锡拉丘兹大学交易记录访问交换中心(TRAC)系统的一项新分析显示，特朗普政府时期，根据目前用来起诉杰弗里·爱泼斯坦的同一法律，联邦对性交易的起诉逐年减少。
如果目前起诉性贩运的速度保持不变，司法部决定起诉的案件数量会倒下到9月底，年增长率接近27%。这代表着奥巴马时代趋势的急剧逆转，在2009年至2016年的八年间，性交易起诉几乎每年都在上升，并且翻了一番以上。
爱泼斯坦是一名千万富翁金融家，十多年前在佛罗里达州承认犯有轻微的性犯罪，这是一项慷慨的认罪协议的结果，该协议使他免于面临更严重的联邦性交易指控。在最近公众对爱泼斯坦认罪协议的条款哗然后，纽约的联邦检察官决定对爱泼斯坦提起性交易指控，指控他在曼哈顿上东区自己的豪宅中从事类似的行为。
与五年前相比，到2019财年年底，根据针对爱泼斯坦的同性贩卖法规提起的诉讼将减少32%。
TRAC称，这种起诉的下降趋势与特朗普政府追究其他罪行的方式形成鲜明对比。报告指出，“总体而言，自2016年以来，联邦对所有罪行的起诉大幅上升”，而对性贩运的起诉有所下降。
奥巴马司法部越来越频繁地追查这些案件，八年来起诉数量翻了一番多。特朗普政府就职后，这些起诉的数量立即停滞不前，随后每年下降约50起。
TRAC发现，在奥巴马政府的最后一年，司法部拒绝根据该法律起诉大约一半(51%)的性交易案件，因为它收到了这些案件的转介。自该部门转向特朗普政府的控制后，它接受的起诉移交越来越少，2017财年拒绝了54%的移交，2018财年拒绝了58%的移交。数据显示，本财年迄今为止，DOJ拒绝了61%的推荐。
纽约和得克萨斯州南部地区是根据该法起诉最多性贩运罪行的两个联邦法院管辖区；纽约南区正在处理针对爱泼斯坦的案件。
反贩运组织北极星估计，美国每年有数十万以上的受害者被贩运。根据从北极星收集的与其性贩运热线有关的数据，性贩运受害者的平均年龄是19岁，绝大多数受害者是女性。根据这一数据，西班牙人是美国性交易受害者中最多的。北极星的数据表明，家人和朋友是帮助潜在受害者最常用的途径。
2019年7月18日，DC华盛顿，美国总统唐纳德·特朗普在白宫东厅为史密森尼学会颁发诺曼底登陆旗的仪式上发表讲话。
FEDERAL SEX TRAFFICKING PROSECUTIONS PLUMMET UNDER TRUMP ADMINISTRATION: ANALYSIS
Federal prosecutions of sex trafficking under the same law that is currently being used to prosecute Jeffrey Epstein have decreased each year under the Trump administration, according to a new analysis from Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) system.
If the current pace of sex trafficking prosecutions remains, the number of these cases the Justice Department decides to prosecute will have fallen nearly 27 percent year over year by the end of September. This represents a steep reversal of Obama-era trends that saw sex trafficking prosecutions rise nearly every year and more than double over the eight-year period from 2009 through 2016.
Epstein is the multimillionaire financier who pleaded guilty to minor sex offenses in Florida over a decade ago, the result of a generous plea deal that kept him from facing more serious federal sex trafficking charges. After recent public uproar over the terms of his plea deal, federal prosecutors in New York decided to pursue sex trafficking charges against Epstein for similar conduct he is alleged to have engaged in at his mansion on Manhattan's Upper East Side.
Compared with just five years ago, prosecutions under the same sex trafficking statute used against Epstein will have fallen 32 percent by the end of fiscal year 2019.
The declining trend for this sort of prosecution stands in contrast with the way the Trump administration has pursued other crimes, according to TRAC. The report notes that "overall, federal prosecutions for all crimes are up significantly since 2016," while these sex trafficking prosecutions have fallen.
The Obama Justice Department pursued these cases with increasing frequency, more than doubling the amount of prosecutions over eight years. As soon as the Trump administration was inaugurated, the number of these prosecutions immediately stagnated before declining by around 50 cases each year.
TRAC found that during the last year of the Obama administration, the Justice Department declined to prosecute about half—51 percent—of sex trafficking cases under this law for which it received referrals. Since the department turned to the control of the Trump administration, it has been accepting fewer and fewer referrals for prosecution, rejecting 54 percent of referrals in fiscal year 2017 and 58 percent in fiscal year 2018. The DOJ has rejected 61 percent of referrals so far this fiscal year, according to the data.
The Southern Districts of New York and Texas are the two federal court jurisdictions that prosecute the greatest amount of sex trafficking crimes under this law; New York's Southern District is handling the case against Epstein.
The anti-trafficking organization Polaris estimates that upwards of hundreds of thousands of victims are trafficked each year in the United States. According to data collected from Polaris in connection with its sex-trafficking hotline, the average age of sex trafficking victims is 19, and victims are overwhelmingly female. Hispanic people constitute the greatest number of sex-trafficking victims in the United States, according to this data. The Polaris data indicates that family and friends are the most often used point of access to help for potential victims.
U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks during a ceremony where a flag from D-Day was given to the Smithsonian in the East Room of the White House July 18, 2019 in Washington, DC.
