TY - JOUR
T1 - The Human Rights of Sex Trafficking Survivors
T2 - Trends and Challenges in American Vacatur Laws
AU - Rodda, Patricia C.
AU - Smith-Cannoy, Heather
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 by the authors.
PY - 2024/2
Y1 - 2024/2
N2 - For years, survivors of sex trafficking, people compelled by force or circumstance to engage in sex acts, were often wrongly convicted of prostitution and many collateral crimes in the United States. These convictions became a permanent part of survivors’ criminal records, inhibiting their ability to satisfy necessities for a dignified life—finding work and a place to live, or going to school. Since 2010, forty-five state legislatures across the US have sought to solve this problem by passing vacatur laws. These laws allow the survivors of sex trafficking a means to erase certain charges and convictions from their records. The American movement to support the human rights of sex trafficking victims is part of a larger, global non-criminalization movement to support survivors’ human rights. This article surveys the recent and robust diffusion of American vacatur laws, situates them amidst the larger, global non-criminalization movement, and highlights both the strengths and weaknesses of the current US vacatur laws with an eye toward closing the rights gap for sex trafficking survivors. We argue that extant vacatur legislation should be expanded to include all crimes traffickers compel victims to commit, should incorporate trauma-informed means for establishing victimhood, and should be passed at the federal level to ensure complete and uniform protection.
AB - For years, survivors of sex trafficking, people compelled by force or circumstance to engage in sex acts, were often wrongly convicted of prostitution and many collateral crimes in the United States. These convictions became a permanent part of survivors’ criminal records, inhibiting their ability to satisfy necessities for a dignified life—finding work and a place to live, or going to school. Since 2010, forty-five state legislatures across the US have sought to solve this problem by passing vacatur laws. These laws allow the survivors of sex trafficking a means to erase certain charges and convictions from their records. The American movement to support the human rights of sex trafficking victims is part of a larger, global non-criminalization movement to support survivors’ human rights. This article surveys the recent and robust diffusion of American vacatur laws, situates them amidst the larger, global non-criminalization movement, and highlights both the strengths and weaknesses of the current US vacatur laws with an eye toward closing the rights gap for sex trafficking survivors. We argue that extant vacatur legislation should be expanded to include all crimes traffickers compel victims to commit, should incorporate trauma-informed means for establishing victimhood, and should be passed at the federal level to ensure complete and uniform protection.
KW - human rights
KW - non-criminalization
KW - prostitution
KW - sex trafficking
KW - sex work
KW - vacatur
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85185955612&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85185955612&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/soc14020029
DO - 10.3390/soc14020029
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85185955612
SN - 2075-4698
VL - 14
JO - Societies
JF - Societies
IS - 2
M1 - 29
ER -