PORTLAND, Maine — An annual report by the national Polaris Project ranks Maine near its top level in terms of efforts to combat human trafficking.
But that same study finds that Maine has stalled at its Tier 2 ranking while several other states have increased protections for victims and taken other measures to drive down trafficking.
Destie Sprague, a program coordinator for the Maine Coalition Against Sexual Assault, said the yearly Polaris Project report doesn’t always capture the work being done to prevent trafficking in the state. But she said it draws valuable attention to the subject of human slavery and sexual exploitation in Maine, where she said minors are particularly at risk.
“Maine has made tremendous strides in recent years around addressing our human trafficking response infrastructure,” she said. “Among those projects, many are not picked up on in an objective 10-point list. That said, we certainly have work still ahead of us.”
Sprague said anti-trafficking advocates and police are learning Mainers are being coerced into prostitution and forced labor at younger and younger ages, and are working to find ways to identify victims or at-risk situations earlier.
“It’s always surprising to find out our children are being exploited in this way. We know from law enforcement that the average age of entry into sexual exploitation and trafficking is 12 or 13,” she said. “We’re not seeing victims of exploitation or trafficking until they’re in their late teens or early 20s, and we know it’s quite possible that they’ve been in the life for several years at that point. We also know that foster youth are one of the highest-risk populations for experiencing sexual exploitation.”
The Polaris Project is a Washington, D.C.-based organization that works to raise awareness of and abolish human trafficking. In its annual report, it rates each state based on its anti-trafficking laws and policies, with Tier 1 states considered to have the best in place and Tier 4 having the worst.
The Polaris Project states in its report that the ratings are “based on 10 categories of laws that are critical to a basic legal framework that combats human trafficking, punishes traffickers and supports survivors.”
A year ago, Maine was among 12 Tier 2 states — Washington, D.C., also is included in that group — while six states were ranked at the Tier 3 level and one at Tier 4. This year, there are only 10 Tier 2 states, two Tier 3 states and none at Tier 4.
Maine continued to receive credit this year for having provisions in place that specifically criminalize human trafficking, allow the seizure of assets from convicted human traffickers, and lower the burden of proof in cases of trafficking minors, among other Polaris Project plus points.
However, Polaris argued that the state still does not provide sufficient training on human trafficking for law enforcement officials, have a localized human trafficking hotline, vacate previous convictions for human trafficking victims or have enough programs in place to support survivors of the crime.
“Moving forward, it’s critical that states build upon the strong foundation of anti-human trafficking law that exists by ensuring victims have the services and resources they need to rebuild their lives,” said Britanny Vanderhoof, Polaris policy counsel, in a statement. “We urge those states that continue to lack vacating conviction and safe harbor laws to make them a top priority, as well as to ensure that efforts are made to post the National Human Trafficking Resource Center hotline number so victims know there is help when they are ready to reach out for it.”
State Rep. Amy Volk, R-Scarborough, introduced legislation last year that aimed to expunge the records of prostitutes found to be forced into the work by traffickers, but Sprague said lawmakers found that, despite Volk’s best efforts, wiping criminal records clean in that way was “not constitutional under Maine law.”
A backup plan to create a special pardon process for those trafficking victims also ran into complications, Sprague said, because many of the victims have drug-related or other crimes on their records instead of prostitution, and because the Maine board overseeing pardons can’t be required to apply a different set of criteria to certain applicants.
When it comes to children, Sprague said the state still needs to find safe places for victims of trafficking to be located, and to provide state child protective services the flexibility to intervene in more situations and earlier on.
“State-by-state, we have made a considerable amount of progress to prevent trafficking, prosecute those who enslave or purchase our children, and help survivors recover,” said U.S. Rep. Kristi Noem, R-South Dakota, in a statement distributed by the Polaris Project. “While we should take note of the progress, tens of thousands of kids remain at risk. We must continue to stand between evil and innocence, pushing forward to protect the most vulnerable and bring those buying or selling our children to justice.”
