DA: Monterey County to make human trafficking serious and violent felony

MONTEREY COUNTY, Calif. (KION-TV)-- On Friday, Monterey County District Attorney Jeannine M. Pacioni endorsed Bill 1042 that would make human trafficking a serious and violent felony.

California consistently lands as number one in the nation for cases reported to the national human trafficking hotline.

An "alarming spike" in the number of human trafficking cases has been reported in recent years.

Human trafficking is the fastest-growing criminal enterprise, said the DA.

"Traffickers have learned that trafficking a person is much more profitable than trafficking other items of property, such as guns and drugs since human beings are a reusable commodity," Pacioni said. "The highly profitable and reusable nature of trafficking victims has resulted in a rapidly growing criminal industry on our city streets and online. Traffickers can make upwards of $2,500 a day forcibly selling victims in the sex trade."

Under current California law, human trafficking is defined as a "non-serious" and "non-violent" crime making it a "non-strike" offense.

Putting it on the same low-level felony crime category such as vandalism, theft and drug sales.

Sex trafficking victims are forced to have sex with hundreds of strangers a year. Trafficking victims are not permitted to eat, sleep, rest, or receive other basic life necessities until they meet the daily demands of their traffickers," Pacioni said. "Every aspect of their life is controlled by the trafficker and victims are forced to live in an isolated world where terror and abuse reign. Traffickers thrive in a culture that reduces human beings to mere property to be sold and exploited at the trafficker’s will.

JEANNINE M. PACIONI

State Bill 1042 will also designate human trafficking as a "strike" offense.