Human Trafficking Efforts to Protect Connecticut's Vulnerable Children and Youth: Incorporating the Voices of Community Practitioners

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 382-399
Author(s):  
Miriam G. Valdovinos ◽  
Rebecca L. Thomas ◽  
Lorin N. Tredinnick ◽  
Maritza Vasquez Reyes
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Focus Group ◽  
Human Trafficking ◽  
The United States ◽  
Children And Youth ◽  
Child Victims ◽  
Policy Recommendations ◽  
Vulnerable Children ◽  
Trafficking Victims Protection Act ◽  
Trafficking Victims

Research demonstrates a growing number of exploited and trafficked children in the United States, but few studies address how practitioners continue to respond to these issues. Multiple efforts identify victims of human trafficking and provide services since the passing of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) in 2000 and its reauthorization. However, the TVPA oftentimes failed to protect the most vulnerable. This qualitative study included four focus group sessions with 28 practitioners from various disciplines (e.g., social work, healthcare, legal) to examine how the state of Connecticut has expanded services and programs for children and youth trafficking victims. The findings describe current statewide partnerships along with challenges and successes when working with child victims of human trafficking, offering practice and policy recommendations.

scholarly journals Civil Rights for Trafficked Persons: Recommendations for a More Effective Federal Civil Remedy

2008 ◽  
Vol 26 (1 & 2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shannon Lack
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Human Trafficking ◽  
Public Awareness ◽  
The United States ◽  
Bill Clinton ◽  
Private Enforcement ◽  
Trafficking Victims ◽  
Civil Remedy ◽  
Private Right

In response to increasing public awareness of human trafficking in the United States, the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act (TVPA) was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in October of 2000. The TVPA consolidated existing legislation to create a comprehensive civil remedy; this ensures that trafficking victims are no longer forced to seek redress under multiple criminal and civil statutes that target only components of the human trafficking offense. However, despite its status as the first comprehensive anti-trafficking legislation to be enacted in the United States, the TVPA fails to sufficiently address human trafficking concerns. It is suggested that the failure of the TVPA is a result of both the prosecutorial focus of the legislation, a focus which tends to overlook victims’ civil rights, and the contingency of TVPA benefits upon adherence to the prosecutorial process. In response to the shortcomings of the TVPA, the legislation was amended by the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2003 (TVPRA) to provide a civil remedy for trafficking victims. The civil remedy confers on trafficking victims the private right to vindicate their civil rights and hold their traffickers directly accountable for their exploitative acts. By directly compensating victims, the civil remedy acts as a financial deterrent against traffickers and provides a private enforcement anti-trafficking policy. In pursuing the civil remedy, trafficking victims possess several advantages over the prosecutorial process of the TVPA and other civil causes of action. However, despite its advantages, the civil remedy is infrequently utilized thus frustrating congressional intent that victims advance antitrafficking policy by enforcing a civil remedy against their traffickers.

scholarly journals The Trafficking Victims Protection Act: Has the Legislation Fallen Short of its Goals?

2008 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 33 ◽  
Author(s):  
MaryAnne McReynold
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
The United States ◽  
United States Government ◽  
Policy Recommendations ◽  
Legislative History ◽  
Trafficking Victims Protection Act ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Government ◽  
Trafficking Victims

This analysis examines the immigration status that the United States government affords to individuals who are willing to meet the requirements of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000, commonly known as the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA). This article presents the legislative history of the TVPA with an emphasis on the factors that heighten the tension between the interests of trafficking victims and those of the government. Available immigration relief is not truly "relief" unless it is accessible to those who need it, that is, those for whom Congress designated this type of visa status. Likewise, legislation that designates an action as criminal is fruitless unless it provides for effective investigations and enforcement. As crucial as it is to punish and deter traffickers, the special nature of this crime necessitates that the victims, who are central to the role of law enforcement, receive ample protection. In conclusion, the author suggests seven policy recommendations to improve the government's ability to punish and deter human traffickers while protecting the victims of these crimes.

Rising Waters, Rising Threats: The Human Trafficking of Indigenous Women in the Circumpolar Region of the United States and Canada

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 162-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria Sweet
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
First Nations ◽  
Human Trafficking ◽  
Indigenous People ◽  
The United States ◽  
Indigenous Women ◽  
Close Monitoring ◽  
Sex Trade ◽  
Legal Standards ◽  
Trafficking Victims

Among indigenous people around the world, human trafficking is taking a tremendous toll. While trafficking is not an exclusively indigenous issue, disproportionately large numbers of indigenous people, particularly women, are modern trafficking victims. In Canada, several groups concerned about human trafficking have conducted studies primarily focused on the sex trade because many sex workers are actually trafficking victims under both domestic and international legal standards. These studies found that First Nations women and youth represent between 70 and 90% of the visible sex trade in areas where the Aboriginal population is less than 10%. Very few comparable studies have been conducted in the United States, but studies in both Minnesota and Alaska found similar statistics among U.S. indigenous women. With the current interest in resource extraction, and other opportunities in the warming Arctic, people from outside regions are traveling north in growing numbers. This rise in outside interactions increases the risk that the indigenous women may be trafficked. Recent crime reports from areas that have had an influx of outsiders such as Williston, North Dakota, U.S. and Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada, both part of the new oil boom, demonstrate the potential risks that any group faces when people with no community accountability enter an area. The combination of development in rural locations, the demographic shift of outsiders moving to the north, and the lack of close monitoring in this circumpolar area is a potential recipe for disaster for indigenous women in the region. This paper suggests that in order to protect indigenous women, countries and indigenous nations must acknowledge this risk and plan for ways to mitigate risk factors.

Sabbithi and Others v. Al Saleh and Another

2019 ◽  
Vol 180 ◽  
pp. 703-713
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
United States Constitution ◽  
Vienna Convention ◽  
Diplomatic Relations ◽  
Trafficking Victims Protection Act ◽  
Domestic Servants ◽  
Trafficking Victims ◽  
Diplomatic Immunity ◽  
Jus Cogens

Diplomatic relations — Diplomatic agents — Immunity from jurisdiction — Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, 1961 — Article 31(1)(c) — Action by domestic servants against former employers — Certification of diplomatic status of former employers — Exceptions to immunity — Whether employment of domestic servants a commercial activity — Weight to be given to Statement of Interest filed by United States — Whether plaintiffs’ constitutional slavery claim giving way to diplomatic immunity — Whether defendants’ conduct constituting human trafficking — Whether jus cogens exception to diplomatic immunity — Whether Vienna Convention being overridden by statute — Diplomatic agent leaving post — Residual immunity under Article 39 — Immunity limited to acts performed in exercise of official functions — Whether Court lacking jurisdiction — Whether defendants enjoying diplomatic immunityHuman rights — Prohibition of slavery in United States Constitution — Whether conduct constituting trafficking in human beings — Whether constitutional claim giving way to diplomatic immunity — Whether jus cogens exception to diplomatic immunity — Whether Trafficking Victims Protection Act 2000 overriding Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, 1961 — Whether defendants enjoying diplomatic immunityRelationship of international law and municipal law — Treaties — Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, 1961 — United States Constitution — Whether constitutional claim giving way to diplomatic immunity — Whether jus cogens exception to diplomatic immunity — Whether Trafficking Victims Protection Act 2000 overriding Vienna Convention — Whether Court having jurisdiction — The law of the United States

scholarly journals Deconstructing Underlying Assumptions about Trafficked Minors and Children

2019 ◽  
pp. 120-124
Author(s):  
Jeremy Norwood
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Human Trafficking ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
The United States ◽  
Children And Youth ◽  
Life Circumstances

In Trafficked Children and Youth in the United States: Reimagining Survivors, Elżbieta M. Goździak (2016) not only explores the experiences of children and youth who have been exploited by their traffickers, but she also addresses the system in the United States that seeks to intervene and assist them. In order to understand this apparent process of victimisation, Goździak articulates the need to deconstruct popular conceptions of human trafficking itself, particularly as she seeks to give voice to the survivors and lend credibility to the trauma that they have endured. In order to accomplish this larger purpose, Goździak begins by identifying service providers which assist in the aftercare process for those impacted by human trafficking. She then spends time visiting these aftercare facilities, listening to the children and youth survivors of human trafficking, and documenting their stories and life circumstances.

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