Special to The Times
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Washington is poised to be a leader for the country and the world in the fight against modern day slavery.
In June, the U.S. government released its annual Trafficking in Persons Report. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton then observed: "Modern slavery — be it bonded labor, involuntary servitude or sexual slavery — is a crime and cannot be tolerated in any culture, community, or country."
No country, including the U.S., is free from this blight. And trafficking doesn't require crossing international borders — just the trade in people. The Seattle-Portland corridor appears to be one of the premier areas in the nation for sex trafficking. The FBI and local law enforcement conduct an annual operation to recover juveniles involved in prostitution. For the last three years, Seattle has led nationally in the number of youth recovered. According to investigators, most, if not all, of the recovered youth are being pimped out. Their pimps are traffickers.
The State Department report rightly evaluates America's efforts along with other nations. One troubling fact it notes is that while many U.S. states have specific anti-trafficking statutes, those laws are sparsely used. Washington was the first state to enact a human-trafficking statute in 2003. It was not until 2009 that an individual was convicted under the new crime.
So why is there a paucity of cases brought in Washington that involve the charge of human trafficking? One impediment to charging under the state's trafficking statute is that key terms are undefined. The lack of clarity hampers police and prosecutors from effectively enforcing this law.
This is about to change — and Washington may again become a national, and international, leader in tackling the problem of human trafficking. Led by Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Wells, the Legislature is set to pass an innovative improvement to Washington's human trafficking statute by defining critical terms and specifically penalizing individuals who use force, fraud, or coercion to cause a victim to engage in a commercial sex act. The bill, Senate Bill 5546, recently cleared the Senate and awaits passage in the House.
In King County, there have been cases involving the repeated strangulation of victims; tazing; beatings; threats of death and forced sodomy and rape to drive girls and young women to engage in prostitution. This is not so different than the level of violence employed elsewhere in the world — like young Burmese women in Thailand, who have been hunted down when fleeing their traffickers, beaten in front of other victims and had their heads shaven as a means to humiliate and punish.
But the proposed law wisely goes beyond punishing this appalling violence. Under federal and international law, trafficking can be based as much on fraud, psychological manipulation, and intimidation as brute force. The amended law would prohibit an individual from recruiting or procuring a victim when he knows that "force, fraud or coercion" would be used to cause that victim to engage in a commercial sex act (in addition to the already prohibited "forced labor" and "involuntary servitude").
This means that traffickers will face terms of up to 18 years for this insidious crime — a significant increase from the state's current law on promoting prostitution, which carries a mere 21 to 27 months in prison for first-time offenders whose victims are 18 years or older.
The best way for America to lead the fight against human trafficking is by example. By addressing the worst violence, punishing odious and more subtle recruiting and intimidation, and accounting for victims' particular vulnerability, Washington state, in its own way, can help do that by passing SB 5546.
In June, the U.S. government released its annual Trafficking in Persons Report. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton then observed: "Modern slavery — be it bonded labor, involuntary servitude or sexual slavery — is a crime and cannot be tolerated in any culture, community, or country."
No country, including the U.S., is free from this blight. And trafficking doesn't require crossing international borders — just the trade in people. The Seattle-Portland corridor appears to be one of the premier areas in the nation for sex trafficking. The FBI and local law enforcement conduct an annual operation to recover juveniles involved in prostitution. For the last three years, Seattle has led nationally in the number of youth recovered. According to investigators, most, if not all, of the recovered youth are being pimped out. Their pimps are traffickers.
The State Department report rightly evaluates America's efforts along with other nations. One troubling fact it notes is that while many U.S. states have specific anti-trafficking statutes, those laws are sparsely used. Washington was the first state to enact a human-trafficking statute in 2003. It was not until 2009 that an individual was convicted under the new crime.
So why is there a paucity of cases brought in Washington that involve the charge of human trafficking? One impediment to charging under the state's trafficking statute is that key terms are undefined. The lack of clarity hampers police and prosecutors from effectively enforcing this law.
This is about to change — and Washington may again become a national, and international, leader in tackling the problem of human trafficking. Led by Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Wells, the Legislature is set to pass an innovative improvement to Washington's human trafficking statute by defining critical terms and specifically penalizing individuals who use force, fraud, or coercion to cause a victim to engage in a commercial sex act. The bill, Senate Bill 5546, recently cleared the Senate and awaits passage in the House.
In King County, there have been cases involving the repeated strangulation of victims; tazing; beatings; threats of death and forced sodomy and rape to drive girls and young women to engage in prostitution. This is not so different than the level of violence employed elsewhere in the world — like young Burmese women in Thailand, who have been hunted down when fleeing their traffickers, beaten in front of other victims and had their heads shaven as a means to humiliate and punish.
But the proposed law wisely goes beyond punishing this appalling violence. Under federal and international law, trafficking can be based as much on fraud, psychological manipulation, and intimidation as brute force. The amended law would prohibit an individual from recruiting or procuring a victim when he knows that "force, fraud or coercion" would be used to cause that victim to engage in a commercial sex act (in addition to the already prohibited "forced labor" and "involuntary servitude").
This means that traffickers will face terms of up to 18 years for this insidious crime — a significant increase from the state's current law on promoting prostitution, which carries a mere 21 to 27 months in prison for first-time offenders whose victims are 18 years or older.
The best way for America to lead the fight against human trafficking is by example. By addressing the worst violence, punishing odious and more subtle recruiting and intimidation, and accounting for victims' particular vulnerability, Washington state, in its own way, can help do that by passing SB 5546.
Sean P. O'Donnell is a senior deputy prosecuting Attorney with the King County Prosecutor's Office. Mark P. Lagon is the Master of Science in Foreign Service International Relations chair at Georgetown University, adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and former U.S. Ambassador at Large to Combat Trafficking in Persons at the State Department.
Source: seattletimes.nwsource.com
Opinion | Washington state must lead the fight against modern-day slavery | Seattle Times Newspaper
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