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Sex Trafficking a Crime Under Uniform Code of Military Justice

Rep. Christopher Smith, R-N.J., the new chairman of the House International Relations Committee's panel that oversees global human rights, says the United States is already a world leader in the fight against exploitation of women and children, but could do more both by setting an example for the rest of the world and using its influence to stop trafficking.

As part of the U.S. effort, the Defense Department is already moving to make prostitution and pandering specific military crimes under current statutes. However Smith has a new bill, the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2005, which would add the specific crime of sex trafficking to the military justice code.

The new offense would involve knowingly recruiting, harboring or transporting a person to be forced or coerced into engaging in a commercial sex act. It would also make it a crime to force anyone by threat or physical restraint to perform labor.

Smith would make his provision part of Article 120 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), which covers rape and carnal knowledge. There is no maximum punishment under that Article; those convicted could receive a death sentence.