Policy Archives - Page 7 of 11 - Shared Hope International

September 8, 2021 by Christine Raino

Statement of Support for the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act of 2021

Shared Hope International is grateful to Congressmembers Smith and Bass for introducing the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act of 2021, and for their longstanding commitment to combatting human trafficking and promoting trauma-informed responses to trafficking survivors. This critical legislation reflects that commitment by highlighting the importance of prevention through education, training and research as well as appropriate accountability for offenders, while also advancing trauma-informed approaches that better meet the needs of trafficking survivors. Additionally, by furthering efforts to reduce vulnerabilities to trafficking and build resiliency factors by improving access to mental health services and housing, this legislation takes important steps toward preventing survivors from returning to exploitative situations. And by encouraging consistent trafficking definitions at the state level to increase identification of child sex trafficking survivors and improve their access to resources, this legislation will also prevent child victims from falling through the cracks of systems designed to assist them.

As Shared Hope International has seen over the past 23 years, human trafficking is a complex problem that requires long-term solutions; by extending authorizations until 2026 to create greater continuity for human trafficking programs and enforcement efforts and by ensuring that trafficking survivors voices continue to be at the forefront through the Advisory Council on Human Trafficking, this legislation truly takes the long view. Shared Hope is pleased to support the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act of 2021 as it creates needed infrastructure for improving responses to trafficking survivors while advancing effective approaches to ultimately prevent the egregious harms that trafficking survivors should ideally never have to experience in the first place.

Please take a minute to contact your Members of Congress, urging them to pass this vital bill.

Read the fact sheet to learn more about the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act of 2021.

September 3, 2021 by Guest

Some states limit victim identification, but that can change.

About our guest author:

As a Master of Social Work candidate at the University of Alabama and part of the University’s MSW Washington D.C. program, Susannah Ayers spent the spring 2021 semester in a Policy Fellowship with Shared Hope International. Through this fellowship, she worked closely with the Policy Team to analyze and advocate for legislation that is survivor-centered and evidence-based. She attributes her fellowship experience to increasing her understanding of the issues that contribute to the sexual exploitation of minors and ways to eradicate them.

One of the many issues driving human trafficking is the demand for commercial sex. A simple economics lesson will explain that when demand for a product increases, supply will also increase in order to meet that demand. Unfortunately, the same is true with child sexual exploitation. As long as there are buyers who are willing to purchase sex with minors, traffickers will continue to ensure their supply. This principle highlights the importance of addressing demand and holding not only traffickers but also buyers accountable for their crimes.

Far too often, men who buy sex are excused for their behavior, justified by a “boys will be boys” attitude. This response perpetuates the false narrative that if an individual has enough power and financial resources, he has the right to buy anything he wants- including another person. As an example, in 2013, the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation conducted a study of online buyers of sex in Illinois. In regards to the commonly used justification of men purchasing sex, the researchers reported that “overt and underlying assumptions about masculinity, femininity, sexuality, and prostituted women, in particular, inform men’s participation in the commercial sex industry.”[1] Without addressing these harmful, societal barriers, the problem of sexual exploitation will only continue.

The lack of buyer accountability is often evidenced in the legislation that addresses human trafficking. Currently, 19 states require evidence of third party control (or trafficker involvement) in order to establish the crime of sex trafficking. When proof of third party control is required to prosecute, it reduces or eliminates the culpability of the buyer and risks misidentification of victims who may be unable or unwilling to identify a trafficker. While any trafficker should be held accountable, the buyers should be held accountable as well. As long as there are people who are willing to purchase sex with minors, the opportunity to do so will always exist. Accordingly, legislation that requires third-party control fails to address one of the root issues that drive the sex trade.

Additionally, by necessitating evidence of third-party control, related state laws fail to identify minors engaged in survival sex as victims of sex trafficking for purposes of effectuating sex trafficking-specific responses. Survival sex is defined as an individual engaging in a sex act in order to meet a basic need. These situations could include a child who engages in sex in order to secure food or shelter. Although there may not be a trafficker who forces the child to engage in paid sex with a buyer, their need for survival forces them to make this choice. Such limited definitions of sex trafficking under state law are contrary to federal law, which includes any child engaged in commercial sex as a trafficking victim. When third party control is required, victims in this type of situation are excluded from legal remedies and connection with services given under human trafficking laws. It is also possible that the buyer is not held accountable for exploiting an individual’s basic needs in order to gain sex.

Currently, the 19 states that require evidence of third party control to establish the crime of sex trafficking are:

Alaska
California
Connecticut
Delaware
Hawaii
Indiana
Iowa
Maine
Maryland
Minnesota
New Jersey
New York
Ohio
Pennsylvania
South Carolina
Texas
Virginia
West Virginia
Wyoming

What can be done to address this continued injustice? Strong legislative action is needed to ensure that buyers are held responsible for exploiting those experiencing vulnerabilities. For more information on the importance of removing third party control requirements, see Shared Hope’s policy paper entitled “Eliminating the Third Party Control Barrier to Identifying Juvenile Sex Trafficking Victims.”

What can you do?

If you are a constituent in any of the 19 states that still require evidence of third party control, contact your legislators and educate them on the barriers that exist within current state law. Visit our campaign to learn more.
No matter where you live, you can educate the people around you. Share Shared Hope’s fact sheet on “Why Definitions Matter” and use your sphere of influence to bring these issues to light. Challenge the idea that purchasing sex is socially acceptable and help others get involved and take action.
Sign up to receive your state’s grade when released November 17, 2021.

For more information on ways to advocate for these and other legislative changes, visit Shared Hope’s Advocacy Action Center at https://act.sharedhope.org/actioncenter.

[1] https://icasa.org/docs/misc/caase%20report%20online%20buyers%20of%20sex%20in%20illinois.pdf

August 26, 2021 by Camryn Peterson

Advanced Legislative Framework: Issue Areas #2 & #3 – Expanding Victim Protections and Care

Advanced Legislative Framework: Issue Area #2 (Identification and Response to Victims) and Issue Area #3 (Continuum of Care)

This fall, we will release state Report Cards based on our Advanced Legislative Framework, pushing states towards a victim-centered response to child and youth sex trafficking.

The framework is based on six issue areas that review state’s policies in addressing this injustice. Last month, we reviewed issue area one—Criminal Provisions.

This month, we want to highlight two issue areas aimed at supporting victims of child sex trafficking and ending the cycle of exploitation—Identification of and Response to Victims and Continuum of Care.

Issue area #2 focuses on the importance of proper identification and response to victims of child and youth sex trafficking. All too often, child sex trafficking victims are misidentified as offenders and are directed into systems where their exploitation and trauma is overlooked. It is vital that all commercially sexually exploited children and youth are recognized as victims of trafficking and receive a protective, not punitive response from child serving systems and law enforcement so they receive appropriate care. This is true even if a third party controller wasn’t involved.

What is a third party controller? A third party controller is someone who is managing the exchange of sex with the child and the buyer, otherwise known as the trafficker. In some cases of sex trafficking, there isn’t a third party controller, but a buyer directly exploiting a child who is in need of money, a safe place to stay, or is exploiting other vulnerabilities of the victim. That buyer scenario is still considered child sex trafficking.

Not only are victims misidentified, but many are treated as perpetrators of crimes. Victims of child sex trafficking may commit offenses in response to their own status as a victim, which should be acknowledged when they interact with law enforcement and welfare agencies. This includes ending the criminalization of children and youth for prostitution. Under federal law, any child involved with commercial sex is a victim of sex trafficking, but some states still penalize minors for this crime. When their status as a victim is ignored, they are further traumatized by the punishments they receive, prolonging their healing process and denying access to vital services and legal defenses.

To further help prevent or accurately identify sex trafficking, issue area #2 calls for increased trauma-informed screening of vulnerable children and youth in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. With increased screening, policies must also be put in place to ensure that these systems are able to respond with appropriate services.

With proper identification and movement away from punitive responses to victimization, we lean into our third issue area.

Issue area #3, Continuum of Care, addresses the need of more services for victims of child and youth sex trafficking and vulnerable populations.

It is essential that the specialized services victims receive are through non-punitive means to avoid further traumatization or re-exploitation. This can be achieved through a coordinated effort amongst law enforcement, service providers, and other advocates by establishing state-wide multi-disciplinary teams working together to create a victim-centered response to child sex trafficking.

The continuation of care should also extend to youth between 18 and 24 years old. This age group is additionally vulnerable to sex trafficking because of the lack of services available to them as they transition out of child welfare programs and lose the support systems they previously had. Services should continue to support youth in this age range as they cross the bridge from adolescence to adulthood.

To reach these vital goals, it is imperative to appropriate state funding towards supporting agencies and services providing essential support to vulnerable children and victims. Funding continues to be one of the largest hurdles in providing support to victims, but by prioritizing child serving agencies, vulnerable children and victims will receive the care and protection they need.

With legislation in place that focuses on these issue areas, vital protections for child and youth victims of sex trafficking will be expanded, leading to a more trauma-informed response.

What do to next

Sign up to become a Grassroots Hero and receive monthly newsletters focused on policy initiatives, legislative wins, and urgent calls-to-action to help victims.
Contact your state and federal legislators about important bills or issues related to sex trafficking on our Advocacy Action Center.
Share this blog on social media so others can learn more about how Shared Hope is taking action against child and youth sex trafficking across the United States!
Sign up to receive the Report Cards for Child & Youth Sex Trafficking to be the first to know when your state’s grade is released!

July 23, 2021 by Camryn Peterson

Advanced Legislative Framework: Issue Area #1 — Criminal Provisions

In November 2020, Shared Hope released an advanced legislative framework that will take our annual state report cards to the next level, urging states to focus more deeply and more effectively on victim protections and services.

This fall we will release the inaugural Report Cards on Child & Youth Sex Trafficking, grading all 50 states and the District of Columbia on the six issue areas that make up the advanced framework.

The first issue area, Criminal Provisions, focuses on creating clear criminal laws to hold sex trafficking offenders accountable, especially those who purchase sex with minors. Of particular importance is ensuring that any buyer of sex with a minor can be held accountable as a sex trafficker, as this directly impacts victim identification and ensures those who exploit children by purchasing them for sex are held accountable for the fundamental role they play in the crime of child sex trafficking. Unfortunately, many states do not recognize exploiters who purchase children for sex as sex trafficking offenders.

Why must states continue to improve their criminal laws?

As Shared Hope has seen over the years through its Protected Innocence Challenge Project which analyzed states’ laws from 2011 to 2019 with a particular focus on state criminal laws, states have made considerable progress in improving their criminal laws.

And yet, the demand for commercial sex with child victims remains high. Indeed, it is the main motivator behind child and youth sex trafficking, and without properly acknowledging these exploiters’ role in the crime of child sex trafficking and penalizing them accordingly, demand will continue to exist. Without legislation focused on criminal provisions for exploiters who purchase children for sex, they won’t be afraid to take the risk of engaging in commercial sex with minors.

In many states, sex trafficking offenders can also assert a “mistake of age” defense if law enforcement went undercover as a minor to investigate and arrest them for soliciting or recruiting a child into sex trafficking. It is imperative that trafficking exploiters are held responsible for their roles in child sex trafficking and not given this opportunity to lessen their penalties and shift the weight of their mistake to the child victims they exploit.

Lastly, financial penalties imposed on convicted perpetrators can be directed to support victim services that will help survivors overcome their trauma. In this way, programs such as cognitive therapy, case management, and job skills development can be paid in part by the exploiters who caused the harm in the first place.

What do to next

Sign up to receive the Report Cards for Child & Youth Sex Trafficking to be the first to know when your state’s grade is released!
Sign up to become a Grassroots Hero and receive monthly newsletters focused on policy initiatives, legislative wins, and urgent calls-to-action to help victims.
Contact your state and federal legislators about important bills or issues related to sex trafficking on our Advocacy Action Center.
Share this blog on social media so they can learn more about the importance of criminal provisions against sex traffickers.

January 8, 2021 by Camryn Peterson

Charges against Zephi Trevino must be dropped

Zephi Trevino was 16 years old when she was first trafficked by a young adult, Philip Baldenegro, who originally posed and acted as her boyfriend. Just prior to meeting Baldenegro online, Zephi had been abused and introduced to drugs by another boyfriend, resulting in trauma that manifested in depression and anxiety, a significant departure from the happy, healthy and engaged child she had always been. Exploiting her trauma, Baldenegro gave Zephi drugs, threatened her and her family, and sold her for sex to adult men. Zephi’s exploitation and trafficking ended the night that Baldenegro shot and killed a man he had arranged to buy and rape Zephi; however, her horrific experiences of injustice, misidentification, and unanswered calls for help did not cease.

Miscarriage of justice.

The night of the murder, Zephi should have been identified by law enforcement as a victim of sex trafficking. Instead, she was arrested as an accomplice in the murder of the very man who had paid to rape her. Upon further investigation, prosecutors and detectives on the case, who were immediately presented with evidence of her exploitation, should have identified her victimization, dropped charges, and referred her to specialized service providers. Instead, Zephi was held in detention for over a year on capital murder and aggravated robbery charges. Only after public outcry and the retention of new counsel was she released on bond and house arrest. Texas state law and federal law clearly define Zephi as a victim of child sex trafficking, yet her victimization is continuously denied by her trafficker’s defense team, whose perceptions of child sex trafficking and sexual violence victimization are both inaccurate and self-serving.

Realities of sex trafficking .

The blatant denial of Zephi’s victimization reflects the persistent misunderstanding of sex trafficking victims’ behavior. Despite concerted efforts by survivors and anti-trafficking allies to decry the “perfect victim” myth and shed light on the realities of victimization and resulting trauma behaviors, we continue to see survivors being denied the rights and protections afforded to victims of sex trafficking due to misidentification of their experiences. Rather than looking at the legal definition, prosecutors and even defense attorneys struggle to see victimization even when the facts spell it out, just as they do in Zephi’s case. Survivors of sex trafficking have endured and survived horrific sexual violence, in addition to often-present physical, psychological and emotional abuse, substance use, stigmatization, commodification, and isolation from healthy and safe support. These experiences, often result in trauma, mental health challenges, and substance dependency linked to self-blame and shame. For these reasons, child sex trafficking survivors almost never self-identify or report their victimization. They don’t seek help from law enforcement, service providers, or even family and friends. Indeed, their traffickers often train them on how to hide their victimization, as Zephi’s trafficker did in this case.

One of the greatest challenges we face in combatting child sex trafficking is the lack of awareness that survivors’ trauma manifests in behaviors and decisions they see as necessary to survive their abuse. However, these are often behaviors and decisions that our systems then use to punish or discredit the survivor. This is the exact injustice Zephi is being subjected to; a history of substance use, running from home, and seeming indifference to violence are red flags of exploitation and abuse, not behaviors that discredit her experiences of trafficking victimization. Failing to fit within the fabricated box of “perfect victim” has not only resulted in additional trauma, it has her facing capital murder charges for a crime committed by her trafficker, deepening her involvement in a punitive system and isolating her from family and systems of support.

Your voice.

Your support matters! Using our collective voice to signal support for Zephi will encourage DA Creuzot to stand with sex trafficking survivors and bring justice to the plights they have experienced by dropping unjust charges against Zephi. Sign the petition today!

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