News from TRAC

Fourfold Increase in Prosecutions of Child Sex Trafficking Crimes Since 2008

(21 Aug 2013) Federal prosecutions of cases involving the sex trafficking of children have risen 25 percent since last year, and are nearly four times what they were just five years ago. According to the latest available data from the Department of Justice, as of June 2013 there have been a total of 130 new prosecutions of 18 USC 1591 so far this fiscal year. This statute, part of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, applies to anyone who causes a person under the age of 18 to engage in a commercial sex act through the use of force, fraud, or coercion, or conduct.

For more details, including a ten-year timeline of such prosecutions, see the report at:

http://trac.syr.edu/tracreports/crim/328/

In addition to this report on the sex trafficking of children, TRAC continues to offer free reports on program categories such as immigration, drugs, weapons, terrorism and white collar crime. TRAC's reports also monitor the enforcement activities of selected government agencies such as ATF, DHS, the FBI and the IRS. For the latest information on prosecutions and convictions through June 2013, go to:

http://trac.syr.edu/tracreports/bulletins/

Even more detailed criminal enforcement information for the period from FY 1986 through June 2013 is available to TRACFed subscribers via the Express and Going Deeper tools. Go to http://tracfed.syr.edu for more information. Customized reports for a specific agency, district, program, lead charge or judge are available via the TRAC Data Interpreter, either as part of a TRACFed subscription or on a per-report basis. Go to http://trac.syr.edu/interpreter to start.

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TRAC is self-supporting and depends on foundation grants, individual contributions and subscription fees for the funding needed to obtain, analyze and publish the data we collect on the activities of the US Federal government. To help support TRAC's ongoing efforts, go to:

http://trac.syr.edu/sponsor/