What 18 USC § 1591 - Sex Trafficking of Children or by Force, Fraud, or Coercion requires
18 USC § 1591 (Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 Pub. L. 106-386 § 112(a)(2) as amended by the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Acts of 2003, 2005, 2008, 2013, the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act of 2015 Pub. L. 114-22, and FOSTA-SESTA 2018 Pub. L. 115-164) is the federal anti-sex-trafficking centerpiece and the predicate-offence anchor for FOSTA-SESTA platform liability under 18 USC § 2421A: subsection (a) prohibits knowingly recruiting, enticing, harbouring, transporting, providing, obtaining, advertising, maintaining, patronising, or soliciting any person through force, threats of force, fraud, or coercion for commercial sex acts (1591(a)(1)) OR recruiting or otherwise involving any minor under 18 in commercial sex acts even without force, fraud, or coercion (1591(a)(2)); subsection (b) establishes the mandatory minimum sentencing structure: (b)(1) provides 'imprisonment for any term of years not less than 15 or for life' where the offence involved force, threats, fraud, or coercion OR the victim was under age 14; (b)(2) provides 'imprisonment for not less than 10 years or for life' where the victim was between 14 and 17 without the aggravating means; subsection (c) provides that for minor victims, prosecutors need not prove the defendant knew the victim's age if the defendant had a reasonable opportunity to observe the victim; subsection (d) criminalizes obstruction of §1591 enforcement with up to 25 years imprisonment; subsection (e) provides six statutory definitions including 'commercial sex act' (any sex act on account of which anything of value is given to or received by any person), 'coercion' (threats of serious harm to or physical restraint against any person, schemes intended to cause belief of serious harm or restraint, abuse or threatened abuse of legal process), 'serious harm' (any harm physical or non-physical including psychological, financial, or reputational damage), and 'venture' (group of two or more individuals or entities); §1591 reaches commercial sex platforms via 'patronizing or soliciting' and 'advertising' modes (added by Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act 2015 and FOSTA-SESTA 2018) and is the primary federal predicate for §2421A platform-promoter liability.
Pillar: Adult Industry & Sexual Content Compliance · Authority: United States Congress (Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, Pub. L. 106-386, 114 Stat. 1466; codified 18 USC § 1591; subsequent amendments by Pub. L. 108-193 (2003), Pub. L. 109-164 (2005), Pub. L. 110-457 (2008), Pub. L. 113-4 (2013), Pub. L. 114-22 (2015) Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act, Pub. L. 115-164 (2018) FOSTA-SESTA) · Version: 1.0.0 · Last updated:
Primary source: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1591
SHA-256 integrity: 3cf8e515835b68cbd23ef295b9c1028fddbbd8cd56582a0778d544cf6c5c5e9c
Primary Citations — 5 traced to source
- 18 USC § 1591(a) THE OFFENCE: 'Whoever knowingly (1) in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, or within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States, recruits, entices, harbors, transports, provides, obtains, advertises, maintains, patronizes, or solicits by any means a person; or (2) benefits, financially or by receiving anything of value, from participation in a venture which has engaged in an act described in violation of paragraph (1)...'
- 18 USC § 1591(b) PENALTIES: '(b)(1) If the offense was effected by means of force, threats of force, fraud, or coercion described in subsection (e)(2), or by any combination of such means, or if the person recruited, enticed, harbored, transported, provided, obtained, advertised, patronized, or solicited had not attained the age of 14 years at the time of such offense, by a fine under this title and imprisonment for any term of years not less than 15 or for life'
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