TESTIMONY IN SUPPORT OF AB 146 PRESENTED TO THE SENATE AND ASSEMBLY JUDICIARY COMMITTEES FEBRUARY 27, 2013

Mr. Chairmen and members of the Assembly and Senate Judiciary Committees:

Thank you for providing me with an opportunity to testify on behalf of AB 146. My name is James Lee Dold and I am a human rights lawyer in Washington, D.C. I have helped to pass 27 state laws to combat around the nation.

I would like to take a moment to specifically thank Assemblyman Horne for his leadership in sponsoring this legislation and Chairman Frierson for serving as primary co-sponsor. I greatly appreciate the Nevada Legislature’s concern for and willingness to address the crime of human trafficking, a grave violation of human rights.

Why AB 146 is so Important for Nevada I was once a resident of the great state of Nevada. I grew up in Las Vegas and attended John S. Park elementary school, John C. Fremont Middle School, the Advanced Technologies Academy high school, and graduated from the University of Nevada Las Vegas. I spent my childhood summers at Wet N’ Wild and getting into trouble on the Las Vegas Strip. Las Vegas is very much a place I called home, and still do.

This bill is very much a personal one for me as it addresses activity, behavior, and criminal conduct that unfortunately I was a victim of when I was a 13 year old boy. Human trafficking is defined as the use of force, fraud, or coercion to compel or induce someone to engage in labor or services or commercial sex acts. The one exception is for children who are victims of the commercial sex trade where the requirements of force, fraud, or coercion are no longer required. The mere inducement of a child to engage in prostitution is enough to prove criminal liability under federal, state, and international law. This relaxed criminal standard for child victims of the sex trade is born out of the recognition that children do not have the emotional or psychological capacity to make decisions on whether or not to engage in commercial sex, as well as the realities of how children come under pimp control in the first place.

Pimps, like most pedophiles, engage in what is commonly referred to as the “grooming” process where a child is showered with gifts, treats, and compliments in order to earn their trust. Often they are children with low self-esteem and come from

-1- broken families or have past childhood trauma which may include sexual or physical . This makes them easier targets because they are looking for someone to love and care for them and are emotionally vulnerable. After the pimp or pedophile earns this trust they will engage in physical, sexual, and/or emotional abuse of the child. The effect is to psychologically and emotionally break the child so that he or she becomes completely dependent on their abuser.

Psychologists and Clinicians call this phenomenon “Traumatic Bonding.” This occurs where a person has dysfunctional attachment that occurs in the presence of danger, , or exploitation. These situations often include , or and some form of danger or risk is always present. Abuse cycles such as those found in are built around trauma bonds. Traumatic bonding results in misplaced loyalty as found in situations of exploitative cults, incestuous families, or in hostage or kidnapping situations.

In 1997 I was 13 and had attended a Boy Scout fundraiser where I met the family of a fellow Cub Scout in my troop. Having come from a financially disadvantaged background the family of the Cub Scout allowed me to come over and spend time with them. Over the course of the next several weeks, one of the parents took a particular interest in me and began to buy me gifts, take me to movies and concerts, and talk with me for hours. Not use to this attention, I began to grow close with the parent. Soon, however, the parent’s intentions were revealed and she began sexually molesting me, while continuing to buy me gifts and tell me how special I was. Over a period of time the parent began to slowly brain wash me by convincing me that my parents didn’t actually care about me. Slowly, I became isolated from my family and then from my friends at the hands of the parent. The molestation then turned into statutory and the parent convinced me that I shouldn’t live with parents that didn’t love me. So I decided to run away and move in with this new family, where I believed that my abuser really loved and cared about me.

However, once I moved in things dramatically changed. I was subjected to constant emotional abuse, in addition to being statutorily raped, and on occasion, physically beaten by the parent that I thought loved me. Unable to appreciate the gravity of the situation as a 14 year old, I believed that the parent who sexually abused, raped, and manipulated me, actually loved me. During this time, I had begun performing work at the request of the parent who was abusing me. I was asked to care for the younger children, clean the house, and cook. I did what was asked of me in hopes that the parent would treat me better and continue to love me. Over the next two years, I continued to wash the dishes, scrub the floors, vacuum the home, cook for the family, and care for the children while being raped, belittled, and emotionally abused.

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F-2 I was often times called a “nigger” and was told I was ugly and stupid. I eventually reached the point where I contemplated , as I was longing for an escape from the hell that had become my life. I was, in essence, a slave toiling in domestic servitude and trapped by the psychological and emotionally attachment I had to my abuser.

The situation I survived is an example of how traumatic bonds result in the complete over-bearing of an individual’s free will, especially when the abuse that creates this bond involves children. My attachment to my abuser was so strong that I was willing to do anything to appease them which gave them immense psychological and emotional control over me. I performed labor and services every day because of a sense of loyalty I had to the person who had severely abused me. It is my situation and ones like it that give rise to the necessity to enact AB 146 to ensure that all children in the state of Nevada are free from the type of abuse and exploitation that I lived through as a child.

My situation is by no means unique. Every day children in similar situations are subject to terrible forms of abuse and exploited for labor or commercial sex. What my story and data tells us is that vulnerable children are exploited every day for labor due to traumatic bonding that has literally kept them trapped by invisible chains not of the body, but of their minds. It is our love and need for care and affection that keep us bound to those who abuse and exploit us.

AB 146 AB 146 creates the crime of involuntary servitude of a minor that will recognize children who perform labor or services and who have been physically, sexually, or psychologically abused by a care taker or adult in a position of authority as a victim of human trafficking. This bill also recognizes the exploitative nature of labor or services that are provided by a child to an adult when traumatic bonding has occurred due to the abuse the child has suffered. The bill will also ensure that “consent” by the child to provide labor or services would not be a defense in situations like this where trauma bonding between the child victim and the adult has eliminated the child’s ability to consent to exploitation.

This legislation would have provided greater protection to children like me 15 years ago. Unfortunately, at that time the United States government still hadn’t enacted any laws against human trafficking. Today we know that the essence of human trafficking is the exploitation of people. And that exploitation centers around vulnerable

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F-3 individuals, especially children, who have severe traumatic bonding to individuals who have beaten, raped, or otherwise psychologically or emotionally abused them. AB 146 will protect vulnerable children like I was and make Nevada a national leader by recognizing these children as victims of human trafficking.

Support AB 146 Therefore, I humbly ask you and other members of the Committees to vote favorably upon AB 146 so that children in vulnerable situations like I was will be recognized as human trafficking victims and their exploiters subject to criminal penalties that fit the severity of the crime they have committed. If you should have any questions, please feel free to call me at (202) 907-4826. Thank you.

-James L. Dold, J.D.

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