Deconstructing the Fight Against Sex Trafficking in the U.S.A policy-centered approach to coordinating anti-trafficking laws, institutions and organizations

Abstract

Sex trafficking, or the buying and selling of human beings for purposes of commercial sexual exploitation, is prevalent in the United States. Federal and state legislation serving to regulate and prosecute sex trafficking is new and often flawed. In this thesis, I analyze the effects and shortcomings of federal and state legislation in prosecuting beneficiaries of sex trafficking and protecting and rehabilitating people victims of commercial sexual exploitation. This analysis consists of several parts: 1) review of the literature surrounding sex trafficking in the United States; 2) content analysis of the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act as well as an examination of the literature and statistics surrounding its usage; 3) content and literature analysis of two laws representing contrasting state-level approaches to victim rehabilitation. The thesis concludes with the presentation of several policy proposals that include changes to the legal definition of sex trafficking used at the federal level as well as the process of immigration relief for foreign victims of sex trafficking; a consolidation and formalization of different state approaches to victim rehabilitation; and an adjustment of the U.S. justice system’s general treatment of prostituted people.