Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: The Legal Response to Sex Trafficking

ABSTRACT

In 2012, voters in California overwhelmingly supported the Californians Against Sexual Exploitation Act (CASE Act) which was designed to both fight human trafficking and protect the victims. Part of the protection for victims included the adoption of a safe harbor provision which prohibits evidence that victims committed a crime while being trafficked from being used against them in court. This study conducted a systematic survey of California appellate court decisions discussing the safe harbor provision. Relevant themes were identified and analyzed, including issues that victims face when seeking safe harbor protection and legal challenges raised by traffickers facing prosecution. Based on the results of this survey, safe harbor provisions continue to be a promising approach for protecting victims of sex trafficking that policymakers should continue to explore. Safe harbor provisions, however, have noteworthy limitations and highlight the importance of not relying so heavily on criminal prosecution to combat sex trafficking. Instead, jurisdictions are recommended to adopt comprehensive strategies that place more emphasis on prevention and protection.

KEYWORDS:

• Sex trafficking
• safe harbor laws
• criminal statutes
• criminal prosecution
• sex trafficking victims

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Kim Rossmo and Michelle Watson for providing feedback on an earlier version of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Statements and declarations

The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose. The first author was responsible for the conceptualization, design, and execution of the research as well as writing the first draft of the manuscript. The coauthors contributed to discussion around concept and execution throughout the project and contributed to drafting of the manuscript. All authors listed in the byline have agreed to the order of the byline and submission of the manuscript in this form.