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1 Rich Williams, Safe Harbor: State Efforts to Combat Child Trafficking 1 (2017)

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N I       iSI              L
     NCSLS


Safe Harbor: State Efforts


to Combat Child Trafficking



NATIONAL CONFERENCE of STATE LEGISLATURES I APR2017


BY RICH WILLIAMS


Overview


Child  trafficking   crimes-actions

that  facilitate the  commercial sexual

exploitation or forced labor of youth-

present   difficult  criminal   justice  and

human services challenges for government

officials. State  legislators,  through the

deliberation and enactment of policy,

are  at the  forefront   of the current

intergovernmental effort to identify

and   implement effective procedures

to combat child traffickers and pursue

justice  for survivors.

A recent trend in state child trafficking policy focuses on treating
trafficked youth as survivors of trauma who should be provided re-
habilitative services rather than as perpetrators of crimes they were
forced to commit. Policies created for this purpose are a subset of
child trafficking measures often referred to as safe harbor laws.

This brief identifies six themes in state safe harbor laws and pro-
vides policy alternatives within each theme. The six themes are:

1   Collaboration and coordination of state entities and resources.

2   Decriminalization and/or diversion for actions of
    trafficked youth.

3   Funds for anti-trafficking efforts and survivor services.

4   Provision of services for youth survivors.

5   Increased penalties for traffickers of children.

6   Training to recognize and respond to trafficking crimes
    and its victims.


WHAT  IS HUMAN   TRAFFICKING?
Under the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act, sex and labor
trafficking are considered severe forms of trafficking in persons,
and are defined as:
*    Sex trafficking: A commercial sex act induced by force, fraud,
     or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such an
     act has not attained 18 years of age.
 *   Labor trafficking: The recruitment, harboring, transporta-
     tion, 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.

For more information on human trafficking generally, please visit
NCSL's Human Trafficking Website.

WHO  ARE  TRAFFICKING  VICTIMS?
There is no single profile of a trafficking victim according to the fed-
eral Office for Victims of Crime. Victims of human trafficking can be
anyone-regardless of race, color, national origin, disability, religion,
age, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, socioeconomic sta-
tus, education level or citizenship status.

RECENT  SAFE HARBOR   ENACTMENTS
In 2016, 28 states enacted 51 bills addressing the
trafficking of minors:

AK

             ID  MT  ND      IL               VT

         OR      WY              OH       NJ  RI MA

                         MO  KY  WV      DC

                 NM      AR      NC   SC      DE

                                     GA

                     T.


2016 Enactments


AS  GU  MP  PR  vI

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