. . . I recall a story from 2008 where a 16-year old girl in Storm Lake, Iowa took a topless selfie and sent it to her boyfriend. Authorities somehow intercepted the photo and prosecutors said they would charge the girl with a federal offense, pedophilic pornography, a felony. . .
I live in the suburbs of Houston, Texas.
Of course, I’ve read from many sources that my city is a hub for human trafficking of people from Mexico and Central America. In addition, in my general neighborhood, there are at least three Thai massage places. One I hear is legitimate massage. Another I hear that for time scheduled over an hour plus tip, you can at least get a handjob, and maybe oral sex or intercourse.
In addition, when reformers focus on whether the employer keeps the person’s passport and/or whether the employer controls the person’s living quarters, they’re doing a pretty good job of focusing on central issues regarding trafficking.
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With that said, yes, it can feed into the standard dysfunctional criminal “justice system” patterns.
So, in the case you give, I’d say those police and prosecutors primarily had an authoritarian mindset. At least initially. Like you said, I hope cooler heads eventually prevailed.
I remember reading a case about a lady who ran a small escort service in Alaska. It actually sounded like an above average service. And yep, she was charged with trafficking.
In our current standard U.S. “criminal justice” system, the person is hugely overcharged as way to pressure them to plead out. Plus, police and prosecutors view sentence length as some kind of scorecard and success.
So, we have a lot of general reform to do at the same time.