Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, Jr. is leading a coalition of elected officials, advocates and survivors calling on the New York State Assembly to support survivors of sex trafficking, particularly when it involves minors, eliminating the five-year statute of limitations on this abominable crime.
According to some research, this transnational crime could be taking a new breath with the immigration crisis.
“This time limit for complaints is simply not enough, something that the State recognized when it eliminated the statute of limitations for serious sexual crimes two decades ago”Bragg remarked.
The bill codified as S349B/A1940A would extend the criminal and civil statutes of limitations by increasing the deadlines in which a judicial process for sex trafficking is initiated. In short, the time in which a civil lawsuit can be filed is increased.
Currently, a process for sex trafficking or sex trafficking of a minor must be initiated within five years following the alleged commission of the offense.
In this sense, Sonia Ossorioexecutive director of NOW-NYC y Women’s Justice NOW argues that survivors of sex trafficking deserve the same access to justice that has been granted to survivors of sexual assault.
“They deserve their day in court too. Such a short statute of limitations for this horrible crime is a shock to the conscience. Traffickers are being given immunity. The New York Assembly should act quickly and join its Senate colleagues who repealed limits on prosecution last year”, cried the activist.
Precisely this new legal front to punish the perpetrators of one of the bloodiest forms of human trafficking coincides with a series of neighborhood complaints about the increase in massage centers in neighborhoods such as Corona and Jackson Heights, in Queens, which according to community activists is the most superficial expression of all sex trafficking structures, which also contains the immigration crisis, registered in the Big Apple since 2022.
It takes years…
Already the state of New York with the approval of the Child Victims Law and the Adult Survivors Act eliminated the statute of limitations for the most serious sexual crimes, in recognition of the fact that Victims need years to come to terms with their abuse.
In 2007 the Bronx Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz He authored legislation that created the criminal sex trafficking statute that targets the methods used by traffickers to exploit their victims. Seventeen years later, a draft bill is expected to eliminate the criminal statute of limitations for sex trafficking. Additionally, the period in which a civil cause of action can be brought is extended.
As defined by National Institute of Justice (NIJ) lto sex trafficking “It is a particularly degrading form of human trafficking, where an adult is recruited, lured, harbored or transported for the sex trade by force, fraud or coercion.” This criminal activity becomes more degrading when it involves minors.
Law enforcement and non-governmental organizations have increasingly seen cases in which pimps or traffickers force women and girlsmostly immigrants vulnerable to prostitution.
Since the enactment of the federal sex trafficking criminal statute in 2000, The number of human trafficking cases filed in federal courts has increased dramatically.
In clandestine brothels in NYC
In fact, in research published by El Diario in 2019titled Migration crisis on the border raises alarms due to human trafficking between Mexico and NYC, spokespersons for several organizations that monitor transnational sex trafficking structures were already talking about situations on the country’s southern border, with the irregular crossing of thousands of people, including vulnerable women, that ended up in clandestine brothels in the Big Apple.
This was warned at that time by spokespersons for the Transnational Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW)who projected that The recruitment of women was increasing in Latin America.
“At the rhythm of the crisis in Latin Americaespecially in countries where humanitarian crises like Venezuela and some nations in Central Americathe powerful human trafficking industry has modernized, with the support of new technologies, in combination with irregular groups such as guerrillas and drug trafficking cartels,” CATW said.
The Data:
- 639 official complaints of human trafficking in New York were reported by the Human Traffic Linein the latest statistics released for the year 2021. The large proportion of the complaints derived from sexual slavery schemes in massage centers, pornography filming, motels and home sex service networks.
2024-01-23 07:26:00
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