The DCAF report, from which the previous entries in this series of blog posts was drawn, does not specifically assess U.S. law enforcement and criminal justice efforts to combat human trafficking.  But much of its observations about the status of anti-trafficking efforts worldwide apply to our country, both in terms of progress being made as well as nagging issues that are preventing a more effective response.

The good news is that human trafficking appears to be edging on to the proverbial radar screens of local and state police departments and prosecutors’ offices around the country.  Nationally, the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security are allocating more funds for trafficking investigations and prosecutions.  Local anti-trafficking task forces comprised of U.S. Attorneys, FBI agents and local police are functioning in dozens of cities. At the very top of the federal hierarchy, the Obama Administration appointed a former Justice Department prosecutor, Luis CdeBaca, as its anti-trafficking czar, and his boss — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — has publicly stated that anti- human trafficking efforts are a top priority.  (The Administration’s inter-agency task force on trafficking held its first meeting on Feb. 3).  A national , 24/7 telephone hotline (1-888-3737-888) is available for victims seeking help and for citizens to leave tips about possible trafficking situations.

In another promising effort, the FBI in conjunction with the Department of Justice Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children launched the Innocence Lost National Initiative. Their combined efforts were aimed at addressing the growing problem of domestic sex trafficking of children in the United States.  In the five years since its inception, the Initiative has resulted in the development of 34 dedicated task forces and working groups throughout the U.S. involving federal, state and local law enforcement agencies working in tandem with U.S. Attorney’s Offices. To date, these groups have worked successfully to rescue nearly 900 children. Investigations have resulted in convictions of more than 500 pimps, madams, and their associates who exploit children through prostitution.

Yet overall, the national picture is decidedly mixed.  A series of articles on human trafficking in the Kansas City Star in December painted a generally negative picture of anti-trafficking efforts.  The tone of the series was apparent in the opening paragraph: “America declared war on human trafficking nearly a decade ago. With a new law and much fanfare, the government pledged to end such human rights abuses at home and prodded the rest of the world to follow its example. But the United States is failing to find and help tens of thousands of human trafficking victims in America.”

Whether that conclusion is justified or exaggerated, there’s little dispute over the fact that trafficking in the United States is on the rise, and that law enforcement’s capability to deal with it is in catch-up mode.

What’s preventing progress?

• Responsibility for anti-trafficking efforts is spread across numerous government departments.  Justice and Homeland Security (through its Immigration & Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) both have major roles, but the Departments of State, Health & Human Services, Agriculture and Labor also are involved in fighting trafficking.  With many departments sharing oversight, leadership remains ill-defined.
• The U.S. does have a national anti-trafficking law, the William Wilberforce Act, but at the state level, a plethora of statutes — some tightly crafted, others vague and ill-defined — often leave police and prosecutors without the proper legal teeth to go after trafficking criminals.  Forty of the 50 states have some kind of human trafficking law on the books, but attempts to create model legislation — a step that would greatly aid enforcement and prosecutions at the local and state levels — have so far failed.
• Local police and other trafficking “first responders,” such as EMS personnel and social workers, remain largely untrained in identifying trafficking situations.  A 2009 study of local preparedness in Cincinnati, sponsored by the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, revealed widespread confirmation that human trafficking cases were increasing, but that training to deal effectively with victims and prosecute the traffickers was sorely lacking. A statewide study of trafficking in Ohio found virtually identical weaknesses.
• Although interest and attention to trafficking issues is growing, the government’s commitment to combating it is more rhetorical than actual. In December, for example, President Obama signed an appropriations bill that contained the biggest-ever increase in federal funding for anti-trafficking activities.  The amount of the increase?  A paltry $12.5 million, which Free the Slaves CEO and co-founder Jolene Smith described as ” an incremental increase . . . not transformational.”  Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano promised a major set of initiatives in the anti-trafficking battle would be announced in January; so far, nothing has been forthcoming.

As is the case in many other nations, the dearth of trafficking prosecutions in the U.S. leads many to conclude that the issue is overblown, and that scarce resources need to be directed at more pressing concerns, such as drug trafficking.  Part of the problem may also be domestic politics, observers point out. Many elected officials see believe that controlling illegal immigration is a much more immediate issue and a top political priority.

The primary U.S. counter-trafficking weapon is the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), first enacted in 2000 and reauthorized three time, the latest in 2008. The law enhances the tools available to prosecute traffickers, according to  an assessment by Washington-based Polaris Project.  It also increases protection and services for U.S. citizens and foreign national victims, and on paper, at least, strengthens the role of the State Department’s Trafficking in Persons (TIP) office.

Yet as the newspaper series and other sources are quick to point out, the TVPRA has not led to significant increases in trafficking prosecutions.  One hurdle is the nature of the crime itself. Human trafficking defies traditional law enforcement methods because the victims are reluctant — or can’t — report their crimes. The tools used by traffickers to keep their victims compliant — psychological coercion and manipulation, fear, and physical trauma –– are particularly effective when applied to juveniles, meaning that the likelihood of a juvenile victim pursing escape is remote. “As juvenile victims are particularly difficult to see and particularly unlikely to provoke suspicion when seen,” the Renewal Forum wrote in 2007, “there is a special urgency for the creation of new strategies for the detection of juvenile victims of human trafficking.”

The TVPA does declare that any minor (under the age of 18) who has been exploited for commercial sex is a victim of human trafficking, without the requirement to show that force, fraud, or coercion were present for the case to qualify as trafficking. The practical implication of this legal status is that at least 100,000 – and likely more – American juveniles become victims of human trafficking annually — but nowhere near that number are being identified and rescued.

The U.S., as well as other nations, also is grappling with the thorny political issue of whether prostitution should be de-criminalized as a way to lessen its financial attractiveness to traffickers.  The DCAF report steers clear of this fervent debate, noting only that evaluations of the benefits of de-criminalization (or, turning the tables by making the purchase of sex a crime, as several European nations have done) remain to be conducted.  Some argue that criminalization pushes the sexploitation industry underground, while others point out that NGOs and police often receive tip-offs about exploitative conditions from clients of prostitutes, who would no longer contact anyone if threatened by sanctions for having bought sex.

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The debate over prostitution and sex trafficking seems to encapsulate where the entire issue of human trafficking stands today:  on the cusp of becoming a major societal issue of the 21st Century.  A small coterie of committed individuals and organizations assert that contemporary forms of slavery are a moral scourge and must be abolished.  Journalists and researchers have begun to take notice, compelled in part by the drive of huge catastrophes in South Asia and Haiti, in which allegations of children being swept up by traffickers have captured worldwide headlines.  The number of organizations fighting modern-day slavery has mushroomed, while entertainment personalities, from Emma Thompson to Ashton Kutcher, have taken up the cause.

Yet for all its emerging prominence as in issue, human trafficking is not yet — and may never become — a priority of law enforcement organizations and justice systems. The DCAF report paints a glum picture of law enforcement as being hidebound by traditional investigative practices, nervous about sharing intel with other agencies, and woefully lacking in training.  Absent hard data of arrests and prosecutions, the report adds, the political will to go after traffickers is likely to remain weak.

Until these shortcomings are fixed, the report concludes, traffickers in human beings will hold the upper hand over those who are sworn to uphold the law.