Maelie could tell you how it happens… She wasn’t grabbed and thrown in the trunk of his car. She hadn’t run away from home in search of thrills on the street. No, she was lured away…charmed away…friended away. For him, it was easy enough, with a bit of patience–a promise of something she needed, or something she […]
WA Senate Passes New Bill to Fight Child Sex Trafficking
SB 6251 Increases Online Accountability to Deter Commercial Sexual Abuse of Minors The Washington state Senate unanimously passed a raft of Protected Innocence bills targeted at tightening the state laws against child sex trafficking, including the pioneering SB 6251, aimed at stopping the online facilitation of child sex trafficking. The bill sponsored by Seattle Senator […]
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. […]