U.S. Government

Laws and Policies on Human Trafficking
U.S. Department of State                                                                                                                                      http://www.state.gov/g/tip/response/usg/index.htm

• Trafficking in Persons Report

• The President’s Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking- Coordinates government-wide efforts to combat human trafficking.

• Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000  Help combat trafficking both worldwide and domestically.
  

         The US Government set standards for other countries
         with respect to prevention of human trafficking, prosecution of traffickers,
         and protection of victims, and designated itself the auditor of these activities.
         Gozdziak, E. M. and Collett, E. A. (2005)

• Trafficking Victims Protection Re-authorization Act of 2003

Are the laws and legislation working?

• According to Trends in Organized Crime, more than 5 years after the passage of the landmark anti-trafficking law,the U.S. government has not developed a coordinated strategy to combat trafficking in persons abroad, as called for in a presidential directive, or evaluated its programs to determine whether projects are achieving the desired outcomes.
  

• In North America, only the Unites States has passed a comprehensive legislation that addresses prevention and protection for victims in addition to prosecution of traffickers. Gozdziak, E. M. and Collett, E. A. (2005) ONLY 30 of 50 U.S states have human trafficking legislation! 

• The state of Washington was the first region to enact local legislation to combat trafficking in human beings. As part of this initiative, the Office of Crime Victims produced a Task Force Report looking at both the problem and responses to the trafficking phenomenon and to the service needs of trafficked victims within the state.Gozdziak, E. M. and Collett, E. A. (2005)
  

• The National Institute of Justice (NIJ), the Research, Development, and Evaluation Agency of the US Department of Justice (DOJ), has been a leader in the United States in funding and commissioning research on trafficking issues. Since 1998 NIJ has been funding and participating in a range of human trafficking research projects and initiatives, including a diverse mix of research, demonstration projects, collaboration, and technical assistance programs that focused on exploitation of children, social consequences of sex trafficking, human smuggling in China, and trafficking in women from Ukraine. Gozdziak, E. M. and Collett, E. A. (2005)