Definitions of Human Trafficking - Washington

Defined in Child Protection Law

Citation: Rev. Code § 26.44.020

The term 'abuse or neglect' includes the sexual abuse or sexual exploitation of a child by any person under circumstances that indicate that the child's health, welfare, and safety are harmed.

The term 'sexual exploitation' includes the following:

• Allowing, permitting, or encouraging a child to engage in prostitution by any person
• Allowing, permitting, encouraging, or engaging in the obscene or pornographic photographing, filming, or depicting of a child by any person

Definitions of Labor Trafficking

Citation: Rev. Code §§ 9A.40.010; 9A.40.100; 9A.40.110

The term 'forced labor' means knowingly providing or obtaining labor or services of a person by any of the following:

• Threats of serious harm to, or physical restraint against, that person or another person
• Any scheme, plan, or pattern intended to cause the person to believe that, if the person did not perform such labor or services, that person or another person would suffer serious harm or physical restraint

The term 'involuntary servitude' means a condition of servitude in which the victim was forced to work by the use or threat of physical restraint or physical injury, by the use of threat of coercion through law or legal process, or through coercion.

The term 'restrain' means to restrict a person's movements without consent and without legal authority in a manner that interferes substantially with his or her liberty. Restraint is 'without consent' if it is accomplished by (a) physical force, intimidation, or deception, or (b) any means including acquiescence of the victim if he or she is a child younger than age 16 or an incompetent person and if the parent, guardian, or other person or institution having lawful control or custody of him or her has not acquiesced.

The term 'serious harm' means any harm, whether physical or nonphysical, including psychological, financial, or reputational harm, that is sufficiently serious, under all the surrounding circumstances, to compel a reasonable person of the same background and in the same circumstances to perform or to continue performing labor, services, or a commercial sex act in order to avoid incurring that harm.

A person commits the crime of trafficking when that person does any of the following:

• Recruits, harbors, transports, transfers, provides, obtains, buys, purchases, or receives by any means another person knowing, or in reckless disregard of the fact, that force, fraud, or coercion will be used to cause the person to engage in forced labor, involuntary servitude, a sexually explicit act, or a commercial sex act, or that the person is younger than age 18 and is caused to engage in a sexually explicit act or a commercial sex act
• Benefits financially or by receiving anything of value from participation in a venture that has engaged in acts set forth above

A person is guilty of coercion of involuntary servitude if he or she coerces another person to perform labor or services by the following means:

• Withholding or threatening to withhold or destroy documents relating to a person's immigration status
• Threatening to notify law enforcement officials that a person is present in the United States in violation of Federal immigration laws

Coercion does not include reports to law enforcement that a person is present in the United States in violation of Federal immigration laws. A person may commit coercion of involuntary servitude regardless of whether the person provides any sort of compensation or benefits to the person who is coerced.

Definitions of Sex Trafficking of Minors

Citation: Rev. Code § 9A.40.100

A person commits the crime of trafficking when that person does any of the following:

• Recruits, harbors, transports, transfers, provides, obtains, buys, purchases, or receives by any means another person knowing, or in reckless disregard of the fact, that force, fraud, or coercion will be used to cause the person to engage in a sexually explicit act or a commercial sex act, or that the person is younger than age 18 and is caused to engage in a sexually explicit act or a commercial sex act
• Benefits financially or by receiving anything of value from participation in a venture that has engaged in acts set forth above

If the victim of any offense identified in this section is a minor, force, fraud, or coercion are not necessary elements of an offense and consent to the sexually explicit act or commercial sex act does not constitute a defense.

In any prosecution under this chapter in which the offense or degree of the offense depends on the victim's age, it is not a defense that the perpetrator did not know the victim's age or believed the victim to be older, as the case may be.

The term 'commercial sex act' means any act of sexual contact or sexual intercourse for which something of value is given or received by any person. The term 'sexually explicit act' means a public, private, or live photographed, recorded, or videotaped act or show intended to arouse or satisfy the sexual desires or appeal to the prurient interests of patrons for which something of value is given or received.