California: State Yet to Test Slavery Statute
CALIFORNIA--When Westminster police raided the apartment, they were convinced they were freeing the eight women inside from modern-day slavery.
Police said the women had agreed to come to the United States from villages in Malaysia and Singapore on vague promises of a better life, but instead found themselves forced into prostitution.
Their pimps seized their passports and kept the women locked in a series of bleak apartments, with video cameras monitoring their movements and furniture barricading the doors. On the rare occasions the women were allowed outside, police said, it was with an escort.
Cases like this one prompted California last year to become the first state to enact a federally drafted law cracking down on human trafficking. Despite some well-publicized cases, authorities said existing law did not provide the legal tools to fight the crime, instead forcing them to use other charges, which often carry little or no jail time.
When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the bill into law amid much fanfare and with the hope that it would become a national model, he said it would help put an end to "a horrific crime that our society cannot abide."
But in the 11 months since the law went into effect, not a single human trafficking case has been prosecuted, according to the law's sponsor, Assemblywoman Sally Lieber (D-Mountain View). Police complain the law makes it too difficult to prove that human trafficking has taken place.
The problem is that seldom is the evidence black and white. Were the workers being kept against their will, or were they enduring their hardships willingly as a step up the economic pecking order?
Read the full article at LATimes.com
To learn more about California's sex trafficking laws and key figures involved in the anti-sex trafficking fight, visit Captive Daughters--California Watch
Police said the women had agreed to come to the United States from villages in Malaysia and Singapore on vague promises of a better life, but instead found themselves forced into prostitution.
Their pimps seized their passports and kept the women locked in a series of bleak apartments, with video cameras monitoring their movements and furniture barricading the doors. On the rare occasions the women were allowed outside, police said, it was with an escort.
Cases like this one prompted California last year to become the first state to enact a federally drafted law cracking down on human trafficking. Despite some well-publicized cases, authorities said existing law did not provide the legal tools to fight the crime, instead forcing them to use other charges, which often carry little or no jail time.
When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the bill into law amid much fanfare and with the hope that it would become a national model, he said it would help put an end to "a horrific crime that our society cannot abide."
But in the 11 months since the law went into effect, not a single human trafficking case has been prosecuted, according to the law's sponsor, Assemblywoman Sally Lieber (D-Mountain View). Police complain the law makes it too difficult to prove that human trafficking has taken place.
The problem is that seldom is the evidence black and white. Were the workers being kept against their will, or were they enduring their hardships willingly as a step up the economic pecking order?
Read the full article at LATimes.com
To learn more about California's sex trafficking laws and key figures involved in the anti-sex trafficking fight, visit Captive Daughters--California Watch
posted by Sarah G. at 10:31 AM
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