Strengthening the Child Welfare Response to Trafficking Act

Domestic child trafficking remains a serious problem in the United States. It is estimated that more than 293,000 American youth at risk of commercial exploitation and trafficking per year.

The U.S. Department of Justice reports that between 2008-2010, 83% of sex trafficking victims found within the United States were U.S. citizens and 40% of sex trafficking cases involved the sexual exploitation of children.

Unfortunately, youth in the child welfare system are particularly at-risk for human trafficking. In fact, in reports from cities throughout the United States indicate that over 60% of child trafficking victims are current or former foster youth. Additionally, a recent article in the Los Angeles highlights that foster youth are specifically targeted by pimps and forced into commercial exploitation.

Too often, state child welfare systems fail to properly identify and assist trafficked and exploited children. The protections, services and protocols established for abused and neglected children within the child welfare system are rarely extended to trafficked children and youth, and in most states, such children are not even categorized as victims.

Instead, they are often sent to the juvenile justice system and criminalized for, at no fault of their own, being raped and trafficked.

Fortunately, Reps. Karen Bass, Tom Marino, Jim McDermott, and Michele Bachmann – the Co-Chairs of the Congressional Caucus on Foster Youth – re-introduced the “Strengthening the Child Welfare Response to Trafficking Act” (H.R. 4636) in 2014. This bill will strengthen the child welfare response to child trafficking by amending the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) to require that child victims of trafficking are considered victims of abuse and neglect, not criminals.