Ask Fox 35 to Report on Human Trafficking

From Polaris Project:

On April 19, Fox 35 Orlando reported that a Sheriff from Polk County arrested “60 alleged prostitutes, pimps and johns” following a week-long undercover bust targeting “escort services”. However, this crackdown was not simply involving alleged escort services, but young girls who - under the control of pimps - performed sex acts for johns.

Polk County prostitution bust targets online escorts: MyFoxORLANDO.com

To read more and take action click here.

Wyden Reintroduces DMST Deterrence and Victim Support Act : S.596

From Shared Hope International:

What you need to know about this legislation:
• It will provide $2m to $2.5m a year in funding to six state and local pilot projects to serve and shelter child victims of sex trafficking.
• Applying entities must have a multidisciplinary, collaborative plan to combat the sex trafficking of minors. • 67% of funds must be used for direct services and shelter for victims.
• Funds can be used to increase law enforcement efforts to combat the sex trafficking of children.
• This is a bipartisan bill.
• The legislation is sponsored by Senator Ron Wyden (D‐OR) and Senator John Cornyn (R‐TX).

How this bill will help address existing domestic minor sex trafficking challenges:

Challenge: There is little collaboration and communication between the various agencies and organizations that encounter or work with sex trafficked children. This lack of collaboration is a major impediment to efficiency and finding workable solutions.
How this bill helps: This legislation requires multidisciplinary collaboration from grantees.

Challenge: Law enforcement has expressed frustration that when they discover an exploited child, there is nowhere safe to place him/her for help.
How this bill helps: With at least 67% of funding required for shelter and services for victims, the grant locations will be required to establish safe shelter for victims.

Challenge: Sex trafficked children have a multitude of needs ranging from post‐traumatic stress and depression to STDs, substance abuse and chronic illness. They also may not have a safe, appropriate home to return to. There are few programs appropriate to address their needs. As a result, they are caught in a cycle of abuse and arrest.
How this bill helps: The majority of funding is required to go to services and shelter for victims. Additionally, the bill’s multidisciplinary focus will result in all stakeholders coming together to collaborate on fixing the response protocol, making it more efficient and addressing the intense needs of these children.

Challenge: Trafficking cases are time intensive and can be expensive. Federal prosecutors may prosecute these cases but local police are most often in a position to find the crime. Local law enforcement agencies need the resources and training so they can identify a trafficking case. If law enforcement does not have the resources to investigate trafficking cases, criminals will see little risk in the profitable venture of selling children for sex.
How this bill helps: By allowing funds to be used for training and law enforcement/prosecutor salaries related to investigation and prosecution of sex trafficking cases, the bill supports critical enforcement efforts.

To track this bill visit: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s112-596 Visit http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm to find your senators if you would like to contact them to express your support.

Safe Harbor Legislation

I spent this past summer as a U.S. Advocacy Intern with Love146, an organization fighting to end child sex slavery and exploitation. The organization, headquartered in New Haven, Connecticut, was abuzz with excitement due to Connecticut’s passage of the Safe Harbor for Exploited Children Act, Public Act 10-115, effective October 1, 2010. Far too often children are arrested for engaging in prostitution and sent to a juvenile detention facility. However, this treatment stands in stark contrast to the 2000 Federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) definition of a person under the age of 18 who has been “recruited, transported, harbored, provided, or obtained for purposes of a commercial sex act” as a victim of human trafficking.

U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) recently hosted a hearing titled, “In Our Own Backyard: Child Prostitution and Sex Trafficking in the United States”, and in the opening remark stated, “We have created a legal dichotomy in America in which the federal government views prostituted children as victims, yet most states treat them as criminals.” Safe Harbor legislation seeks to eliminate the discrepancy inherent in many states handling of prostituted children and ushers in a paradigm shift viewing children as victims instead of criminals.

In Connecticut the legal age for consensual sex is 16 years of age, however, per the TVPA any person under the age of 18 found engaging in a commercial sex act is a victim of human trafficking. The Connecticut Safe Harbor Act prevents a child under 16 years of age from being charged with prostitution and views a person age 16 or 17 years of age as a victim of human trafficking.

The implementation of Safe Harbor legislation follows a biopsychosocial framework by focusing on addressing a survivors biological, psychological, and social needs post-exploitation through partnerships with social service providers. It is important to note that Safe Harbor legislation does not decriminalize prostitution but rather protects the estimated 100,000 American children forced to engage in prostitution every year.

The possibility of re-victimizing a child by focusing on criminalization instead of victimization merits a change in U.S. policy towards prostituted children. The current Safe Harbor political landscape only includes Connecticut, New York, Washington, and Illinois.The lack of awareness in the United States is contributing to the continuation of this lucrative crime. Ask your State Representatives where they stand on Safe Harbor legislation.

Judiciary Committee Approves Wyden-Cornyn Legislation to Combat Sex Trafficking

Follow up to Take Action on the Trafficking Deterrence and Victims Support Act.

News Release . . .

United States Senate

Judiciary Committee Approves Wyden-Cornyn Legislation to Combat Sex Trafficking

Bill provides aid for sex trafficking victims while taking a hard line on the pimps and traffickers who exploit underage girls

Washington, D.C. – The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee sent a message to the perpetrators of modern sexual slavery today when it approved legislation introduced by U.S. Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas). The FBI estimates that each year more than 100,000 underage girls are exploited for commercial sex in the United States. The Trafficking Deterrence and Victims Support Act will put forward a model for rescuing these young women by providing block grants for a six state pilot project that will give law enforcement enhanced tools for cracking down on the pimps who orchestrate sex trafficking while creating shelters and providing treatment, counseling and legal aid for the minor victims.

“Today’s bipartisan vote sends a clear message that sexual slavery will not be tolerated in the United States,” Wyden said. “Putting a real end to sex trafficking means doing more than just locking up those involved. A serious effort must also be made to address the factors driving the cycle of exploitation. Our approach will do this by focusing law enforcement on the real criminals – the pimps abusing underage girls for profit – while giving these young women the tools they need to escape their abusers.”

“These young victims pose unique challenges to law enforcement and service providers,” Cornyn said. “Their cooperation with authorities is often impeded by the victims’ fragile psychological state, and further complicated by the threat of physical violence posed by the evildoers who exploit children for profit. Our bill is aimed at developing collaborative programs to help victims begin the physical and mental healing process. Providing these services will dramatically increase the chances of a victim’s cooperation and help law enforcement bring down sex-trafficking rings, which are often associated with international criminal syndicates and street gangs.”

Block grant locations would be chosen by how they rate on criteria such as the presence of significant sex trafficking activity; demonstrated participation by local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, and social service providers; and a workable plan to provide comprehensive, wrap-around services to sex trafficking victims, including the establishment of a shelter facility.

Each block grant would be funded at $ 2 - 2.5 million per year and could be renewed for two additional years. Items to be funded by the block grants would include:

· A shelter for trafficking victims;

· Clothing and other daily needs in order to keep victims from returning to the street;

· Victims' assistance counseling and legal services;

· Education or job training classes for victims;

· Specialized training for law enforcement and social service providers;

· Police officer salaries - patrol officers, detectives, investigators;

· Prosecutor salaries, and other trial expenses;

· Investigation expenses - wire taps, expert consultants, travel, other "technical assistance" expenditures; and

· Outreach, education, and prevention efforts, including programs to deter offenders.

The bill will also help boost prompt reporting of information on missing and abducted children to the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database. More timely reporting will help law enforcement identify repeat runaways, who are statistically proven to be more likely to be lured into prostitution.

Susan Sarandon Campaigns Against Prosecution of Child Sex Slaves

From the Huffington Post on 3 August 2010:
Susan Sarandon has joined other celebrities and activists -- including Somaly Mam, a sexual slavery survivor and major force in the fight against child prostitution -- in calling for legislative action to protect children forced into sexual slavery.

Though children under the age of 16 cannot legally consent to sex anywhere in the U.S., they can still currently be sentenced to juvenile hall for prostitution. Without the protection of Safe Harbor laws, children involved in the commercial sex trade can be prosecuted for their own abuse and exploitation in almost every U.S. state. Only N.Y., Conn., Ill. and Wash. state have put in place protective sanctions around children under 16 to keep them from being criminally charged with prostitution.

Read the full article here:

The Body Shop's Child Trafficking Petition

The Body Shop just started running a petition in the United States, to promote the passage of "safe harbor" laws which would prohibit prosecution of children under 18 for prostitution, and to instead provide resources for child victims. To sign the petition, click here or on the widget below:

Take Action on the Trafficking Deterrence and Victims Support Act

In his recent article, Sex, Seduction, and Slavery, Nicholas Kristoff wrote "There’s a misperception in America that “sex trafficking” is mostly about foreigners smuggled into the U.S. That exists. But I’ve concluded that the biggest problem and worst abuses involve not foreign women but home-grown runaway kids." As he points out, however, domestic minor sex trafficking tends to be ignored, and its victims tend to be treated like criminals instead of victims.

Awareness of the commercial sexual exploitation of children in the United States is growing, however, as are arrests and prosecutions of the traffickers. Just last week, a Maryland man was sentenced to 37 years in prison for his role in a sex trafficking operation. "This defendant violently preyed upon some of the most vulnerable members of our society. He sought out troubled young girls and, using physical violence, drugs, guns and lies, coerced them into prostitution for his own benefit," said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. "The Department of Justice will continue to vigorously prosecute these cases."

While arresting and prosecuting the traffickers is vital, efforts cannot stop there. As Kristoff also noted, "Human trafficking tends to get ignored because it is an indelicate, sordid topic, with troubled victims who don’t make great poster children for family values. Indeed, many of the victims are rebellious teenage girls — often runaways — who have been in trouble with their parents and the law, and at times they think they love their pimps." Minor victims have complex needs and have experienced incredible trauma. There is a dearth of services for them, though.

As a Polaris Project Action Alert points out, "Each year, at least 100,000 children are victimized through commercial sex and prostitution within the United States. Particularly vulnerable to sex trafficking are runaway children, an estimated 33% of them are lured into prostitution within the first 48 hours of leaving home. Unfortunately, victims of sex trafficking, including children, are commonly overlooked in most state and federal efforts to respond to the brutal crime. A mere 80 beds in shelters nationwide are available to provide the safe shelter and professional health and social services that these victims need."

Currently, the House (HR 5575 by Rep. Maloney NY14) and Senate (S 2925 by Sen. Wyden OR) are reviewing bills that would provide crucial funding to develop and enhance comprehensive, collaborative efforts to combat the sex trafficking in the U.S. by providing six block grants of $2,500,000 each to state or local government entities who have designed a holistic approach to investigating, prosecuting and deterring sex trafficking, and providing special services and shelter to the victims.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to review the bill on 7/29/2010. Click this link to learn more about how to urge your senators to support funding for fighting trafficking and supporting victims and survivors.

Seduction, Slavery and Sex

From The New York Times on July 14, 2010:

By Nicholas D. Kristof

Against all odds, this year’s publishing sensation is a trio of thrillers by a dead Swede relating tangentially to human trafficking and sexual abuse. “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” series tops the best-seller lists. More than 150 years ago, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” helped lay the groundwork for the end of slavery. Let’s hope that these novels help build pressure on trafficking as a modern echo of slavery.

Human trafficking tends to get ignored because it is an indelicate, sordid topic, with troubled victims who don’t make great poster children for family values. Indeed, many of the victims are rebellious teenage girls — often runaways — who have been in trouble with their parents and the law, and at times they think they love their pimps.

Because trafficking gets ignored, it rarely is a top priority for law enforcement officials — so it seems to be growing. Various reports and studies, none of them particularly reliable, suggest that between 100,000 and 600,000 children may be involved in prostitution in the United States, with the numbers increasing.

Just last month, police freed a 12-year-old girl who they said had been imprisoned in a Knights Inn hotel in Laurel, Md. The police charged a 42-year-old man, Derwin Smith, with human trafficking and false imprisonment in connection with the case.

The Anne Arundel County Police Department said that Mr. Smith met the girl in a seedy area, had sex with her and then transported her back and forth from Washington, D.C., to Atlantic City, N.J., while prostituting her.

“The juvenile advised that all of the money made was collected and kept by the suspect,” the police department said in a statement. “At one point, the victim conveyed to the suspect that she wanted to return home, but he held her against her will.”

Just two days later, the same police force freed three other young women from a Garden Inn about a block away. They were 16, 19 and 23, and police officials accused a 23-year-old man, Gabriel Dreke-Hernandez, of pimping them.

Police said that Mr. Dreke-Hernandez had kidnapped the 19-year-old from a party and had taken her to a hotel room. “Once at the hotel,” the police statement said, Mr. Dreke-Hernandez allegedly “grabbed her around the throat and began to choke her. Hernandez then pushed her head against the wall several times before placing a knife to her throat and demanding that she follow his commands.

“The female further advised that all of the money made was collected and kept by the suspect. At one point, she indicated that she would not prostitute any longer and the suspect subsequently pulled her into the bathroom and threatened her again with a knife.”

Police officials did not release details about the 16-year-old and 23-year-old, though they said customers for the teenager had been sought on the Internet.

There’s a misperception in America that “sex trafficking” is mostly about foreigners smuggled into the U.S. That exists. But I’ve concluded that the biggest problem and worst abuses involve not foreign women but home-grown runaway kids.
To read the rest of the article, follow this link: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/15/opinion/15kristof.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=nicholas%20d.%20kristof&st=cse

Trafficking of U.S. Children

From NPR, an advocate and survivor discuss sex trafficking of children within the U.S.:



According to Malika Saada Saar, co-founder of The Rebecca Project for Human Rights, "[T]he venue of Craigslist...is really evolving as almost a virtual slave market in which children are bought and sold over the internet."

Child Trafficking

Introduction: Trafficking in children takes many different forms worldwide, from child soldiers to child sex tourism to forced child labor in brick factories to child camel jockeys to child sex slaves to child pornography to child domestic slaves to forced child begging. Ending child slavery and child exploitation will take committed, strategic effort based on understandings of the myriad forms of child trafficking and their interconnections.

Elise: Before the TVPA was ever enacted in the U.S., a case out of Texas showed the complexity that is often overlooked when we talk about children and trafficking. Given Kachepa, along with other boys from Zambia were brought to the U.S. under false pretenses offered to them by a Baptist minister claiming the young boys would come to the U.S. to perform in a boys choir and earn money for themselves and for a new school in Zambia. The reality the boys faced included forced performances, the withholding food and medical care if the boys resisted and the constant threat of deportation among other coercive and traumatic tactics used by Keith Grimes to keep the boys in their trafficking situation. A more detailed account of the case is given in The Slave Next Door by Kevin Bales and Ron Soodalter. Years after his trafficking situation ended, Given has taken to advocating on behalf of trafficking victims. He has appeared on national TV and print media delivering his message and his story, and has contributed to the development of state-level legislation.

Youngbee: Among the many different forms of child trafficking, a particularly terrible kind is child trafficking involving child pornography. In Japan, for instance, Jake Adelstein, a public relations representative in Polaris Project in Japan, describes child pornography as "evidence that a crime has been committed[;] that people can derive sexual pleasure from that or profit on that is horrifying." These children are not only sexually exploited but also their humiliation is likely to be publicized on the internet forever. What is worse is that the internet access makes this evil an average Joe's concern in the United States. In fact, a British internet watchdog says that over the past ten years, 51% of such illegal child pornography websites were hosted in the United States. Currently, in Japan, possession of child pornography is not illegal though distribution and production are criminalized. As Japanese government is sensitive to its reputation before the international world, perhaps, US citizens calling their state representatives would pressure the country to fix its legislative loophole further.

Meg: One child trafficking topic that seems to have received a lot of attention recently is trafficking and international adoptions. The issue came to the forefront after the Haiti disaster, when it became suspected that children disappearing from hospitals were being taken by traffickers and sold off as orphans. Learning about this form of trafficking was disheartening to me, because apparently even those trying to do something positive can inadvertently contribute to child exploitation and human trafficking. Although there does not appear to be much in the way of statistics on this issue yet, it is easy to see how traffickers could exploit situations such as the disaster in Haiti to make a profit off of vulnerable children, not only through international adoption, but for sex trafficking and other forms of trafficking as well. One interesting potential solution to the adoption problem is the idea of using DNA databases to reunify parents with missing children, which is something that has begun to be implemented in Haiti. If the Haiti situation prompts development of an international adoption DNA system that can be used to prevent future trafficking, this may be one positive result of a tragic disaster.

Jenn K.: According to the 2009 Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking report by Shared Hope International, over 100,000 US children are subjected to commercial sexual exploitation each year. The Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section of the United States Department of Justice reports that the average age for entering commercial sex in the US is 12-14. Despite progress in addressing this aspect of the United State's trafficking problem, such as programs targeting demand and increased attention to the issue, much remains to be done particularly in terms of services for victims and survivors. According to Gracehaven House, which will be opening a group home for child sex trafficking survivors in Ohio, there are only 39 shelter beds dedicated to minor sex trafficking victims in the US. Other organizations, such as Courtney's House in Washington DC, are also in the process of opening group homes for child victims. Both Gracehaven House and Courtney's House were founded by survivors of sex trafficking as minors, and plan to offer comprehensive services for survivors. Still, the shelter need greatly exceeds and is likely to continue to greatly exceed resources.

Gambino Crime Family Charged with Sex Trafficking, Other Crimes

According to a Department of Justice Press Release:

PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and GEORGE VENIZELOS, the Special Agent-in-Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI"), announced today the arrest of 14 members and associates of the Gambino Organized Crime Family of La Cosa Nostra (the "Gambino Family") on charges including racketeering, murder, sex trafficking, sex trafficking of a minor, jury tampering, extortion, assault, narcotics trafficking, wire fraud, loansharking, and illegal gambling.

DANIEL MARINO is a longtime member and is currently a Boss of the Gambino Family. In that capacity, MARINO has over 200 fully-inducted or "made" mafia members under his command, as well as hundreds of associates who commit crimes with and for the mafia. THOMAS OREFICE and ONOFRIO MODICA are currently Soldiers of the Gambino Family acting under MARINO's supervision. OREFICE and MODICA each supervise crews that include DOMINICK DIFIORE, ANTHONY MANZELLA, MICHAEL SCOTTO, MICHAEL SCARPACI, THOMAS SCARPACI, DAVID EISLER, and SALVATORE BORGIA, all of whom are charged with racketeering and racketeering conspiracy. The indictment also charges other individuals who committed crimes with and for the Gambino Family, including STEVE MAIURRO, KEITH DELLITALIA, SUZANNE PORCELLI, and ANTHONY VECCHIONE.

In addition to the racketeering charges, the defendants are charged with [among other crimes]

Sex Trafficking and Sex Trafficking of a Minor

OREFICE, DIFIORE, MANZELLA, SCOTTO, EISLER, MAIURRO, and PORCELLI are charged with sex trafficking and sex trafficking of a minor. From 2008 to 2009, the defendants operated a prostitution business where young women and girls—including an underage girl who was 15 years old at the time—were exploited and sold for sex. The defendants first recruited various young women and girls—ages 15 through 19—to work as prostitutes. The defendants then advertised the prostitution business on Craigslist and other websites. The defendants drove the women to appointments in Manhattan, Brooklyn, New Jersey, and Staten Island to have sex with clients. The defendants then took approximately 50 percent of the money paid to the young women. The defendants also made the women available for sex to gamblers at a weekly, high-stakes poker games that OREFICE and his crew ran. . .

U.S. Attorney PREET BHARARA stated: "As today's case demonstrates, the mafia is not dead. It is alive and kicking. Modern mobsters may be less colorful, less flamboyant, and less glamorous than some of their predecessors, but they are still terrorizing businesses, using baseball bats, and putting people in the hospital. Today, the Gambino Family has lost one of its leaders, and many of its rising stars have now fallen. We will continue to work with our partners at the FBI to eradicate the mafia, and to keep organized crime from victimizing the businesses, and the people, of this city."

FBI Special Agent-in-Charge GEORGE VENIZELOS stated: "In some ways, this is not the Gambino Family of John J. Gotti. But while the leadership may maintain a lower profile, this case shows that it's still about making money illegally, by whatever means. No crime seemed too depraved to be exploited if it was a money-maker, including the sexual exploitation of a 15-year-old. In truth, despite the popular fascination, it was never really about the thousand-dollar suits. It was—and is—about murder, mayhem, and money."

Mr. BHARARA praised the outstanding investigative work of the FBI. Mr. BHARARA also noted that the investigation is continuing.

Assistant United States Attorneys ELIE HONIG, STEVE KWOK, and JASON HERNANDEZ are in charge of the prosecution. The case is being handled by the Office's Organized Crime Unit.

The charges contained in the indictment are merely accusations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Read the Full Press Release.

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As the press release explicitly states, all actors named in this case have not been convicted and are presumed innocent. Also, while this case may highlight more sensational aspects of trafficking, it's important to keep in mind that there is no one face of traffickers, and many if not most traffickers are not involved in organized criminal syndicates. Nevertheless, I am excited to see this case for two main reasons. First, assembling prosecutable trafficking cases is extremely difficult. I am pleased to see sex trafficking charges included with the other charges and to see the trafficking aspect of the case explicitly acknowledged. Also, as this case shows, other criminal activity such as racketeering often occurs in conjuncture with trafficking, which can be a useful avenue to pursue for both criminal cases and civil litigation on behalf of survivors when trafficking charges themselves may not hold up. Second, this case is an important reminder that the United States is not exempt from human trafficking, including human trafficking cases involving organized crime. This reminder is quite timely as we await the soon to be released US State Department's 2010 Trafficking in Persons Report where the US will include a rating for itself for the first time.

Why We Need the Safe Harbor for Exploited Youth Act

It is still a shock for many, that in a technologically advanced and a small world like ours, where we are separated from one another by only six degrees, slavery still exists. Some say it is not possible for such a hideous phenomenon to exist and even if it does exist, it is not possible for it to exist around us. We would've known about it, they say.

But the reality is that it does exist; it is all around us and it is part of our lives. It many not be just around us, but it may be in our homes and part of our lives - from the shoes we buy to tomatoes we eat. It is very possible that its existence plays a critical role in how we dress, what we eat, and how we live our lives. Problem - Global and Local International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that around 12.3 million adults and children are being trafficked at any given time. The majority of these people are women and girls forced into sexual servitude. One thing which is common across cases is that the society does not treat them as victims and in fact penalizes them.

Cases:

• When Maria was five, her father’s common-law wife started selling her for prostitution in Nicaragua. After a few years, NGO workers found Maria living in the city dump and took her to a home for little girls. She behaved in a sexually inappropriate manner with the other girls, as that was the only life she had ever known. She was asked to leave that children’s home. Maria was taken to another children’s home for her protection while investigators documented her abuse and worked to terminate her father’s parental rights.
  

• When Julia was 8, a man took her and her sisters to a neighboring country and forced them to beg on the streets until their early teens, when he sold them into prostitution. Julia’s traffickers expected her to bring in a certain amount of money each day or face beatings. At 14, Julia ran away, eventually coming under the supervision of local authorities. They placed her in an orphanage where she was not allowed to go to school due to her undocumented status. After a few months, Julia ran away from the orphanage and became involved with a pimp who prostituted her to local men and tourists. Recently, Julia was arrested on narcotics charges. She will likely spend the next two years in a juvenile prison, where she will finally learn to read and write.

• Many victims don’t know where to go for help when they escape from their traffickers or after they return home. A male victim of forced labor explains: “I knew nothing about the assistance available for trafficking victims. I didn’t know who to address in the destination country in case I needed help. I thought I could go only to the police. There I didn’t have enough courage to go to the police because the [traffickers] used to say that they bought the police. They threatened me with death in case I went to the police. I was afraid.”
  

• Approximately "seventy percent of all female prostitutes are victims of repeated rape by their male customers, on average thirty-one times a year." One young prostitute in New York was kidnapped by her client at knife-point and gang raped by five of his friends.

• Prostitutes are arrested more often than their pimps and customers and can face police brutality. This is particularly true for the prostitutes operating at the lowest level of the prostitution subculture—including those on the street and drug-addicted prostitutes. According to senior retired police officer Joe Haggarty, in order for a case to be prosecuted against a pimp, at least one of the pimp’s girls must testify, but many refuse. Despite their abuse, pimps provide a roof over the heads of their prostitutes, and the girls are often very loyal to their pimps. New York Police Detectives added that it is very difficult to have the chance to talk to prostituted girls because any statements made against the pimp could also incriminate the girls.
  

It is clear that most sexually exploited victims do not feel there is any way out. They feel like criminals! According to several sources and agencies, New York City is one of final destinations of human trafficking activities. National Institute of Justice estimates approximately 4,000 child sex trafficking victims in NYC. Some claim this is a conservative estimate!

U.S. Department of Justice released a report in January 2009, which said a) about 80% of the reported trafficking incidents involved sex trafficking, b) about 90% of the victims were female, c) about 30% of the sex trafficking incidents involved children, and d) about 60% of the sex trafficking victims were US citizens. The picture for victims of sex trafficking is worse: the world often fails to see them as victims. They are not treated like the victims of violence and human rights abuses that they are. We need better laws and better services for the victims.

This is what New York Safe Harbor for Exploited Youth Act is trying to do. The Act, which comes into effect in April 2010, is the nation's first such act which recognizes sexually exploited children as victims and offers them social services instead of punishing them. Both the Trafficking in Persons Report and the UN meeting with survivors of human trafficking have pointed out that the victims need a safe place to speak out and we need to help them break out of the cycle of fear.

In the next post, I will write about what we can look forward to regarding the impact of this act. I hope to interview NGOs and researchers to find out how they feel this act can help and if they feel it is sufficient do what we hope to do, which is to stop this abuse!

Courtney's House Volunteer Opportunities

Courtney's House has two upcoming trainings for volunteers. According to its website, the organization was founded by Tina Frundt, a survivor of of domestic child sex trafficking. Courtney's House is projected to be a six-bed long-term group home for sex trafficked girls between the ages of 12 and 17. It will be the only group home of its kind in the Washington, DC area to cater specifically to this vital population segment. Courtney's House also offers mentoring, support groups and other programs for survivors, and conducts a street outreach program.

Volunteers interested in helping with direct services or street outreach can apply to attend training sessions.

Mentor Training/Direct Service Training Feb. 20th 10am-3pm, Location TBA.
This training is for people interested in mentoring, art therapy, dance therapy, sewing classes, etc. You must be 21 years or over; male or female. Email jkimball@courtneyshouse.org for information.

Street Outreach Training March 22-March 28 6:30pm-8pm Mon-Thurs. Special Training Friday, Marcy 27. Location TBA. March 28 Self-Defense Class 3pm-6pm.
Requires at least a three-month commitment. You must be 21 years or over; female volunteers only. If you are interested in applying for the training, please email jkimball@courtneyshouse.org.

For information about other volunteer opportunities with Courtney's House, visit their website.

Legislators Work to Improve Laws on Runaways

From The Gainesville Sun:
In Congress, Democratic leaders in the House and Senate are moving several bills that would improve how runaways are tracked by the police, increase spending to provide them with social services and promote methods for earlier intervention.

The Government Accountability Office, an auditing arm of Congress, initiated an investigation in December at the request of the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, and Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, into whether police departments are handling runaways properly. Lawmakers in at least 10 states have proposed or passed bills in recent months that focus on runaways by extending outreach efforts and shelter options and changing state reporting requirements so that youth shelters have enough time to win trust and provide services before they need to report the runaways to the police.

The bill, co-sponsored by Representative John Conyers Jr., Democrat of Michigan and the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, also requires the police to provide anyone who reports a missing person with information about the services provided by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the National Runaway Switchboard. In many cases, the police said, they often did not take reports about runaways as seriously as abductions, and families were often unaware of other resources.

FULL ARTICLE

If anyone asks me what would be the greatest accomplishment that anti-human trafficking advocates have made in 2009, I would point to the legislators implementing new laws to better assist runaways and child prostitution victims as mentioned above. The experts and researchers have recognized the close connection between domestic minor trafficking and problems with runaway youths in the U.S. for decades. However, it is only recent that they were able to capture the attentions for the Congress. Often, children run away from their own homes because of feeling neglected. ( For more information on the root causes of runaway youths in the U.S., click here).

Though the state seldom will be better able to parent a child than the child's own parents. Nevertheless, it's valuable that law makers are paying a little more attention to the needs of the American youths who are at risk of being made human trafficking victims by other greedy and immoral Americans -- and that is a fruit of awareness raising efforts by advocates.

Picture taken by Ashley Gilbertson for The New York Times