He Shall Go Free: Prosecution of Human Traffickers in the Sex Trade as Sex Offenders: The Need for a Trafficker Registry

May 2010:

Abstract:

Human sex trafficking is a moral and legal tragedy that effects thousands in the United States and abroad. The U.S. State Department estimates that human traffickers bring between 14,500 and 17,500 persons annually into the United States for various avenues of exploitation including involuntary servitude and forced prostitution. Human traffickers are highly organized into criminal syndicates that reap exponential profits exploiting vulnerable women and children. States struggle to prosecute traffickers and must rely on federal prosecution of trafficking enterprises. International cooperation with local law enforcement is essential in combating trafficking especially in the sex trade.

Thousands of women and children trafficked into the U.S. are forced into prostitution. Women and children experience modern day sex slavery. Women who are forced to work in the sex trade fare worse than other trafficking victims. Women working as prostitutes suffer from trauma, depression and anxiety. Children are an even greater vulnerable subpopulation. The United States in one the top three markets for human sex trafficking. A coordinated response from the international, federal and state law enforcement is needed. Human sex traffickers should be likened to sex offenders and have restricted civil liberties such as residence, travel and occupation. Traffickers who specialize in the exploitation of children should be treated as sex offenders since they procure youth for prostitution. Once a trafficker is prosecuted, an international database should be maintained to track the whereabouts of the trafficker as the U.S. has done with sex offenders. An international trafficking registry would have a deterrent effect. American sex offender laws seek to dramatically decrease recidivism of sex offenders. Studies show evidence of a notable decrease in sexual assaults reported and prosecuted. Likening sex offender laws to sex traffickers could have the same deterrent effect. As sex offender registries attempt to control sex offenders in society, a sex trafficking registry would curtail travel across international borders of sex traffickers. Limiting and monitoring the travel of convicted sex traffickers becomes a new avenue that international law enforcement and governing bodies can use to contain the pernicious practice of sex trafficking. ..Source.. by Brown, Geneva.