Identifying Best Practices for "Safe Harbor" Legislation to Protect Child Sex Trafficking Victims: Decriminalization Alone Is Not Sufficient

Several states have recently enacted "Safe Harbor" laws to redirect child victims of commercial sexual exploitation and child sex trafficking from the criminal justice system and into the child welfare system. No comprehensive studies of Safe Harbor law implementation exist. 

The nine state Safe Harbor laws enacted by 2012 were analyzed to guide state legislators, health professionals, law enforcement agents, child welfare providers, and other responders to the commercial sexual exploitation of children on the development and implementation of state Safe Harbor laws. 

The authors conducted 32 semi-structured interviews with Safe Harbor experts in these states. Participants conveyed that Safe Harbor legislation signified a critical paradigm shift, treating commercially sexually exploited youth not as criminals but as vulnerable children in need of services. However, Safe Harbor legislation varied widely and significant gaps in laws exist. Such laws alone were considered insufficient without adequate funding for necessary services. 

As a result, many well-meaning providers were going around the Safe Harbor laws by continuing to incarcerate commercially sexually exploited youth in the juvenile justice system regardless of Safe Harbor laws in place. This was done, to act, in their view, in what was the best interest of the victimized children. With imperfect laws and implementation, these findings suggest an important role for local and state responders to act together to protect victims from unnecessary criminalization and potential further traumatization.

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By: Barnert ES1, Abrams S2, Azzi VF3, Ryan G4, Brook R5, Chung PJ6.

• 1Department of Pediatrics, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, 10833 Le Conte Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA; Children's Discovery & Innovation Institute, Mattel Children's Hospital UCLA, 757 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
• 2Children's Law Center of California, 201 Centre Plaza Dr #10, Monterey Park, CA, USA.
• 3Children's Discovery & Innovation Institute, Mattel Children's Hospital UCLA, 757 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
• 4RAND Health, RAND Corporation, 1776 Main St., Santa Monica, CA 90401, USA.
• 5RAND Health, RAND Corporation, 1776 Main St., Santa Monica, CA 90401, USA; Department of Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, 10833 Le Conte Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
• 6Department of Pediatrics, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, 10833 Le Conte Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA; Children's Discovery & Innovation Institute, Mattel Children's Hospital UCLA, 757 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA; RAND Health, RAND Corporation, 1776 Main St., Santa Monica, CA 90401, USA; Department of Health Policy & Management, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, 640 Charles E Young Dr S, Los Angeles, CA 90024, USA.  

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