The push to help survivors of child trafficking could include legislation and helping police and prosecutors see how some children are forced to commit crimes. Picture a boy, maybe 15 or so, selling drugs or stealing cars or breaking into a department store and running out with everything he can get his hands on.Now, picture a different kid doing the same stuff.
Loyola Law’s location, Los Angeles, is part of the story. Southern California – already seen as a hub for forced sex work and, recently, for forced child labor in industries like poultry processing and garment manufacturing – is also widely viewed as a national epicenter for forced criminality. There isn’t reliable data about exactly how many local underage trafficking victims currently fall into that legal abyss, but experts peg a low-ball estimate at hundreds of children per year.
But in recent years laws surrounding child sex trafficking changed. Today, an underage sex worker is viewed by police and courts as a victim, not a criminal; there no longer is any such thing, legally speaking, as a “child prostitute.” Experts say the shift has prevented thousands of young people in California from being prosecuted, and kept felonies off their criminal records.
“It’s egregious that our child welfare system has been trained to only identify sex trafficking victims, and not others, as victims,” she said. He also didn’t have a phone, or know anything about making long-distance calls. So he was dependent on the owners of the furniture company for, among other things, any chance of speaking with his mother.
At 18, as he was about to be transferred to a men’s prison, Lopez tied a blanket around his neck and tried to hang himself.While recovering, he encountered a friendly public defender who, Lopez said, started a legal push that eventually led to his freedom. When Lopez insisted otherwise, that what he said happened happened, he said the man just laughed and walked away.The effort to change thinking about forced criminality – and to raise awareness, generally, about labor-related human trafficking – figures to include at least some legislation.One idea, SB1157, from state Sen. Melissa Hurtado, a Democrat from Bakersfield, would prevent the state from buying products known to have been made with forced labor.
Soon, Hoyle was pushed into working for another man, also in Oakland. In his house, she was forced to provide sex work and help tend to his illegal indoor cannabis farm.
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