THE NEW YORK STATE ANTI-TRAFFICKING COALITION
LEGISLATION
PENDING LEGISLATION
Sex Trade Survivors Justice & Equality Act
Ends the Arrest and Incarceration of People in Prostitution
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Repeals the crime of selling sex.
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Prevents people in the sex trade from being charged as an accomplice to promoting or compelling prostitution when they are helping others in prostitution like them and are not profiting, and they are being exploited by a third party.
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Prohibits usage of condoms as evidence in criminal trials for prostitution.
Expands Access to Social Services
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Expands the legal protections and comprehensive services afforded to minors arrested for prostitution under New York's Safe Harbor law to cover young adults up to age 24.
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Enables a broader pool of people to access social services from organizations combating gender violence by aligning New York's definition of human trafficking with the federal definition.
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Creates a regionally, racially, and sexually diverse State task force with representation from people in the sex trade and advocates to ensure access and administration of social services to people in prostitution across New York.
Strengthens Laws Against Trafficking
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Eliminates a loophole in New York State law that prevents sex buyers, like Jeffrey Epstein, from being charged with promotion of prostitution when they traffic people to themselves.
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Strengthens protections for children against exploitation by eliminating an ignorance defense afforded to those who buy sex from children under 11 (1st degree), 15 (2nd degree), or in a school zone.
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Laws that hold accountable pimps, sex traffickers, and other profiteers remain unchanged.
Advances Criminal Justice Reform
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Clears the criminal records of trafficking survivors for crimes committed while they were under the control of their exploiter.
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Automatically expunges all past charges for prostitution and loitering for the purpose of prostitution.
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Addresses the over-incarceration of people of color and implicit bias in law enforcement by penalizing the misdemeanor crime of buying sex with a fine (instead of jail) and utilizing an income-based fine scale to incentivize law enforcement to target buyers with disposable income. A portion of these fines will be directed to a victims compensation fund.
Expanding Statutes of Limitations for Sex Trafficking Survivors
Senate Bill S8722 would provide sex trafficking survivors with the same protections as survivors of other B Felony sex offenses by removing the criminal statute of limitations for Sex Trafficking and Sex Trafficking of a Child. It would also extend the period in which survivors can commence a civil cause of action.
Protecting Mentally Disabled and Mentally Incapacitated Survivors
New York’s rape laws recognize the need for additional protections for survivors who are incapable of consent due to mental incapacity and mental disability. Our sex trafficking laws, however, only recognize children as being incapable of consent. Prosecutors are required to prove that mentally disabled or incapacitated survivors were also forced or coerced. Senate Bill S8723 would correct this by expanding the crime of Sex Trafficking of a Child, which does not require proof of force or coercion, to include Sex Trafficking of a Person Who is Mentally Disabled or Mentally Incapacitated.
LEGISLATIVE VICTORIES
2021
Passage of the START Act
On November 16, 2021, we celebrated Gov. Kathy Hochul’s signing of the Survivors of Trafficking Attaining Relief Together (START) Act. The NYSATC played a leading role in state-wide advocacy efforts for the passage of this bill, which allows survivors of human trafficking to vacate convictions for crimes that resulted from their exploitation. Learn more about the START Act’s impact and read our latest statement here.
Repeal of the "Walking While Trans" Law
In February 2021, Cuomo signed a bill repealing the state’s anti-loitering law, commonly called the "walking while trans" ban. The new measure repealed a 1976 law that prohibited loitering for the purpose of prostitution because this statute was misused by law enforcement to discriminate against prostituted people.
2018
End Child Sex Trafficking Act
New York State removed a provision in the State’s trafficking law that required prosecutors in cases involving a victim under the age of 18 to prove force, fraud, or coercion even though the victim would not have been able to consent to sexual intercourse in the first place. The proof of coercion requirement forced child victims to endure the trauma of facing their exploiters in court which consequently resulted in few victims wanting to go to court and even fewer convictions of their traffickers.
FOSTA-SESTA
The FOSTA (Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act) and SESTA (Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act) are the U.S. Senate and House bills that became law on April 11, 2018. They clarify the country's sex trafficking law to make it illegal to knowingly assist, facilitate, or support sex trafficking, and amend Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (which make online services immune from civil liability for the actions of their users) to exclude enforcement of federal or state sex trafficking laws from its immunity.
2015
Trafficking Victims Protection & Justice Act
· Recognizes that buying children for sex is child abuse · Strengthens prosecutors’ ability to build cases against traffickers (wiretaps for promoting prostitution) · Eliminates stigmatizing language (“prostitute”) · Provides trafficked people with a defense against criminal prosecution for prostitution · Improves victim access to social services
2013
Human Trafficking Intervention Courts
New York State created special courts to provide social and legal services to individuals charged with prostitution, instead of jail time. NYSATC leaders were key advisors to OCA in creating these new specialized courts.
2010
Trafficking Victims Vacatur Law
The coalition lobbied New York State government to pass and enact a historic law allowing victims of human trafficking to vacate prostitution-related criminal convictions directly tied to their victimization. The law recognized that these convictions should be vacated because the conviction itself was unjust.
2008
Safe Harbor Act
Enacted in 2008 to cover children under 16 and amended in 2013 to cover all minors, New York State’s Safe Harbor laws ensure that trafficked children are provided refuge and services for trauma, not criminalization and incarceration.
2007
NYS Core Anti-Trafficking Laws
Coalition members were key in the passage of these laws. · Makes sex trafficking a B Felony with a maximum sentence of up to 25 years incarceration. · Makes labor trafficking a D Felony with a maximum sentence of up to 7 years incarceration. · Clarifies that sex tour operators commit the crime of promoting prostitution. · Increases penalties for prostitution buyers. · Creates a confirmation process rendering immigrant trafficking victims otherwise ineligible, eligible for social services. · Considered one of the strongest state anti-trafficking laws in U.S