity. Meanwhile, Backpage.com’s profits continued to rise from $71 million in 2012 to over $120 million in 2015. 1

This is wholly inconsistent with the purpose and protections intended when the CDA was enacted in 1996. As the Communications Decency Act began to make its way through the Senate, Senator Exon stated upon introduction of the bill on February 1, 1995 that the purpose of the bill was indeed to protect children:

Mr. President, the information superhighway should not become a red light district. This legislation will keep that from happening and extend the standards of decency which have protected telephone users to new telecommunications devices. Once passed, our children and families will be better protected from those who would electronically cruise the digital world to engage children in inappropriate communications and introductions. 2

The Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act of 2017 clarifies that Section 230 was never meant to automatically shield websites that engage in the crime of human trafficking from a civil lawsuit or state criminal penalties. This bill targets the business model of companies like Backpage.com, by opening the door to civil liability and allowing states to enforce their trafficking laws when online entities choose to profit from the exploitation of sex trafficking victims.

Enacting this legislation is critical to restoring the promise of justice for victims and holding offending websites culpable for their crimes. As sex trafficking explodes on the internet, accountability for online entities that facilitate this exploitation is an essential tool in the international fight against sex trafficking. We, the undersigned organizations, support this critical legislation and urge Congress to restore the human rights protections of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act that have been eclipsed by this misinterpreted immunity for entities that value profits over the protection of vulnerable people.

Sincerely,

Shared Hope International

PROTECT

Rights4Girls

National Children’s Alliance

Exodus Cry

50 Eggs Films

Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW)

I AM JANE DOE (50 Eggs Films 2017).
141 Cong. Rec. S1953 (daily ed. Feb1,1995) (statement of Sen. Exon).

Downloadable PDF of Letter of Support

January 10, 2017 by Christine Raino

Backpage.com Shuts Down “Adult” Section as Victims Pursue Justice

Overnight, Backpage.com announced the shutdown of its “adult services” section of the classifieds website. This announcement came on the eve of Backpage.com’s executives and general counsel appearing at a hearing today before the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI) to answer questions about the committee’s report stating that Backpage.com knowingly posted advertisements for the sale of sex trafficked children. Citing statistics from Shared Hope International and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that help demonstrate the scope of child sex trafficking occurring online, Senator Portman explained that the PSI report released this week provides substantial evidence that Backpage.com not only allowed advertisements for sex with children to be posted, but that the company employed “editing practices” that sanitized those advertisements and hid the sex trafficking of children from public view, and potentially from law enforcement.

When Backpage.com executives appeared on Capitol Hill this morning to testify before the subcommittee about the company’s participation in facilitating online sex trafficking, they declined to answer questions, asserting protections under the First and Fifth Amendments. While Backpage.com executives refused to testify, families of trafficking survivors testified and shared the stories of their collective 14 years fighting for their children who were trafficked on Backpage.com. Holding back tears, the parents of child sex trafficking survivors testified about the harm done to their children in an effort to help protect other children being exploited online through websites like Backpage.com. Senator McCaskill stated at today’s hearing, “We now know as a result of our legal battle that they did not turn away ads of children…they just tried to sanitize it…That is the definition of evil.”

Linda Smith, Shared Hope International President and Founder said after attending the hearing, “I was moved by the heartbreaking stories of these families who suffered immense pain as a result of their children being sold on Backpage.com. Their stories make it clear, even though we celebrate the closure of Backpage.com’s adult section, we can’t stop fighting until victims get the legal justice they deserve and Backpage.com can no longer hide behind the Communications Decency Act.”

Today’s events come on the heels of Monday’s US Supreme Court denial of review of victims’ claims in Does v. Backpage.com, and as Backpage.com executives turn their focus to tomorrow’s arraignment on new criminal charges in California.

Shared Hope International has been on the front lines advocating for laws to combat the widespread sex trafficking of children online, particularly through classified sites like Backpage.com. There are many fronts to this battle and Shared Hope remains committed to the victims’ pursuit of justice, as well as preventing further exploitation of children by establishing civil and criminal liability for these crimes.

March 3, 2016 by Christine Raino

Penalties Without Victim Protections and State Investment Fall Short

Identifying Effective Counter-Trafficking Programs and Practices in the U.S.: Legislative, Legal, and Public Opinion Strategies that Work is a recent study that examines arrests or prosecutions under state human trafficking laws and public perceptions of human trafficking. The key findings in this study point to the need for comprehensive legislation that goes beyond criminal penalties to include protections and access to justice for victims as well as tools for law enforcement and prosecutors.

The Role of Victim Protections and Need for Comprehensive Legislation

One of the most notable findings is the impact of incorporating “safe harbor” provisions and ensuring that victims can sue perpetrators in civil court. According to the report’s findings, laws that provide “safe harbor” and opportunities for survivors to bring their own lawsuits “strongly predict arrest and prosecutions.” This finding provides critical support for expanding victim protections and remedies alongside criminal laws by showing that access to justice for victims actually supports, rather than undermines, enforcement efforts.

Indeed, ensuring that victims are not treated as criminals is fundamental. The report connected non-criminalization of minor victims with increased cooperation noting that “safe harbor makes prosecuting cases of minor victims less difficult. Minors may be more likely to cooperate in an investigation and prosecution given the safe harbor guarantees.” When sex trafficked children are not criminalized for their own victimization, child serving agencies are not afraid to report the commercial sexual exploitation of the young people they serve. Similarly, when sex trafficked youth are recognized as victims and are able to access services instead of detention, law enforcement and prosecutors have the opportunity to develop rapport. In Demanding Justice Arizona, a field assessment of victims’ access to justice through demand enforcement in Arizona, prosecutors reported “giving victims time to access services . . . benefits the prosecution because victims who received services and established rapport with prosecutors are better witnesses.” In the fight against sex trafficking, advocates have long promoted a victim-centered, multi-faceted approach.

Although the report does not comment on whether high penalties are an effective deterrent to would-be perpetrators, the report does find that high penalties alone do not ensure that law enforcement and prosecutors actually enforce these penalties under human trafficking laws through arrests and prosecutions, supporting findings from Shared Hope’s Demanding Justice Report. Instead, the recent study lists several factors that may be considered by prosecutors, in addition to severity of penalties:

….although many states passed stand-alone criminalization laws on human trafficking, prosecutors may opt to prosecute a human trafficking case as pimping, pandering, compelling prostitution, or any number of other related crimes, rather than as human trafficking. The reasons for this include the reticence of prosecutors to use a new and untested statute, the potential to obtain a steeper penalty under a different crime, or lack of familiarity with the new crime.

Looking beyond criminal penalties, the report stresses that “state human trafficking legislation be comprehensive across all categories [state investment, civil remedies, and criminalization] rather than being extremely harsh in only one category.” A comprehensive legislative approach, supported in this report, is the core of Shared Hope’s Protected Innocence Challenge which encourages states to establish laws to help prevent child sex trafficking. Like this study, which found that “more states have legislated on human trafficking through criminalization than through state investment or civil remedies,” the Protected Innocence Challenge Annual Reports over the past five years have shown great strides in criminalizing child sex trafficking, yet no state has fully implemented all of the foundational protective provisions for child victims.

The Role of Public Perception

The report reflected a dramatic discrepancy in the belief that human trafficking is occurring locally: “When asked about how common sex trafficking is, 73% of the public reports that it is widespread or occasional in the U.S.; however, that number drops to 54% when asked about their state, and 20% when asked about their local community.”

Another concerning finding:

Sex-related behaviors affect beliefs about human trafficking. Respondents who consumed pornography within the last year have more knowledge of human trafficking, but they think that it should be less of a government priority. Similarly, respondents visiting a strip club within the last year reported lower levels of concern about human trafficking and thought that human trafficking should be less of a government priority than those respondents not visiting a strip club within the last year.

Lack of concern despite higher knowledge about human trafficking among consumers of pornography warrants serious consideration in addressing demand for sex trafficking victims.

Creating remedies for victims and developing systems that that ensure appropriate services are critical to combatting this crime. Even as awareness increases, this new research clarifies that a broad range of criminal and civil laws must be in place to address the many facets, and consequences, of human trafficking.

We still have a lot of work to do, America.