A new report card looking at how states are combating child sex trafficking ranked two New England states in last place.
When the advocacy group Shared Hope first started doing these rankings, 26 states received failing grades, including Massachusetts. The Bay State has made strides with a steady B for the last three years.
New Hampshire and Maine are tied with Hawaii and South Dakota for the lowest rankings in the country, with all receiving grades in the low D's.
Improvement across the country has been vast. No states received failing grades, and several jumped up.
In the rest of New England, Connecticut and Vermont got C's and Rhode Island got a D.
Shared Hope evaluates what laws the states have on the books to prevent sex trafficking, how they prosecute the traffickers, and, importantly, the buyers and how they treat victims.
A major issue noted is that only 15 states protect minors from being criminally charged as prostitutes.
