....The human-trafficking issue has been gaining attention. Although trafficking also refers to those forced into slave labor, in this context it refers to children who are pushed into the commercial sex trade. We think of them as “child prostitutes,” but activists frown on that description given children are not at the legal age of consent. If they are viewed as victims of sexual abuse rather than as prostitutes, that could change how the system treats them.
Currently, these kids are arrested and thrown into the juvenile court system. The “johns” typically receive a slap on the wrist. These legislators and activists want the children treated as victims, and provided with shelter and help, and the johns treated as sex predators.
Two Democratic San Diego legislators are trying to address that issue, albeit with different approaches. Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins has introduced a couple of bills. AB 1730 takes a social-service approach. Per the bill, it would “authorize the chief probation officer of a county to create a program to provide services to youth within his or her jurisdiction that address the need for services relating to the commercial sexual exploitation of youth.”
Her second bill, AB 1731, creates a “Statewide Interagency Human Trafficking Task Force” to gather data about the problem. That sounds symbolic given that law-enforcement agencies don’t require legislative approval to work with other agencies and to investigate crimes and compile relevant data. The bill, which doesn’t require an appropriation, is geared mainly toward boosting public awareness about the sex-trafficking problem.
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