Congressman Chris Smith’s (R-NJ) landmark Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (PL 106-386) is the law being used in the recent high-profile indictment of a trafficking ring in New York that involved actress Allison Mack of the TV series “Smallville,” as well as the indictment of former Middletown, N.J. police officer James Keenan on child sex trafficking charges.
“This law, the TVPA, sends a message to traffickers of the gravity of their offense,” Rep. Smith, co-chair of the Congressional Human Trafficking Caucus, stated.
“Nearly 20 years ago, I wrote the landmark law to combat modern-day slavery which, as these particular cases show, happens all around us right under our noses,” Smith said. “According to the International Labor Organization, human trafficking in the private economy generates $150 billion in illegal profits per year, and 4.8 million people are exploited in sex trafficking. Laws like the TVPA are critical to fighting this menace, and for helping victims.”
Smith’s law, which has been reauthorized four times since it was first enacted, applies both domestically and internationally. It set up long jail sentences and asset confiscation for traffickers and tough sanctions for governments that fail to meet minimum standards in fighting trafficking. It set up harsh punishments for child sex trafficking, and also provides for assistance to trafficking victims such as shelter and political asylum.
The most recent reauthorization of the law, the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act (H.R. 2200), passed the House in July and is pending in the Senate.
Sections of the TVPA, including Section 1591, “Sex trafficking of children or by force, fraud or coercion,” were used in the April 19 indictments in the U.S. Eastern District Court of New York of Keith Raniere and Allison Mack and others in a trafficking ring, on counts of sex trafficking, sex trafficking conspiracy, and conspiracy to commit forced labor.
The April 5 indictment of ex-Middletown police officer James Keenan on three counts of sex trafficking of a child, attempted sex trafficking of a child, and attempted enticement, also used Section 1591 of Smith’s law in the first two counts.
Smith’s landmark law takes into account that children need special care and protection. Proof of consent, force, fraud or coercion are not necessary in cases of trafficking when the defendant is under the age of 18, as children are an inherently vulnerable population.
Since 2001, more than 2,367 traffickers have been convicted under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000.
