CHILD SEX ABUSE & TRAFFICKING
CSA & TRAFFICKING
CHILD USA is working to end child sex abuse and sex trafficking by tackling the following areas:
- Statute of Limitations Reform for child sex abuse
- Ending child marriage
- Ending abuse and neglect of athletes
To learn more about each of these visit their pages below.
What is Child Sex Abuse (CSA)?
CSA is “a form of child abuse that includes sexual activity with a minor“. A child cannot consent to any form of sexual activity, period. When a perpetrator engages with a child this way, they are committing a crime that can have lasting effects on the victim for years. Child sexual abuse does not need to include physical contact between a perpetrator and a child. Some forms of child sexual abuse include:
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- Exhibitionism, or exposing oneself to a minor
- Fondling
- Intercourse
- Masturbation in the presence of a minor or forcing the minor to masturbate
- Obscene phone calls, text messages, or digital interaction
- Producing, owning, or sharing pornographic images or movies of children
- Sex of any kind with a minor, including vaginal, oral, or anal
- Sex trafficking
- Any other sexual conduct that is harmful to a child’s mental, emotional, or physical welfare” (https://www.rainn.org/articles/child-sexual-abuse)
What is Child Sex Trafficking?
Sex trafficking is “the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, obtaining, patronizing, or soliciting of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act…” 22 U.S.C. § 7102(12).
When a defendant “benefits, financially or by receiving anything of value, from participation in a venture which has engaged in” one of the sex trafficking crimes, they are liable for sex trafficking. 18 U.S.C. § 1591 (a)(2).Severe sex trafficking is “[s]ex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is INDUCED BY FORCE, FRAUD, OR COERCION, or in which the person induced to perform such an act has not attained 18 years of age.” 22 U.S.C. § 7102(11)(a) (emphasis added).
Elements of Severe Sex Trafficking:
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- Means: force, fraud, or coercion
- Act: Inducement, recruitment, harboring, transportation, providing, obtaining
- Purpose: Commercial Sex
Statutes of Limitation (“SOL”) reform is the KEY to attaining justice for survivors
The extension of SOLs for child sex abuse offers victims a renewed opportunity to seek justice for the horrendous crimes committed against them. In addition to offering victims access to legal justice, SOL reform shifts the cost of child sex abuse away from the victim (where it ultimately falls on the medical field, government, and public) and onto the perpetrator who is responsible for the crime and suffering.
