COMMERCIAL SEXUAL EXPLOITATION: HUMAN SEX
TRAFFICKING & NON-CONSENSUAL PORNOGRAPHY
EDITED BY GRACE CAMPBELL, TAYLOR-RYAN NEDD, SELA CARRINGTON,
SHANNON TRYON, & RILEY SMITH
I. HUMAN SEX TRAFFICKING................................. 387
A. CRIMES & DEFENSES RELATED TO HUMAN SEX TRAFFICKING . . . . . 388
B. FEDERAL REGULATION OF HUMAN SEX TRAFFICKING. . . . . . . . . . . . 390
II. NON-CONSENSUAL PORNOGRAPHY .......................... 394
A. REGULATION OF NON-CONSENSUAL PORNOGRAPHY ............. 394
B. CRIMES RELATED TO NON-CONSENSUAL PORNOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . 395
C. CIVIL REMEDIES FOR NON-CONSENSUAL PORNOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . 397
I. HUMAN SEX TRAFFICKING
According to the Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia,
human trafficking is tied with the illegal arms industry by scale as the second
largest criminal industry in the world, behind only drug trafficking.
1
Human Trafficking Fact Sheet, OFF. OF THE ATT’Y GEN. FOR D.C., https://perma.cc/FF6Q-BVPC.
Human traf-
ficking is also the fourth most lucrative form of transnational crime, resulting in
some criminal groups earning roughly $3 billion dollars annually.
2
See Transnational Organized Crime: Globalized Illegal Economy, U.N. OFF. ON DRUGS & CRIME,
https://perma.cc/6GQG-U6GG.
The
Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (“TVPA”) defines sex trafficking as
“the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, obtaining, patronizing, or
soliciting of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act.”
3
Human traffick-
ing is distinct from human smuggling, which involves consent on the part of the
individual being transported,
4
This distinction is important because “victims of trafficking are considered victims of a crime
under international law; smuggled migrants are not.” Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling:
Understanding the Difference, U.S. DEP’T OF STATE (June 27, 2017), https://perma.cc/U8UD-T5ZN.
and is also distinct from sex work.
5
Sex Work vs. Trafficking: How They are Different and Why it Matters, YALE GLOB. HEALTH JUST.
P’SHIP (June 2020), https://perma.cc/UQ3R-GWJF.
Additionally,
human trafficking is not solely limited to the sex industry.
6
Victims of human
trafficking can also find themselves being used as forced labor which can result in
various labor, health, and human rights violations.
7
In the United States, sex traf-
ficking is the most common type of human trafficking, accounting for an esti-
mated 64% of total U.S. human trafficking victims in 2021.
8
Polaris Analysis of 2021 Data from the National Human Trafficking Hotline, POLARIS PROJECT
(2021), https://perma.cc/X4TA-W63L.
Human sex
1.
2.
4.
5.
7. Id.
8.
387
