New report ranks child sex trafficking legislation in Kansas and Missouri. Both failed
Both Kansas and Missouri received failing grades in a new analysis of state laws on child and youth sex trafficking.
The report cards, published Wednesday by Shared Hope International’s Protected Innocence Challenge, are the first to use a new grading system that analyzes “advanced legislative framework.”
Missouri received an F, taking the hardest hit in the areas of prevention and training. Kansas ranked slightly better than Missouri, but also received a failing grade, with prevention and training also its weakest areas, followed closely by continuum of care.
“Over the past two decades, Kansas has taken great strides to improve our ability to identify and respond to human trafficking in our state,” Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt wrote in a letter earlier this month to the chairs of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees.
He noted that Kansas was one of six states that improved from an F to an A during the first grading system, which ended in 2019. He also said Kansas has enacted legislation to help better combat human trafficking in five of the last 10 years.
“While we have made great progress in improving our basic legal framework for combating human trafficking, much work remains to be done on training and implementation of these laws,” Schmidt wrote.
The Missouri Attorney General’s Office, which, like Kansas, runs a task force on trafficking, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the grades.
The only state that did not receive a D or F was Florida, which earned a C.
Previously, the states received better grades, but a change in criteria for this report card, now focused on state trafficking laws, compares 40 legal components.
With the release of the 2021 report cards, Shared Hope gave recommendations by state. Many recommendations for Kansas and Missouri were the same including:
Strengthening criminal provisions including holding business entities accountable under the trafficking law, and including financial penalties
Identifying and responding to victims, including foreign national victims; screening through the juvenile justice system; and non-criminalization for prostitution offenses
Improving the continuum of care, including services through the juvenile justice system, and expanded foster care services
Increasing access to justice for survivors, including crime victims’ compensation and changes to the statutes of limitation
Better victim-centered criminal justice, including hearsay exceptions, and alternatives to in-court testimony
Better prevention and training, including training for child welfare, juvenile justice agencies, law enforcement, prosecutors and school personnel, and prevention education in schools
At the end of the most recent decade-long report card project, Kansas and Missouri received much higher scores from Shared Hope International. In 2019, the last report card issued before this year, Kansas received a 93.5, which is an A. Missouri received an 89.5, or a B.
The previous project saw a 25% improvement across the country in “basic anti-trafficking legislation responding to domestic minor sex trafficking,” according to a news release.
That initial project was focused on six areas: decriminalization of child sex trafficking victims; criminal provisions for demand; criminal provisions for traffickers; criminal provisions for facilitators; protective provisions for child victims; and criminal justice tools for investigation and prosecution.
The new project, launched in 2021, is focused on an advanced analysis of legislation in each state, with the goal of motivating lawmakers to address specific deficiencies in remaining state child trafficking laws.
This story was originally published November 17, 2021 at 11:50 AM.
