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Human Trafficking Archives - Renewal Forum

A dollar of prevention is worth $34 in prosecution.

Fighting trafficking is costly; it costs the government to enforce laws, lock up offenders, and restore victims. In a time where resources are tight, states are implementing prevention techniques to reduce costs. Prevention has shown to reduce incarceration rates and costs, provide education for vulnerable children to be more productive to society, and prevent harms ...

The Necessity of Safe Harbor Legislation and Its Implementation

In 2008 the New York State Legislature passed the Safe Harbor for Exploited Children Act, a critical law in the fight against child sex trafficking. The law has numerous provisions, but the primary function of the law is to prevent commercially sexually exploited children from being charged with prostitution. The legal basis is that a ...

Operation Cross Country and the Way Forward

On Monday, June 23 2014, FBI Director James Comey announced the results of Operation Cross Country, the FBI’s annual nation-wide investigation of child sex trafficking. The eighth installment of the sting covered 106 cities and resulted in the rescue of 168 sexually exploited children and the arrest of 281 pimps (1). The operation was a ...

NY Legislators Block Anti-Trafficking Bill in Order to Advance Political Goals

The Trafficking Victims Protection and Justice Act (TVPJA) has been blocked in the New York State Legislature for the second year in a row by lawmakers to further their political agenda. The TVPJA would strengthen law enforcement’s ability to investigate suspected traffickers, provide protection against criminal prosecution for trafficking victims, and increase the penalties for ...

The Merseyside Model

In 2006, police in Merseyside, England declared that crimes against prostituted persons were categorized as hate crimes. (Jacobs Ms.Magazine 2014) This policy has become known as the “Merseyside Model.” The Merseyside Model focuses on the protection of prostituted persons, as compared to other forms of enforcement against prostitution, which criminalize the victims of prostitution. (Navarro ...

Legal Prostitution Condones Humiliation of Women

Lauren Hersh, New York Director of Equality Now and head of its Sex Trafficking program, states, “Prostituted persons are not only dehumanized by the act of prostitution but by society treating prostituted persons like second class citizens.” The negative stigma places prostituted persons at a higher risk of violence by abusers who act with impunity. ...

Heather’s Story

At the age of thirty-six, Heather, a survivor of the sex trade, shares her story. By working with Selah Freedom, a nonprofit organization focus on working with sex trafficking victims, she is now working towards her future goals and dreams. Though free from the sex trade, she continues to struggle finding jobs because of her ...

Banning Pornography at the Hotel Level

According to Robert W. Peters, co-author of The Slave and the Porn Star: Sexual Trafficking and Pornography, states, “The relationship between, pornography, sex trafficking, and prostitution is real and cannot exist without one or the other”. Pornography is an advertisement for prostitution. It degrades, dehumanizes, and corrupts not only our views on women but it ...

Florida’s Safe Harbor law is good, but needs more provisions for services.

In Florida, children can no longer be prosecuted for prostitution. With the Safe Harbor Act implemented in January, children should be sent to safe houses where they will receive treatments and protection from previous pimps. Though the Safe Harbor Act is a positive measure, there is a need for more safe houses for trafficked children. ...

And Boys Too…

What do you picture when you hear “human trafficking victim?” For the majority of us, we see a young girl, probably weak and fragile, maybe from a foreign country. We often forget that young boys are often victims of the same tragedy. A recent study from ECPAT-USA looked at the boys who become victims of ...