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Date: November 22, 2024 Fri
Time: 11:32 am
Time: 11:32 am
Results for child protections
1 results foundAuthor: rights4girls Title: Survivor Protection: Reducing the Risk of Trauma to Child Sexual trafficking Victims Summary: Domestic child sex trafficking is a persistent problem in the United States. Under federal law, child sex trafficking occurs any time a minor under the age of eighteen is induced to perform a commercial sex act. Historically, domestic victims have received gravely insufficient protection and support due to a lack of awareness about domestic trafficking and the hidden nature of this crime. When information about human trafficking first gained traction in the United States, it was commonly believed that sex trafficking victims in the U.S. were primarily foreign nationals. However, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, from January 2008 to June 2010, eighty-three percent of confirmed sex trafficking victims identified in the United States were U.S. citizens, and approximately fifty-four percent were minors under the age of eighteen. Despite these children being subjected to violence, manipulation, and torture, the public still viewed victims of domestic child sex trafficking as criminals willingly engaged in prostitution, rather than as victims of violence and exploitation. In recent years, advocates have been working to shift both the law and public perception to ensure that survivors of domestic child sex trafficking are understood to be victims of gender-based violence5 and child abuse, rather than seen as "child prostitutes." Congress has played a significant role in working to advance greater protections for victims of domestic sex trafficking and increasing public awareness about the plight of American victims, and particularly, U.S. born children. Between 2013 and 2015, Congress passed a number of federal laws aimed at protecting domestic victims and assisting them in accessing many of the services and resources available to other victims of trafficking and sexual violence. Although the federal law has long been clear that child sex trafficking should be viewed as a severe form of trafficking in persons, victims of child sex trafficking are still denied the full scope of protections afforded to other victims of violence, and specifically child abuse, including protections that prevent re-traumatizing children who cooperate as victim witnesses in criminal prosecutions. This paper will provide an overview of the legal justifications for extending existing protections for child abuse victim witnesses to domestic child sex trafficking victim witnesses, and highlight various states that have passed legislation to this effect. Although this paper focuses on the use of Closed Circuit Television as a protection mechanism, we also identify other methods that can and should be utilized to protect child victim witnesses in human trafficking cases. The scope and landscape of protections for survivors of child sex trafficking is broad, but ensuring protections during human trafficking prosecutions is an area that has received little attention outside of victim advocacy spaces. The goal of this paper is to describe the legal framework that justifies extending courtroom protections that are offered to other victim witnesses to survivors of child sex trafficking testifying in criminal prosecutions. We encourage all systems officials working with this population, including judges, legislators, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and victim advocates to use the information provided to ensure that victims of child sex trafficking are afforded necessary protections, services, and support during trial. In doing so, the strength and success of prosecutions may improve. Most importantly, prioritizing the psychological, emotional, and physical protection of victim witnesses will bring us one step closer to achieving justice on behalf of survivors. Details: Washington, DC: rights4girls, 2018. 44p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 7, 2018 at: http://rights4girls.org/wp-content/uploads/r4g/2018/01/Survivor-Protection.pdf Year: 2018 Country: United States URL: http://rights4girls.org/wp-content/uploads/r4g/2018/01/Survivor-Protection.pdf Shelf Number: 150071 Keywords: Child ProtectionsChild Sex TraffickingChild Sexual AbuseChild WitnessesVictims of Trafficking |