By Tom Venzor
It is estimated that there are 20 million human trafficking victims worldwide. As we have been uncovering in Nebraska, human trafficking occurs in our own back yard. Each month, somewhere between 600 and 700 individuals sold online for sex in Nebraska have indicators of being trafficked. There is good reason why this exploitation of human beings is known as a form of modern-day slavery.
Sex traffickers engage in any number of egregious and immoral behaviors that directly attack the human dignity of their so-called “slaves.” For example, sex traffickers seek to maintain control of their victims through a variety of tactics. They threaten to harm victims or their loved ones, withhold food and housing, or abuse victims’ drug dependencies in order to force victims to do illegal things to survive. More than 90% of sex trafficking victims report being arrested for crimes related to their trafficking. These victims are often subsequently tried and convicted for crimes they were coerced into committing.
But these crimes, arising out of the injustice of human trafficking, can too easily become barriers to basic goods, such as housing, employment, and education. For example, background checks for housing, employment, and education can regularly prevent a survivor from rebuilding their life after escaping the inhumane conditions of trafficking.
The National Survivor Network estimates the percentage of victims whose criminal records were a barrier to obtaining basic good: 58% for housing; 73% for employment; and 17% for education. When survivors are unable to obtain basic needs like housing, employment, and education, they become more likely to live off public assistance programs, reengage in criminal behavior, and revert to being trafficked. These barriers effectively enslave trafficking survivors beyond their time as a victim. But victims of human sex trafficking should not continue experiencing the effects of this modern-day slavery.
Thankfully, the state legislature has an opportunity to help remedy the plight of human trafficking victims.
This week the legislature was scheduled to debate LB1132. This bill establishes a process by which human trafficking survivors and victims can get their criminal convictions connected to human trafficking set-aside and sealed. The bill was introduced by Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks (Lincoln) who has helped champion human trafficking efforts during her last few years in the legislature.
A criminal set-aside is when a conviction is voided from the trafficking survivor’s criminal record. This involves a court order that contains language nullifying or cancelling out the conviction. The records can then be sealed, which means they would not be part of the public record or disseminated to persons other than criminal justice agencies (among some other exceptions).
The court would have to recognize the person’s status as a victim of sex trafficking and that they were a victim at the time of the offense. Furthermore, the court would have to find that the victim’s participation in the offense was a direct result of, or incidental to, their being trafficked.
Again, the fundamental purpose of this legislation is the need that trafficking survivors have identified. For them, post-conviction relief laws are crucial to their rehabilitation and reintegration into society after their experience of being trafficked. These relief laws recognize that victims of trafficking did not willingly participate in their commercial sexual exploitation.
LB1132 is an offer of mercy to those who have been unjustly treated by their fellow man. Not surprisingly, trafficking victims often have a negative view toward the criminal justice system. They believe the system is stacked against them or not favorable to their experience as a human trafficking victim. LB1132 allows victims to see that their experience is something that the justice system wants to remedy and heal.
While the law should certainly remain focused on putting a stop to human sex trafficking by going to the source of trafficking and prosecuting traffickers, it is important to alleviate the damage that is done to those who have fallen victim to the industry.
In Nebraska, we have a long way to go as we “Demand an End” to human trafficking in our state. Legislation, like LB1132, provides an important step in the right direction of ending this modern form of slavery.
