Definitions of Human Trafficking - North Carolina

Defined in Child Protection Law

Citation: Gen. Stat. § 7B-101

The term 'abused juvenile' includes the following:

• Any juvenile younger than age 18 who is found to be a minor victim of human trafficking under § 14-43.15
• Any juvenile whose parent, guardian, custodian, or caregiver commits or allows to be committed against the child an offense under § 14-43.11 (human trafficking), 14-43.12 (involuntary servitude), or 14-43.13 (sexual servitude)

Definitions of Labor Trafficking

Citation: Gen. Stat. §§ 14-43.11; 14-43.10; 14-43-14

A person commits the offense of 'human trafficking' when that person does the following:

• Knowingly or in reckless disregard of the consequences of the action recruits, entices, harbors, transports, provides, or obtains by any means another person with the intent that the other person be held in involuntary servitude
• Willfully or in reckless disregard of the consequences of the action causes a minor to be held in involuntary servitude

The term 'coercion' includes all the following:

• Causing or threatening to cause bodily harm to any person, physically restraining or confining any person, or threatening to physically restrain or confine any person
• Exposing or threatening to expose any fact or information that if revealed would tend to subject a person to criminal or immigration proceedings, hatred, contempt, or ridicule
• Destroying, concealing, removing, confiscating, or possessing any actual or purported passport or other immigration document or any other actual or purported government identification document of any person
• Providing a controlled substance to a person

The term 'deception' includes all the following:

• Creating or confirming another's impression of an existing fact or past event that is false and that the accused knows or believes to be false
• Maintaining the status or condition of a person arising from a pledge by that person of his or her personal services as security for a debt, if the value of those services as reasonably assessed is not applied toward the liquidation of the debt, the length and nature of those services are not respectively limited and defined, or preventing a person from acquiring information pertinent to the disposition of such debt
• Promising benefits or the performance of services that the accused does not intend to deliver or perform or knows will not be delivered or performed

The term 'involuntary servitude' includes the following:

• The performance of labor, whether or not for compensation or the satisfaction of a debt
• Compelling the performance of labor by deception, coercion, or intimidation, using violence or the threat of violence, or by any other means of coercion or intimidation

A person commits the offense of unlawful sale, surrender, or purchase of a minor when that person, acting with willful or reckless disregard for the life or safety of a minor, participates in any of the following: the acceptance, solicitation, offer, payment, or transfer of any compensation in money, property, or other thing of value, at any time, by any person in connection with the unlawful acquisition or transfer of the physical custody of a minor, except as ordered by the court.

Definitions of Sex Trafficking of Minors

Citation: Gen. Stat. §§ 14-43.11; 14-3.10

A person commits the offense of 'human trafficking' when that person does the following:

• Knowingly or in reckless disregard of the consequences of the action recruits, entices, harbors, transports, provides, or obtains by any means another person with the intent that the other person be held in sexual servitude
• Willfully or in reckless disregard of the consequences of the action causes a minor to be held in sexual servitude

The term 'sexual servitude' includes the following:

• Any sexual activity as defined in § 14-190.13 for which anything of value is directly or indirectly given, promised to, or received by any person, and the conduct is induced or obtained by coercion or deception or is induced or obtained from a person younger than age 18
• Any sexual activity that is performed or provided by any person, and the conduct is induced or obtained by coercion or deception or is induced or obtained from a person younger than age 18

Mistake of age is not a defense to prosecution under this section. Consent of a minor is not a defense to prosecution under this section.