Sec. 2. Findings
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/bill/113/hr/906/ih/section-2A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
Congress finds the following: Human trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery. According to the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 severe forms of trafficking in persons means— sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age; or the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery.
There is an acute need for better data collection of incidents of human trafficking across the United States in order to effectively combat severe forms of trafficking in persons. The State Department’s 2011 Trafficking in Persons report found that— the United States is a source, transit and destination country for men, women, and children, subjected to forced labor, debt bondage, domestic servitude and sex trafficking, ; and the United States needs to improve data collection on human trafficking cases at the federal, state and local levels .
The International Organization for Migration has reported that in order to effectively combat human trafficking there must be reliable and standardized data, however, the following barriers for data collection exist: The illicit and underground nature of human trafficking. The reluctance of victims to share information with authorities. Insufficient human trafficking data collection and research efforts by governments world-wide. A 2009 report to the Department of Health and Human Services entitled Human Trafficking Into and Within the United States:
A Review of the Literature found that the data and methodologies for estimating the prevalence of human trafficking globally and nationally are not well developed, and therefore estimates have varied widely and changed significantly over time . The Federal Bureau of Investigation compiles national crime statistics through the Uniform Crime Reporting Program. Under current law, State and local governments receiving Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance grants are required to share data on part 1 violent crimes with the Federal Bureau of Investigation for inclusion in the Uniform Crime Reporting Program.
The addition of severe forms of trafficking in persons to the definition of part 1 violent crimes will ensure that statistics on this heinous crime will be compiled and available through the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Uniform Crime Report.