§ 13A-6-151 — Definitions

As used in this article, the following terms shall have the following, or any combination of the following, meanings ascribed to them by this section:
(1) COERCION. Any of the following:
a. Causing or threatening to cause physical injury or mental suffering to any person, physically restraining or confining any person, or threatening to physically restrain or confine any person or otherwise causing the person performing or providing labor or services to believe that the person or another person will suffer physical injury, mental suffering, physical restraint, or confinement.
b. Implementing any scheme, plan, or pattern intended to cause a person to believe that failure to perform an act would result in physical injury, mental suffering, or physical restraint of any person.
c. Destroying, concealing, removing, confiscating, or withholding from the person or another person, or threatening to destroy, conceal, remove, confiscate, or withhold from the person or another person, the person’s or any person’s actual or purported government records, immigration documents, identifying information, or personal or real property.
d. Exposing or threatening to expose any fact or information that if revealed would tend to subject a person to criminal prosecution, criminal or immigration proceedings, hatred, contempt, or ridicule.
e. Threatening to report the person or another person to immigration officials or to other law enforcement officials or otherwise blackmailing or extorting the person or another person.
f. Use or threatened use of a law or legal process, whether administrative, civil, or criminal, in any manner for any purpose for which the law was not designed, in order to exert pressure on another person to cause that person or another person to take some action or refrain from taking some action.
g. Controlling a person’s access to medications or a controlled substance, as the term is defined in Section 20-2-2.
h. Rape, sodomy, or any other sex offense pursuant to Section 15-20A-5, or attempted or threatened rape, sodomy, or any other sex offense pursuant to Section 15-20A-5 of any person.
(2) DECEPTION. Any of the following:
a. Creating or confirming an impression of any existing fact or past event which is false and which the accused knows or believes to be false.
b. Exerting financial control over the person or another person by placing the person or another person under the actor’s control as a security or payment of a debt, if the value of the services as reasonably assessed is not applied toward the liquidation of the debt or the length and nature of those services are not respectively limited and defined or the principal amount of the debt does not reasonably reflect the value of the items or services for which debt was incurred or by preventing a person from acquiring information pertinent to the disposition of the debt, referenced in this paragraph.
c. Promising benefits or the performance of services that the accused does not intend to be delivered. Evidence of failure to deliver benefits or perform services standing alone shall not be sufficient to authorize a conviction under this article.
d. Using any scheme, plan, or pattern, whether overt or subtle, intended to cause any person to believe that, if the person did not perform such labor, services, acts, or performances, the person or another person would suffer physical injury or mental suffering.
(3) LABOR SERVITUDE. Work or service of economic or financial value which is performed or provided by another person and is induced or obtained by coercion or deception.
(4) MENTAL SUFFERING. A high degree of mental pain or emotional disturbances, such as distress, anxiety, public humiliation, or psychosomatic physical symptoms. It is more than mere disappointment, anger, resentment, wounded pride, or embarrassment and must be a direct result of the crime of human trafficking.
(5) MINOR. A person under the age of 19.
(6) PHYSICAL INJURY. Impairment of physical condition or substantial pain.
(7) SEXUAL CONDUCT. Any of the following acts:
a. Sexual Intercourse. This term shall have its ordinary meaning and occurs upon a penetration, however slight; emission is not required.
b. Sodomy. As defined under Section 13A-6-60.
c. Sexual Contact. As defined under Section 13A-6-60.
d. Sexual Torture. As defined under Section 13A-6-65.1.
e. Sexually Explicit Performances. An act or show intended to arouse, satisfy the sexual desires of, or appeal to the prurient interests of patrons or viewers, whether public or private, live, photographed, recorded, videotaped, or projected over the Internet.
f. Commercial Sex Acts. Any sex act on account of which anything of value is given, promised to, or received, directly or indirectly, by any person.
(8) SEXUAL SERVITUDE.
a. Except as provided in paragraph b., any sexual conduct for which anything of value is directly or indirectly given, promised to, or received by any person, which conduct is induced or obtained by coercion or deception from a person.
b. If the sexual conduct is with a minor or with any person who is incapable of consent by reason of being incapacitated, as defined in Section 13A-6-60, no coercion or deception is required.
(9) TRAFFICKING VICTIM. Any person, including minors, subjected to labor servitude, sexual servitude, or involuntary servitude.

Legislative History

(Act 2010-705, p. 1708, §2; Act 2018-506, §1; Act 2022-435, §1.)