Intercultural Human Rights Law Review
First Page
313
Abstract
This article contends that a different conceptual model is needed to describe and analyze contemporary U.S. sex trafficking. The experience of the North Florida sex trafficking victims makes clear that neither the semantics nor the underlying ideologies that have dominated the current debate - especially as regards the role of consent in prostitution - are particularly helpful or illuminating. This article proposes a third model entitled "Commercial Sex as a Compromised Choice" that seeks to more accurately delineate the role of consent in prostitution and sex trafficking cases. It also proposes that U.S. law incorporate the provision of the UN Protocol on Trafficking that recognizes that trafficking can occur not merely through force, fraud, or coercion, but also through "an abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability." Such a change in U.S. law would relieve prosecutors of the inordinately high burden of proof currently required to demonstrate non-consent on the part of a potential trafficking victim. The change would also provide a legal framework that much more accurately depicts the varied circumstances of sex trafficking victims throughout the United States.
Recommended Citation
Terry Coonan,
Anatomy of a Sex Trafficking Case,
5
Intercultural Hum. Rts. L. Rev.
313
(2010).
Available at:
https://scholarship.stu.edu/ihrlr/vol5/iss1/12