You Sell Molly, I'll Sell Holly: Prosecuting Sex Trafficking in the United States

• Author: Tiffany Dupree
• Position: J.D./D.C.L., 2018. Paul M. Hebert Law Center, Louisiana State University.
• Pages: 1025-1057

You Sell Molly, I’ll Sell Holly: Prosecuting Sex Trafficking in the United States TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ................................................................................ 1025 I. Twenty-First Century Slavery in the United States .................... 1029 A. What is Sex Trafficking? ..................................................... 1029 B. Common Misconceptions .................................................... 1031 II. We Have the Laws, so Where Is Tim? ....................................... 1035 A. Federal Sex Trafficking Laws.............................................. 1036 B. State Sex Trafficking Laws ................................................. 1038 C. The Laws in Action ............................................................. 1040 1. Cost-Benefit Analysis ................................................... 1040 2. Challenges Faced by Prosecutors and Law Enforcement .......................................................... 1044 III. Rethinking How to Stop Tim from Selling Holly ...................... 1045 A. The Need for a Stricter Approach ........................................ 1046 B. A Uniform Attack Plan Amongst States .............................. 1050 C. A New Approach to Prosecution ......................................... 1053 1. Collaborative Efforts ..................................................... 1053 2. Improving Investigations............................................... 1054 3. Addressing Intimidation ................................................ 1055 4. Implementing Forfeiture by Wrongdoing ..................... 1055 5. Introducing Expert Testimony ...................................... 1056 Conclusion .................................................................................. 1057 INTRODUCTION Worried her parents would be disappointed in her for getting a bad grade in school, 15-year-old Holly ran away from her home in Auburn, Washington. 1 She then met Tim, a 32-year-old male who agreed to give Copyright 2018, by TIFFANY DUPREE. 1. Gloria Riviera et al., Daughters for Sale: How Young American Girls Are Being Sold Online, ABCNEWS (May 25, 2016, 9:56 PM), http://abcnews.go.com/US /daughters-sale-young-american-girls-sold-online/story?id=39350838 [https://perma 1026 LOUISIANA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 78 her a place to stay. 2 He was nice in the beginning but soon became controlling and abusive. 3 Tim dressed Holly in provocative clothing and took sexually suggestive pictures of her. 4 He used the pictures to post ads of Holly on Backpage.com, 5 containing titles like “Well worth it, 150 an hour.” 6 At Tim’s demand, Holly received 25 to 30 calls an hour and made up to $4,000 per weekend by having sex with strange men. 7 Tim did not allow Holly to keep the money, forcing her to give everything to him. 8 Tim began to physically abuse Holly and sleep next to the door so that she could not escape during the night. 9 Holly “worked” every day, making money for Tim while her parents and the police searched tirelessly for her. 10 Tim sold Holly as a sex slave for 108 days before police officers were able to locate her Backpage.com ad. 11 Officers set up a sting 12 at a hotel, and although Holly thought she was going on just another “call,” she found officers waiting upon walking into the room. 13 The officers rescued Holly, reunited her with her family, and arrested Tim, who was tried for sex trafficking of a minor. 14 Holly testified at the trial by recounting her 108 .cc/HW2U-3B9Q]. The names of the victim and trafficker provided in the source were changed for purposes of this Comment. 2. Id. 3. Id. 4. Id. 5. BACKPAGE.COM, http://www.backpage.com (last visited Nov. 3, 2017) [https://perma.cc/K8HA-V4SN]; Holding Online Facilitators Accountable: Campaign Targeted at Backpage.com, SHAREDHOPE INT’L (Feb. 24, 2012), https://shared hope.org/2012/02/holding-online-facilitators-accountable-campaign-targeted-at-back page-com/ (“Backpage.com is an online classifieds site . . . where many so-called ‘adult’ ads are placed. Backpage.com has been identified by law enforcement and service providers as a hub for child sex trafficking.”) [https://perma.cc/ZJ9S-XEJW]. 6. Riviera et al., supra note 1. 7. Id. 8. Id. 9. Id. 10. Id. 11. Id. 12. Sting Operation Law and Legal Definition, USLEGAL, https://definitions.us legal.com/s/sting-operation/ (last visited Dec. 21, 2017) (defining a “sting” as “a deceptive operation designed to nab criminals”) [https://perma.cc/2HVH-LYJ9]. 13. Id. 14. Id. 2018] COMMENT 1027 days of rape 15 and abuse. 16 Her testimony was the prosecutor’s primary source of evidence, and it helped secure Tim’s sentence of 26 years in jail. 17 Holly’s case illustrates what should happen when a child is sold as a sex slave. Sadly, her experience is not the norm. 18 Human trafficking is a criminal enterprise based on the economic principles of supply and demand. 19 It generates more than $150 billion per year, which is more annual profit earned than the tobacco industry, Google, Big Oil, or the United States banking system. 20 This Comment compares sex trafficking of domestic minor females, 21 a subcategory of human trafficking victims, to other crimes, such as selling “Molly,” 22 by conducting a cost-benefit analysis to illustrate why sex trafficking is so pervasive. 15. 22 U.S.C. § 7101(b)(9) (2012) (“Trafficking includes all the elements of the crime of forcible rape when it involves the involuntary participation of another person in sex acts by means of fraud, force, or coercion.”). 16. Riviera et al., supra note 1. 17. Id. 18. Kelly Heinrich & Kavitha Sreeharsha, The State of State HumanTrafficking Laws, 52 JUDGES’ J. (ABA), Winter 2013, at 28 (“Human trafficking is rarely prosecuted in the United States despite the proliferation of laws.”). 19. Amanda Walker-Rodriguez & Rodney Hill, Human Sex Trafficking, 80 FED. BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION LAW ENFORCEMENT BULL., Mar. 2011, at 1, 6 (stating that human trafficking is a growing criminal enterprise); see also U.S. DEPT. OF STATE, TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REPORT 2016, at 15 (June 2, 2005), http://www.state.gov /j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2005/46606.htm (stating that human trafficking has both a supply and demand side) [https://perma.cc/DNL7-VSW4]. 20. Carina Kolodny, Slavery Is Still Thriving And Is More Profitable Than Big Oil, HUFF. POST (May 22, 2014, 1:33 PM), http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014 /05/22/modern-slavery-profits-big-oil_n_5365220.html [https://perma.cc/8LGBQSD3]; ILO says forced labour generates annual profits of US $ 150 billion, INT’L LABOUR ORG. (May 20, 2014), http://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom /news/WCMS_243201/lang--en/index.htm [https://perma.cc/9JQW-97BD]; see also TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REPORT 2016, supra note 19, at 2 (John F. Kerry, former Secretary of State, stating, “[W]e want to bring to the public’s attention the full nature and scope of the $150 billion illicit human trafficking industry.”). 21. Sex trafficking has many subcategories, such as male and female, minor and adult, and domestic and international. This Comment addresses the issue of domestic minor female sex trafficking. 22. Molly is a term used for 3, 4-methylenedioxy-methamphetamine (“MDMA”), a synthetic drug that alters one’s mood and perception. Drug Facts-MDMA (Ecstasy/Molly), NAT’L INST. ON DRUG ABUSE, https://www.drugabuse.gov /publications/drugfacts/mdma-ecstasymolly (last updated Oct. 2016) [https://perma .cc/9VGX-QGRR]. 1028 LOUISIANA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 78 To combat the magnitude and seriousness of sex trafficking, a two-prong approach is required. First, legislatures across the United States must make sex trafficking a strict liability 23 crime in their states. Second, because of the nature of the crime, prosecutors need innovative strategies to secure convictions in sex trafficking cases. 24 Laws alone are not enough to stop Tim from selling Holly. The federal government and many states have sufficient laws, yet few cases are prosecuted under those laws. 25 Making sex trafficking a strict liability crime and providing additional training to law enforcement officers and prosecutors will make selling Holly less appealing to criminals and thereby significantly reduce sex trafficking in the United States. Louisiana is leading the way in the fight against sex trafficking. 26 Louisiana laws are the most comprehensive and proactive out of all 50 states. 27 Specifically at issue in this article is Louisiana’s stance, along with 16 other states, to make sex trafficking of a minor a strict liability crime. 28 23. Strict Liability Crime, BLACK’S LAW DICTIONARY (10th ed. 2014) (stating that a strict liability crime is “an offense for which the action alone is enough to warrant a conviction, with no need to prove a mental state; a crime that does not require a mens rea element”). 24. Jennifer Gentile Long & Teresa Garvey, No Victim? Don’t Give Up: Creative Strategies in Prosecuting Human Trafficking Cases Using Forfeiture by Wrongdoing and Other Evidence-Based Techniques, STRATEGIES: THE PROSECUTORS’ NEWSL. ON VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN, Nov. 2012, at 1, http://www.aequitasresource.org /S_Issue_7_No_Victim-Dont_Give_Up.pdf [https://perma.cc/WM3W-YZEZ]. 25. Heinrich & Sreeharsha, supra note 18 (stating that studies show “human trafficking is rarely prosecuted in the United States despite the proliferation of laws.”). 26. SHAREDHOPE INT’L, 2015 PROTECTED INNOCENCE CHALLENGE: A LEGAL FRAMEWORK OF PROTECTION FOR THE NATION’S CHILDREN (2015), http://shared hope.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/PIC2015REPORT2.pdf [hereinafter 2015 PROTECTED INNOCENCE CHALLENGE] [https://perma.cc/8J4P-P8ZK]. 27. Id. 28. ALA. CODE § 13A-6-152(a)(3) (2017); ARK. CODE ANN. § 5-18-103 (2017); CAL. PENAL CODE § 236.1 (West 2017); COLO. REV. STAT. § 18-3-504 (2017); DEL. CODE ANN. tit 11, § 787 (2017); FLA. STAT. § 787.06(3)(g) (2017); IOWA CODE § 710A.2(8) (2015); LA. REV. STAT. § 14:46.3(C)(2) (2015); MINN. STAT. § 609.352 (2017); MISS. CODE...