When the FBI Comes Calling…®
HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND SMUGGLING (continued)
Involuntary Servitude (continued)
18 U.S.C. § 1584
The Crime
It is a violation of section 1584 to:
- "knowingly and willfully" hold another person to involuntary servitude for any length of time;
- sell another person into any condition of involuntary servitude for any length of time; or
- bring any person held in such circumstances into the United States. 18 U.S.C. §1584.
The Punishment
- The punishment for violating section 1584 is a fine, imprisonment for not more than 20 years, or both.
- If death results from the violation of section 1584, or if the violation includes kidnapping, aggravated sexual abuse or the attempt to commit any of those three acts, the defendant shall be fined, imprisoned for any term of years or life, or both.
Jurisdiction
Like sections 1581 and 1583, there is no outright declaration of jurisdiction in section 1584. However, since it is also aimed at implementing the Thirteenth Amendment, section 1584 seems to apply wherever the sovereignty of the United States extends.
Case Law Interpreting Section 1584
United States v. Kozminski, 487 U.S. 931 (1988)
Kozminksi best highlights the difficulty in determining whether a defendant's conduct constitutes a violation of section 1584. In Kozminksi, the defendants were charged with holding two mentally retarded men as laborers on a Michigan dairy farm. The living conditions for the laborers were "squalid" and the laborers were "in poor health, … and in relative isolation from the rest of society." Kozminksi at 934.
In the trial court, the defendants were initially found guilty of violating section 1584, but the convictions were overturned on appeal based on the majority's opinion that a "definition of involuntary servitude, which would bring cases involving general psychological coercion within the reach of … §1584, was too broad." Id. at 937 (citing Kozminksi v. United States, 821 F.2d 1186, 1192 (6th Cir. 1987)). Because the Court of Appeals definition of involuntary servitude did not comport with other circuits' definitions, see Mussry supra, the Supreme Court granted the Government's petition for a writ of certiorari to resolve the conflict. Id. at 939.
The Supreme Court held that the term "involuntary servitude" under section 1584 necessarily requires a condition of servitude in which the victim is forced to work for master by actual or threatened physical or legal, but not psychological, coercion. Id. at 944. Since the phrase "involuntary servitude" appears both in section 1584 and the Thirteenth Amendment, only a narrow definition of "involuntary servitude," one where a violation will be found only when physical or legal coercion is present, is permissible. Id. at 944-45.
This case was harshly criticized, and in passing the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, Congress has attempted to acknowledge other forms of coercion. For more information on trafficking, see our discussion of trafficking on subsequent pages.