Recommended Citation
Daniel Michael Criswell,
Mens Rea Reform as a Demand-Side Solution to the Problem of Sex Trafficking,
51 Case W. Res. J. Int'l L.
327
(2019)
Available at:
https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/jil/vol51/iss1/10
Abstract
Trafficking in persons has existed around the world for many years, yet the United States has only begun to take this modem form of slavery seriously in the last two decades. The nature of sex trafficking has caused confusion for the United States and others around the globe regarding how to best deal with the commercial sex industry. The failure to reduce the commercial sex industry through traditional means of prosecuting the traffickers and their victims has motivated Sweden, and consequently the United States, to pursue a different strategy: reducing the demand through the prosecution of the buyers of commercial sex. While this infant strategy has yet to produce any results, all is not lost. The United States must reform the statute's mental state requirement and lower the burden prosecutors bear in trafficking cases.