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(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.
Amendments
2003 - Pub. L. 108-193, Sec. 5(a)(1), inserted comma after "fraud" in section catchline.
Subsec. (a)(1). Pub. L. 108-193, Sec. 5(a)(2), substituted "in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, or within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States" for "in or affecting interstate commerce". Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 108-193, Sec. 5(a)(3), substituted "the person recruited, enticed, harbored, transported, provided, or obtained" for "the person transported" in pars. (1) and (2). Subsec. (b)(2). Pub. L. 108-21 substituted "40" for "20".
Section Referred To In Other Sections
This section is referred to in sections 1592, 1594, 1595, 1961, 2423, 2516, 3142, 3553, 3583 of this title; title 8 section 1101; title 22 section 7103.
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