A Path to Protection: Collateral Crime Vacatur for Wisconsin's Victims of Sex Trafficking

Abstract

Sex trafficking is a form of human trafficking in which a trafficker compels a victim to engage in commercial sex acts. Traffickers often control victims using physical violence, sexual abuse, psychological abuse, isolation, and by introducing victims to illegal drugs. Throughout the course of their victimization, many victims of sex trafficking experience such distress that they turn to drugs to cope or steal to meet their basic needs. Unfortunately, the trauma of trafficking is prolonged and exacerbated when victims are prosecuted for and convicted of crimes they committed as a direct result of trafficking. In addition to prostitution convictions, many victims of trafficking accrue criminal records for “collateral” offenses such as drug possession, theft, disorderly conduct, or weapons offenses. When victims of trafficking have criminal records, they encounter barriers to housing and employment, subjecting victims to lives of poverty, which increases their risk of being re-trafficked. Wisconsin provides victims of sex trafficking with two forms of decriminalization: (1) an affirmative defense to avoid conviction of any crime committed as a direct result of being a victim of trafficking and (2) a pathway for victims of sex trafficking to expunge or vacate prostitution convictions that were a result of being trafficked. Both pathways are insufficient remedies for victims because victim identification is poor and, more importantly, only prostitution convictions are eligible for vacatur or expungement, which leaves victims with criminal records for the collateral crimes they committed as a direct result of being a victim of sex trafficking. Wisconsin should expand its vacatur statute for victims of trafficking to allow victims to vacate or expunge any nonviolent conviction committed as a direct result of being a victim of trafficking. Moreover, an expansion of the vacatur statute for victims of trafficking would better protect victims and help them to reintegrate into life outside of trafficking.