by Jeniffer Solis, Nevada Current
October 5, 2021
The Human Trafficking Institute released its 2020 State Reports Monday, which provide an overview of 2020 federal human trafficking prosecutions in all 50 states.
The report does not capture data from state prosecutions, state civil suits, or unreported human trafficking cases.
The group notes that its findings are not a prevalence estimate of human trafficking in the United States but instead serve as an objective summary of what the federal system has done to address trafficking.
According to the Nevada state report, four new human sex trafficking cases were filed in federal courts in 2020, however, none of the defendants in those cases were convicted as of last year.
Since none of the defendants were convicted federally, none were ordered to pay restitution to their victims, according to the report. Since 2000, only in 2017 and 2018 have federal courts ordered convicted Nevada trafficking defendants to pay restitution.
Nevada currently has 11 active cases of defendants charged with sex trafficking.
In 2019 in Nevada one new sex trafficking case was filed and one case ended in a conviction.
In 2018, no new trafficking cases were filed in Nevada and four earlier cases ended in convictions, according to the institute’s report.
There have been 33 sex trafficking convictions in Nevada since 2010. The U.S. Attorney’s Office has jurisdiction over federal criminal cases.
Since the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPS) was enacted in 2000, making human trafficking a federal crime, Nevada has not filed a single human trafficking case involving forced labor, according to the report.
The Nevada Attorney General’s office said they could not comment on the report at this time but noted their office has filed many trafficking cases in state court, which is not tracked by the report. For example, on September 14, a Reno man was sentenced to up to eight years in prison to induce a person to engage in prostitution by force or immediate threat of force.
The institute compiled the report using public court documents in federal human trafficking cases, as well as a detailed review of news stories and government press releases. The institute also collaborated with U.S. Attorney’s Offices across the country and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit and Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section in order to identify all federal human trafficking cases.
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