Due to the continuing questions regarding the issues in this case here is some relevant information regarding what is sex trafficking and age of consent. It is important to keep in mind that in a Civil case the burden of proof is not beyond a reasonable doubt Andrew had sex with Virginia or knew she was being sex trafficked but that it is more likely than not that Andrew had sex with Virginia and knew she was trafficked. IMO if flight records, Court Circular records, the picture and video of Andrew in New York after Epstein's conviction, the picture of Epstein, Maxwell and Weinstein at Beatrice's 18th bday party - days after Epstein knew there was a Florida arrest warrant and Andrew's disastrous interview are admitted as evidence then the prosecutors would easily have met the Civil case standard of guilt.
Citizen's Guide To U.S. Federal Law On Child Sex Trafficking
Child Sex Trafficking is prohibited by 18 U.S.C. § 1591. This statute makes it a federal offense to knowingly recruit, entice, harbor, transport, provide, obtain, or maintain
a minor (defined as someone under 18 years of age) knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that the victim is a minor and would be caused to engage in a commercial sex act. “Commercial sex act” is defined very broadly to include “any sex act, on account of which anything of value is given to or received by any person.”
In other words, it is illegal both to offer and to obtain a child, and cause that child to engage in any kind of sexual activity in exchange for anything of value, whether it be money, goods, personal benefit, in-kind favors, or some other kind of benefit. Section 1591 also makes it a crime for individuals to participate in a business venture that obtains minors and causes them to engage in commercial sex acts.
Myths & Facts
U.S. law defines human trafficking as the use of force, fraud, or coercion to compel a person into commercial sex acts or labor or services against his or her will. The one exception involves minors and commercial sex.
Inducing a minor into commercial sex is considered human trafficking regardless of the presence of force, fraud or coercion.
How do traffickers control victims?
Traffickers employ a variety of control tactics, the most common include physical and emotional abuse and threats, isolation from friends and family, and economic abuse.
They make promises aimed at addressing the needs of their target in order to impose control. As a result, victims become trapped and fear leaving for myriad reasons, including psychological trauma, shame, emotional attachment, or physical threats to themselves or their family.
Myth: It’s always or usually a violent crime
Reality: By far the most pervasive myth about human trafficking is that it always - or often - involves kidnapping or otherwise physically forcing someone into a situation.
In reality, most human traffickers use psychological means such as tricking, defrauding, manipulating or threatening victims into providing commercial sex or exploitative labor.
Myth: Human trafficking involves moving, traveling or transporting a person across state or national borders
Reality: Human trafficking is often confused with human smuggling, which involves illegal border crossings.
In fact, the crime of human trafficking does not require any movement whatsoever. Survivors can be recruited and trafficked in their own home towns, even their own homes.
Myth: If the trafficked person consented to be in their initial situation, then it cannot be human trafficking or against their will because they “knew better”
Reality: Initial consent to commercial sex or a labor setting prior to acts of force, fraud, or coercion (
or if the victim is a minor in a sex trafficking situation) is not relevant to the crime, nor is payment.
Myth: People being trafficked are physically unable to leave their situations/locked in/held against their will
Reality: That is sometimes the case. More often, however, people in trafficking situations stay for reasons that are more complicated. Some lack the basic necessities to physically get out - such as transportation or a safe place to live. Some are afraid for their safety.
Some have been so effectively manipulated that they do not identify at that point as being under the control of another person.
https://www.criminaldefenselawyer.com/resources/new-york-statutory-rape-laws.htm
Mistake of age
Defendants accused of statutory rape often claim that they had no reason to know that their partner was underage. They may argue that the child said that he or she was of age, and that a reasonable person would have believed it. But even if this is true,
a defendant cannot rely on a mistake of age—even a reasonable one—to avoid conviction. Mistake of age is not a defense in New York.
https://sharedhope.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Importance-of-Using-CST-Laws-over-Stat-Rape-Laws.pdf
While age disparity is a factor in sex trafficking, this is not the only way in which sex trafficking offenders prey upon children. Instead, sex trafficking laws address the exploitation inherent in the commodification of child sex trafficking victims,
including the purchase of commercial sex with minors, not just the sale of children for commercial sex.
(purchase/sale is not defined by exchanging money but any means that provides a benefit to either party)
