In Shared Hope International’s 2023 Report Cards on Child and Youth Sex Trafficking, Tennessee is the highest-performing state for laws to protect children and youth from sex trafficking and the first to achieve a grade of “A.” As the only U.S. nonprofit organization working in every state to advance legislative protections for child and youth sex trafficking survivors, Shared Hope’s Report Cards for all 50 states and Washington, D.C., gave the majority of states – 32 – a grade of F, while Florida (B), Minnesota (C), California (C), and Washington (C) ranked in the top five of highest grade earners behind Tennessee.
Through the Report Cards, Shared Hope is pushing states to ensure all minor victims of sex trafficking have access to protective care and services that help survivors heal and rebuild their lives.
The Report Cards are the result of a comprehensive analysis and assessment of all legal responses to child and youth sex trafficking in each state. While Shared Hope recognizes a range of policy, practice, and cultural responses to sex trafficking victims in each state, the Report Cards evaluate only statutes and use 40 policy goals in six issue areas in its grading system. States are assigned up to 2.5 points for each policy goal for a possible total score of 100 (with a possibility of up to 10 extra credit points) and then assigned a letter grade – A, B, C, D, or F – based on their score.
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