Abstract:
Little research has been done specifically on the effectiveness, of the Indiana laws and social services that affect sex trafficking (or any human trafficking). This paper is designed to help fill that gap by identifying the strength and weaknesses in Indiana's sex trafficking framework in order to make recommendations to the Indiana General Assembly and other governmental agencies regarding the next steps that must be taken to fight the sexual trafficking of Hoosiers. The authors, analyzed primary data from interviews with stakeholders in Indiana, and synthesized it with legal materials from Indiana, the federal government, and other states, and scholarly work in law, social work, psychology, and many other fields in order to make their recommendations. The legal recommendations include increasing the sentence on trafficking crimes, clarifying ambiguity in the statute & defining important words, allowing sex trafficking victims to have convictions vacated that they incurred as part of the trafficking, and increasing & enforcing penalties on purchasers of commercial sex. The social services recommendations include commissioning data collection in Indiana, diverting juvenile prostitutes to the child welfare system, and appropriating state funding to provide services for trafficking victims.
