On October 29, Mark D. Anderson, 58, of York County, pleaded guilty to criminal attempt to patronize a victim of human trafficking and criminal attempt to commit statutory sexual assault. As a result, Anderson was sentenced to 2 ½ to 5 years in prison. As part of the negotiated plea agreement, seven additional charges were dropped, including criminal solicitation to patronize a victim of human trafficking, criminal solicitation to commit statutory sexual assault, criminal attempt to commit unlawful contact with a minor, criminal attempt to corrupt a minor, criminal use of a communication facility, and criminal attempt to commit indecent assault of a person less than 16 years of age, and solicitation of indecent assault of a person less than 16 years of age.
These charges stem from Anderson’s attempt to purchase sexual services from a 14-year-old back in May 2024. According to Assistant District Attorney Fritz Haverstick, Anderson agreed to pay $200 to engage in sex acts with the child and arranged to meet up on May 20 at an unspecified location in Mountville. Upon his arrival, Anderson was confronted by officers from the Lancaster County Human Trafficking Task Force who were waiting for him at the location.
Under Pennsylvania law, an individual is guilty of trafficking if they recruit, entice, solicit, patronize, harbor, transport, provide, obtain, advertise, or maintain another person for a commercial sex act. Here, because the victim is a minor, the prosecution did not need to prove that the defendant knew or recklessly disregarded the victim’s age, nor did it have to prove that anything of value was exchanged for the sex act. Under both federal and state law, any commercial sexual exploitation of minors constitutes sex trafficking because children cannot consent to be bought or sold for sex.
Given the elements of human trafficking outlined above, Anderson’s actions were in clear violation of the law and he was appropriately charged with human trafficking. The facts reveal that Anderson knowingly solicited sex acts from a minor by offering $200 to who he believed was a 14 year-old child.
The CSE Institute praises the Manor Township Police Department, the Lancaster County Human Trafficking Task Force, and the Lancaster County District Attorney’s Office for their collaborative efforts to combat commercial sexual exploitation in our Commonwealth, while also prioritizing the protection of minors from commercial sexual exploitation in Pennsylvania. We urge law enforcement to continue taking steps to protect their communities by conducting thorough investigations into suspected sex trafficking, and we encourage prosecutors statewide to utilize the human trafficking statutes when appropriate. We must persist in criminalizing human trafficking and the exploitation of young, vulnerable individuals, as doing so will significantly decrease the demand for commercial sex and reduce human trafficking as a whole.
The CSE Institute advocates for the adoption of the Equality Model in the United States. The Equality Model consists of four key elements: (1) decriminalization of the prostituted person, (2) criminalization of sex buyers and facilitators with a commitment to treating buying sex as a serious crime, (3) a public education campaign about the inherent harms of prostitution, and (4) funded, robust, holistic exit services for victims of commercial sexual exploitation.
The Equality Model directly targets the demand for buying sex by criminalizing sex buyers and traffickers, while decriminalizing the people who are being bought and sold for commercial sex. By proactively targeting sex buyers, Lancaster County is effectively targeting the demand fueling the sex trafficking industry. Rather than adhering to antiquated policing methods that criminalize people in prostitution, or the supply, targeting sex buyers, or the demand, comports with the basic economic theory that supply and distribution follow demand, and therefore aids in eliminating the commercial sex trade in a more effective and less harmful way. Moreover, the decriminalization of people in prostitution recognizes that those who are bought and sold for sex are exploited, not perpetrators of a crime. This is especially true when the victim is a minor.
All views expressed herein are personal to the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law or of Villanova University.