I read that Congress is currently debating language for the reauthorization of the Federal Trafficking and Victims Protection Act of 2000. The article reminded me of the brutal but engrossing film Eastern Promises. In the film, a British midwife played by Naomi Watts helps uncover a gang of Russian slavers when she begins looking for relatives to a baby of a sex slave.

The United States has increasingly become a destination country for sex and labor traffickers. Labor trafficking involves “recruiting, harboring, transporting or obtaining a person for labor or services through the use of force, fraud or coercion.” ICE estimates that approximately 16,000 individuals are trafficked into the United States each year.

According to a report released by Northeastern University’s Institute on Race and Justice, human trafficking cases occur in communities of all sizes. While large departments and agencies covering a diverse population were more likely to encounter human trafficking, the analysis found small communities, with populations as little as 2,000, also uncovered human enslavement, where victims were forced to work in small-town factories or farms.

Many mistakenly believe that human trafficking only involves immigrants. However, the Northeastern University’s study found that domestic teens are also being trafficked. The study found nearly 62 percent of all trafficking victims identified by law enforcement were younger than 25, 16 percent younger than 18, and nearly 80 percent were female.

Under current federal rules, prosecutors must prove that “force, fraud or coercion” was used to get someone into prostitution. The “force standard” often is difficult to prove. Under Minnesota law a “person can never consent to being sexually exploited.” Minnesota considers individuals who have been prostituted by others as “trafficking victims,” which makes it easier to prosecute traffickers.

It would help both prosecutors and victims if the current federal legislation were modified to make it more consistent with state legislation.