Voters in California this November will be deciding more than whether Barack Obama or Mitt Romney will be president. They’ll have a chance to send a message to traffickers. The CASE Act has qualified for the ballot.
If approved, the anti-trafficking initiative will strengthen penalties against human traffickers and online predators, require sex traffickers to register as sex offenders, mandate training on human trafficking for police officers, and require that criminal fines from convicted traffickers be used to pay for services for sex slavery survivors.
Organizers collected nearly 900,000 signatures to qualify the CASE Act for the ballot. The initiative’s name is short for Californians Against Sexual Exploitation. The group notes that three California cities — San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego — are recognized by the FBI as high-intensity child sex trafficking areas.
Read more at the campaign website and in the San Diego Union-Tribune.