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Effective Implementation Of The Trafficking Of Persons And Involuntary Servitude Articles: Lessons From The Criminal Justice System Response To The Illinois Domestic Violence Act, Alison L. Stankus, Jennifer A. Kuhn

Northern Illinois University Law Review

When the Illinois Domestic Violence Act was enacted in 1986, the General Assembly acknowledged that "the legal system has ineffectively dealt with family violence in the past . . . and has not adequately acknowledged the criminal nature of domestic violence; that, although many laws have changed, in practice there is still widespread failure to appropriately protect and assist victims." However, despite these stated purposes, the criminal justice system response to the Act in the last twenty years has been slow to correct this failure. In 2006, the Trafficking of Persons and Involuntary Servitude Articles were added to the Illinois …