UNITED STATES: The Protected Innocence Challenge: State Report Cards on the Legal Framework of Protection for the Nation's Children

Summary: The Protected Innocence Challenge is based on the Protected Innocence Legislative Framework which was informed by research performed by Shared Hope International and compiled in “The National Report on Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking.” Domestic minor sex trafficking is the prostitution, pornography, or sexual performance of U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents under the age of 18 in the United States.

Recognizing that most of the gaps in responding to domestic minor sex trafficking must be addressed at the state level, the Protected Innocence Legislative Framework sets out the basic policy principles required to create a safer environment for children. The steps necessary to create this safer environment include the following: preventing domestic minor sex trafficking through reducing demand, rescuing and restoring victims
through improved training on identification, establishing protocols and facilities for victim placement, mandating appropriate services and shelter, and incorporating trauma-reducing mechanisms into the justice system. Broken systems of criminal justice and child welfare responses to victims must also be fixed to ensure that commercially sexually exploited children are treated as victims and provided with remedies through the law to recapture their lives and their futures. 

Further Resources:

• CRIN OPSC Legal Reform Project
• CRIN page on Child-Friendly Justice
• CRIN page on Sexual exploitation
• USA: By Helping a Girl Testify at a Rape Trial, a Dog Ignites a Legal Debate (10 August 2011)
• USA: Report of the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography (28 July 2011)
• More on children's rights in the United States