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U.S. Code as of:
01/19/04
Section 1591. Sex trafficking of children or by force, fraud, or coercion
(a) Whoever knowingly -
(1) in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, or within
the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United
States, recruits, entices, harbors, transports, provides, or
obtains by any means a person; or
(2) benefits, financially or by receiving anything of value,
from participation in a venture which has engaged in an act
described in violation of paragraph (1),
knowing that force, fraud, or coercion described in subsection
(c)(2) will be used to cause the person to engage in a commercial
sex act, or that the person has not attained the age of 18 years
and will be caused to engage in a commercial sex act, shall be
punished as provided in subsection (b).
(b) The punishment for an offense under subsection (a) is -
(1) if the offense was effected by force, fraud, or coercion or
if the person recruited, enticed, harbored, transported,
provided, or obtained had not attained the age of 14 years at the
time of such offense, by a fine under this title or imprisonment
for any term of years or for life, or both; or
(2) if the offense was not so effected, and the person
recruited, enticed, harbored, transported, provided, or obtained
had attained the age of 14 years but had not attained the age of
18 years at the time of such offense, by a fine under this title
or imprisonment for not more than 40 years, or both.
(c) In this section:
(1) The term "commercial sex act" means any sex act, on account
of which anything of value is given to or received by any person.
(2) The term "coercion" means -
(A) threats of serious harm to or physical restraint against
any person;
(B) any scheme, plan, or pattern intended to cause a person
to believe that failure to perform an act would result in
serious harm to or physical restraint against any person; or
(C) the abuse or threatened abuse of law or the legal
process.
(3) The term "venture" means any group of two or more
individuals associated in fact, whether or not a legal entity.
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