Report to Congress

Abstract

Sex trafficking of minors is a growing public health and social justice concern (Institute of Medicine and National Research Council of the National Academies [IOM], 2013; Rothman et al., 2017). The Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000, commonly referred to as the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), defines severe forms of human trafficking as labor trafficking, “the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery”; and sex trafficking, “in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age” (italics added). Note that trafficking does not necessarily involve physical restraint or movement of victims across state or national borders.

This report to Congress summarizes current understanding and efforts in three topics of relevance for efforts to prevent minor-victim sex trafficking and respond to those affected, shown at right. As mandated by Section 105 of the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act of 2014 (PSTSFA), this report addresses (1) children who run away from foster care and their risk of trafficking victimization, (2) state efforts to serve children who are sex trafficking victims, and (3) state efforts to support long-term connections to caring adults for children in foster care.

RELEASED AUGUST 2019