One of the QAnon conspiracy theories surrounding the Trump administration involved widely refuted claims that Democrats were running a child sex trafficking ring and that Donald Trump himself was working to disrupt this—a false belief that half of Trump supporters embraced. The belief spread online using the hashtag #SaveTheChildren, which subverted the legitimate work of the Save the Children organization, and in the real world through public events and at the #StopTheSteal rally in Washington, D.C. that led to an insurrection at the US Capitol.
Using TRAC’s case-by-case data on federal criminal prosecutions, however, we found that sex trafficking prosecutions actually declined during the Trump administration. To the contrary of QAnon conspiracy theories, sex trafficking prosecutions actually increased steadily during the Obama years to a height in 2016, then declined and levelled off during the four years of the Trump administration.
Number of federal sex trafficking prosecutions per year declines during Trump administration.
Even more telling than the total number of prosecutions, the number of referrals that were prosecuted (the prosecution rate) was lower during the Trump years than the Obama and Bush years.
Percent of sex trafficking referrals prosecuted in federal court declines during Trump administration.
Our findings were picked up by many national news outlets, including the Washington Post, Legal Examiner, the Crime Report at John Jay College, and FactCheck.org, which used our findings to refute a viral but extremely misleading chart (below). Our earlier findings about lower sex trafficking prosecutions also drew national attention when Jeffrey Epstein who was arrested for child sex trafficking charges and later died in his jail cell — spawning yet more conspiracy theories surrounding the circumstances of his death.
While there are many reasons why these prosecutions declined (most of which likely have nothing to do with the president), it certainly contradicts the idea that Trump was on an anti-sex trafficking crusade. And while these facts may not matter to people swept away by a conspiracy theory, it is nonetheless important to that the rest of the public, many of whom may entertain false ideas in the barrage of click-bait news, have access to these facts.
