Non-criminalization Archives - Page 2 of 6

January 1, 2020 by Marissa Gunther

January is Human Trafficking Awareness Month

January is Human Trafficking Awareness Month. Do you know the warning signs?

As you read this, millions of women, men and children around the world are subject to being trafficked. To address this evil injustice, it helps to define and know exactly what it is.

The federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act defines human trafficking as:

The recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act where such an act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age, or
The recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery.”

Human trafficking can take many forms, such as domestic servitude; factory labor that resembles prisons; farm work by migrants. War has created a new market for traffickers to exploit refugees fleeing a war that has torn apart their communities or countries – in many cases these migrants pay a fee to board a ship and are at the whim of their smugglers.

Human trafficking is a problem everywhere, including the United States. Including your neighborhood.

Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking (DMST) occurs when a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident minors (under the age of 18) are commercially sexually exploited. Children can be commercially sexually exploited through prostitution, pornography, and/or erotic entertainment.

We’re talking about U.S. kids, under the age of 18, being bought and sold for sex.

The age of the victim is the critical issue — under federal law, there is no requirement to prove that force, fraud, or coercion was used to cause the minor to engage in commercial sex.

The law recognizes the effect of psychological manipulation by the trafficker, as well as the effect of threat of harm which traffickers/pimps use to maintain control over their young victims.

But cultural bias continues to influence access to justice and services for minor victims. Even when protective laws are on the books.

Under the leadership of the Shared Hope Institute for Justice and Advocacy, we are working hard to address the issue of human trafficking in combating one of the most vehement forms: domestic minor sex trafficking. And there is no time like today to JOIN US in our efforts to end this terrible evil once and for all.

Advocate: See laws change in your state. January is the beginning of legislative sessions all over the country; now is the time to contact your legislators and have your voice heard through our Advocacy Action Center. We make it easy and quick for you with pre-written emails and tweets.

Volunteer: Receive comprehensive training and empowered to join a team of volunteers raising awareness and providing prevention education in all communities across the nation. Connect with other volunteer Ambassadors of Hope and work together to help make all communities safer for children.

Give: Empower Shared Hope’s work to prevent the conditions that foster sex trafficking, restore and empower survivors, and bring justice to victims with a gift.

Help us make freedom a priority this Human Trafficking Awareness Month.

We can win this battle.

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.

December 13, 2019 by SHI Staff

Shared Hope Attends: Women of Color Against the Sex Trade

Shared Hope had the opportunity to attend SPACE International’s Women of Color Against the Sex Trade panel discussions co-hosted last week by Coalition Against Trafficking in Women and the Roosevelt House’s Human Rights program in New York and by Rights4Girls in Washington D.C.

Tuesday, December 3, 2019, New York City – Brittany Peck, CEM, Training Events Specialist

Co-hosted by the Roosevelt House in NYC, formerly the home of Eleanor Roosevelt, a well-known global advocate for human rights, the mood of the event was inspired by the setting.

Two panel discussions took place with survivor leaders from all over the world sharing their expertise as leaders in anti-trafficking. The first panel addressed, “Frontline Services: Tools and Strategies to Help Survivors Rebuild Their Lives.” Panelists discussed the importance of providing survivors with housing, vocational training and support in establishing self-sufficiency. They stressed that without the stability of a home, it is very difficult to focus on other services in place to help rebuild one’s life. They explained the role “survival sex” plays in why people enter the life due to systemic oppression whether that includes race, poverty or citizenship status, many of these intersecting. Panelists provided statistics demonstrating how disproportionately women of color are targeted for prostitution and trafficking. The panel also discussed that violence can often be more aggressive and prominent against survivors of color. This is rooted in oppressive ideologies like colonialism, racism and sexism.

The second panel addressed “How Did We Get Here and What is the Way Out? The Sex Trade and the Cradles of Patriarchy, Race and Colonialism.” Panelists discussed different legislative models including decriminalization, full criminalization and the Equality Model. Panelists stressed that prostitution is a human rights issue and that it stems from the oppressive systems that make prostitution an option for those who lack resources. The panelists concluded that purchasing sex is about abuse and power, not liberation.

Thursday, December 5, 2019, Washington D.C. – Camryn Peterson, Digital Advocacy Manager

Thursday’s panel was co-hosted by Rights4Girls, a human rights organization focused on ending violence against women and girls in the United States, which includes those victimized by sex trafficking.

The panel in D.C., “Women of Color Against the Sex Trade,” brought together women from across the world to share their stories and bring light to the reality that women of color make up over half of sex trafficking victims. Throughout the evening, the women discussed the three legal responses to commercialized sex: legalization, decriminalization, and the Equality Model. The Equality Model, also known as the Nordic Model, is currently being discussed in New York and has been introduced in Maine. This type of legislation would penalize buyers and exploiters, not those selling commercial sex. This model aims to decrease the demand for commercialized sex, and therefore decrease sex trafficking, resulting in more protections for women and child victims of sex trafficking.

The panel further discussed how the commercialized sex industry is propelled by misogyny, patriarchy, and capitalism in our societies. Tina Frundt, the Founder and Executive Director of Courtney’s House in D.C. recounted her recent personal story of men soliciting her for sex while she was walking her dog. Many other women on the panel shared similar stories. Frundt later stated that “male entitlement within the commercialized sex industry leads to higher demand, which leads to higher supply.” To end this cycle, the buyers and other exploiters must be held accountable for their role in this system, while those engaged in commercial sex should receive services to enable them to exit the industry. Just a few months ago, D.C. Councilmembers brought forward a bill aimed at fully decriminalizing the commercial sex industry in the city, but after 14 hours of testimonies, the bill was killed and vulnerable women and children were further protected from the sex trade. To review Shared Hope Internationals written testimony in opposition to D.C. Bill 23-0318, click here.

The next Women of Color Against the Sex Trade event will take place in London on February 21.

December 3, 2019 by Sarah Bendtsen

States’ Laws Say “Kids Are Not Prostitutes.” So Why Are They Still Being Punished?

During the 2019 legislative session, nine states passed[1] critical legal reform measures to protect child sex trafficking victims from being prosecuted for prostitution, commonly referred to as “Safe Harbor” laws. However, as first pointed out in 2017, not all “Safe Harbor” laws actually insulate child sex trafficking victims from a punitive response for engaging in commercial sex. States, in an effort to carve out alternative processes for commercially sexually exploited minors, have developed a broad range of responses, ranging from the availability of an affirmative defense to full non-criminalization, with various other legal responses falling somewhere in between. Once again, lawmakers underlined the prevailing conflict between the anti-trafficking community and other stakeholders that regard some commercially sexually exploited minors as consensual actors, needing of reform and punishment.

South Dakota is one such state that complicated the “Safe Harbor” narrative and furthered the disparate legal processes designed to address child sex trafficking victims. Legislators this session passed House Bill 1063, which repealed the previous law that allowed 16 and 17 year old kids to be charged and prosecuted for prostitution. In demonstrating their support for the measure, several lawmakers emphasized the inherent injustice of prosecuting children for prostitution offenses, stating, “prostitute implies consent and that a minor chose,” “the key is getting them the help they need,” and “we need to get [the child victim] help, not treat them as a criminal.”[2]

So why are child victims in South Dakota, like many other states, still vulnerable to arrest and prosecution?

Undoubtedly, House Bill 1063 made an important legal and policy change; yet, in doing so, it amended the state’s Child in Need of Supervision (CHINS) process to include “a child who engages in prostitution by offering to engage in sexual activity for a fee or other compensation.”[3] The intent of the bill was to treat commercially sexually exploited minors as victims, not delinquents; however, as written, South Dakota’s new law will create very little practical change for child victims. Effectively, minors engaged in commercial sex will still be subject to an inherently adversarial process within the juvenile court system.

We strongly disagree. Unlike a protective response, deeming a minor survivor as a “child in need of supervision” denotes culpability and responsibility. Sending a youth survivor into the juvenile justice system, where the CHINS process is housed, commences a punitive process: a child is still taken into custody, charged with an offense, provided a sentence (albeit a “reformative” one), and placed on probation. Should the minor violate the terms of probation,[4] he or she is vulnerable to re-arrest and additional charges. No aspect of this process is trauma-informed or victim-centered.

Unfortunately, South Dakota is not the only state with such conflicted laws and practices. 11 other states have created alternative responses that fail to unequivocally identify and respond to all minors engaged in commercial sex as victims of sex trafficking. Oftentimes, these alternative responses are utilized as a means of ensuring that the child is separated from the exploiter and engaged in services. However, requiring youth survivors to participate in services or refrain from certain behaviors, as all diversion programs do, is a flawed response in the context of sex trafficking victimization. This design is not only incompatible with trauma, it is incompatible with justice.

First, placing requirements on exploited youth ignores the reality that survivors of sex trafficking commonly deny victimization and oftentimes must reach emotional, psychological, physiological, and spiritual stability before they can begin to safely and productively process and treat their exploitation. Secondly, mandatory participation in services fails to recognize that a key element of providing a protective response to survivors is refraining from repeating behaviors that mimic the behaviors of the exploiter, including conditioning protection on a survivor’s compliance with certain expectations or rules. Lastly, requiring satisfactory participation in services negates the integral role that flexibility plays in responding to trafficking victimization. Healing is not linear; it is imperative that service responses allow for setbacks and pauses in order to ensure emotional safety and sustainable recovery. In addition to clashing with a requisite trauma-informed approach, diversion programs designed for commercially sexually exploited minors send mixed messages that survivors are somehow accountable for their own trafficking victimization.

While we acknowledge the legislative intent to protect and serve child survivors, we know there is a better and more developmentally appropriate and victim-centered way. Alongside survivors and ally practitioners in the field, we have been developing and advancing laws and policies that are designed to truly serve and safeguard the child, addressing the many layers of trauma and harm suffered, and equipping the survivor with tools for self-empowerment and freedom from both victimization and juvenile or criminal records.

We urge South Dakota, as well as the remaining 19 states that have limited or no protections, to develop and pass legislation that provides an empathetic, JuST response to youth survivors of sex trafficking.

For more information on protective responses for youth survivors and your state’s efforts to develop non-punitive avenues to services and care, please review the recently updated Stop the InJuSTice 2019 Toolkit and the 2019 Protected Innocence Challenge State Report Cards.

[1] The Texas legislature passed House Bill 1771 on May 27^th which removed criminal liability for minors under 17 for prostitution offenses. Despite strong support from the anti-trafficking community, Governor Abbott vetoed the bill, stating his concern for “unintended consequences.”
[2] February 6, 2019 House Judiciary Committee hearing on House Bill 1063.
[3] S.D. Code Ann. § 26-8B-2.
[4] Research is increasingly demonstrating the cyclical effect of juvenile probation and the seemingly inevitable fate of violating its terms due to relentless scrutiny and stringent requirements that run can conflict with behaviors that are an inherent part of healthy adolescent development.

November 27, 2019 by Brittany Peck

Shared Hope Attends: New Yorkers for the Equality Model Campaign Launch

On Monday, I had the privilege of attending the New Yorkers for the Equality Model Campaign Launch hosted by The Survivor Leaders of New Yorkers for the Equality Model. New Yorkers for the Equality Model is a, “survivor-led alliance made up of more than 30 advocates, prostitution and sex trafficking survivors, and organizational partners seeking to implement the Equality Model, decriminalizing only individuals in prostitution, in New York State” (equalitymodelny.org/who-we-are). The Campaign Launch event announced the forthcoming legislation sponsored by Assemblymember Tremaine Wright and Senator Liz Krueger and a campaign advocating for the Equality Model Approach in the state of New York.

The Equality Model being proposed in New York State will have a five-pronged legal approach that addresses repealing current laws that call for arresting people in prostitution, providing trauma-informed services for those wishing to exit the sex trade, penalizing buyers, continuing to criminalize pimps, traffickers, brothel owners and illicit massage parlor owners and a commitment to community education. For more information on their approach, please visit: https://www.equalitymodelny.org/equality-model

The forthcoming Equality Model legislation is partly in response to recent legislation introduced this summer in NY with the intent to decriminalize sex work. The coalition DecrimNY is advocating for the bill. A similar bill was recently disputed in Washington D.C. Click here to read Shared Hope’s Testimony in Opposition to D.C. Bill 23-0318. Shared Hope has also recently updated it’s Seeking Justice Toolkit in the Stop the InJuSTice campaign, a resource available to help end the criminalization of child sex trafficking victims. View the updated Seeking Justice Toolkit here.

At the Launch Campaign, a closed panel discussion focused on “The Links between Sex Trafficking & Prostitution.” Panelists discussed the difference between the Equality Model and the Full Decriminalization/Decrim/Legalization Model. A handout summarizing these differences can be found here. The panel also addressed questions about consent, systems that perpetuate exploitation and oppression, how prostitution and the #metoo movement are connected and how we discuss systems of prostitution in our communities and within our generations.

Organizers invited attendees to support the campaign on social media. Posters were displayed throughout the event with hashtags for guests to utilize in their social media posts about the campaign launch.

For more information on how to support the New Yorkers for the Equality Model visit: https://www.equalitymodelny.org/ You can also follow them on twitter @NoBuyerNoPimpNY