About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

5 Intercultural Hum. Rts. L. Rev. 313 (2010)
Anatomy of a Sex Trafficking Case

handle is hein.journals/ichuman5 and id is 317 raw text is: ANATOMY OF A SEX TRAFFICKING CASE TERRY COONAN* L Introduction On July 16, 2006, sex trafficking announced its presence in the quiet capitol city of Tallahassee, Florida. Early that afternoon, a * Executive Director of the Center for the Advancement of Human Rights, Associate Professor of Criminology, and Professor of Law, Florida State University (FSU). Professor Coonan was a lead investigator on the 2003-2004 FSU Human Trafficking Research Project that resulted in the report Florida Responds to Human Trafficking. He has assisted in the design of the human trafficking curricula used by the U.S. Justice Department, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Florida Regional Community Policing Institute, and the Florida Department of Children and Families. He has also trained law enforcement officials and service providers nationwide and globally on best practices in investigating human trafficking and caring for trafficking victims, including work in Russia, the Ukraine, Georgia, Chile, Panama, Thailand, and Kazakhstan. The Center continues to assist state and federal law enforcement officials in the investigation and prosecution of human trafficking cases and it provides pro bono legal representation to survivors of human trafficking throughout Florida. In 2009, the Florida Legislature commissioned the Center to create a Statewide Strategic Plan to Counter Human Trafficking and to Assist Trafficking Victims in Florida, and Professor Coonan is the lead investigator on this Strategic Plan. He wishes to thank the many courageous survivors of trafficking whose voices inform this article. I Florida has been the context for numerous sex trafficking cases in the past decade, including United States v. Cadena, 207 F.3d 663 (11th Cir. 2000), whose notoriety in South Florida led to the passage in 2000 of the Trafficking Victim Protection Act. For a description of the Cadena case, see Florida State University Center for the Advancement of Human Rights, Florida Responds to Human Trafficking 37-50 (2004) [hereinafter FSU Report]; ANTHONY M. DESTEFANO, THE WAR ON HUMAN TRAFFICKING: U.S. POLICY ASSESSED 1-5 (2007); SIDDHARTH KARA, SEX TRAFFICKING: INSIDE THE BUSINESS OF MODERN SLAVERY 186-188 (2009). The vast majority of previous Florida sex trafficking cases occurred in South or Central Florida, falling within the jurisdiction of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida (Tampa and Fort Myers) or the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida (Miami and surrounding counties). United States v. Melchor, Case No. 4:07crl4-SMP (N.D. Fla. 2007) (upheld in unpublished decision United States v. Melchor, No. 09-10268 (11th Cir. 2010)), examined in this article, was the one of the first human trafficking cases prosecuted federally by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most