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Date: April 29, 2024 Mon
Time: 8:33 pm
Time: 8:33 pm
Results for anti-trafficking task force
1 results foundAuthor: Inzano, Angela Title: Promising Criminal Justice Practices in Human Trafficking Cases: A County-Level Comparative Overview (2005-2010) With Special Emphasis On Cases Involving Children Summary: The crime of human trafficking is international in scope, and is prevalent in every country. The passing of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000 signaled the U.S. government's recognition of human trafficking as a crime that occurs within its own borders. The TVPA has since been reauthorized in 2003, 2005, and 2008, updating criminal statutes, enhancing protections for victims, and addressing gaps on research and issues concerning domestic trafficking (i.e. trafficking of U.S. citizens). As of 2011, almost every state, with the exception of West Virginia, Wyoming, South Dakota, and Massachusetts, has some form of human trafficking statute within their criminal code. Between January 2008 and June 2010, federally-funded human trafficking task forces opened 2,515 suspected incidents of human trafficking for investigation. Most of these cases were classified as sex trafficking (82%), including more than 1,200 incidents with allegations of adult sex trafficking, and more than 1,000 incidents with allegations of prostitution or sexual exploitation of a child. Eleven percent of the suspected incidents opened for investigation were classified as labor trafficking, and 7% were unclassified with respect to trafficking type. These figures represent only a small percentage of the estimated scope of the problem in the United States. The last estimate published by the United States government reported that approximately 14,500-17,500 men, women, and children are trafficked into the U.S. annually.5 Other scholars estimate the number to be higher, estimating that that as many as 17,000 foreign national children are trafficked into the United States, not even beginning to take into account trafficking of adults. Neither of these figures includes the domestic trafficking of United States citizens. Some non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working with vulnerable youth estimate that between 100,000 - 300,000 U.S. citizen children are exploited for the purpose of commercial sex acts each year. Though existing estimates suggest that the problem of human trafficking is significant, few research studies exist with respect to human trafficking in the U.S., and even fewer studies relate to trafficking in children. This is due to a number of factors, including the lack of consistent data collection and tracking mechanisms across NGOs and government agencies, misconceptions about what the human trafficking of children entails, differing legal definitions and applications between law enforcement and NGOs, ideologically-driven research, limited access to human trafficking survivors, and the hidden nature of the crime. The first anti-trafficking efforts in the United States were largely driven by federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigations, Immigration Customs Enforcement, and the Department of Labor. In 2003, the reauthorization of the TVPA encouraged states to pass their own anti-trafficking laws, recognizing that local law enforcement agencies and service providers are better able to identify potential human trafficking cases in their community. In order to encourage more local responses to potential cases, the U.S. Government also began to fund local anti-trafficking task forces in 2004. Cook County - which includes Chicago and the surrounding metropolitan area - has been identified as one of several human trafficking hubs in the country. In October 2005, the Chicago Police Department received a Bureau of Justice Affairs Grant to create a local anti-trafficking task force, comprised of local and federal law enforcement agencies and service providers. However, between 2005-2010, there were only 33 arrests under human trafficking statutes in Illinois and no human trafficking related prosecutions in Cook County, though human trafficking task forces in other large counties across the country were already mounting comprehensive responses to this crime. This "gap" was the genesis of this research project, the aim of which is to review and analyze other similarly sized counties with large, metropolitan centers across the country, in order to identify best practices, challenges and efforts that have led to successful case outcomes. This research project identifies and synthesizes cases from 2005-2010 that involved human trafficking and developed at county-level law enforcement agencies and task forces across the United States. Where possible, cases involving minors will be highlighted, in order to address distinct issues facing children who have been victimized by human trafficking. Best practices in victim identification, case investigation, perpetrator prosecution, and service provision were included. During the time period on which this project is focused, Cook County had not yet developed The Cook County Trafficking Task Force. Since 2010, Cook County has made significant strides in addressing the crime of human trafficking. Some of these initiatives will be addressed later in the report. We hope that providing a localized, county-level study will also assist other jurisdictions in their day-to-day anti-trafficking work. Details: Chicago, IL: Center for the Human Rights of Children, Loyola University Chicago, 2012. 23p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 9, 2014 at http://www.luc.edu/media/lucedu/chrc/pdfs/Trafficking_County_Report.pdf Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: http://www.luc.edu/media/lucedu/chrc/pdfs/Trafficking_County_Report.pdf Shelf Number: 132420 Keywords: Anti-Trafficking Task ForceHuman TraffickingJuvenile Victims |