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 sting12 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, h ttp://www.backpage.com ( last visited Nov. 3, 2017)

[https://perma.cc/K8HA-V4SN]; Holding Online Facilitators Accountable: Campaign

Targeted at Backpage.co m, 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 rape15 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 Human-

Trafficking Laws, 52 JUDGES’ J. (ABA), Winter 2013, at 2 8 (“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/8LGB-

QSD3]; ILO says forced labour genera tes 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].