There Are Widespread Reports of Sex Trafficking, So Why No Convictions? …Few state resources have been dedicated to combatting traffickers.
Although state agencies have received hundreds of reports of sex trafficking in Hawaii in recent years, state prosecutors have failed to convict a single person of the crime since legislators formally outlawed the practice in 2016, a review of state and local records by Civil Beat found.
The inability to win convictions has persisted despite ramped up state and local efforts to curb trafficking, including a federally funded human trafficking task force in Honolulu, and more than half a dozen legal reforms aimed at holding traffickers accountable.
Prosecutors at both the state and county level told Civil Beat that bringing traffickers to justice is difficult because much of the activity is veiled by online anonymity and victims are often reluctant to face their abusers in court.
