Definitions of Human Trafficking - Vermont

Defined in Child Protection Law

Citation: Ann. Stat. Tit. 33, § 4912

The term 'sexual abuse' consists of any act or acts by any person involving sexual molestation or exploitation of a child, including the following:

• Prostitution
• Lewd and lascivious conduct involving a child
• Aiding, abetting, counseling, hiring, or procuring of a child to perform or participate in any photograph, motion picture, exhibition, show, representation, or other presentation that, in whole or in part, depicts sexual conduct, sexual excitement, or sadomasochistic abuse involving a child
• Viewing, possessing, or transmitting child pornography
• Human trafficking

Definitions of Labor Trafficking

Citation: Ann. Stat. Tit. 13, §§ 2652; 2651

No person shall knowingly do any of the following:

• Subject a person to labor servitude
• Recruit, entice, harbor, transport, provide, or obtain a person for the purpose of subjecting the person to labor servitude
• Benefit, financially or by receiving anything of value, from participation in a venture, knowing that a person will be subject to labor servitude as part of the venture

The term 'blackmail' means the extortion of money, labor, commercial sexual activity, or anything of value from a person through use of a threat to expose a secret or publicize an asserted fact, whether true or false, that would tend to subject the person to hatred, contempt, ridicule, or prosecution.

The term 'coercion' means the following:

• The threat of serious harm, including physical or financial harm to, or physical restraint against any person
• Any scheme, plan, or pattern intended to cause a person to believe that failure to perform an act would result in serious bodily or financial harm to or physical restraint of any person
• The abuse or threatened abuse of law or the legal process
• Withholding, destroying, or confiscating any actual or purported passport, immigration document, or any other government identification document of another person
• Providing a drug, including alcohol, to another person with the intent to impair the person's judgment or maintain a state of chemical dependence
• Wrongfully taking, obtaining, or withholding any property of another person
• Blackmail
• Asserting control over the finances of another person
• Debt bondage
• Withholding or threatening to withhold food or medication

The term 'debt bondage' means a condition or arrangement in which a person requires that a debtor or another person under the control of a debtor perform labor, services, sexual acts, sexual conduct, or a sexually explicit performance in order to retire, repay, or service a real or purported debt that the person has caused with the intent to defraud the debtor.

The term 'labor servitude' means labor or services performed or provided by a person that are induced or maintained through force, fraud, or coercion. 'Labor servitude' shall not include labor or services performed by a family member of a person who is engaged in the business of farming unless force, fraud, or coercion is used.

Definitions of Sex Trafficking of Minors

Citation: Ann. Stat. Tit. 13, §§ 2652; 2651

No person shall knowingly do any of the following:

• Recruit, entice, harbor, transport, provide, or obtain by any means a person younger than age 18 for the purpose of having the person engage in a commercial sex act
• Recruit, entice, harbor, transport, provide, or obtain a person through force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of having the person engage in a commercial sex act
• Compel a person through force, fraud, or coercion to engage in a commercial sex act
• Benefit financially or by receiving anything of value from participation in a venture, knowing that force, fraud, or coercion was or will be used to compel any person to engage in a commercial sex act as part of the venture

The term 'commercial sex act' means any sexual act, sexual conduct, or sexually explicit performance on account of which anything of value is promised to, given to, or received by any person.

The term 'sexual act' shall have the same meaning as in § 3251(1) of this title. The term 'sexual conduct' shall have the same meaning as in § 2821(2) of this title.

The term 'sexually explicit performance' means a public, live, photographed, recorded, or videotaped act or show that meets the following criteria:

• Depicts a sexual act or sexual conduct
• Is intended to arouse, satisfy the sexual desires of, or appeal to the prurient interests of patrons or viewers
• Lacks literary, artistic, political, or scientific value