[....] Her case comes at a

artappraiser — Sat, 06 Jun 2020 15:17:02 +0000

In reply to He was sexually abusing underage girls. Then, police said, one of them killed him.

[....] Her case comes at a time when police and prosecutors across the country are reevaluating how victims of sex trafficking should be treated. This year, Tennessee released Cyntoia Brown, whose story went viral in the midst of the #MeToo movement. She went to prison at age 16 and served 15 years for killing a man who purchased her for sex.

Brown’s story, along with the downfall of financier Jeffrey Epstein and singer R. Kelly, reveal what most child sex trafficking actually looks like in America: vulnerable kids, not kidnapped and held captive, not chained and smuggled across borders, but groomed by someone they trust and manipulated into believing they are the ones to blame for the abuse.

Under federal law, all children who are bought or sold for sex are trafficking victims, regardless of the circumstances. Thirty states and the District have stopped charging minors with prostitution.

Most states also have a law that gives sex-trafficking victims an “affirmative defense.” If they can prove at trial they committed a crime because they were being trafficked, they can be acquitted of certain charges against them.

Wisconsin is one of those states — and Chrystul wanted to use that law to defend her actions. Despite prosecutors’ certainty that her crime was premeditated, her lawyer argues she still has a complete defense to the charges.

But the affirmative defense law has never been used in a homicide or any other violent crime. Not in Wisconsin and, as far as advocates know, not anywhere else [....]

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[....] Her case comes at a