(ProsperNews.net) – Republican lawmakers in Arizona have proposed life sentences in prison for child trafficking. Rep. Selina Bliss and Senator Shawnna Bolick introduced separate but similar bills aimed at strengthening the punishment for traffickers and sending them to jail for their entire “natural life” without any possibility of parole or early release.
At a press conference in Phoenix, Majority Leader Rep. Leo Biasiucci said it is crucial for Arizona to take the lead and set an example for other states. “We want to make it very clear to everybody in the state, across the country: Our children are not for sale,” he said, before telling traffickers that Arizona will “throw away the key.”
If passed, HCR 2042 and SCR 1021 would send the matter to Arizona’s electorate, which will be asked to make the final decision. The Grand Canyon State is home to hundreds of trafficked and exploited children, and the Arizona State University Center for Child Well-Being reports that 291 children in Maricopa County alone were victims of the horrific crime between 2017 and 2020.
The National Human Trafficking Hotline received 651 calls from Arizona in 2021, which uncovered 217 cases involving 337 victims. Lawmakers now hope that more substantial sentences will reduce the prevalence of trafficking in the state.
The White House published its National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking in 2021, saying the crime affects the most vulnerable people in American society. The plan focuses on education and outreach efforts, enhancing community-coordinated responses, identifying global supply chains, and improving law enforcement cooperation to increase accountability.
The Justice Department says that child trafficking is one of the most pervasive and under-reported crimes in the United States. “Domestic minor sex trafficking,” or “commercial sexual exploitation of minors,” is defined in federal law as recruiting, harboring, transporting, or soliciting a person under the age of 18 to engage in commercial sexual acts. Federal prosecutions rose by 17% between 2019 and 2021 to approximately 1,400.
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