EXAMINING LAW ENFORCEMENT RESPONSES TO DOMESTIC MINOR SEX TRAFFICKING
alexandra lutnick SEX TRAFFICKING CONFERENCE: ENHANCING SERVICES & BUILDING A STRONGER COLLABORATIVE PORTLAND, OREGON; JUNE 28, 2018 BRIEF HISTORICAL OVERVIEW: THE MANN ACT OF 1910
“knowingly transport or cause to be transported, or aid or assist in obtaining transportation for, or in transporting, in interstate or foreign commerce…any woman or girl for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose, or with the intent and purpose to induce, entice, or compel such woman or girl to become a prostitute or to give herself up to debauchery, or to engage in any other immoral practice.”
2 OVEREXPANSION OF THE MANN ACT
Examination of 87% of cases (n=156) where women were convicted and incarcerated for violating the Mann Act (years 1927-1937)1 16% - trading sex was secondary to interstate travel with boyfriend or husband 15% - women regularly involved in trading sex to support themselves. Arrested when solicited at a hotel across state lines 23% - women who traveled with boyfriend across state lines One or both were married to other people. Both charged as co-conspirators 46% - women who id’d as prostitutes and were arrested for aiding or securing transportation for other women to cross state lines for prostitution
3 TRAFFICKING VICTIMS PROTECTION ACT (TVPA) FROM WHITE SLAVERY TO HUMAN TRAFFICKING IDEAL VICTIMS2
Police report rather than police action Third-party involvement Cisgender young women History of running away Younger than 16 Appear frightened Cooperate with law enforcement No prior arrest record
5 WHAT ABOUT CISGENDER BOYS & TRANSGENDER YOUTH?
Not included in the social construction of victims
Rhetoric of victimization needs to conceive of “victims” more broadly: not limited to individual level violence not specific to people who are deemed worthy of protecting
6 LEGAL RESPONSES FROM CRIMINALIZATION TO DECRIMINALIZATION TO PARTIAL DECRIMINALIZATION CRIMINALIZATION Victims but still arrested Police as just “another exploiter” Rare for youth to consider police “a safety option or something that would increase their safety” Physically and sexually abuse young people Profiling Legislation focuses on clients/third parties Limitations of rational approach to deviance
8 POLICIES: CRIMINALIZATION “She got in his car and he said that he didn’t have money and that they were going to drive to the gas station for him to be able to use an ATM, get some gas and get some money. And one of the things that she said was that she, he let her fondle him on the entire drive. You know, she said it was at least a solid, you know, five minutes and she, one of the things she asked me, she said, “I don’t understand, if he’s an undercover cop and I’m a minor, isn’t he not supposed to,” you know, “Let me do that?”…That’s something that I do hear commonly, is that the officers seem to take definite advantage, you know, and become yet another exploiter” - Case Manager at SAGE
9 FULL DECRIMINALIZATION California SB 1322; Safe Children Act in Illinois Adjudicated to Child Welfare Issues Lack of awareness among police officers Unwillingness among child welfare workers Many of these youth already child welfare involved Subjectivity allowed for temporary custody without a warrant Still arrested, just charged with other offenses
10 POLICIES: PARTIAL DECRIMINALIZATION (NY, OREGON)
<16 years protected from arrest. 16-17 still criminalized. Not in compliance with federal guidance re: arrests and appropriate housing
11 IMPACTS OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE RESPONSE
Increased vulnerability of having a record Reminiscent of Mann Act Co-conspirators “When young people who trade sex, all of whom are considered victims of sex trafficking by federal law, are convicted as traffickers, they not only have the extra injury of being a co-conspirator with their trafficker, they have the extra stigma that will bar them from a lot of services for victims of trafficking even though they are victims” - Robin Richardson, Equal Justice Fellow at the Urban Justice Center’s Sex Workers Project
Sex offender registry
Numbers game 12 VACATUR REMEDIES https://sites.google.com/a/htprobono.org/vsdatabase
13 KEY ATTRIBUTES OF VACATUR REMEDIES
Scope is broad enough to cover arrest & convictions for crimes beyond prostitution No requirement for official documentation to “certify” that you are a victim, but if presented, should count as presumptive evidence of trafficking No requirement for proof of “rehabilitation,” especially if survivor independently chooses to be a sex worker Ensure confidentiality and continue to seal records Remove the judge’s discretion to grant motion to vacate if all requirements are met Ensure retroactive application for survivors who were convicted before passing of the law
14 FOSTA/SESTA
ALLOW STATES AND VICTIMS TO FIGHT ONLINE SEX TRAFFICKING ACT STOP ENABLING SEX TRAFFICKERS ACT WILL IT HELP?
Results in disappearance of websites that people in sex industry use to stay safe Bad date lists Harm reduction information Occupational Health & Safety/Link to Service Providers and other community resources Pushes people offline into street-based sex work More likely to experience violence and exploitation More likely to need a third-party Impedes Law Enforcement Efforts Harder to screen ads for signs of trafficking Being able to access sites like Backpage, the number of identified victims of sex trafficking increased over a seven-year period from fewer than 31,000 to nearly 78,000.3
Link phone number(s) of people being charged with trafficking to other online ads 16 Whack-a-Mole
17 FINDING COMMON GROUND CROSS-SYSTEMS COLLABORATIONS
18 PRIORITIZING SAFETY FOR SEX WORKER POLICY;
19 GROUNDWORK/BACKGROUND THAT LED TO POLICIES
History of sex worker organizing in San Francisco; Leveraging research conducted in SF focused on people in sex industry Demand Abolition/Human Trafficking Conversation From Protest to working group convened by Dept. on the Status of Women Leveraging current energy in many communities to address human trafficking to find common ground and move forward policies that reduce harm to sex workers Police, District Attorney, Sex Worker rights, rape crisis organization, Department on the Status of Women, researcher, queer youth organization, human rights organization, Public Health, Public Defender Challenges Numerous change in leadership in police department Clash of cultures Getting police department buy-in to call out police department abuses 20 AB 2243 (CA, FRIEDMAN) PROTECTING SEX WORKERS WHO ARE VICTIMS OF VIOLENT CRIME
Unanimous bipartisan support. Passed out of Assembly with 2/3 vote. Signed into law June 13, 2018 Not as strong as the joint policies in SF Because of separation of powers, the legislature was not able to state that a person could not be arrested, they could only say they would not be charged. Will need counties to issue their own policies stating that people will not be arrested for prostitution or drug offenses if they come forward to report that they were the victim of, or witness to, a violent crime while selling sex.
21 Contact Info: [email protected] [email protected] 415-848-1342 Amazon: http://amzn.to/1O41oMd
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22 REFERENCES
1 Beckman, M. D. 1984. Note: The White Slave Traffic Act: The historical impact of a criminal law policy on women. Georgetown Law Journal 72:1111–1139. 2 Halter, S. 2010. Factors that influence police conceptualizations of girls involved in prostitution in six U.S. cities: Child sexual exploitation victims or delinquents? Child Maltreatment 15 (2): 152–160. 2 Mitchell, K. J., D. Finkelhor, and J. Wolak. 2010. Conceptualizing juvenile prostitution as child maltreatment: Findings from the National Juvenile Prostitution Study. Child Maltreatment 15 (1): 18–36. 2 Wells, M., K. J. Mitchell, and K. Ji. 2012. Exploring the role of the Internet in juvenile prostitution cases coming to the attention of law enforcement. Journal of Child Sexual Abuse 21 (3): 327–342. 3 U.S. Department Of State, Trafficking in Persons Report. (2016). Retrieved from https://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2016/index.htm
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