Human Trafficking & Sex Trafficking Under Colorado Law

Human trafficking & sex trafficking at a glance

• Human trafficking generally includes the use of physical abuse, threats of harm, or fear of other consequences to prevent victims from reporting the activity.
• Both Colorado & federal law on human trafficking break offenses down into two categories: labor trafficking (involuntary servitude) and sex trafficking (sexual servitude).
• Labor trafficking (involuntary servitude) occurs when a person knowingly coerces, by any means, another to perform labor or services. Labor trafficking is a class 3 felony in Colorado. 
• Sex trafficking (sexual servitude) is when a person knowingly sells, recruits, harbors, transports, transfers, isolates, entices, provides, receives, or obtains by any means another person for the purpose of coercing the person to engage in commercial sexual activity. (See definition below.)
• Human trafficking for sexual servitude is divided into two categories. Human trafficking for sexual servitude of an adult is a class 3 felony, and human trafficking for sexual servitude of a person under the age of 18 is a class 2 felony and the court SHALL sentence the offender to prison.
• It is not a valid legal defense to human trafficking for sexual servitude of a minor that:
  • The minor consented to being sold, recruited, harbored, transported, transferred, isolated, enticed, provided, received, obtained, or maintained by the defendant for the purposes of engaging in commercial sexual activity;
  • The minor consented to participating in commercial sexual activity;
  • The defendant did not know the minor’s age or reasonably believed the minor to be 18 years of age or older;
  • Or the minor or another person represented the minor to be 18 years age or older.
• Coercion, a key element in many trafficking offenses, is forcing someone to do something they don’t want to do by physical force, threats, pressure, or various forms of intimidation.
• Sexual exploitation of a minor is a charge that overlaps with sexual trafficking of a minor, relating primarily to child pornography.

What is Colorado law on human trafficking & sex trafficking?

Human trafficking is severe exploitation of a person by means of coercion, force, or fraud to derive some type of labor – including sexual – from the victim. According to the Colorado Division of Criminal Justice, all forms of human trafficking involve exploitation and denying the victim’s human rights to dignity and freedom.

Human trafficking includes labor trafficking and sex trafficking in federal and Colorado law

Federal and Colorado state law both recognize two types of this trafficking:

• Labor trafficking, or involuntary servitude.
• Sex trafficking, or sexual servitude.

These are both subsets of human trafficking. They are not mutually exclusive categories, meaning sex trafficking can involve labor exploitation and labor trafficking can involve sexual exploitation.

Coercion definition & its role in human trafficking

Coercion is a key element in trafficking laws, except for sexual servitude of a minor (see below). Coercion essentially means forcing someone to do something or forcing them not to do something.

Coercion can be accomplished by physical force, threats, pressure, or various forms of intimidation.

It is considered a means of taking away a person’s free will.

Coercion can take many forms

These include but are not limited to:

• Using force or threats of harm, kidnapping, or restraint.
• Convincing someone they’ll be harmed if they don’t comply.
• Threatening someone close to the victim, such as a family member or friend.
• Misusing the legal system or improperly threatening legal action.
• Threatening to report someone’s immigration status.
• Taking a person’s ID or property.
• Exploiting someone’s physical or mental condition to influence their decisions.

Debt bondage is another form of coercion

Debt bondage is a form of coercion because it requires someone to:

• Engage in commercial sexual activity to pay off a real or claimed debt.
• Perform work or services to pay off a real or claimed debt but not fairly crediting the value of that work toward reducing the debt.
• Do work or perform services without clearly defining what the work involves or how long it will last.

Colorado law: human trafficking for involuntary servitude

Colorado law section 18-3-503 covers human trafficking for involuntary servitude. A person commits this trafficking for involuntary servitude when they knowingly coerce another person to perform labor or other services.

The coercion can be through selling, recruiting, harboring, transporting, transferring, isolating, enticing, or providing said victim for the labor or service performance.

Affirmative defense legal strategy for human trafficking for involuntary servitude

“Affirmative defense” is a legal strategy used when the law for a specific charge allows the defendant to present evidence not to deny the charges but to excuse or justify them. If justification is proven, this can negate (disprove) the defendant’s guilt, even if the alleged criminal act is true.

In the case of trafficking humans for involuntary servitude, an affirmative defense is that, at the time of the offense, the defendant was himself or herself a victim of human trafficking for involuntary servitude and was coerced or forced into committing the same crime.

Human trafficking for involuntary servitude definition & felony penalties
Unlawful conduct	Knowingly recruiting, selling, transporting, harboring, transferring, enticing, isolating, receiving, providing, or obtaining another person.
Purpose	To coerce the person to perform labor or services via threats, physical force, fraud, intimidation, or similar pressure.
Penalties if the victim is an adult	Class 3 felony: 4-16 years in prison; 3 years mandatory parole (not requiring board approval); fines up to $750K.
Penalties if the victim is a minor	Class 2 felony: Mandatory prison of between 8-24 years; 3 years mandatory parole; fines from $5,000–$1,000,000. Up to 48 years in prison for aggravated cases.

Table for human trafficking for involuntary servitude: conduct and purpose definitions and the penalties

Colorado law: human trafficking for sexual servitude (sex trafficking)

Section 18-3-504 of the Colorado Revised Statutes addresses human trafficking for sexual servitude, also known as sex trafficking. This section also describes trafficking of a minor for sexual servitude.

Colorado law definition of human trafficking for sexual servitude (sex trafficking)

Human trafficking for sexual servitude occurs when a person knowingly sells, transports, harbors, isolates, entices, provides, receives, or obtains another individual – by any means or methods – for the purpose of coercing the victim to participate in sexual activity of a commercial nature. Commercial sex activity means sexual act(s) in return for anything of value given or promised to or received by a person.

Related reading: Sex Crimes

Human trafficking of a minor for sexual servitude

• This form of trafficking a minor for sexual servitude (sexual trafficking of a minor) occurs if a person using any means knowingly sells, harbors, transports, transfers, recruits, entices, isolates, provides, receives, obtains, maintains, or makes available a minor for the purpose of commercial sexual activity.
• Human trafficking of a minor for sexual servitude also occurs when a person willfully offers to sell, sells, or advertises travel services that facilitates the above activity.

A person can be charged with this crime even if they did not receive any proceeds or benefit from the commercial sexual activity. Coercion (threat, force, etc.) of the minor is not necessary for someone to be charged with this crime.

Legal strategy: Disallowed defenses (defenses that cannot be accepted) for human trafficking of a minor for sexual servitude

When a minor is involved in trafficking humans for sexual servitude, the defendant cannot present the following as possible defenses.

• That the minor agreed to participate in commercial sexual activity.
• That the defendant was unaware of the minor’s age or reasonably believed the minor was 18 years old or older.
• That the minor, or another person, claimed the minor victim was 18 years old or older.

Affirmative defense legal strategy for human trafficking of a minor for sexual servitude

An affirmative defense to this charge is that if at the time of the alleged offense, the accused was a victim of human trafficking for sexual servitude and was coerced or compelled into committing the offensive conduct.

Human trafficking for sexual servitude definition & felony penalties
Unlawful conduct	Knowingly recruiting, selling, transporting, harboring, transferring, enticing, isolating, receiving, providing, or obtaining another person.
Purpose	To coerce the person to engage in commercial sexual activity, which is sexual conduct or performance in exchange for anything of value.
Penalties if the victim is an adult	Class 3 felony: 4-16 years in prison; 3 years mandatory parole; fines of $3,000–$750,000.
Penalties if the victim is a minor (human trafficking of a minor for sexual servitude)	Class 2 felony: Court SHALL sentence the defendant to prison for between 8-24 years; 3 years mandatory parole; fines of $5,000–$1,000,000. Up to 48 years in prison for aggravated cases.

Table on human trafficking for sexual servitude conduct and purpose definitions and penalties

Colorado Sex Offender Registry (sex offender list)

Convictions for sex trafficking require placement on the Colorado Sex Offenders Registry.

Related Reading: Colorado Sex Offender Registry & Removal

Sexual exploitation of a child in Colorado law

Sexual exploitation of a child under Colorado law (18-6-403) is having, making, or distributing sexually explicit material that involves a minor (a person under age 18). Sexual exploitation of a child is related to child pornography and related materials.

Because of the inability of a child to legally consent to any use of their body, the law includes specific protections for the child:

• It is illegal to create such sexually exploitive materials, such as videos and pictures (digital or analog), printed materials, live performances, or any visual depiction of a child in a sexual context or a realistic visual depiction, which has been created, altered, or produced by digitization or computer generated means, that depicts an identifiable child engaging in, participating in, observing, or being used for explicit sexual conduct. Explicit sexual conduct means sexual intercourse, sexual intrusion, erotic fondling, erotic nudity, masturbation, sadomasochism, or sexual excitement. 
• It is illegal to share, sell, or buy such materials.
• Merely having these materials is harmful to the child victim because it is a permanent record of the child’s abuse, each viewing harms the child, and such materials are often used to pressure or manipulate other children into being abused.

Related Reading: Child Pornography & Sexual Exploitation