I 

115TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 466 

To amend the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 relating to determinations with respect to efforts of foreign countries to reduce demand 

for commercial sex acts under the minimum standards for the elimination 

of trafficking. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JANUARY 12, 2017 

Mr. HULTGREN (for himself, Mr. SMITH of New Jersey, Mr. MOONEY of West 

Virginia, Mr. PITTENGER, Mr. GUTHRIE, Mr. WALBERG, and Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York) introduced the following bill; which was 

referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 

A BILL 

To amend the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 

relating to determinations with respect to efforts of foreign countries to reduce demand for commercial sex acts 

under the minimum standards for the elimination of 

trafficking. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Sex Trafficking De5 mand Reduction Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

2 Congress finds the following: 

3 (1) It has been the longstanding position of the 

4 United States to reduce the demand for sex traf5 ficking victims. There is also a wide international 

6 consensus on the necessity of demand reduction in 

7 order to prevent human trafficking. 

8 (2) The United Nations Protocol to Prevent, 

9 Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Espe10 cially Women and Children, Supplementing the 

11 United Nations Convention Against Transnational 

12 Organized Crime of 2000 (also referred to as the 

13 ‘‘Palermo Protocol(s)’’) expressly addresses the re14 quirement that nations make serious efforts to re15 duce demand for trafficked persons. 

16 (3) Article nine, addressing prevention of 

17 human trafficking specifically directs that, ‘‘States 

18 Parties shall adopt or strengthen legislative or other 

19 measures, such as educational, social or cultural 

20 measures, including through bilateral and multilat21 eral cooperation, to discourage the demand that fos22 ters all forms of exploitation of persons, especially 

23 women and children, that leads to trafficking.’’. 

24 (4) The United Nations Protocol, the Europe 

25 Convention on Action against Human Trafficking, 

26 and the 2011 European Union Directive of the EuVerDate Sep 11 2014 04:33 Jan 25, 2017 Jkt 069200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H466.IH H466

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1 ropean Parliament and the Council on preventing 

2 and combating trafficking in human beings, also 

3 specifically address the need to prevent human traf4 ficking by reducing demand for trafficking victims. 

5 (5) Research has shown that legal prostitution 

6 increases the demand for prostituted persons and 

7 thus increases the market for sex. As a result, there 

8 is a significant increase in instances of human traf9 ficking. 

10 (6) In 2012 researchers Seo-Young Cho, Axel 

11 Dreher, and Eric Neumayer published their findings 

12 that demonstrated ‘‘the scale effect of legalizing 

13 prostitution leads to an expansion of the prostitution 

14 market and thus an increase in human trafficking, 

15 while the substitution effect reduces demand for 

16 trafficked prostitutes by favoring prostitutes who 

17 have legal residence in a country’’. 

18 (7) In 2005 Di Nicola and others provided de19 scriptive statistics focusing on 11 European Union 

20 countries. According to their results, stricter pros21 titution laws are correlated with reduced flows of 

22 human trafficking. 

23 (8) Researchers Niklas Jakobsson and Andreas 

24 Kotsadam found a casual link between legal pros25 titution and increases in human trafficking. 


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1 Jakobsson and Kotsadam found that trafficking of 

2 persons for commercial sexual exploitation is least 

3 prevalent in countries where prostitution is illegal 

4 and most prevalent in countries where prostitution is 

5 legalized. 

6 (9) Further data has demonstrated the correla7 tion between the adoption of legislation that crim8 inalizes demand and reductions in sex trafficking 

9 victims. 

10 SEC. 3. AMENDMENT RELATING TO DETERMINATIONS 

11 WITH RESPECT TO EFFORTS OF FOREIGN 

12 COUNTRIES TO REDUCE DEMAND FOR COM13 MERCIAL SEX ACTS UNDER THE MINIMUM 

14 STANDARDS FOR THE ELIMINATION OF TRAF15 FICKING. 

16 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 108 of the Trafficking 

17 Victims Protection Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 7106) is 

18 amended by adding at the end the following new sub19 section: 

20 ‘‘(c) CRITERIA WITH RESPECT TO COMMERCIAL SEX

21 ACTS.—In determinations under subsection (b)(12)(A), if 

22 the government of the country has the authority to pro23 hibit the purchase of commercial sex acts and fails to do 

24 so, such failure to prohibit the purchase of commercial sex 

25 acts shall be deemed to be a failure on the part of the 


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1 government to make serious and sustained efforts to re2 duce the demand for commercial sex acts, notwithstanding 

3 other efforts made by the government to reduce the de4 mand for commercial sex acts.’’. 

5 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by 

6 subsection (a) takes effect on the date of the enactment 

7 of this Act and applies with respect to determinations 

8 under subsection (b)(12)(A) of section 108 of the Traf9 ficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 that are made on 

10 or after such date of enactment. 

Æ 


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