Bill > HB716

This bill establishes new felony offenses for trafficking in persons for forced labor or sexual servitude, making these crimes predicate offenses under the criminal gang statute, racketeering laws, and the jurisdiction of multijurisdiction grand juries, and allowing for the seizure and forfeiture of property used in these crimes. It also adds these new felonies, along with the existing felony of receiving money for procuring a person, to the rape shield statute, which governs the admissibility of evidence in sexual assault cases. The bill introduces sexual servitude as an affirmative defense to prostitution, allowing minors arrested for prostitution to have their delinquency petitions replaced with petitions for a child in need of services for first offenses or at the court's discretion for subsequent offenses, and it disallows the release of certain victim information. Furthermore, it mandates law-enforcement protocols for victims who may not be legally present in the country, requires convicted traffickers to pay restitution for the victim's labor, and creates a civil cause of action for trafficked persons to sue their traffickers for damages. To combat human trafficking, the Secretary of Public Safety is tasked with convening an Anti-Human Trafficking Coordinating Committee to review and enhance state agency responses, and a Virginia Prevention of Human Trafficking Victim Fund is established, administered by the Department of Criminal Justice Services, to support victim services and prosecution efforts.