The Florida Senate
BILL ANALYSIS AND FISCAL IMPACT STATEMENT
(This document is based on the provisions contained in the legislation as of the latest date listed below.)
Prepared By: The Professional Staff of the Committee on Criminal Justice
BILL: CS/SB 340
INTRODUCER: Criminal Justice Committee and Senator Osgood and others
SUBJECT: Trust Fund for Victims of Human Trafficking
DATE: April 5, 2023 REVISED:
ANALYST STAFF DIRECTOR REFERENCE ACTION
1. Cellon Stokes CJ Fav/CS
2. ACJ
3. AP
Please see Section IX. for Additional Information:
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE - Substantial Changes
I. Summary:
CS/SB 340 creates s. 787.063, F.S., providing that the Trust Fund for Victims of Human
Trafficking may be used for all of the following purposes:
• Educating the public about the recruitment, trafficking, and exploitation of persons through
human trafficking.
• Assisting in the prevention of recruitment in Florida schools of minors for exploitation.
• Establishing a survivors’ resource center to make available to survivors of human trafficking
information about services and resources, including legal services, social services, safe
harbors, safe houses, and language services.
• Assisting in the coordination between law enforcement agencies and service providers.
• Providing information concerning a petition for expunction of a criminal history record
resulting from the arrest or filing of charges for an offense committed or reported to have
been committed while the person was a victim of human trafficking which is filed pursuant
to s. 943.0583, F.S.
• Providing financial assistance for the cost of expunction of a criminal history record.
• Providing financial assistance for the cost of legal services to defend against criminal charges
resulting from the arrest or filing of charges for an offense committed or reported to have
been committed while the person was a victim of human trafficking.
• Delivering other services designed to reduce human trafficking or assist human trafficking
victims, as authorized by the Attorney General.
BILL: CS/SB 340 Page 2
This bill is the companion bill to SB 338, which creates the Trust Fund within the Office of the
Attorney General, Department of Legal Affairs. Therefore, this bill will take effect on the same
date that SB 338 or similar legislation takes effect, if such legislation is adopted in the same
legislative session or an extension thereof and becomes a law.
II. Present Situation:
Human Trafficking
Human trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery.1 Human trafficking victims are young
children, teenagers, and adults who may be citizens that are trafficked domestically within the
borders of the United States or smuggled across international borders worldwide.2 Many human
trafficking victims are induced with false promises of financial or emotional security, but are
forced or coerced into commercial sex, domestic servitude, or other types of forced labor.3 Any
minor who is younger than 18 years old and who is induced to perform a commercial sex act is a
human trafficking victim even if there is no forced fraud or coercion.4 Increasingly, criminal
organizations, such as gangs, are enticing local school children into commercial sexual
exploitation or trafficking.5 The average ages of youth who are trafficked are 11-13 years old.6
Congress passed the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act (Act) of 2000 to combat
human trafficking by establishing several methods of prosecuting traffickers, preventing
trafficking, and protecting victims.7 The Act contains severe penalties and mandates restitution
for victims of human trafficking.8
The U.S. Department of Justice reports that every two minutes a child is trafficked for the
purpose of sexual exploitation in the United States.9 Approximately 24.9 million people are
human trafficking victims in the world.10 There are approximately 2.5 million victims of human
trafficking in the United States.11 The U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline (NHTH)
received 276,654 reports of human trafficking between 2007 and 2019.12
1
Section 787.06(1)(a), F.S.
2
Id.
3
The Department of Education (DOE), Healthy Schools – Human Trafficking, available at
http://www.fldoe.org/schools/healthy-schools/human-trafficking.stml (last visited March 26, 2023).
4
Id.
5
Id.
6
The DOE, Child Trafficking Prevention Education, p. 3, September 20, 2019, available at
http://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/5575/urlt/ChildTraffickingPres.pdf (last visited March 26, 2023).
7
Pub. L. No. 106-386 (2000).
8
Id.
9
The DOE, Human Trafficking, Healthy Schools – Human Trafficking, available at https://www.fldoe.org/schools/healthy-
schools/human-trafficking.stml, (last visited March 26, 2023).
10
National Human Trafficking Hotline, What is Human Trafficking? available at https://humantraffickinghotline.org/what-
human-trafficking (last visited March 26, 2023).
11
The DOE, Human Trafficking, Healthy Schools – Human Trafficking, available at https://www.fldoe.org/schools/healthy-
schools/human-trafficking.stml, (last visited March 26, 2023).
12
NHTH, Hotline Statistics, available at https://humantraffickinghotline.org/states (last visited March 26, 2023).
BILL: CS/SB 340 Page 3
The number of human trafficking cases listed in reports may not accurately reflect the number of
actual cases of human trafficking because many traffickers are prosecuted for other crimes.13
Additionally, prosecutors often have difficulty proving the relationship at issue is one of human
trafficking or a victim may be unwilling to testify against his or her trafficker in court.14
Human Trafficking in Florida
Florida is ranked the third highest state of reported human trafficking cases in the United
States.15 The National Human Trafficking Hotline reports that in 2021, 781 cases were identified
in Florida with 1,253 victims in those cases.16 The 14th Judicial Circuit Human Trafficking Task
Force serves six Panhandle counties. Board member, Dr. Laurie Lawrence, indicates that human
trafficking is on the rise in the Panhandle with the highest rate per capita of child victims in the
state (201), an increase of 40 percent in 2021.17
Florida law defines “human trafficking” as transporting, soliciting, recruiting, harboring,
providing, enticing, maintaining, purchasing, patronizing, procuring, or obtaining another person
for the purpose of exploitation of that person.18 In Florida, any person who knowingly, or in
reckless disregard of the facts, engages in human trafficking, or attempts to engage in human
trafficking, or benefits financially by receiving anything of value from participation in a venture
that has subjected a person to human trafficking for labor or services, or commercial sexual
activity, commits a first degree felony or a life felony.19 “Coercion,” is an element in proving the
crime of human trafficking of adult victims, but is not an element if the victim is under the age of
18 years.
The types of human trafficking cases can vary greatly and may involve forced labor, or sex
trafficking. For example, a case investigated by the Palm Beach County Human Trafficking Task
Force focused on three individuals who ran a labor contracting company that harvested
agricultural products in Florida in 2015 through 2017. The investigation led to a federal
indictment for, among other crimes, forced labor using workers who are temporary,
nonimmigrant workers lawfully admitted into the United States to perform agricultural labor or
services of a temporary or seasonal nature. The indictment alleged that the defendants obtained
13
Nada Hassanein, Preying on the vulnerable: Human trafficking prevalent yet elusive in the Big Bend, Tallahassee
Democrat, June 27, 2018, available at https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/2019/01/27/preying-vulnerable-human-
trafficking-alive-and-well-big-bend/2648630002/ (last visited March 26, 2023).
14
Id.
15
The DOE, Child Trafficking Prevention Education, p. 3., available at
https://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/5575/urlt/ChildTraffickingPres.pdf, (last visited March 26, 2023).
16
National Human Trafficking Hotline, Statistics, Florida, available at
https://humantraffickinghotline.org/en/statistics/florida, (last visited March 25, 2023).
17
WMBB News, Tess Rowland, Statistics show human trafficking is on the rise in the Panhandle, January 5, 2022, available
at https://www.mypanhandle.com/news/local-news/bay-county/statistics-show-human-trafficking-is-on-the-rise-in-the-
panhandle/, (last visited March 25, 2023).
18
Section 787.06(2)(d), F.S.
19
Section 787.06(3), F.S. A first degree felony is punishable by up to 30 years imprisonment and a fine of $10,000. Sections
775.082 and 775.083, F.S. A violation of s. 787.06(3)(g), F.S., commercial sexual activity in which any child younger than
18 years of age or an adult believed by the person to be a child younger than 18 years of age, or in which any person who is
mentally defective or mentally incapacitated as those terms are defined in s. 794.011(1), F.S., is involved, is a life felony.
This life felony is punishable by imprisonment for life. Section 787.06(3)(g), F.S., and ss. 775.082 and 775.083, F.S.
BILL: CS/SB 340 Page 4
hundreds of hours of physically demanding agricultural labor from the victimized workers
through coercive means, such as:
• Imposing debts on workers;
• Confiscating the workers’ passports;
• Subjecting workers to crowded, unsanitary and degrading living conditions, and to yelling
and verbal abuse;
• Threatening workers with arrest, jail time, and deportation;
• Isolating workers and limiting their ability to interact with anyone other than fellow
employees; and
• Suggesting to workers that if they failed to comply with the defendants’ demands, they or
their family members could be physically harmed.20
In Tallahassee, in January 2019, a two month-long investigation lead to the arrest of a 36-year-
old male on prostitution and sex trafficking charges involving a 14-year old girl. The victim told
investigators that the defendant threatened to kill the victim and her family if she didn't
cooperate. Afraid for her life, the victim complied with the defendant’s demands. At the time of
his arrest, the male was already facing charges for sex trafficking a child in 2014.21
In addition, a man who ran a sex trafficking organization for more than 20 years that exploited
dozens of vulnerable women and girls through manipulation, lies, and threats, was recently
sentenced by a federal judge in South Florida. The man had forced his victims to work at South
Florida exotic dance clubs and engage in commercial sex. He lied to the victims by telling them
that he would invest their earnings so that they could retire in their 20s. He coerced his victims
into working eight-hour shifts, six days a week, every week of the year and kept all their money.
The court sentenced him to sixty years in prison and ordered him to pay over $14 million in
restitution to his victims.22
Victim Support, Public Education
Florida has local task forces and coalitions that encompass all of Florida’s 67 counties. The
mission of the Statewide Council on Human Trafficking is to enhance the development and
coordination of state and local law enforcement and social services responses to fight all forms
of human trafficking and to support victims. There is a Direct-Support Organization (DSO) for
the Statewide Council.23 The DSO is known as the Alliance to End Human Trafficking, a
20
U.S. Department of Justice, Justice News, Defendants Charged in Connection with Multi-State Racketeering Conspiracy
Involving the Forced Labor of Mexican Agricultural H-2A Workers, September 22, 2021, available at
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/defendants-charged-connection-multi-state-racketeering-conspiracy-involving-forced-labor,
(last visited March 25, 2023).
21
WTXL, Human trafficking suspect accused of sex-trafficking child in Tallahassee, January 26, 2019, available at
http://www.wtxl.com/news/human-trafficking-suspect-accused-of-sex-trafficking-child-in-tallahassee/article_9748879c-
21a4-11e9-b768-5bb68f906ecc.html (last visited March 25, 2023).
22
U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Florida, Leader of Sex Trafficking Ring Sentenced to 60 Years in Federal
Prison, Ordered to Pay Over $14 Million in Restitution, September 27, 2022, available at https://www.justice.gov/usao-
sdfl/pr/leader-sex-trafficking-ring-sentenced-60-years-federal-prison-ordered-pay-over-14, (last visited March 25, 2023). See
also Fox News, Stephen Sorace, Undercover human trafficking bust in Florida leads to over 200 arrests, rescue of 24
suspected victims, available at https://www.foxnews.com/us/undercover-human-trafficking-bust-florida-leads-over-200-
arrests-rescue-24-suspected-victims, (last visited March 25, 2023).
23
Section 16.618, F.S., authorized the creation of the Statewide Council on Human Trafficking’s DSO.
BILL: CS/SB 340 Page 5
nonprofit organization created by the Legislature to provide funding, support, and assistance to
the statewide effort to end human trafficking.24
In collaboration with the Florida Forensic Institute for Research, Security, and Tactics, the
Florida Alliance to End Human Trafficking developed a training course that focuses on detecting
human trafficking, best practices for reporting human trafficking, and the interventions and
treatment for survivors of human trafficking.25 The one-hour course can be found and completed
on the DSO’s website.26
III. Effect of Proposed Changes:
The bill creates s. 787.063, F.S., providing that the Trust Fund for Victims of Human Trafficking
may be used for all of the following purposes:
• Educating the public about the recruitment, trafficking, and exploitation of persons through
human trafficking.
• Assisting in the prevention of recruitment in Florida schools of minors for exploitation.
• Establishing a survivors’ resource center to make available to survivors of human trafficking
information about services and resources, including legal services, social services, safe
harbors, safe houses, and language services.
• Assisting in the coordination between law enforcement agencies and service providers.
• Providing information concerning a petition for expunction of a criminal history record
resulting from the arrest or filing of charges for an offense committed or reported to have
been committed while the person was a victim of human trafficking which is filed pursuant
to s. 943.0583, F.S.
• Providing financial assistance for the cost of expunction of a criminal history record.
• Providing financial assistance for the cost of legal services to defend against criminal charges
resulting from the arrest or filing of charges for an offense committed or reported to have
been committed while the person was a victim of human trafficking.
• Delivering other services designed to reduce human trafficking or assist human trafficking
victims, as authorized by the Attorney General.
This bill is the companion bill to SB 338, which creates the Trust Fund within the Office of the
Attorney General, Department of Legal Affairs. Therefore, this bill will take effect on the same
date that SB 338 or similar legislation takes effect, if such legislation is adopted in the same
legislative session or an extension thereof and becomes a law.
24
https://floridaallianceendht.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/2021-2022-Annual-Report.pdf, (last viewed March 26,
2023).
25
Florida Alliance to End Human Trafficking, Training Portal, available at https://fateht.vidcert.com/register. (last visited
March 26, 2023); Florida’s Forensic Institute for Research, Security and Tactics, an enterprise of the Pasco Sheriff’s Office,
embodies a collaborative approach between academia and practitioners, under one institute in pursuit of a common goal:
shaping the future of public safety.
26
Id.
 BILL: CS/SB 340 Page 6
IV. Constitutional Issues:
A. Municipality/County Mandates Restrictions:
None.
B. Public Records/Open Meetings Issues:
None.
C. Trust Funds Restrictions:
None.
D. State Tax or Fee Increases:
None.
E. Other Constitutional Issues: