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Trafficking and Sex
Tourism
"Each year an estimated 800,000 to 900,000 human beings are bought,
sold, or forced across the world's borders [2003 U.S. State Department
estimate]. Among them are hundreds of thousands of teenage girls, and
others as young as 5, who fall victim to the sex trade.
There's a special evil in the abuse and exploitation of the most innocent
and vulnerable. The victims of [the] sex trade see little of life before
they see the very worst of life, an underground of brutality and lonely
fear. Those who create these victims and profit from their suffering must
be severely punished. Those who patronize this industry debase themselves
and deepen the misery of others."
- President Bush, addressing the U.N. General Assembly, September 23, 2003
The Child
Exploitation and Obscenity Section ("CEOS") plays a key role in
meeting President Bush's goal that those who profit from the trafficking of
children for sexual purposes, and those who travel to engage in sex with
children, be brought to justice. CEOS, working
together with the United States Attorney's Offices around the country,
prosecutes cases arising under federal statutes prohibiting interstate and
international sex trafficking of women and children and travel to engage in
sex with children. CEOS also plays a role in developing policies and
statutes that will help eradicate this problem.
Sex
trafficking is nothing less than slavery. When an offender takes a woman or
girl against her will and forces her to engage in prostitution, that
offender has stolen her freedom and her dignity. Much sex trafficking is
international, with victims being taken from places such as South and
Southeast Asia, the former Soviet Union, Central and South America, and
other less-developed areas to more developed places including Asia, the Middle
East, Western Europe, and North America. CEOS is committed to fighting this
international scourge.
Unfortunately,
however, much sex trafficking is also domestic. For example, the interstate
sex trafficking of minors is a growing problem. A 2001 report by the University of Pennsylvania estimated that about
293,000 American youth are currently at risk of becoming victims of
commercial sexual exploitation. Most of these children are either runaways
or have been abandoned by their families and live on the streets. CEOS,
together with the United States Attorney's Offices in 14 areas where
commercial sexual exploitation of children has been identified as a
problem, is currently working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and
the National Center for Missing and Exploited
Children on an initiative to investigate and prosecute those who would
commercially exploit our children.
Federal
statutes governing trafficking and sex tourism include 18 U.S.C. §§ 1591,
2421, 2422, and 2423. Together, these statutes prohibit sex tourism and the
interstate and international sex trafficking of adults and children, as
well as sex trafficking within a state. For example, 18 U.S.C. § 1591, as
amended by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, prohibits
trafficking by making it illegal to recruit, entice, or obtain a person to
engage in commercial sex acts, or to benefit from such activities. The law
applies to victims of any age; if the victim is over 18, however, it
applies only if force, fraud, or coercion is used to cause the victim to
engage in a commercial sex act. The law does not require the victims to
have crossed a state or international boundary. Those who traffic victims
in violation of this statute may face up to life in prison.
18 U.S.C.
§§ 2421-2423 also cover interstate and international sex trafficking, but
generally require that actual travel across a state or international
boundary or other interstate activity has taken place. Some of the key
provisions that hold the traffickers accountable are: 18 U.S.C. § 2421,
which prohibits transporting a person across state or international
boundaries for the purposes of prostitution or other unlawful sexual
activity and carries a 10 year maximum sentence; 18 U.S.C. § 2422(a), which
prohibits enticing or coercing a person to travel across a state or
international boundary in order to engage in prostitution or other unlawful
sexual activity and carries a 20 year maximum sentence; 18 U.S.C. §
2422(b), which prohibits using the mail or other interstate communications
such as the telephone or the Internet to entice or coerce a person under 18
to engage in prostitution or other unlawful sexual activity and carries a 5
year minimum sentence and a 30 year maximum sentence; and 18 U.S.C. §
2423(a), which prohibits transporting a person under 18 across state or
international boundaries for the purposes of prostitution or other unlawful
sexual activity and carries a 5 year minimum, 30 year maximum penalty.
Those who
profit from victimizing children and adults in the sex trade are only one
half of the problem. The other half are those who
patronize this exploitive industry. Federal statutes hold those who travel
to do so, and those who benefit from arranging that travel, accountable.
For example, 18 U.S.C. § 2423(b) prohibits traveling across state lines or
into the United States for the purpose of engaging in any illicit sexual
conduct (which includes any commercial sex act with a person under 18) and
carries a 30 year maximum sentence, while 18 U.S.C. § 2423(c) prohibits an
American citizen or national engaging in illicit sexual conduct outside the
United States and carries a 30 year maximum sentence. 18 U.S.C. § 2423(c)
does not require that the citizen have traveled outside the country with
the purpose of engaging in illicit sexual conduct in a foreign country. 18
U.S.C. § 2423(d) prohibits arranging or facilitating, for financial gain,
another person's travel to engage in illicit sexual conduct and carries a
30 year maximum sentence.
Sex
trafficking and sex tourism are heinous crimes that victimize the most
vulnerable among us. Federal law gives prosecutors tools to bring those who
commit these crimes to justice. CEOS is working with law enforcement
agencies and with the United States Attorney's Offices around the country
to make sure those tools are used to their fullest extent.
U.S. Department of
Justice, Criminal Division ° Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section
(CEOS)
1400 New York Avenue,
6th Floor ° Washington,
D.C. 20530
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