Maryland Must Stop Treating Child Sex Trafficking Victims as Criminals

Sex traffickers who exploit children should be punished. Their victims should not. Maryland, however, charges child sex trafficking victims with crimes that are a direct result of their own victimization. In fact, sex trafficked minors in Maryland can be charged, detained, and convicted for the same prostitution that their trafficker demanded. Other charges can be brought for truancy and running away, as well as crimes that are common to street survival like trespassing, fourth-degree burglary, and drug possession.