By: Linda A. Smith Samantha Healy Vardaman Melissa A. Snow

The National Report on Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking: America’s Prostituted Children 5
The TVPA criminalizes human traffi cking and defi nes the crime of “severe form of traffi cking
in persons” as:
“1. Sex traffi cking 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;
2. The recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor
or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to
involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery.”
(Emphasis added.)
The sex traffi cking of children occurs when minors (under the age of 18) are commercially sexually
exploited. The commercial aspect of the sexual exploitation act is critical to separating the crime of
traffi cking from sexual assault, rape, or molestation crimes against children. The term “commercial sex
act” is defi ned in the TVPA as the giving or receiving of anything of value (money, drugs, shelter, food,
clothes, etc.) to any person in exchange for a sex act. Importantly, the money or item of value provided
for the sex act can be “given to or received by any person.” 6 This means that the child can be the direct
recipient of the money, food, and/or shelter, and the situation is defi ned as sex traffi cking and, most
importantly, the child is defi ned as a victim of domestic minor sex traffi cking. This issue arises frequently
in cases of homeless youth engaging in “survival sex” to secure food, housing, transportation, and other
items of survival. In the absence of a traffi cker/pimp selling the youth, the perpetrator paying for the sex
act with food, a bed, or a ride can become the traffi cker.
“I would sell myself for the smallest things and sometimes it was the most important things, like just
to get a place to sleep at night.” 7
— “Jessica,” Survivor of domestic minor sex trafficking
Under federal law traffi cking, despite the connotations of the word, does not require proof of physical
movement of the person. There are several ways to prove the traffi cking crime, including proof of
“recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, obtaining or maintaining a person for sexual
exploitation.” Notably, the transportation of a person is just one way to prove the human traffi cking — it
can be proven by any of the other elements independently. Further, under federal law, prosecutors must
prove that the crime was “in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce.” Proving an affect on interstate
commerce does not require proof that the victim crossed state lines. Thus, a person can be a victim of
sex traffi cking without ever leaving his/her home. The TVPA further outlines the requirements to prove
a “severe form of traffi cking,” including proof of force, fraud, or coercion exercised by the traffi cker in
the sex traffi cking of an adult and proof of age in the sex traffi cking of a minor under age 18. Of key
importance to understanding domestic minor sex traffi cking is the understanding that a child under 18
years of age is automatically considered a victim of “severe forms of traffi cking” due to the age alone.
No proof of force, fraud, or coercion in the case of sex traffi cking of a minor is required. Traffi cking is a
crime of exploitation.
6 TVPA, 22 USC 7101 §103(3).
7 Prostituted Children in the United States: Identifying and Responding to America’s Traffi cked Youth, Seg. 2. Prod. Shared
Hope International and Onanon Productions. DVD. Washington, D.C.: Shared Hope International, 2008.