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Georgia Criminal Law Review

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Notes

Abstract

Nicole was seventeen when she met Juan, and they began a romantic relationship. “He was gorgeous and he had charm. I just wanted someone in my life to show me attention . . . .” He suggested that she start seeing other dates for money and sent her out onto the streets. Seven months later, when Nicole was raped by a john, Juan beat her, pepper-sprayed her, and put her in a cold shower for three and a half hours. If Nicole had been told to see another john the next day and was arrested for prostitution, would the arrest have occurred as a direct result of her being sex trafficked or as a direct result of being a victim of domestic abuse? If the arrest occurred in Georgia, that difference in classification would be the difference between her being labeled as a sex offender for the rest of her life, or her having the opportunity to start over with a clean criminal record.

Sex trafficking and domestic abuse are common crimes, and they share many similarities. To name a few, abusers and traffickers frequently use violence and a manipulative grooming process to gain control over their victims, and they may force or encourage their victims to commit crimes as part of the abuse. Victims of these crimes are frequently hesitant to speak to law enforcement, may not truly view themselves as victims, and struggle to present valid affirmative defenses at their criminal trials. Georgia’s Survivors First Act provides victims of sex trafficking who commit crimes as a direct result of their abuse an avenue to post-conviction relief, but there is no analogous path to vacatur for victims of domestic abuse who commit crimes as a result of their abuse. Similarly, at the federal level, victims of both sex trafficking and domestic abuse are left without opportunities for post-conviction relief. If The Survivors First Act was expanded to include victims of domestic violence, then was adopted into the federal statutory system, it would provide much needed consistency in how the alarmingly similar victims of these crimes are treated across the United States.

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