Sex Trafficking

Proposed 18 U.S.C. 2431(a). Under existing law, it is a federal crime for an American to travel in foreign commerce for the purpose of engaging in a commercial sex act with a child, 18 U.S.C. Subparagraph 202(g)(6)(D) of Section 202 would establish a cause of action including reasonable attorneys' fees for the victims of the proposed obstruction of justice offenses. The Crime Victims Fund finances victim compensation and assistance grants using the fines imposed for violation of federal criminal law, 18 U.S.C. 1328 (importation of an alien for prostitution or other immoral purposes) or of any of the prohibitions in 18 U.S.C. Extraterritorial Jurisdiction for Certain Trafficking Offenses (Section 222)

Section 222 would establish extraterritorial jurisdiction over various peonage and trafficking offenses when the offender or the victim is an American or when the offender is in the United States. Model State Legislation (Section 224)

The Justice Department drafted a Model State Anti-Trafficking Criminal Statute in 2004. 77 (involuntary servitude) and 117 (Mann Act) as those chapters would be amended by H.R. 3887 . It would also instruct the Attorney General to post the model on the Department's website, distribute it to the states, assist the states in its implementation, and report annually to House and Senate Judiciary Committees and the House Foreign Affairs Committee as well as the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the results of such efforts.
The William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2007 (H.R. 3887), passed by the House on December 4, 2007, continues and reenforces the anti-trafficking efforts that began with Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000. That legislation sought to protect the women and children most often the victims of both international and domestic trafficking with a series of diplomatic, immigration, and law enforcement initiatives. H.R. 3887 follows in its path. This report is limited to the bill's law enforcement initiatives or more precisely its proposals to amend federal criminal law.
Representative Lantos introduced H.R. 3887 on October 17, 2007, for himself and several other Members. The House Committee on Foreign Affairs reported an amended version of the bill on November 6, 2007. A further revised version passed under suspension of the rules on December 4, 2007. When the bill reached the Senate its criminal law proposals included newly assigned sex trafficking offenses, a sex tourism offense, a coerced services offense, obstruction of justice offenses, an importation of prostitutes offense, a false statement offense, and provisions for civil liability, victim assistance, forfeiture, extraterritorial jurisdiction, Justice Department reorganization, and a model state statute.
This is an abridged version of CRS Report RL34323, William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2007 (H.R. 3887 as Passed by the House): Criminal Law Provisions, by [author name scrubbed] without the footnotes, quotations, or citations to authority found in the longer report.