On June 30, 2016, the U.S. Department of State released its annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report. The TIP Report assesses the current state of both sex and labor trafficking around the world and then ranks countries into tiers based on their efforts to combat trafficking. According to the Department of State, the TIP Report “represents an updated, global look at the nature and scope of trafficking in persons and the broad range of government actions to confront and eliminate it.”
The rankings are measured against the minimum standard set out in the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA). Countries who are meeting their obligations set out by the TVPA are given a Tier 1 ranking. According to the Department of State, “While Tier 1 is the highest ranking, it does not mean that a country has no human trafficking problem. On the contrary, a Tier 1 ranking indicates that a government has acknowledged the existence of human trafficking, made efforts to address the problem, and complies with the TVPA’s minimum standards.”
The United States ranked in the first tier. While it is encouraging that the United States is meeting the TVPA’s minimum standards in combatting human trafficking, it is disheartening that the United States’ work is considered “Tier 1.” In the United States, we are still arresting victims of human trafficking and charging them with crimes such as prostitution. Furthermore, here in Pennsylvania, we can still arrest and prosecute children with the crime of prostitution and related “masking crimes” even though they are per se victims of sex trafficking under both state and federal law. We also arrest far more sellers of sex—or more realistically, people who are sold for sex—than buyers of sex, when it is the buyers who fund the sex trade and retain choice in their actions.
The CSE Institute, while proud of the United States for their efforts thus far in combatting trafficking, calls for an even greater push to protect victims and prosecute the criminally culpable individuals—those who create the demand for the commercial sex industry.
Read the Department of State’s Trafficking in Persons Report.