Dr. Marian Hatcher
Shared Hope Policy Consultant
Ambassador-at-Large, United Nations

As National Slavery & Human Trafficking Prevention Month 2022 ends, I am filled with a myriad of emotions. This annual recognition on the surface is focused on long term protections of victims/survivors addressing labor and sex trafficking, yet economic exploitation is often overlooked. In a month dedicated to awareness, there is still a lack of awareness of the long-term financial impacts that many trafficking survivors suffer. However, this past year we had a win, the Debt Bondage Repair Act (DBRA), and this month is a great time to celebrate it.

In December 2020, I was asked to provide technical assistance to the House Committee on Financial Services and was subsequently invited to testify as a subject matter expert at a hearing on issues related to the Business of Human Trafficking.

After numerous delays due to the COVID pandemic, and many layers of internal vetting for the panel, on March 25, 2021, I was honored to testify at the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services’ hearing, Breaking the Chains: Dismantling the Business of Human Exploitation.

To explain the importance this issue holds for me, I would like to share some of the testimony I gave at that hearing:

The impact of human trafficking does not end when victims leave their trafficking situations and their exploiters are held accountable. For survivors, these are just the first steps in a long process toward achieving the interwoven goals of healing, empowerment, and financial stability. Without financial stability and resources to support educational goals and to meet basic needs, survivors who have left their trafficking situation will often struggle to stay “out of the life” and may return to exploitative situations due to lack of resources. The fact that many trafficking survivors face arrest and criminal charges as a result of their trafficking means they face even greater hurdles to accessing needed housing assistance, seeking employment, and pursuing educational goals.

We must provide avenues for credit history relief and ensure availability of consumer banking products for trafficking victims. In addition to exploiting their victims through commercial sex or forced labor, traffickers – particularly in the context of domestic trafficking – may also exploit their victims’ credit histories by using their social security numbers to take out loans and make large purchases, such as vehicles, intending not to pay, thereby destroying their victims’ credit histories in the process.

When survivors without credit histories and those having damaged credit histories leave their trafficking situations and begin working toward financial stability, they often find that they are unable to access basic consumer banking services – in particular, obtaining a credit card – which creates further barriers to establishing credit histories and achieving financial independence. Lack of a bank account or credit card may even impact a survivor’s ability to seek employment or to rent an apartment. Therefore, disrupting the long-term impacts of human trafficking should include assistance for survivors with amending damaging reports and other methods for improving their credit histories to prevent ongoing injury from trafficking victimization. Utilizing alternative means of evaluating credit for human trafficking survivors could have a dramatic impact on a survivor’s ability to attain financial stability and to heal from the wounds of trafficking victimization. We should also provide access to financial literacy education for human trafficking survivors. Survivors who have experienced sex trafficking as a child or young adult have shared that an important support that was sometimes lacking in the services they received was education on financial literacy and the skills they needed to become financially self-sufficient. 

I was surprised and grateful, when Ranking Member Patrick McHenry’s office informed me, he wanted to craft a bill, inspired by my testimony. He displayed leadership at the federal level and exerted political will, courageously doing what it takes, to promote a victim-centered approach, helping survivors of sex trafficking move past economic barriers related to their exploitation.

The DBRA removes economic barriers for survivors by preventing debts incurred as a result of trafficking from ruining a survivor’s credit history and undermining their access to basic financial services needed to attain financial stability.

This past June, the Debt Bondage Repair Act (DBRA), a narrowly scoped piece of legislation with immense ability to assist the economically exploited, was passed by the House of Representatives.

With that, it brought one step closer, the sentiments of my written statement introduced on the House Floor June 15, 2021,

“Survivors spend a great deal of time trying to heal in ways you would expect; physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

However, another critically important aspect of healing is often left unattended and impedes the path to holistic health. That aspect is financial healing.

In many cases, the lack of financial wellness causes victims to have no option but to return to exploitive situations.

In other circumstances, survivors may be held civilly or criminally liable for debt incurred during their trafficking.

Any of these scenarios prevent the life of liberty and wholeness that survivors yearn for and deserve.

The Debt Bondage Repair Act will help provide survivors with a viable chance at full wellbeing, inclusive of financial stability and security.”….

I was thankful for the momentum the bill gained when Senator Cornyn introduced the Debt Bondage Repair Act in the Senate. Excitingly, the bill was later included in the non-defense section of the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) which passed Congress and was signed into law by President Biden on December 27, 2021.

You can imagine how I felt; it seemed so quick for this important change to come about. I’m not in the best health and yet God in his magnificence used my brokenness and experience to establish a way out for my sibling survivors.

It is a bittersweet accomplishment as the devastation of the remaining mountains of long-term consequences of exploitation, weigh heavily on the backs of victims/survivors and to be frank, my mind.

It’s that same urge to build better responses for the many survivors who continue to be exploited through trafficking that motivated the development of the “Exited Prostitution Survivor Policy Platform” written by thirteen survivors, including myself. It remains the best policy for long term consequences and solutions:

“Our intention in issuing this unified declaration is to urge stakeholder groups to endorse comprehensive policies based on three Pillars of Priority: 1) Reforms to our nation’s criminal justice approach to prostitution; 2) Fair employment for survivors; and 3) Essential standards of care for people exiting the sex trade.”

As we reach the end of National Slavery & Human Trafficking Prevention Month, it is an excellent time to take stock of the challenges that lie ahead and the issues that have remained hidden but need our attention. Looking ahead, I am excited to see how the DBRA will impact survivor’s lives, even as I recognize that this is just part of the work that remains to be done to ensure the long term needs of survivors get the attention they need.

Dr. Hatcher has worked as a civilian member of law enforcement at the Cook County Sheriffs Office for 15 years,  a U.S. Representative of SPACE International (Survivors of Prostitution Calling for Enlightenment), a survivor organization representing 10 countries. She is a recipient of numerous awards including the 2014 Shared Hope International Path Breaker Award, the 2016 Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award from President Obama, and was honored on Congressional Record for Black History by U.S. Senator Richard Durbin of IL.

 

The information and links provided in this resource are solely for educational and informational purposes and do not constitute legal advice. Additionally, Shared Hope International cannot comment on, or confirm, an individual’s victim status for purposes of accessing relief under the Debt Bondage Repair Act.

By: Camryn Peterson, Advocacy Manager

 

In 2020, Shared Hope opened its doors to the Institute for Justice & Advocacy only a few blocks from the White House. This physical location has been symbolic in our journey to bring justice to victims of sex trafficking across the country and our ultimate aim to eradicate child and youth sex trafficking. The Institute aligns our various programs to empower you to join us in this movement to seek justice at a systemic and individual level. Together, we are preventing this injustice, bringing restoration for survivors who need trauma-informed care, and advocating for victim-centered responses.

Our policy team works diligently with elected officials and key stakeholders across the country to create legislation that prioritizes victim protections, while also educating leaders on the realities of child and youth sex trafficking in the United States. Since 2011, we have graded states’ laws to identify the strengths and weaknesses in their legal frameworks for addressing child and youth sex trafficking, and in nearly 10 years, we have seen incredible improvement. We saw so much growth, that in 2020 we released an advanced legislative framework to take our state grades to the next step in sex trafficking policy reform: the Report Cards on Child & Youth Sex Trafficking. With the advanced legislative framework, we are pushing states further toward better, more informed victim protections and increased preventative efforts.

Through our Grassroots Heroes, key initiatives are elevated to state and federal legislators and victims receive vital support on petitions via our Advocacy Action Center. Further, Ambassadors of Hope educate their communities on how to identify trafficking so community members know how to respond when red flags are present. Without your support, we would not be as successful as we are in spreading awareness and bridging the knowledge gap to ensure more just responses for child and youth sex trafficking survivors.

Shared Hope’s training program provides education and networking opportunities to key stakeholders and professionals working in the field as direct service providers, criminal justice and first responders. Our online and in-person training highlights the values reinforced throughout our policy work like ensuring appropriate, trauma-informed responses to victims, an essential component of justice reform.

Without this, victims continue to be traumatized and essential services are withheld from them.

Bringing justice is a broad term that continues to anchor Shared Hope and reminds us that our goal is to bring ultimate justice, which is an end to child and youth sex trafficking.  We will continue to stand in the gap alongside you and push for victim-centered responses and advocate for essential preventative training and awareness.

 

Take Action –

Thank you for helping us bring justice in many ways. Please continue to join us in this movement by participating in one or multiple of the action items below:

• Review the Report Cards on Child & Youth Sex Trafficking and then send it to your elected officials.
• Learn more about Responding to Sex Trafficking Victim-Offender Intersectionality and review our field guidance tool for criminal justice stakeholders.
• Check out our Federal Advocacy Action Center to find out how you can contact Congress about supporting bills that establish needed protections and resources for victims of trafficking.
• Follow us on Social Media on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.
• View some of our policy related webinars like:
  • Report Cards on Child and Youth Sex Trafficking Release
  • The Criminalization of Black Survivors of Commercial Sex Trafficking
  • Legal First Responders: Closing the Justice Gap for Human Trafficking Survivors
  • Watch our “Defining a Just Response Series”

Shared Hope International Introduces Advanced Level State Report Cards

• The majority of states + D.C. have “D” (10) or “F” (40) grades
• FL receives highest grade, a “C”
• Only 8 states fully protect trafficked children from arrest, detention, charging and prosecution for prostitution offenses

WASHINGTON, D.C., (November 17, 2021) — Shared Hope International, dedicated non-profit leader in the fight to eradicate domestic minor sex trafficking, today released year-one of a grading system that will be sure to get attention. Report Cards on Child & Youth Sex Trafficking introduces advanced level analysis that builds upon the previous 10-year grading project, one that realized a 25.6% improvement nationwide in basic anti-trafficking legislation responding to domestic minor sex trafficking. Now, the advanced analysis provides a blueprint for action for motivated legislatures by identifying deficiencies in state child trafficking laws that remain in place. Published as a report card for each state, the 2021 Report Cards on Child & Youth Sex Trafficking encourages redoubled effort to tackle the hardest elements of responses that will protect juvenile sex trafficking survivors and hold buyers and traffickers accountable.

Due to the high bar that has been set with this grading system, 39 states and the District of Columbia (DC) earned a failing grade in 2021, the launch year for the advanced analysis. In comparison, the first year of the basic level report cards ten years ago found 26 states with a grade of “F” but nine years later every state had improved significantly; there were no “F”s and only two “D”s. While this seems like a step back, this year’s low grades reflect a starting point for states to advance beyond the tremendous progress they made over the past 10 years. The new framework also responds to calls from stakeholders to raise the bar, especially in the area of victim protections where many states lagged behind. Notably, Florida, the only state to receive full credit for its victim protection laws under the Protected Innocence Challenge framework, is now the top scoring state under the Report Cards on Child & Youth Sex Trafficking Advanced Legislative Framework.

Tennessee, which had previously held the #1 spot under the Protected Innocence Challenge Framework, remained in Tier 1, largely due to aggressive efforts in the 2021 session to enact laws that directly addressed the Advanced Legislative Framework. “Ten years ago, we couldn’t have imagined this new framework. We’ve listened to survivors, we’ve learned, and now we go forward with new knowledge to improve Tennessee’s response,” said Margie Quin, CEO of End Slavery Tennessee. “Through historic investments in law enforcement and public-private partnerships to serve survivors, Tennessee is at the forefront of this important fight,” said Gov. Bill Lee. “Human trafficking has no place in our state, and we are committed to building on our progress, improving laws, and protecting the most vulnerable among us.”

At the announcement of Report Card grades, Shared Hope will honor two individuals with the Pathbreaker Award for persistent and brave advocacy in ending the criminalization of child sex trafficking victims. Child and youth victims continue to be help criminally culpable for offenses committed while being trafficked, a practice which has led to incarceration of untold numbers of unidentified survivors of child sex trafficking. Ohio Senator Teresa Fedor has worked tirelessly to change the state law to focus criminality on the traffickers and the buyers of sex with children. Alexis Keerica Martin was trafficked at 15 and then convicted of murder and felonious assault in connection with the death of her trafficker. She now brings her lived experience to the effort to change the way systems respond to an offending victim. Her experience is a stark example of the impact legislation can have and stands as the best example of the reason Shared Hope does this work.

Senator Fedor also noted the important link between the release of the report cards, and the resulting work left to be done across the country, and the significance of the award given to her and Ms. Martin. “Like many other states, Ohio has also seen its grade drop this year because of Shared Hope’s new advanced legislative framework. This was despite the fact that last year I finally managed to extend Safe Harbor protections to 16- and 17-year-olds who have been trafficked. All Ohio children can now be rescued from the horrors of human trafficking without the fear being arrested,” said Fedor. “However, with Shared Hope’s Advanced Legislative Framework and survivors guiding my work, Ohio will raise its grade. This is urgent and will be my top priority. I have already begun to work on addressing our survivor-centered response by introducing ‘The Expanding Human Trafficking Justice Act’ (Senate Bill 183) to create a clear path to expungement for all trafficking survivors. I have spent the last 15 years fighting against human trafficking in all forms, and I am not about to give up now.”

State Action. National Change.

“At the time Shared Hope first issued report cards in 2011, 26 states did not make it a crime to buy sex with a child; today every state in the country considers sex trafficking of a minor a punishable crime,” said Linda Smith, founder and president of Shared Hope. “This is the reason we provide the sometimes uncomfortable motivation of a report card. Analyzing state laws for nearly a decade has enabled us to understand where progress is concentrated and where gaps remain. It is important to note that while the 2021 advanced legislative framework zeroes in on areas that states continue to leave unaddressed, it also provides analysis and recommendations for improvement. We trust that states will use these tools as a means to provide a better outcome for survivors of sex trafficking.”

Grades are based on an analysis of 40 legislative components that must be addressed in state laws to effectively respond to the crime of domestic minor sex trafficking.

While laudable progress has been made since 2011 with the passage of laws to criminalize selling and purchasing sex with a minor, child and youth victims often are denied access to justice and restorative services outside of the juvenile justice system. The advanced legislative framework brings heightened expectation to remedy state laws that fail to provide protective responses to victims of sex trafficking.

“We are asking states to respond to exploited youth as victims of a serious crime,” said Smith. “We recognize changing victim protection laws is a heavy lift and providing services presents resource challenges. Regardless, some states are taking the lead on this and we’re confident others will learn from their example.”

The 2021 Report Cards on Child & Youth Sex Trafficking can be accessed here.