Statutes: Louisiana

A. It shall be unlawful:
(1)(a) For any person to knowingly recruit, harbor, transport, provide, solicit, sell, receive, isolate, entice, obtain, patronize, procure, purchase, hold, restrain, induce, threaten, subject, or maintain the use of another person through fraud, force, or coercion to provide services or labor.
(b) For any person to knowingly recruit, harbor, transport, provide, solicit, sell, purchase, patronize, procure, hold, restrain, induce, threaten, subject, receive, isolate, entice, obtain, or maintain the use of a person under the age of twenty-one years for the purpose of engaging in commercial sexual activity regardless of whether the person was recruited, harbored, transported, provided, solicited, sold, purchased, received, isolated, enticed, obtained, or maintained through fraud, force, or coercion. It shall not be a defense to prosecution for a violation of the provisions of this Subparagraph that the person did not know the age of the victim or that the victim consented to the prohibited activity.
(2) For any person to knowingly benefit from activity prohibited by the provisions of this Section.
(3) For any person to knowingly facilitate any of the activities prohibited by the provisions of this Section by any means, including but not limited to helping, aiding, abetting, or conspiring, regardless of whether a thing of value has been promised to or received by the person.
B. (1) Except as provided in Paragraphs (2) and (3) of this Subsection, whoever commits the crime of human trafficking shall be fined not more than ten thousand dollars and shall be imprisoned at hard labor for not more than ten years.
(2)(a) Whoever commits the crime of human trafficking when the services include commercial sexual activity or a sex offense as defined in R.S. 15:541 shall be fined not more than fifteen thousand dollars and shall be imprisoned at hard labor for not more than twenty years.
(b) Whoever commits the crime of human trafficking in violation of the provisions of Subparagraph (A)(1)(b) of this Section involving a person under the age of twenty-one years but eighteen years or older shall be fined not more than fifty thousand dollars, imprisoned at hard labor for not less than fifteen years nor more than fifty years, or both.
(c) Whoever commits the crime of human trafficking in violation of the provisions of Subparagraph (A)(1)(b) of this Section when the trafficking involves a person under the age of eighteen years shall be punished by life imprisonment at hard labor without benefit of probation, parole, or suspension of sentence and fined not more than seventy-five thousand dollars.
(3) Whoever commits the crime of human trafficking when the trafficking involves a person under the age of eighteen shall be fined not more than twenty-five thousand dollars and shall be imprisoned at hard labor for not less than five nor more than twenty-five years, five years of which shall be without the benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence.
(4) Repealed by Acts 2020, No. 352, § 2.
C. For purposes of this Section:
(1) “Commercial sexual activity” means any sexual act performed or conducted when anything of value has been given, promised, or received by any person, directly or indirectly, including the production of pornography.
(2) “Debt bondage” means inducing an individual to provide any of the following:
(a) Commercial sexual activity in payment toward or satisfaction of a real or purported debt.
(b) Labor or services in payment toward or satisfaction of a real or purported debt if either of the following occur:
(i) The reasonable value of the labor or services provided is not applied toward the liquidation of the debt.
(ii) The length of the labor or services is not limited and the nature of the labor or services is not defined.
(3) “Fraud, force, or coercion” shall include but not be limited to any of the following:
(a) Causing or threatening to cause serious bodily injury.
(b) Physically restraining, isolating, confining, or threatening to physically restrain, isolate, or confine another person.
(c) Abduction or threatened abduction of an individual.
(d) The use of a plan, pattern, or statement with intent to cause an individual to believe that failure to perform an act will result in the use of force against, abduction of, serious harm to, or physical restraint of an individual.
(e) The abuse or threatened abuse of law or legal process.
(f) The actual or threatened destruction, concealment, removal, withholding, confiscation, or possession of any actual or purported passport or other immigration document, or any other actual or purported government identification document, of another person.
(g) Controlling or threatening to control an individual’s access to a controlled dangerous substance as set forth in R.S. 40:961 et seq.
(h) The use of an individual’s physical or mental impairment, where such impairment has substantial adverse effects on the individual’s cognitive or volitional functions.
(i) The use of debt bondage or civil or criminal fraud.
(j) Extortion as defined in R.S. 14:66.
(k) Exposing or threatening to expose any fact or information that would subject an individual to criminal or immigration proceedings.
(l) Causing or threatening to cause financial harm to an individual or using financial control over an individual.
(4) “Labor or services” means activity having an economic value.
D. It shall not be a defense to prosecution for a violation of this Section that the person being recruited, harbored, transported, provided, solicited, received, isolated, patronized, procured, purchased, enticed, obtained, or maintained is actually a law enforcement officer or peace officer acting within the official scope of his duties.
E. If any Subsection, Paragraph, Subparagraph, Item, sentence, clause, phrase, or word of this Section is for any reason held to be invalid, unlawful, or unconstitutional, such decision shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions of this Section.
F. (1) A victim of trafficking involving services that include commercial sexual activity or a sex offense as defined in R.S. 15:541 shall have an affirmative defense to prosecution for any of the following offenses which were committed as a direct result of being trafficked:
(a) R.S. 14:82 (Prostitution).
(b) R.S. 14:83.3 (Prostitution by massage).
(c) R.S. 14:83.4 (Massage; sexual conduct prohibited).
(d) R.S. 14:89 (Crime against nature).
(e) R.S. 14:89.2 (Crime against nature by solicitation).
(2) Any person seeking to raise this affirmative defense shall provide written notice to the state at least forty-five days prior to trial or at an earlier time as otherwise required by the court.
(3) Any person determined to be a victim pursuant to the provisions of this Subsection shall be notified of any treatment or specialized services for sexually exploited persons to the extent that such services are available.