New TN Laws Address Sex Trafficking

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Gov. Bill Haslam has signed a series of bills protecting minors who are victims of sexual slavery and punishing people who exploit them.

One bill changes state law in that minors will no longer be prosecuted for prostitution. Rather, police will return the minors to their parents or guardians while the pimps and their customers are arrested, The Commercial Appeal reports.

Another measure lets police confiscate cars, homes and other property used in the sex trade. And another law increases the charge for people who pay for sex with a minor or mentally disabled person from a misdemeanor to a felony.

The steps are a response by lawmakers to a study that shows sexual slavery is spreading across the state. Haslam signed the bills last week.

"People still think of this as a problem with foreign countries and unfortunately that's just not the case anymore," said state Sen. Beverly Marrero, D-Memphis. "This is a problem in Tennessee."

The study by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and Vanderbilt Center for Community Studies focused on minors between the ages of 9 to 17. It showed that the counties of Shelby, Davidson, Coffee and Knox each reported more than 100 cases of sex trafficking of minors.

Some of the minors are brought in from foreign countries, while pimps are also using runaways and those in foster care.

The new forfeiture law should help offset the cost of the beefed-up prison sentences for the johns, Marrero said.

"We figured they can cover some of the cost of their own incarceration," she said.

State Sen. Brian Kelsey, R-Germantown, was among those co-sponsoring the bills.

"This sinister trade is largely underground but growing at an alarming rate," he wrote on his website.

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Information from: The Commercial Appeal, http://www.commercialappeal.com