Human trafficking in Pa. and the tools to fight it spotlighted by state legal experts

Amy Kehner and Jamie Pizzi
Your Turn

The pervasive, worldwide issue of human trafficking is of great concern to judicial, legislative, and executive officials throughout Pennsylvania.

Traffickers are predators who use a wide range of tactics, such as coercion and deception, to exploit vulnerable people — including children — to gain illicit profits. Tragically, victims may be required to perform sexual acts or participate in forced labor. The mental and emotional fallout from the mistreatment is especially severe in children.

Unlike most crimes with distinct victims and perpetrators, people exploited by traffickers are likely to commit crimes of their own due to their victimization. For example, sex-trafficking victims are frequently arrested and charged with prostitution, and labor-trafficking victims often lack proper visas and are sent into removal proceedings. Indeed, what can appear as routine interactions with the legal system may be evidence of trafficking victimization.

Because intimidation, language barriers, and socioeconomic vulnerabilities can impede cooperation with law enforcement, court-case statistics offer only a limited perspective about the scale of the criminal activity involved. These sorts of factors also complicate prosecutions even when victims recognize their exploiters as criminals and are willing and able to come forward. Consistent with these concerns, since Pennsylvania enacted its current anti-trafficking law in 2014, of the 188 human trafficking cases filed, only 117 of the 781 trafficking related-charges resulted in a conviction.

To combat a crime as insidious as human trafficking, it is important to recognize victims as victims, even when they have become ensnared in the criminal justice system. Key remedial measures include collaboration among state and local partners, increased awareness through education, and utilization of tools provided by law to meet the needs of the survivors served by the justice system. 

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court in Harrisburg is pictured in this undated photo.

The Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts (AOPC) provides training and resources to judges and court-related staff through a federal STOP (Services, Training, Officers, and Prosecutors) Violence Against Women grant. Programming focuses on strengthening the court’s ability to identify and respond to victims of human trafficking by providing law updates and best practices to improve outcomes and minimize trauma. AOPC recently developed a virtual tool that includes information about identifying human trafficking with links to resources to help readers understand this highly complex and nuanced crime.

Pennsylvania has several human trafficking laws that provide tools for the court to assist victims and survivors. The Safe Harbor for Sexually Exploited Children law forbids minors from being charged with prostitution and dictates that sexually exploited children be provided with services, rather than placed in delinquency proceedings. The vacatur provision of the commonwealth’s anti-trafficking law creates a mechanism for trafficking survivors to vacate certain trafficking-related convictions.

Barcode with human silhouette and human trafficking text within

Sen. Katie Muth, D-44th Dist., recently introduced SB 1009 — “Expanding Post-Conviction Relief for Victims of Human Trafficking”  —to expand the current vacatur provisions by adding two new eligible offenses and providing the court with exclusive authority to decide whether a conviction was trafficking-related. For survivors with a criminal record, vacatur may present an opportunity to remove barriers to gainful employment, housing, education, financial assistance and other critical resources that reduce the likelihood of revictimization. The remedy also provides a chance for survivors whose victimization predates human trafficking laws to remove a painful reminder of the past.

As reflected above, although human trafficking often occurs in the open, it remains difficult to redress. Being proactive in confronting systemic hurdles and utilizing tools like vacatur offers survivors the opportunity to recover. Building on the existing resources, and with a commitment to create other effective tools, the judiciary can be an agent of change in restoring dignity to human trafficking victims and survivors in Pennsylvania.

Amy Kehner is the judicial programs administrator for the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts. Jamie Pizzi, Esq., is a STOP grant consultant. The opinions expressed are those of the authors.