Laws Protecting Against Child Exploitation: Selective Summary of U.S. Laws

Summary: Table of selected laws on violence against children; includes U.S. federal law and state law from New York and Illinois.The United States has extensive and complex laws addressing violence against children. There are both federal and state laws that cover the subject; this summary examines legislation and case law from the federal system and the states of New York and Illinois. A large portion of the laws summarized address child abuse and neglect in the home, which has been the focus of many efforts to prevent, address, and remedy violence against children in the United States. In an effort to address “sex tourism”, federal laws now also criminalize the sexual exploitation of children by U.S. citizens traveling abroad. There have been recent attempts to ban all production and possession of child pornography (including videos, drawings, and computer-generated “virtual pornography”), although some portions of these laws may be unenforceable where they conflict with the right to freedom of expression.
Owner: Michelle Mersey, Meredith Esser, Nicholas Lawheadpdf: http://www.crin.org/docs/US_report_violence.doc

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Please note that these reports are hosted by CRIN as a resource for Child Rights campaigners, researchers and other interested parties. Unless otherwise stated, they are not the work of CRIN and their inclusion in our database does not necessarily signify endorsement or agreement with their content by CRIN.