Protected Innocence Project - Pennsylvania Fails!
Shared Hope International has recently completed a project called Protected Innocence, based on research performed by Shared Hope International and compiled in “The National Report on Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking.” This project gives grades to states for their response to domestic minor sex trafficking, as well as providing suggestions for policy changes. The Federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) has made sex trafficking of a minor a crime. Federal law defines sex trafficking as the “recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act.” When considering the crime of domestic minor sex trafficking, under the TVPA, the victim’s age is the critical issue—there is no requirement to prove that force, fraud, or coercion was used to secure the victim’s actions if the victim is a minor. This is key because many minor sex traffickers do not need to use force or coercion. The vi...