2025 Shared Hope Report Card for Illinois

The Shared Hope International "Just like me Report Cards" came out this week and Illinois moved from an F with a score of 54.5 in 2023 to an A with a score of 94. This moves Illinois to the second best score in the entire United States behind Maryland for encompassing laws aimed at combatting child and youth trafficking. Illinois is one of only three states in the entire US that received an A in the 2025 report. This is the biggest increase Illinois has registered in the Shared Hope International's rankings since the rankings came out 2011 and it is also the only time Illinois has been awarded an A. This sharp increase is due to the adoption of the Illinois Statewide Trauma-Informed Response to Trafficking Act which raised Illinois scores several categories of the report though there is still progress to be made in protecting victims from unjust criminalization and survivor-centered support services. The report recognized gaps in non-criminalization and juvenile court jurisdiction as well as resentencing and community based services. Though Illinois received extra credit for providing resentencing, community-based services, appropriations, and crime victims’ compensation for youth and child labor trafficking. The grades are only based on an analysis of the law and not if it is actually implemented. Given the fact that the Illinois Statewide Trauma-Informed Response to Trafficking Act was just signed into law in August we still have a long way to go to turn all of the promising aspects of the law into reality. Still it is a step in the right direction and definitely made headlines in the media and started a conversation about human trafficking law and policy in our state which is wonderful!

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