Sex Trafficking 101: Modern-Day Slavery in Our Community

Beatriz Menanteau, The Advocates for Human Rights
Noelle Volin, Breaking Free
Sgt. Ray Gainey, St. Paul Police Department
The Advocates for Human Rights
Founded in 1983, The Advocates for Human Rights is
an NGO dedicated to the promotion and
protection of internationally recognized human
rights locally, nationally, and internationally.
Envision a world in which every person
lived with dignity, freedom, justice, equality,
and peace.
Minneapolis
St. Paul
Rochester
Copyright Breaking Free, Inc. 2014
Vednita Carter
Founder & Executive Director
Objectives
A. Understand definition of and dynamics of sex
trafficking in Minnesota
B. Review the response to sex trafficking and
exploitation in Minnesota
C. Tips for working with victim/survivors
Quiz: Question 1
Human Trafficking refers to:
A. The sale of adults and children into
commercial sexual servitude.
B. The sale of adults and children into forced or
bonded labor.
C. The combined problems of A and B.
D. Pedestrian Congestion.
Human Trafficking
When one person
obtains or holds
another person in
compelled service.
Quiz: Question 2
Human Trafficking is:
A. The Second largest criminal industry in the
world.
B. The fastest growing criminal industry in the
world.
C. A more than thirty billion dollar industry.
D. All of the above.
What is the Scope of
Human Trafficking?
The International Labor Organization (ILO)
estimates that there are at least 21 million
adults and children in forced labor, bonded
labor, and commercial sexual servitude at
any given time.
U.S. State Department, Trafficking in Persons Report (2012)
Sex Trafficking in Minnesota
“Sex trafficking is a form of slavery and involuntary
servitude resulting in grave human rights
violations.
Sex trafficking is not new to Minnesota nor is it
confined to the Twin Cities metropolitan area; it
affects communities throughout the state.”
Sex Trafficking Needs Assessment for the State of Minnesota, The Advocates for
Human Rights, October 2008
Lucrative “Business”
• 2 girls = $500 quota
• 1 night = $1,000
• 1 month = $30,000
• These figures are from just one case in
Ramsey County involving two victims.
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Quiz: Question 3
The average age of entry into prostitution for
a juvenile is:
A.
20 to 25 years old
B.
18 to 20 years old
C.
15 to18 years old
D.
12 to 14 years old
Vulnerable Youth
Nationally, it is estimated that:
100,000 children are used in prostitution
every year.
300,000 kids at risk of commercial sexual
exploitation every year in the United States
• Homeless / Runaway / Throwaway kids especially
vulnerable
• Survival Sex – exchange of sex for food, shelter, and
other needs
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Vulnerable Population: Runaways
• 20% of urban youth are runaways
• 50% of runaway youth run away more
than once
• 16.2% of boys who run away are sexually
abused
• 27.4% of girls who run away are sexually
abused
2009 Minnesota Student Survey representing sample from Metro Area.
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Trade sex ….
• for money or drugs
• for food
• for shelter
• for transportation
• to support friend or partner
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Quiz: Question 4
Compared to women of similar age and race, women
being prostituted are:
A. Twice as likely to be murdered.
B. Five times more likely to be murdered.
C. Nine times more likely to be murdered.
D. Eighteen times more likely to be murdered.
How is Sex Trafficking defined?
MN Sex Trafficking –
Minn.Stat. § 609.321, subd. 7a.
Receiving, recruiting, enticing, harboring,
providing, or obtaining by any means an individual to aid in
the prostitution of the individual;
Or,
Receiving profit or anything of value, knowing or having
reason to know it is derived from the recruiting, enticing,
harboring, providing, or obtaining by any means, an
individual to aid in the prostitution of the individual.
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By Any Means
not
By Force, Fraud, or Coercion
18
Prostitution
engaging or offering or agreeing to engage for hire in
sexual penetration or sexual contact.
Minn.Stat. § 609.321, subd. 9.
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Sex Trafficking and Prostitution?
Sex trafficking and prostitution are a part of
the same continuum of criminal
activity:
The sexual exploitation of
women and girls.
20
Prostitution
Sex Trafficking
Domestic Violence
1 in 3
Sexual Assault
1 in 5
Other Forms
of GenderBased Violence
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Is it a Choice?
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Age 12 – 14
Average age of entry into prostitution for a
person who is prostituted as a juvenile
R.J. Estes, Ph.D., and N. A. Weiner, Ph.D. "Commercial Sexual
Exploitation of Children in the U.S. Canada and Mexico. “
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7 years
Average life expectancy once a juvenile starts
being prostituted.
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Sexually Exploited Elite
2%
Reality for the
majority of
prostituted
individuals.
Adapted from “Prostitution’s Hierarchy of Coercion,” Prostitution Research & Education, San Francisco (2008) www.prostitutionresearch.com
Copyright Breaking Free, Inc. 2014
92% of individuals in prostitution reported that
they wanted to leave prostitution.
Melissa Farley et al., Prostitution in Five Countries: Violence and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, 8 Feminism &
Psychology 405 (1998), available at http://www.prostitutionresearch.com/prostitution_research/000020.html.
81% of the women in prostitution interviewed in
Nevada's legal brothels “urgently want to
escape.” www.prostitutionresearch.com
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The Real Faces of Sex Trafficking
http://www.renewalforum.org/
Of the women and girls served by
UÜxt~|Çz YÜxx:
• 86% suffer from some type of emotional, physical, or mental
•
•
•
•
•
•
disability
85% are victims of child sexual abuse, rape, or incest
75% victims of physical abuse as a child
83% are victims of assault with a deadly weapon
57% are victims of kidnapping
71% of women have PTSD
99% are chemically dependent
28
Dynamics of Sex Trafficking and
Prostitution
• Who is being trafficked?
• How does it happen?
• Why does it happen?
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Who is being trafficked?
Sex Trafficking Risk Factors
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Poverty
Youth
Race
History of abuse
History of prostitution in the family
Lack of resources
Chemical dependency
Lack of support systems
Lack of immigration status
How does it happen?
• Recruitment
• Initiation / Breaking
• Barriers to Escape / Methods of Control
Common Methods of Recruitment
• Relationship with someone involved in
prostitution: Family member; “Boyfriend”
• Homelessness (usually approached w/in 48 hours)
• Drug abuse
• Solicitation by an adult
• Lured through promises of work or benefits
• Start working as “dancers”
• Social media
Why doesn’t she just leave?
Methods of Control
Prostitution vs. Trafficking
Choice vs. Force
Copyright Breaking Free, Inc. 2014
Invisible Chains:
Sex Trafficker Control Tactics
• Sexual, physical, and emotional abuse
• Gang rape and sadistic torture
• Inducing or enabling chemical addiction
• Withholding money or identity documents
• Threats to family or children
• Threat of criminal prosecution
• Pressure and guilt by playing the
“friendship/boyfriend” card
Why does it happen?
What factors contribute to sex
trafficking?
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Concerned Citizens
Advocates
States providing
States providing
safe haven
Adopted from The Demand for Victims of Sex Trafficking, Donna
Hughes, 2005.
Pimps and sex
traffickers
Culture
safe haven
that tolerates
and promotes
sexual exploitation --
“Johns”
Trafficking Task Forces
sex trafficking &
prostitution
Trafficked
Persons
Committed Legislators
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Impact on our response
“Women and girls who are more likely to be victims of
pimps or domestic traffickers often make up 70 to 90
percent of the prostitution- related arrests.”
“Men who solicit or purchase sex acts often only make up
10 to 30 percent of the prostitution-related arrests.”
Hughes, Donna M., Race and Prostitution in the United States (2005)
Rochester
Change our Perceptions –
Change the Dialogue:
To more accurately reflect the severity of
the act as a human rights violation change
our language and perception of what is
normal.
Prostitution Prostitute Pimp
“John”
Sex Trafficking
Victim / Prostituted
Trafficker
Perpetrator; Purchaser
Primary Prevention
Stop trafficking and sexual
exploitation BEFORE it occurs.
Prevention / Early Intervention
An early intervention to avoid sex trafficking of
Minnesota’s female youth passed a benefit-cost test with
a return on investment of $34 in benefit for every $1 of
expenditure on prevention and intervention by the
state government.
Martin, L., Lotspeich, R., & Stark, L. (2012). Early Intervention to Avoid Sex
Trading and Trafficking of MN’s Female Youth: A Benefit-Cost Analysis.
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Minnesota’s Safe Harbor Law:
2011 - 2014
Resolving a conflict in the law
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Tips for working with
victim / survivors.
• Victims may not look like a typical “victim”.
• Look closely: victims will be both adults and children.
• Learning that a woman has been in prostitution should create a presumption
that she is a trafficking victim.
• Understand that victims will not usually self-identify:
– They do not understand that they are victims of sex trafficking.
– They are unwilling to disclose that they are victims of sex trafficking.
– They may not use the same language you use to describe their
situation.
• You may encounter victims in contexts other than prostitution or sex
trafficking.
• Victims have learned not to trust, so know that even when you try to help,
trust is neither automatic nor immediate.
• Victims may lie to you. This is a survival tool, but it should not deter you from
helping them.
Summary - Sex trafficking in Minnesota
• Includes U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents,
not just foreign nationals;
• May occur within a city, county, state or country,
crossing a border is not necessary;
• Includes a variety of means of recruitment and
enticement, not just force, fraud or coercion;
• Includes juvenile and adult victims;
• Includes Supply (Traffickers) and Demand
(Purchasers) – We must hold both accountable.
Contact Us:
Beatríz R. Menanteau, The Advocates for
Human Rights
www.theadvocatesforhumanrights.org;
www.stopvaw.org
Noelle Volin, Breaking Free
http://www.breakingfree.net