© 2015 by Women Of Renowned Distinction Recovery Center
The largest numbers of children rescued were in San Francisco, Detroit, Milwaukee, Denver and New Orleans. The campaign, known as Operation Cross Country, was conducted under the FBI's Innocence Lost initiative.
"Child prostitution remains a persistent threat to children across the country," Ron Hosko, assistant director of the bureau's criminal investigative division, told a press conference.
The FBI said the campaign has resulted in rescuing 2,700 children since 2003.
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National Policy against the trafficking of persons in United States
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has estimated that as many as 100,000 children are exploited through prostitution every year. 68% of these likely sex trafficking victims were in the care of social services or foster care when they ran. While all states prohibit acts of pimping and pandering, the penalties attached when the victim is a child are often inappropriately low. The pimping and pandering laws and the human trafficking laws should be harmonized to ensure that the sex trafficking of children is always punished appropriately without any requirement to prove force, coercion or fraud. Similarly to statutory rape laws, our criminal law should recognize the basic fact that children do not have the legal, psychological or emotional capacity to consent to engage in commercial sex acts. Therefore, we should severely penalize child predators without requiring evidence that they used force, fraud, or coercion to induce the child victim to engage in commercial sex acts.
Want to know how YOUR STATE rates on Human Trafficking Laws? Polaris rated all 50 states and the District of Columbia based on 10 categories of laws that are critical to a basic legal framework that combats human trafficking, punishes traffickers and supports survivors. Rate your state and get more information, The Polaris Project.
Know your State Representative, and Elected Officials. Contact them, voicing your concern for the strengthening of prosecution laws against sex traffickers, pimps, johns and pedophiles.
Below find a brief overview of current Federal Laws as of 2014.
Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2013
The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2013 (TVPRA 2013), which was passed as an amendment to the Violence Against Women Act, establishes and strengthens programs to ensure that U.S. citizens do not purchase products made by victims of human trafficking, and to prevent child marriage. It also puts into place emergency response provisions within the State Department to respond quickly to disaster areas and crises where people are particularly susceptible to being trafficked. The reauthorization also strengthens collaboration with state and local law enforcement to ease charging and prosecuting traffickers.
The PROTECT Act
The Prosecutorial Remedies and Other Tools to End the Exploitation of Children Today (PROTECT) Act of 2003, established enhanced penalties for individuals engaging in sex tourism with children, both within the United States and in other countries; The Amber Alert System and other methods of alerting the public to missing, exploited, and abducted children; and grants for transitional housing for child victims of sexual assault.
National Defense Authorization Act of 2013
Sections 1701-1708 of the National Defense Authorization Act seeks limit human trafficking associated with government contractors. These sections give governmental agencies the ability to terminate, without penalty, any contract or grant with any organization or individual that engages in human trafficking. It also requires that all grants and contracts worth more than $500,000, have a written certification that no party in the transaction will engage in or support human trafficking practices. It also establishes methods of reporting and investigating possible instances of human trafficking associated with government contracts and grants.
The Mann Act
The Mann Act of 1910, (18 U.S.C. § 2421-2424) as amended in 1978 and again in 1986, criminalizes the transportation of minors, and the coercion of adults to travel across state lines or to foreign countries, for the purposes of engaging commercial sex. Both crimes are punishable with up to twenty years in prison, with enhanced punishment options for the transportation of a minor.
Summary of Missouri House Bill 214, anti-human trafficking legislation passed in 2011.
“People convicted of human trafficking in Missouri will face longer maximum sentences. The legislation addresses convictions for trafficking for slavery, forced labor or sexual exploitation and abuse through forced labor.Those crimes now carry maximum sentences of 15 years in prison. Under the bill, possible sentences would range from five to 20 years. The measure also allows fines of up to $250,000.
The bill also authorizes the state Department of Public Safety to develop procedures for identifying trafficking victims and for educating officials about existing state and federal laws on the crime.”