The federal government has gotten involved, along with other state governments across the country, in preventing human trafficking. California is one of those states that is a leader in fighting against human trafficking and some of the bad results that can occur when individuals are taken advantage of. Human trafficking laws are covered under California Penal Code Section 236.1.
Usually, where I see the enforcement of human trafficking in California and throughout Los Angeles County, where I do a lot of cases, is younger teenagers being exploited for some sort of sexual activity.
That exploitation can take place on the internet. It can take place in person, where young teenage girls are being used as prostitutes. I've actually seen and been involved with international rings. For example, girls were being brought in from Russia, and as part of their passage into the United States, they had to become prostitutes and work off that passage.
Then, of course, from there, other crimes can occur. But again, this exploitation of either young women when it comes to some sort of sex-related offenses or other children for some other nefarious purpose is not going to be stood for by the United State government and the various states that make up the fifty United States.
Another thing I've seen is people actually trying to travel to other countries and commit sex crimes with minors. The government takes the same posture and position on those types of cases. The feds will get involved and prosecute those cases and charge them under the human trafficking umbrella, where they're getting you for traveling to a foreign country for some sort of sexual purposes with underage individuals.
You can be looking at mandatory minimum sentences of fifteen, twenty, or thirty years, depending on the circumstances surrounding the human trafficking offense.
Orange County, California, and Human Trafficking
There are areas across California that are more involved with human trafficking. For instance, I've been involved with a number of cases in the Orange County area of California because Disneyland is close to there, and the authorities there are very cognizant of any type of exploitation of children and human trafficking.
There are many cases being filed because there are many young teenagers in that area, and obviously, the authorities want that area to be safe so people can feel free to come, spend money, enjoy themselves, and visit the Disneyland area.
So, human trafficking is clamped down on very harshly by the Orange County District Attorney's office so they're prosecuting cases like this all the time. Also, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office which is one of the biggest prosecuting agencies not only in the State of California but in the United States and across the world.
They do a lot of human trafficking cases, and really what they're looking at is protecting victims – especially young victims – teenage girls who are runaways, for example, and are being angled into some sort of prostitution activity or other sexually explicit activity.
Los Angeles Criminal Defense Lawyer
Another area I see the feds and state government going into as far as human trafficking goes is there's a lot of stuff going on the internet. They're in chat rooms, Craigslist – all over the place on the internet, posing as young teenage girls and young teenage boys and catching people who they consider predators who are trying to traffic these youngsters and get them involved with either sending nude photographs or meeting in person for some sort of sexual activity. Contact the Hedding Law Firm for help.
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