THE MISSING “P”: PROSECUTION, PREVENTION, PROTECTION, AND PARTNERSHIP IN THE TRAFFICKING VICTIMS PROTECTION ACT
Jennifer A.L. Sheldon-Sherman
ABSTRACT
Scholars estimate that at the height of the slave trade, 20,000 Africans were transported from their homes and enslaved in the United States. Today, involuntary servitude continues, with estimates that over 800,000 individuals, primarily women and children, are trafficked for sexual exploitation or labor each year. The Department of Justice estimates that between 18,000 and 20,000 individuals, immigrants as well as United States citizens, are trafficked each year in the United States alone. Trafficking exists in over 150 countries around the world and is documented in all fifty states.
One approach the United States has used to deter trafficking, punish offenders, and protect victims is the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (“TVPA”). Passed by Congress and signed into law by President Clinton in 2000, the TVPA’s anti-trafficking stratgey has three primary purposes, commonly referred to as the “three P’s”: to punish traffickers; to support countries in preventing trafficking; and to provide restorative services to victims of trafficking. Despite its stated mission, there is still a disconnect between the three goals of the TVPA and a conflict between policymakers, law enforcement agencies, and non-governmental organizations (“NGOs”) as they attempt to provide services to victims and prioritize these goals.
In this Article, I focus on the missing “P” in the “three P” paradigm— partnership—by discussing the theoretical and practical benefits of law enforcement and NGO collaboration in working within the confines of the TVPA to provide the most deterrence to traffickers and the most relief to victims. The Article specifically analyzes Department of Justice (“DOJ”) funded task forces and their success in partnering law enforcement with victim service providers to unite the goals of the TVPA. It ends by examining the potential struggles task forces face and proposing means for extending and enhancing current success. Ultimately, the Article argues that understanding these partnerships, critiquing them, and enhancing their effectiveness is central to ensuring that the goals of the TVPA are finally met. This article is a call to local and federal law enforcement and victim service providers to recognize and openly acknowledge how each can assist the other in obtaining the three goals of the TVPA.
