The Federal Trafficking and Victims Protection Act of 2000 was an ambitious attempt to rescue women and children who are smuggled into the country as sex slaves and to step up prosecution of the pimps and traffickers who drive this ghastly business. It has fallen short on both counts.
The law is now up for reauthorization, and Congress must strengthen it and extend protections and services to victims born in the United States.
The legislation provides federal funds to local trafficking task forces made up of prosecutors, law enforcement officials and social service groups. The social service groups are supposed to help identify victims and then provide them with the guidance and support they need .
According to federal estimates as many as 17,000 people - most of them women and children - are brought into this country and forced to work in brutal and inhumane conditions, often as prostitutes. The 42 federally funded task forces that have been set up have only been able to identify a small fraction of those victims.
There are many reasons for this. Traffickers are experts at moving people around without being detected. They also train the women they exploit to fear the police. The task forces are often understaffed, with too few investigators to do the job effectively. That needs to change if the country is going to get at this problem.
Prosecutors are also having a hard time making cases against traffickers and pimps. Even victims who are not too terrified to testify must meet a very difficult standard. They must prove that they did not consent to become prostitutes and did so because of “force, fraud or coercion.”
The House reauthorization would help prosecutions by adding somewhat easierto- prove standards that call for prosecution of pimps who “persuade, induce, entice” women into prostitution. The Senate should add that language as well.
The House reauthorization also requires the Justice Department to conduct a study of domestic victims so that there is at least an understanding of the scale of the problem. That would be a start .
Congress was right to take on the problem of sexual trafficking. Now it needs to pass a more effective law; one that will provide real protection and help for all exploited women and children.