You recognize that sex trafficking is a serious problem in the United States, but you may not realize that the young victims of sex trafficking can actually be arrested for the offenses involved charges related to prostitution β offenses that they are forced to perform β in many states across the nation, including Texas. Better understanding how the law works in relation to prostitution can help you better understand the legal problem as it stands.
The U. Department of Justice DOJ shares that, in the most recent year for which analytics are available , about children between the ages of 10 and 17 were arrested for crimes related to prostitution in the United States and that 40 of these children were between the ages of 10 and While there is no doubt that these children had no criminal agency and that they were clearly coerced and manipulated as victims of sex trafficking into the precipitating events, the arrests happened nonetheless.
A recent article in the Washington Post dives deeper into the problem and shares that police prostitution stings in Las Vegas β a place where tourists often mistakenly believe that prostitution is illegal β were once quite common. Police departments, however, are recognizing that these prostitution stings tend to criminalize young people who may be victims of human trafficking in the first place β or who may have been pushed into the situation out of desperation as runaways or children who are buffeted about in a less-than-stellar foster care system.
While federal laws deem these children victims β rather than criminals β far too many continue to be arrested each year. While about ten states have passed laws banning minors from being arrested on prostitution-related charges, Nevada and Texas are not among them. In fact, a bill that would have made this happen was actually vetoed by the governor of Texas in KCBD Channel 11 NBC reports that, after the governor vetoed the popular bill prohibiting the arrest of prostituted minors or the requirement that prostituted minors go to juvenile court , sex-trafficked children in Texas can still face prostitution charges.
House Bill would have dropped children entirely from the definition of prostitution in the state. Instead, these vulnerable children would either have gone to the Texas Department of Family Protective Services or would have been returned to their parents. The point has been made that, although the age of consent the age that a person can legally consent to sex is 17 in the State of Texas, children younger than 17 can be arrested for prostitution in the state regardless of whether or not they were coerced, manipulated, threatened or otherwise pressured into the crime.
