Updating the Domestic and International Impact of the U.S. Victims of Trafficking Protection Act of 2000: Does Law Deter Crime?

26 Pages Posted: 10 Oct 2007 Last revised: 13 Oct 2008

Abstract

Sex trafficking is a contemporary form of slavery that violates women's fundamental human rights. It affects many women and girls, and also men and boys. Trafficking has become one of the fastest growing and most lucrative industries, earning billions annually for international crime syndicates. For many years, the United States recognized the insufficiency of its criminal and immigration laws in dealing with sex trafficking. President Clinton signed the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA) to provide an international solution to an international problem. The TVPA established a coordinated, transnational effort to protect trafficked persons and criminalize the conduct of traffickers. The intent of this far-reaching law is to treat trafficked women as victims and not as criminals, and to eradicate trafficking in the United States and abroad.

The TVPA allocates funds for these purposes, establishes international and domestic programs, offers real economic and social incentives to victims who are willing to assist in the prosecution of traffickers, and creates economic disincentives to the perpetrators in the form of increased penalties for those convicted of sex trafficking. While these goals and measures are laudable, if they are not enforced or prove to be unenforceable, the TVPA will have little, if any, impact domestically and internationally in deterring sex trafficking.

This article examines the impact of the TVPA on both a domestic and international level. It will consider government sources emanating from the Department of State, Department of Justice, Department of Labor, Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), and United States Agency for International Development (USAID). It will also analyze newly enacted sex trafficking laws of foreign countries that have been influenced by the TVPA.

Part I introduces the purpose and provisions of the TVPA and describes the investigative method used to measure its domestic and international impact. Part II looks more closely into the domestic impact of the TVPA, which has resulted in the enactment of new criminal trafficking regulations and statutes in the United States, the amendment of existing U.S. criminal laws covering trafficking, and a slow but steady increase in the number of investigations, prosecutions, and convictions of traffickers in the United States. It also examines the extent to which benefits and services to victims authorized by the TVPA have been implemented in the United States. Part III investigates the international impact of the TVPA, including the degree to which the TVPA has enabled effective cooperation between the United States and other countries. Part III also considers the impact of the TPVA on the enactment and enforcement of new foreign anti-trafficking laws, explores whether the result is an increase in investigations, prosecutions, and convictions abroad, and examines the overall reduction or increase in the international crime of sex trafficking.

Keywords: human trafficking, sex trafficking, slavery, international crime, victims of trafficking

JEL Classification: K14, K33, K42

Suggested Citation

Tiefenbrun, Susan, Updating the Domestic and International Impact of the U.S. Victims of Trafficking Protection Act of 2000: Does Law Deter Crime?. Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law, Vol. 38, p. 249, 2007, TJSL Legal Studies Research Paper No. 1020214, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1020214

Susan Tiefenbrun (Contact Author)

Thomas Jefferson School of Law ( email )

701 B Street
Suite 110
San Diego, CA 92101
United States
619-961-4318 (Phone)

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