According to federal law, human trafficking is a crime involving the exploitation of someone, for the purpose of compelled labor or a commercial sex act, through the use of force, fraud or coercion. Where a person younger than 18 is induced to perform a commercial sex act, it is a crime regardless of whether there is any force, fraud or coercion.
Sex Trafficking
Under federal law, sex trafficking is the: recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing, obtaining, soliciting and/or patronizing of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act, in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud or coercion. However, as mentioned earlier, persons under age 18 who perform a commercial sex act are considered under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act to be victims of human trafficking, regardless of whether force, fraud or coercion was present. (22 USC § 7102)
A commercial sex act is any sex action on account of which anything of value is given to or received by any person.
Labor Trafficking
Under the federal law, labor trafficking is the recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud or coercion, for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, debt bondage, peonage or slavery. (22 USC § 7102)
These are the definitions of the purposes of the labor trafficking:
- Involuntary Servitude: Any scheme, plan, or pattern intended to cause a person to believe that, if the person did not enter into or continue in such condition, that person or another person would suffer serious harm or physical restraint; or the abuse or threatened abuse of the legal process.
- Debt Bondage: Includes a pledge of services by the debtor or someone under the debtor’s control to pay down known or unknown charges (e.g., fees for transportation, boarding, food, and other incidentals; interest, fines for missing quotas, and charges for “bad behavior). The length and nature of those services are not respectively limited and defined, where an individual is trapped in a cycle of debt that he or she can never pay down.
- Peonage: A status or condition of involuntary servitude based on real or alleged indebtedness.
- Slavery: A state of being under the ownership or control of someone where a person is forced to work for another.
WV Human Trafficking Law
The WV human trafficking law identifies three types of human trafficking: debt bondage, forced labor and sexual servitude.
- Like the federal law, a distinction is made for minors who are sexual servitude victims in that no coercion is required.
- If convicted of these crimes, traffickers face significant penalties, with more severe penalties for trafficking children.
Some differences between state and federal laws are indicated in the chart below.
| Trafficking Definition: WV Law | Trafficking Definition: Federal Law |
|---|---|
Purpose of trafficking: debt bondage, forced labor and sexual servitude
|
Purpose of trafficking: compelled labor/service, a commercial sex act through use of force, fraud or coercion OR if a minor is induced to perform a commercial sex act, whether or not any force, fraud or coercion is involved
|
| Exploitative activities: recruiting, transporting, transferring, harboring, receiving, providing, obtaining, isolating, maintaining or enticing | Exploitative activities: recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing, obtaining, soliciting* or patronizing* (* only in cases of sex trafficking) |
| Means to exploit: indebtedness (actual or perceived), threat of harm, physical restraint or deportation; physical force (actual or threat), abuse of legal process (actual or threat), or taking away government identification documents | Means to exploit: force, fraud or coercion |
See the website section on laws for more information on what is entailed in both federal and state laws related to human trafficking.
The information in this section is drawn from a WVFRIS Sexual Assault Services Training Academy (SASTA) course, Human Trafficking 101 for Advocates.