The sixth and final component of the Protect Innocence Initiative analyzes state law regarding law enforcement and criminal justice tools for investigation and prosecution. This final category includes recommendations for states to adapt training for law enforcement, mandate the reporting of missing children and permit the use of specific technology or techniques in the investigation […]
Part 5: Protective Provisions for Child Victims: Correcting laws to protect, not prosecute, child victims
In the growing tragedy of American children being brutally exploited and sold in the U.S. sex trade, perhaps the greatest tragedy of all is how the justice system responds to child victims. A Russia Today reporter stated, “In the US, prostitution laws do not exempt minors from prosecution…But lawyers say, in the US, the paradox […]
Part 4: Hotels, Planes, and Taxis, Oh My! The efforts to stop facilitating child sex trafficking
The fourth component of the Protected Innocence Initiative is “Criminal Provisions for Facilitators.” Hotels are perhaps one of the most well recognized facilitators in the sex trafficking industry. At hotels young children are taken by their traffickers and sold to dozens of men a night. Airlines and taxis also act as facilitators in the sex […]
Protected Innocence Initiative Part 3: Protective Provisions for Traffickers
There are more slaves today than were seized from Africa in four centuries of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The United States has been working to combat modern day slavery, human trafficking, by passing the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000 and subsequent reauthorizations. This valuable piece of legislation provides a sturdy legal platform for […]
Protected Innocence Initiative Part 2: Criminal Provisions Addressing Demand
Demand fuels the commercial sex industry. Without buyers seeking paid sex with children, traffickers would not have a market to sell young children for sexual exploitation. To achieve significant deterrence, severe penalties must be in place to adequately punish the crime of purchasing sex with a child. This dynamic is illustrated in the case below. […]