By Linda A Smith Samantha Healy Vardaman Melissa A Snow

6Shared Hope InternationalThe TVPA goes on to establish a framework of rights that a victim of domestic minor sex trafficking isentitled to, including:• The right not to be detained in facilities inappropriate to their status as crime victims;• The right to receive necessary medical care and other assistance;• The right to be provided protection if a victim’s safety is at risk or if there is a danger of additionalharm by recapture of the victim by a trafficker. 8These rights are not being provided uniformly across the United States as first responders and juvenilejustice struggles to identify the victims and respond within a system ill-equipped to protect the victimsof domestic minor sex trafficking. When the victim of trafficking is a U.S. citizen or lawful permanentresident minor they often are placed in juvenile detention facilities or sent back to a home from whichthey are easily found and re-trafficked by their trafficker. In Clark County, Nevada (includes LasVegas), an entire court docket is scheduled one day each week to hear the cases of juveniles chargedwith prostitution; in 20 months, 226 juveniles from across the country were adjudicated by the court forprostitution/prostitution-related offenses committed in Las Vegas. In the first half of 2007, 12.8% ofthe females committed to Caliente Youth Center had been adjudicated for the offense of solicitation forprostitution, a misdemeanor offense. 9In Kansas City, Missouri law enforcement were pushed to utilize mental health holds to place victimsin a domestic minor sex trafficking case in a psychiatric unit as a means of preventing their return totheir trafficker. 10 This placement is not ideal and represents the lengths law enforcement must go to inthe absence of an appropriate, protective facility for the victims of domestic minor sex trafficking. Apreferable process with a similar outcome would be the use of a protective hold for the victims which8TVPA, 221 USC 7105 §107(c)(1)(a), (b), (c).9Kennedy, M. Alexis, Ph.D. and Nicole Joey Pucci, M.A. Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Assessment Report — Las Vegas,Nevada (Shared Hope International: August 2007), pgs. 63, 132.10Wade, Kris. Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Assessment Report — Independence, Missouri (Shared Hope International:April 2008), pg. 95.