Human Trafficking Defense Lawyer in Idaho

What Is Human Trafficking?

The crime of Human Trafficking in the state of Utah is defined as involvement in one of the following types of felonious activities:

• Sex trafficking that involves commercial sexual actions in which a victim has been forced, or coerced, or induced by fraud, or is under age 18, OR
• The recruiting, keeping, transporting, or obtaining, or supplying a person to another for the purpose of using the individual to provide labor or services. This is Human Trafficking if accomplished by force, coercion, or fraud with the intention of subjecting someone against his or her will to servitude, slavery, or debt bondage.

The crime of Human Trafficking in Idaho is punishable by up to 25 years in state prison, or by a more severe penalty if prescribed by the law.

Types of Force That Define Human Trafficking

Human Trafficking occurs when a person is enslaved by force, coercion, or fraud which compels the victim to cooperate in the role of a slave to perform labor or services. Some types of force that fit the definition of the nature of the force used to do human trafficking include:  

• Threatening to harm severely or physically restrain the victim or another person.
• Hiding, taking, destroying, or seizing a passport, immigration document, or other identification document issued by the government. 
• Exploiting a person who has been rendered into servitude by the perpetrator’s scheming, planning, or applying a practiced nefarious process. Such a process would be designed to induce a reasonable individual to believe that failing to agree to enter or continue in servitude would result in severe harm. 

The threatened harm would be to the victim or someone else. Or, a threat of physical restraint may be made by the perpetrator. Or, a threat of abuse of the law might be used to victimize the person. Any of the above acts constitutes a crime.

• Exploiting a person’s pledge as a debtor to obtain services from the debtor or from someone under the debtor’s control as security for an outstanding debt. In such a case, one of these two exploitative acts may be perpetrated by the trafficker:
  1. The reasonable value of the services rendered is not deducted from the balance of the debt, OR
  2. The nature of the services to be rendered is not defined and the duration of the service commitment is not limited.
• Abusing a legal process, or threatening to abuse the law, to use the process or law against the person or a third person.

If you are accused of committing one of these actions, you should contact an experienced sex crimes lawyer as soon as possible. Your attorney will help you build the best possible case for your defense.