Source: http://www.childrenslegalrightsjournal.com/childrenslegalrightsjournal/volume_35_issue_1?pg=14
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 15:59:23+00:00

Document:
The type of model for treating child prostitution that a state utilizes can be used to analyze in a spectrum their legislation’s strengths individually and as they compare to other states. States that follow the prosecution model often provide little protection and can be said to be weak, whereas those that follow the child-abuse model offer the highest level of protection and thus can be said to be stronger. Protection in this case refers to the amount of services and resources available to child victims.
New York’s model has multiple issues that make it inferior to other states’ approaches. These include the lack of protection for all persons under eighteen, the ample discretion given to the court in determining the status of a child, and the use of the criminal system in some instances as a mechanism for “helping” child victims of sexual exploitation. Precluding the prosecution of children sixteen and under is commendable but allowing criminal courts to have jurisdiction over those above sixteen is not ideal. Further, judges can decide to take a victim and criminalize them for their failure to follow orders, something these children more than likely have trouble doing.103 Finally, by utilizing the criminal law mechanism in its structure, New York’s law fails to recognize the harm that stigmatizing a child victim as a criminal can cause.
95 CONN. GEN. STAT. ANN. § 53a-82(b)–(c) (West 2015); FLA. STAT. ANN. § 39.401 (West 2015); N. Y. SOC. SERV. LAW § 447-b( 2) (McKinney 2014); WASH. REV. CODE ANN. § 13. 40.219 (West 2015); see Ian Urbina, Legislators Work to Improve Laws on Runaways, N. Y. TIMES (Jan. 4, 2010), http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/04/us/04runaways.html; see also Birckhead, supra note 5, at 1067 (arguing that the “safe harbor” laws passed among the different states have similarities).
96 FLA. STAT. ANN. § 39.401.
97 N. Y. SOC. SERV. LAW § 447-b.
98 Id. § 447-a( 1) (providing that any person under eighteen who is sexually exploited or engages in prostitution will be considered a “sexually exploited child”).
99 N. Y. FAM. CT. ACT § 311.4( 3) (McKinney 2014).
100 N. Y. CRIM. PROC. LAW § 170.80 (McKinney 2014).
101 See N. Y. FAM. CT. ACT § 311.4( 3).
102 N. Y. SOC. SERV. LAW § 447-b( 4).
103 See Annitto, supra note 18, at 60–61 (“[M]ost children with these histories are deemed by courts as unlikely to accept services and are thus forced to endure prosecution as a result, then the ultimate intent of reforms in this arena will be ignored . . . [ i]f signs of rebelliousness preclude assistance, the reforms will fail many of the children that they are intended to help.”).

References: § 53
 § 39
 § 447
 § 13
 § 39
 § 447
 § 447
 § 311
 § 170
 § 311
 § 447