Introduction/Background

Proposition 35, ^"Increases prison sentences and fines for human trafficking convictions. Requires convicted human traffickers to register as sex offenders. Requires registered sex offenders to disclose Internet activities and identities. Fiscal Impact: Costs of a few million dollars annually to state and local governments for addressing human trafficking offenses. Potential increased annual fine revenue of a similar amount, dedicated primarily for human trafficking victims."

Points:

 In this blog, we will discuss the key points surrounding Proposition 35 causing us to favor the proposition, such as:

Miriam: One of the affects Prop 35 will infuse is increasing the prison term for human traffickers. With human trafficking being as inhuman as it is, increasing these terms and enforcing harsher punishment would be a great consequence.

Billie: Sex trafficking is a form of human trafficking where mostly woman and children are sold to clients for sexual favors. Prop 35 makes it so those caught and convicted of sex trafficking are required to register as a sex offender. Once a registered sex offender, it is nearly impossible to clear that charge and it protects the community from future acts.

Andro: Prop 35 makes it so registered sex offenders must close down their internet accounts. Because the internet is available to so many people--through social media and other means--it makes it easy for sex offenders to inffulence the others through internet.Prop 35 helps keep people safe and stops the creation of more potential sex offenders.

  

Josh: Prop 35 will require larger fines to be paid by convicted human traffickers, as of now they can receive fines up to $100,000 for sex trafficking a minor, and with Prop 35 passed, they will now be looking at up to $1.5 Million for all human trafficking offenses. These fines collected will then be used for services for the victims and for law enforcement.

Questions/Answers

Billie

Q: What are the benefits of registering a sex trafficker as a sex offender?
A: Sex offenders are constantly monitored and are restricted to certain living and work areas. By registering as a sex offender, the traffickers are brought out into the open and into the public eye. Once registered as a sex offender, it's virtually impossible to get de-registered. 

Q: How do people even get involved in sex trafficking?
A: Usually, children are sold into the business by a family member or are approached by traffickers on the street. Many traffickers tend to be more disturbed people that find trafficking to be a good way of making money--seeing as children can be sold for $3000-5000 or more.

Miriam

Q: What is the opposing side of Prop 35 state? 
A: The opposing side states that the current pentalies for human traffickers would remain the same, which is a sentence of 5-8 years in prison. With prop 35 passing this will change to a minimum of 12 years for labor trafficking and 20 years for sex trafficking.

Q. What are the statistics for Prop 35 (for/against)?

A.  81% of voters are for harsher punishments for those involved with trafficking. 9,201,747 voters voted for prop 35 and 2,114,434 were against it. A portion of the opposing 19% voters have said to vote against because the prop would cause millions of dollars and human trafficking still would not stop.

Josh

Q: Would Prop 35 criminalize consensual behavior?
A: Absolutely not. Human trafficking entails profiting from the sexual exploitation of a child (who cannot legally consent to sexual conduct) or the use of force, fraud and coercion to compel an adult into forced labor or commercial sex acts against his/her will. Prop 35 is narrowly tailored and specifically states that there must be criminal intent to violate the law. Prop 35 not only requires the showing that the trafficker causes a child “to engage in a commercial sex act” but also “with the intent to effect or maintain a violation of Section,” and it lists 12 different existing criminal sections in our state law.

Human trafficking is a brutal and clearly delineated crime that involves and requires proof of the criminal intent to exploit another human being for profit. Prop 35 is not something that could ever be triggered by mistake.

Q: Isn’t human trafficking just an international issue?                                                                                       A: Many think that human trafficking is a third world problem. But from my vantage point in the trenches, I can tell you that it’s a universal crisis occurring in our own backyard. Domestic trafficking is no less serious when international borders are not crossed. The risk and harm to a child is the same whether she is trafficked from China or within California, where the FBI has identified San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego as high intensity child sex trafficking areas. Prop 35 allows us to protect all children here in California.

Vote Yes on Prop 35

 Andro

Q: how is human trafficking affecting the other through social networking?

A: well the simplest thing that human traffickers chat with the buyers through the social networking. The other point; that we don't need the increase of human trafficking. As a result, having sex traffickers to close their accounts; and that will have an impact on the increase of human trafficking. In fact it will decrease the number of sex traffickers since it will not influence other to become sex traffickers.

Q: Is taking away the social networking website of a human trafficker is same as taking away his/her rights?

A: in some cases the government has to take away something in order for it to not make are country a disaster. For an example the case plessy Vs. ferguson the court case was established since the train wouldn't allow black citizens to ride the train. But this case established separate but equal. In which both sides could sit on the train but they will be separated. And that's what should happen with human trafficking Separate but Equal.

About Us

Miriam: My name is Miriam Saad currently I am a freshman at California State University of Northridge. As of right now my major is undeclared, but I am considering studying Marketing or Sociology. I hope when people read our blog they see that, it is a good thing that this proposition has passed and all the positive effects that can come out of this proposition. I found it very interesting that Sacramento is a hotspot for human trafficking. It feels surreal that a city so close can be linked to human trafficking. I learned that Prop 35 does not only punish sexual trafficking but also labor trafficking. Companies taking advantage of workers to make money can be equally punished. I am now more aware of my rights if employers are not fair with their paycheck. I recommend that the readers should be aware this blog just shows the pros of Prop 35 and yes although their are negatives to the proposition, the positives outweigh them greatly. 


My name is Billie Staley. I am a freshman at CSUN and am currently enrolled in the cinema and television arts major. After college, I aspire to become a screenwriter. In a way, I really enjoyed doing this project. I thought it was cool that we were each given a topic and a basis to exploit that topic in a creative way. The more research I did for this project, the more I learned about human trafficking. I hope that from reading this blog, the readers will become more aware of this serious issue that surrounds us and find ways to help out--either by donating, walking to raise awareness, or other types of things. I've learned that human trafficking isn't something that happens in third world countries, but it happens everywhere and it can happen to anyone. I would recommend that readers go into our blog with an open mind, and a willingness to learn about something I once thought was nothing more than a nightmare one would have in their sleep.

My name is Joshua Yera, I am currently a student at CSUN and my major is Business Management. I have goals of opening up my own retail store later on in life. I am very satisfied with the topic we were given, it gave me a very good opportunity to open my eyes to the real dangers that are still present in today's society. Not only in other countries, but here in America as well, in the "land of the free, and home of the brave." I hope for our readers of this blog to realize that true dangers such as human trafficking still exist today. I've learned to be kinder when meeting new people, you never know the life they may have used to live, the trauma they may have from the things they've seen or done. I would recommend that readers of this blog do further research of their own to more inform themselves.

My name is andro, and I come from an Egyptian family; that lived in Egypt. I came to the United States at the age of 12. I lived most of my life in Egypt, but that doesn't mean that I didn't adapt to the American cultural. No, I did adapt to it. As everybody can tell I have an accent.so far to my school life. I am majoring in CIT; stands for computer information technology. And I want to minor in political science.The reader should realize that human trafficking is not an easy problem to solve. But in order for us to solve this problem we have to solve its roots. And human trafficking mixed with internet accounts doesn’t solve the problem in fact it makes it worth. So the main point that I want the reader to accomplish is that the accounts of human trafficker should be taken away from them. Since human trafficker will be using their internet account to expand the human traffickers.There are a couple of interesting things that I found out. But the main point that is really interesting is that I thought prop 35 took away people’s personal property. To relate this to internet accounts; according to the law it states “that human traffickers will have their internet accounts taken away from them”. And personally I thought in the beginning that it’s taking away their personal property. But then I realized that by letting them have internet accounts it increases the number of human traffickers.Recommendations for a reader; first to report any human trafficker because it’s effecting are community.Second, to be aware of human traffickers that has a social networking account.

  

Internet Plus Human Trafficking Equal Prostitutes

Marin Idea:As it stated earlier require sex traffickers to register as sex offenders and disclose their Internet accounts". that's very important to have sex traffickers to close their Internet accounts. As we know that facebook and all of the other social networking websites affect people easily.
Link , Analysis and Quotes: According to MC, an past human trafficker, she said "All day, other girls and I sat with our laptops, posting pictures and answering ads on Craigslist". This girl was being sold on the internet. Her boss made her to post pictures, chat with people and answering question on the internet. thats a one way for how human trafficking should have no internet access.You should take a look at her story. Another example, the Egyptian revolution started by a group of protesters making a facebook page for starting the revolution. And this page had an affect on the other protesters and it made them to protest. Link this to sex traffickers; if each sex trafficker is going to have an open public account, then other people will be able to view it and want to do the same. So it would be safer for sex traffickers to have them close all of their social networking accounts in order to not increase the percentage of sex traffickers. in fact, as we were all young we heard are parents say "the bad tree affects the good tree". So if the sex traffickers are the bad tree and there social networking is also bad; then they are going to affect the good tree people by social networking.http://www.howmanyarethere.org/how-many-facebook-users-are-there-2012/ . As it shows in this link that there are  157,455,560 facebook users in the United States. So if a hundred of this users are sex traffickers and practicing their freedom on their social network website. then they are affecting the 157,455,460 others.And here is an Amazing video on how is human trafficking is used and how its practiced through social networks.

Andro

Miriam's Individual Post

Main Ideas: With Prop 35 passing the jail terms will be extended for human traffickers, holding them accountable for their crimes. Before Prop 35 passed those convicted of human traffickers would have received 5-8 years in prison. With the proposition passing, doing the crime just once will get the human trafficker 12 to 20 years in prison depending on what kind of trafficking. Labor traffickers will receive 12 years in prison now and sex traffickers would receive a sentencing of 20 years. Forcing a minor into sex trafficking would result in the hardest punishment of life in prison. Also because of Prop 35, those previously convicted traffickers will now have even harsher sentences of an extra 5 years for every time the crime has been repeated.

Link & Analysis:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6Wzpe--VwY 

Children, mostly females, are recruited usually at ages ranging from 10-14 years old for sex trafficking. It takes years for these children to overcome such a scarring time in their lives and even some do not even recover. While the sex traffickers are producing obscene amounts of money, their victims are spending eminence amount of money seeking treatment to help them cope with their unfortunate situation. The damages caused by sex traffickers most likely take longer than 5-8 years to cope with so punishment for it should be longer as well.  

Significant quote: 
The Contra Costa Times states: "The proposition would expand some of the definitions of human trafficking in California laws and would increase the fines and penalties for engaging in such illegal conduct, and it severely increases those penalties for repeat offenders."

 Many newspapers like the Contra Costa Times were for Prop 35, for the stronger punishment on traffickers. Most of the articles were written to persuade readers into voting for Prop 35.

"Sex trafficking of minors that involved force or fraud would be punishable by up to a life term in prison."
Just shows how serious sex trafficking is, that the consequence is life in prison is a suitable punishment. 

Visual Argument & Analysis

(the image won't upload so I had to link it) http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/kalw/files/styles/card/public/201210/prop%2035.jpg
 The image can be interpreted for both the victims of human trafficking and the traffickers themselves.  Victims can relate to the image because it shows how they are bound to their jobs and cannot escape. On the other hand the picture also shows that those involved in human trafficking need to be locked up for their terrible actions.

Increased Fines for Offenders

Current trafficking laws punish convicted human traffickers by a prison sentence of up to 5 years for labor trafficking, 5 years for forced sex trafficking of an adult, 8 years for forced trafficking of a minor,  6 years for great bodily injury, no sentencing for prior human trafficking offense and up to $100,000 in fines for sex trafficking a minor. Since Proposition 35 has passed these are the increases in punishments that we are now looking at:

Figure 1 Measure Increases Maximum Criminal Penalties For Human Trafficking
	Current Law	Proposition 35
Prison Sentencea
Labor trafficking	5 years	12 years
Sex trafficking of an adult, forced	5 years	20 years
Sex trafficking of a minor without force	Noneb	12 years
Sex trafficking of a minor, forced	8 years	Life term
Sentence Enhancementa
Great bodily injury	6 years	10 years
Prior human trafficking offense	None	5 years per prior conviction
Fines	Up to $100,000 for sex trafficking a minor	Up to $1.5 million for all human trafficking offenses
a  Actual penalty includes a range of years.
b  Activities considered under the measure as sex trafficking of minors without force are illegal under current law but not defined as human trafficking. The penalties for these crimes vary.

Prop 35 Analysis

Before this project I never really believed the stories of human trafficking still being a huge problem in today's world. I assumed these types of things to only occur in third world countries, but after doing some research I was so shocked and surprised to find out that Sacramento, the capital of California is one the major hotspots for human trafficking.

Sacramento Is Hotspot For Human Trafficking
The F.B.I. singles out Sacramento as one of 18 cities in the U.S.as a hotspot for human trafficking. Seen in the video in the link above, Stacy Lundgren, at the age of 14 met a 22 year old man who "gave her the attention she craved." She believed that he loved her, but their one-on-one relationship soon turned into acts of human trafficking. She felt to controlled by him and couldn't do anything about it.

Visual Arguement

Slave traders last year made an estimated $32 billion, more than Nike, Google, and Starbucks combined! This alone proves that human trafficking is definitely something that needs to be stopped, it is the #1 growing crime in the United States and we as citizens in the "Land of the Free, and Home of the Brave" need to be brave and stand up for what we believe in and what we believe is right!

-Josh

Traffickers Become Offenders

A little bit about trafficking...

Sex trafficking is just another form of human trafficking. Sex trafficking often starts at a young age, and the child is usually sold into the business by some of the least expected people--their family. These children are then forced against their will to do "favors" for paying clients. Most of the children stuck in this dirty business often never make it out alive. Those that do either do not know where to go, or are convicted themselves for prostitution. Many of the children have no way to prove that they were forced into sex trafficking, thus end up serving a sentence in prison for their "heinous prostitution acts." It is a rare occurrence for those who traffic humans to get caught and convicted, and those who are serve a minimal amount of jail time (before Prop 35). Prop 35 requires those convicted of sex trafficking to register as a sex offender. Sex offenders in California are constantly monitored by GPS and their identities and location are available for anyone to see. Also, they are restricted to certain living areas and work places in order to prevent the convicted from committing another offense. By limiting what these offenders are able to do, and bringing them out in the open, it draws the peoples attention to this issue. The more people that are aware of sex trafficking increases our ability to do something about it.

Link

Before this project, I didn't know much about human trafficking, nor did I really care that much. It was something that I knew happened in the US, but not to the extent that I discovered. In the following clip, a victim of sex trafficking explains how she was forced into sex trafficking and shares some statistics about the business.

Skip to 4:14 and watch until the end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cULUVCq2DNA&feature=relmfu

When Ms. Woodward explained that sex trafficking was the second fastest growing crime in America, I was shocked. I was always under the impression that it was sort of a one off thing. One kid would go missing and that was that, but no. To hear that members of law enforcement would partake in these activities, yet not do anything about it seemed insane.

Quotes

According to http://www.caseact.org/ (a website to go in depth on Prop 35), California "received an F on protecting victims of child sex trafficking in the recent state Protected Innocence Initiative report card".

--With Prop 35, offenders will have to register as sex offenders, in a way, protecting the victim. Those who are registered as sex offenders, as stated before, are monitored by GPS. They are constantly watched and are in controlled environments making any offender-victim contact virtually impossible.

The site then goes on to say by saying yes to prop 35, "millions of Californians will be exposed to the issue of human trafficking".

--The best way to combat this issue is to get it out in the public. The more people that know about it, the more support the issue gets. With the support of the American people, there are limitless options about how to deal with this situation.

Visual Argument







The victims of sex trafficking are forced into work all day, every day of their lives. This picture represents replacement of a normal woman's life to one who is forced to dress up and serve every day that it has become her new life. These people have no escape and have to do what they are told day in and day out. It's a harsh and dangerous lifestyle, but that's exactly what it is--a lifestyle. Because most sex slaves start out as children, they don't know any other life, this has become their life.

For more information and statistics about sex trafficking, visit: http://www.forthesakeofone.org/index.html

--Billie