Measuring Sex Trafficking
In terms of measuring sex trafficking, the National Institute of Justice reports that while awareness at international and national levels has increased, the government is still unable to measure the extent of sex trafficking (McGough, 2013). Researchers agreed, that it is very challenging to obtain exact statistics about the number of children who are victims of commercial sexual exploitation in the United States, as prostitution services are a largely clandestine business, making measuring both challenging and complicated (Raymond & Hughes).
Overall estimates of the magnitude of sex trafficking crimes in the USA are subject to debate and utilize methods with substantial limitations (Clawson, Dutch, & Cummings).
Given that sex trafficking statistics per state were not readily available, I chose to analyze state laws, as they were the most reliable method to analyze combative sex trafficking efforts. Comparing laws across the US was critical to not only measure policies and identify what the state of North Carolina might do to reduce sex trafficking, but also to prevent criminals from concentrating their operations in states with the weakest penalties.
An Introduction to Sex Trafficking Legislation
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Efforts to regulate the CSEC in the US started in 1910 with The Mann Act, which made it a felony to travel across state lines with the purpose of engaging in prostitution. In 2000, the UN called all nations to combat sex trafficking with laws that address Prevention (First P), Protection (second P), and Prosecution (third P), called the, “3P Model” (US Department of State, 2010). Interestingly, ten years after the initial efforts, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (2011), added a fourth “P,” to the “3P