Legislature Approves Crackdown on Human Trafficking

Senator Wolf announced that the Senate and House gave final approval to a bill that stiffens penalties against people involved in the organization of forced labor, organ marketing and sexual servitude and establishes important protections for victims and children to help them access necessary services.

This bill, which is being presented as one of the toughest in the nation, will help protect victims while punishing those perpetrators who would seek to commit such atrocities. This legislation has been hailed by the state’s Attorney General as both necessary and sheds light on an issue that is generally regarded as happening everywhere but here. 

The final legislation includes criminal sentences for up to five years in prison for attempted human trafficking, up to 20 years for trafficking adults, and up to life imprisonment for the trafficking of minors. Businesses involved in trafficking would face up to a $1 million fine for the first offense, with a mandatory minimum of 10 years to a maximum of life for a second offense. These offenses also carry a 5-year mandatory minimum sentence.

The legislation also removes any statute of limitations for trafficking crimes and creates a 15-year criminal penalty for trafficking human organs, and it updates sex offender registration laws to include human trafficking and the enticement of a minor into prostitution through the use of electronic devices. Anyone convicted of these crimes would be required to register in Massachusetts as a sex offender.

“Many people think of human trafficking as happening far away from their homes and neighborhoods,” said Senator Dan Wolf (D-Harwich). “But everyday young people, some children are subjected to things that can only be described as torture and this bill will help those victims and punish the people and machines behind these terrible acts. As the Senate Chair for the Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development, I feel it is so important to protect all workers from harm, especially those who are working against their will.”

To further protect and help victims, the legislation also creates the “Victims of Human Trafficking Trust Fund” which will be funded from fines and convicted human traffickers’ forfeited assets.

The legislation also:

• Establishes an Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force, comprised of state officials, law enforcement, victims’ services organizations and trafficking victims to investigate and study rates of human trafficking, prevention, and the treatment of victims;

• Increases the penalty for soliciting a prostitute, and increases the penalty for soliciting sex from a person under 18;

• Allows defendants who are victims of human trafficking and charged with prostitution to establish a defense of duress or coercion;

• Establishes a “safe harbor provision” that allows the Commonwealth, defendant or court to request a hearing for a child arrested for prostitution to instead receive protection services;

• Requires the Department of Children and Families (DCF) to provide services to sexually exploited children and to immediately report to the district attorneys and the police any child the department believes to be a sexually exploited child;

• Amends the mandated reporting law so that mandated reporters, such as doctors, social workers, teachers and probation officers, must report to DCF when they have reasonable cause to believe that a child is sexually exploited; 

• Establishes a process for victims of trafficking to bring civil actions; and

• Increases potential sentences for “Johns” to 2 ½ years in a house of correction and creates a mandatory $1,000 fine.

The legislation now goes to the Governor for his review and expected signature.

Information from Senator Dan Wolf press release.