Human trafficking, also known as trafficking in persons (TIP), is a modern-day form of slavery.  It is a crime under federal and international law; it is also a crime in almost every state in the U.S.

Federal Anti-Trafficking Laws

The Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000 is the first comprehensive federal law to address trafficking in persons.  The law provides a three-pronged approach that includes prevention, protection, and prosecution.  The TVPA was reauthorized through the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) of 2003, 2005, and 2008.

Under U.S. federal law, “severe forms of trafficking in persons” includes both sex trafficking and labor trafficking:

Sex trafficking is the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purposes of a commercial sex act, in which the commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such an act has not attained 18 years of age, (22 USC § 7102; 8 CFR § 214.11(a)).

Labor trafficking is the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purposes of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery, (22 USC § 7102). Click here for more information about state and federal anti-trafficking laws.

http://www.polarisproject.org/resources/state-and-federal-laws

Louisiana State Law:

2009 Louisiana Code TITLE 14 Criminal law:: RS 14:46.2

Human trafficking

http://www.legis.state.la.us/lss/lss.asp?doc=320889

(A) It shall be unlawful for a person to knowingly recruit, harbor, transport, provide, solicit, or obtain another person through fraud, force, or coercion to provide services or labor.

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2009 Louisiana Code TITLE 14 Criminal law:: RS 14:46.3

Trafficking of children for sexual purposes

http://www.legis.state.la.us/lss/lss.asp?doc=670369

(A) It shall be unlawful: 

(1) For any person to knowingly recruit, harbor, transport, provide, sell, purchase, or otherwise obtain a person under the age of eighteen years for the purpose of engaging in commercial sexual activity.

(2)  For any person to knowingly benefit from participation in a venture which has engaged in activity prohibited by the provisions of this Section.

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(B)  For purposes of this Section, the following words have the following meanings:

(1) "Commercial sexual activity" means any sexual act performed or conducted when anything of value has been given, promised, or received by any person.

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(C)(1)  Consent of the minor shall not be a defense to a prosecution pursuant to the provisions of this Section.

(2)  Lack of knowledge of the victim's age shall not be a defense to a prosecution pursuant to the provisions of this Section.

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(E)  No victim of trafficking as defined by the provisions of this Section shall be prosecuted for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked.

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