American Samoa § 46.5001 - Definitions.

§ 46.5001. Definitions.

For the purpose of this chapter, the following terms are defined as follows: (a) “Coercion” includes 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 a person. (b) “Commercial sex act” means any sex act or sexual conduct on account of which anything of value is given, promised to, or received by any person. (c) “Debt bondage” means to use any debt, legally owed or otherwise, to force, compel, to pressure another person into doing any act which he or she would otherwise not have submitted to or performed. (d) “Duress” includes a direct or implied threat of force, violence, danger, hardship, retribution, or serious harm sufficient to cause a person to acquiesce in or perform an act which he or she would otherwise not have submitted to or performed. (e) “Forced labor or services” means labor or services that are performed or provided by another person and are obtained or maintained through force, fraud, or coercion, deceit, or equivalent conduct that would reasonably overbear the will of the person. (f) “Liberty” under this chapter means personal freedom; such as, but not limited to freedom from servitude, physical restraint, confinement, forced labor, or sexual exploitation. It also means a person having agency or control over their own actions and choices, and exercising his or her free will. (g) “Minor” means a person less than 18 years of age. (h) “Serious harm” includes any harm, whether physical or nonphysical, including psychological, financial, or reputational harm that compels a person to perform or to continue performing forced labor or services, or commercial sex acts in order to avoid incurring that harm. “Serious harm” can also be a direct or implied threat to destroy, conceal, remove, confiscate, or possess any actual or purported passport or immigration document of the victim; the abuse or threatened abuse of the legal process; debt bondage; or the use or threatened use of controlled substances to impair the person’s judgment. (i) “Sex act” is defined as “sexual intercourse” which means any penetration, however slight, of the female sex organ by the male sex organ, whether or not an emission results. (j) “Sexual conduct” is defined as “sexual contact” which means any touching of the genital or anus of any person or the breast of any female person, or any such touching through the clothing, for the purpose of arousing or gratifying sexual desire of any person. (k) “Unlawful deprivation or violation of the personal liberty of another” includes restriction of another’s liberty accomplished through fraud, deceit, coercion, violence, duress, menace, or threat of unlawful injury to the victim or to another person, where the person receiving or apprehending the threat believes that it is likely that the person making the threat would carry it out, whether the person actually has the authority or legal standing to do so. History: 2014, PL 33-12.