House Bill 66 Threatens Alaskan Sex Trafficking Survivors Potentially Forcing Them onto Sex Offender Registry

Alaskan sex trafficking survivors and sex workers can be forced to register as sex offenders if House Bill 66 is passed into law. Anyone with a Sex Trafficking in the first degree or second degree conviction would have to register on the sex offender registry. When we think of sex trafficking, force, fraud, coercion come…

Alaskan sex trafficking survivors and sex workers can be forced to register as sex offenders if House Bill 66 is passed into law. Anyone with a Sex Trafficking in the first degree or second degree conviction would have to register on the sex offender registry. When we think of sex trafficking, force, fraud, coercion come to mind. This is only the case with sex trafficking in the first degree, while sex trafficking in the second degree applies to sex workers or sex trafficking survivors sharing clients or traveling together for safety. Placing sex trafficking survivors and sex workers on the sex offender registry will increase their vulnerability to harm. It will expose them to discrimination, harassment, and violence, both from law enforcement and the general public. This makes it harder for them to seek help or report crimes against them.

UPDATE – THIS LAW PASSED AND GOES INTO EFFECT JANUARY 1, 2025.
https://www.akleg.gov/basis/Bill/Text/33?Hsid=HB0066G

Sec. 11.66.110. Sex trafficking in the first degree.

(a) A person commits the crime of sex trafficking in the first degree if the person

(1) induces or causes another person to engage in prostitution through the use of force;

(2) as other than a patron of a prostitute, induces or causes another person who is under 20 years of age to engage in prostitution; or

(3) induces or causes a person in that person’s legal custody to engage in prostitution.

(b) In a prosecution under (a)(2) of this section, it is not a defense that the defendant reasonably believed that the person induced or caused to engage in prostitution was 20 years of age or older.

(c) Except as provided in (d) of this section, sex trafficking in the first degree is a class A felony.

(d) A person convicted under (a)(2) of this section is guilty of an unclassified felony.

Sex trafficking in the first degree makes sense. Sex trafficking in the second degree does not have the same elements, but rather focuses on what sex trafficking survivors and sex workers commonly do for their safety. Work together.

Sec. 11.66.120. Sex trafficking in the second degree.

(a) A person commits the crime of sex trafficking in the second degree if the person

(1) manages, supervises, controls, or owns, either alone or in association with others, a prostitution enterprise other than a place of prostitution;

(2) procures or solicits a patron for a prostitute; or

(3) offers, sells, advertises, promotes, or facilitates travel that includes commercial sexual conduct as enticement for the travel; in this paragraph, “commercial sexual conduct” means sexual conduct for which anything of value is given or received by any person.

House Bill 66 as written would cause harm to the sex trafficking survivors and sex workers that will get arrested for sex trafficking in the second degree. A conviction of sex trafficking already creates barriers for employment, housing, and increased stigma, something I myself am all too aware of as I was convicted of sex trafficking in the second degree in 2015 under the travel section.

“Unfortunately, sex trafficking survivors are even more likely to be charged under this statute

than sex workers, because they often work together and traffickers know they can limit their

criminal liability by making their victims responsible for travel and other arrangements,” said Terra Burns, a member of the Community United for Safety and Protection, who to date has done the only academic research on people in Alaska’s sex trades.

Forcing sex trafficking victims and sex workers who are not accused of victimizing anyone to register as sex offenders is a misuse of the sex offender registry and misinforms the public. The public expects that the sex offender registry is a list of people who harmed others, not sex trafficking survivors and sex workers who worked together for safety. Labeling sex trafficking survivors and sex workers who work together for safety as sex offenders keeps them trapped in the underground economies, makes housing inaccessible, and makes trafficking victims’ addresses public so that traffickers can continue to victimize them.

The general public needs to be made aware what far reaching consequences this bill has for Alaska’s future.These unintended consequences in HB 66 must be addressed before it is passed into law.

We need your help!

Email your opposition to all of our Alaska Senators! Ask them to VOTE NO on HB 66 as long as Section 30 (page 24, line 9) includes Sex Trafficking in the Second Degree.

Senator.Bill.Wielechowski@akleg.gov;

Senator.Kelly.Merrick@akleg.gov;

Senator.Shelley.Hughes@akleg.gov;

Senator.David.Wilson@akleg.gov;

Senator.Bert.Stedman@akleg.gov;

Senator.Jesse.Kiehl@akleg.gov;

Senator.Gary.Stevens@akleg.gov;

Senator.Jesse.Bjorkman@akleg.gov;

Senator.Cathy.Giessel@akleg.gov;

Senator.James.Kaufman@akleg.gov;

Senator.Elvi.Gray-Jackson@akleg.gov;

Senator.matt.claman@akleg.gov;