The Anti-Human Trafficking caucus called for continued momentum on updating laws to prevent trafficking and support victims and survivors.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I\u2019m looking for is the next wins, you know, wins beget wins. So we\u2019re looking ahead. What can we still get done this fall,\u201d said Rep. Clint Owlett, a Republican from Tioga and Bradford Counties who has taken on the issue in recent years.<\/p>\n
The coalition launched in March this year; anti-trafficking policy is one area keeping legislators united, regardless of political ideology.<\/p>\n
During the summer, Gov. Josh Shapiro signed two bills into law that address the issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019re all seeing it in our districts, we\u2019re hearing about it and it\u2019s making us all really sick to our stomachs when we hear about these crimes. It makes us want to act,\u201d Owlett said.<\/p>\n
On the two new laws- one requires training to recognize signs of human trafficking for staff in hospitality industry, like hotels or air bnbs.<\/p>\n
The other law increases penalties for trafficking of children. It also moves the prostitution crime of buying sex to the human trafficking section of the crime code. This expands authority for the Attorney General\u2019s office to investigate those cases.<\/p>\n
\u201cHuman trafficking is a supply and demand issue. And if we don\u2019t have people buying sex, we don\u2019t have a demand, and therefore we don\u2019t have traffickers,\u201d said Heather Castellino, chief deputy attorney general for the human trafficking section in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s growing conversation in human trafficking advocacy about overlap between sex trafficking and prostitution.<\/p>\n
Castellino says those who buy prostitutions services need education on how the act is illegal AND that people they sleep with could be victims of trafficking.<\/p>\n
There is a social movement within the U.S. to legitimatize sex work, but experts say it can be hard to differentiate someone freely choosing prostitution, someone being there from other life instabilities or even being trafficked into the industry when they were younger, or someone actively being controlled.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost people who are engaged, at least in my experience, in selling sex\u2013 are not doing so because they want to,\u201d Castellino said. \u201cFor some reason or another, they are either at that time being forced by a trafficker or they are exposed to certain circumstances that leave them no choice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lawmakers today said 40% of human trafficking happens within families.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of these people enter into this space through somebody they love,\u201d said Rep. Regina Young, a Democrat from Philadelphia who sponsored the hospitality education law.<\/p>\n
The legislators advocated that trafficking ends when people learn what it actually looks like: manipulation, isolation, and exploiting circumstances. The best way to counter those strategies?<\/p>\n
\u201cIdentify what love looks like, but in a healthy way,\u201d Young said. \u201cSo we all have a responsibility of helping each other identify a healthy love.\u201d<\/p>\n