Photo credit: discovermagazine.com/2017/sept/20-things-you-didnt-know-about--traffic
The weather finally broke. Winter coat abandoned, I breathed in the crisp air while settling into my car for a quick food run during what was hardly a lunch break. The sound of a public radio interview grumbled from the speakers of my dusty dashboard, neglected in the controlled chaos of a regularly overbooked schedule. I listened as a Chicago man spoke of the impact of new regulations on internet sites commonly used to solicit commercial sex. While the comments described the effect of new legislation on those willingly engaging in selling sexual services, I could not help but think of young girls I have worked with in the past who may have been at risk of being trafficked and how girls and women may now be better protected:
“Now
this time sit up a bit straighter,” I prompted the eleven-year-old girl in
front of me.
Her
gait was awkward, reflecting her disability and shortage of confidence. When sitting, her posture conveyed the same.
“Nice
and loud,” I continued.
She straightened her back, remaining postured slightly to the left, apathetically resting her body weight upon the palm flattened on the carpet, near the checkerboard in between us. Her meagerness made her seem susceptible to drifting off with the smallest puff of air.
“No,”
she replied.
This
time her response was much better than previous attempts at assertiveness. Initially, she presented “no” as more of an
offering, as something that sounded more like a suggestion for the listener to
heed, or not. Yet by now, she regularly made
eye contact and kept her head positioned forward, her chin lifted up rather than
shadowing a downward gaze, chin tucked into chest. Likewise, her responses when discussing
appropriate sexual behavior were now presented as her own thoughts and beliefs,
rather than empty guesses or sad attempts to recite what she thought an adult
wanted to hear when engaging in such discussion.
Among
many things that I enjoy, I am particularly passionate about working to help
girls develop comfortability discussing sex and sexuality with parents, as well
as helping them find an effective, assertive voice. It is my hope that such work within the
mental health community can help families be prepared to face more serious
threats, such as that of sex trafficking.
The
lack of awareness surrounding sex trafficking within United States communities
is grim. Many people do not realize how
real of a threat this industry poses. In
many cases, the threat is quite close to home.
Sadly, a lack of recognition does not reflect an absence of a threat,
and many people do not even understand what is under the realm of sex trafficking. Often lumped in are terms such as sex work or
prostituting, yet these actions are not generally classified as sex trafficking
due to the worker having greater autonomy and personal choice (Gerassi, 2015). Instead, the illegal act of sex trafficking
involves a victim under eighteen-years-old or an adult who has been trafficked
against their will (Weitzer, 2012). Sex
trafficking involves the use of force, fraud, or coercion to engage a minor in
prostitution or pornography in exchange for money, drugs, food, shelter, or
clothes (Shared Hope International). The
nature of sex trafficking as a punishable offense emphasizes the role of the
trafficker, rather than the person providing sex acts, as the latter is best described
as a victim.
The
sex industry is the fastest growing criminal industry internationally, second
only to drug trafficking (Indiana State Report on Human Trafficking,
2016). However, this is not a problem
foreign to the US. Statistics vary and
may not represent the magnitude of the problem (Hounmenou, 2015), though it is
reported that over 80% of sex trafficking victims are U.S. citizens (Indiana
State Report on Human Trafficking, 2016), and the industry has generated up to
$300 million as recently as 2014 (Hounmenou, 2015). Such prevalence and profitability of the sex industry
is not unprecedented. The National Human
Trafficking Hotline has received over one hundred thousand calls since its
origin in 2007 (Cone, 2017), many resulting in sex trafficking cases. For instance, around a quarter of callers from
2012 to 2016 self-identified as sex trafficking victims (24.52%), and roughly
the same number of family members (24.17%) reported a relative being trafficked
(National Trafficking Resource Center). Of
the calls within this timeframe, over 90% of victims were female and just under
half were minors. Sex trafficking cases increased
35% into 2017 and continue to rise (Cone, 2017). Like a noxious leak, this ubiquitous
nightmare infiltrates communities wherever a demand for sex exists. Though, many community members remain unaware
of proximity to dangerous players within the sex industry. This is particularly
true for areas in the Midwest, where the industry thrives due to federal
interstate routes facilitating the transportation victims (Siao, 2017). Recent documented sex trafficking activity
within Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana reflect this.
Within
the last several years there have been a range of sex trafficking arrests and
convictions in Chicago, Chicago suburbs, and neighboring counties in Indiana. As recently as February of 2016 a male
occupant of Northwest Indiana was arrested for forcing underage females to
perform sex acts on adult men (DOJ, 2018).
He, like many arrested or convicted, used the internet to advertise
commercial sex acts. The activity in
this case was also a component of a larger operation being executed by gang
members operating out of several areas within the region (Franklin, 2016). In November, 2017, a massage parlor in
Merrillville, Indiana went under investigation for potential sex trafficking in
(Lowe, 2017), and in the same year a woman from Plainfield, Illinois was
trafficked into Philadelphia after being preyed on during postpartum depression
following the birth of her second child (Siao, 2017). She is reported to have been held captive
through the perpetrator making her fear for the safety of her children. Another interstate trafficking case resulted
in a seventeen-year-old girl from West Virginia being trafficked to Illinois,
where she was forced into performing commercial sex acts out of a Schaumberg
hotel room (Finefrock, 2017).
Within
the current month alone several trafficking cases have led to arrest or
conviction within and around Chicago. In
one case, a Hammond, Indiana man was just sentenced to life in prison after
being found guilty of sex trafficking teenage girls (Cross, 2018). He used Backpage.com, a site frequently used
to advertise sex until being shut down this year, to prostitute out of his home
and other areas throughout the region. The
perpetrator met one of the young girls on a dating website before proceeded to sell
her to fifteen men within only a few days.
Within the same week, an East Chicago, Indiana woman, was convicted of
similar crimes. In the same manner as
the previous case, this trafficker also used Backpage.com to traffic teenage
girls in the region, though it was also reported this perpetrator utilized
drugs and intimidation to sustain her business for several years before being
arrested and eventually sentenced to a seventeen-year prison sentence. A more sobering consequence of the industry
is evident in the April, 2018 report of a sixteen-year-old being girl murdered
after having been trafficked within Chicago (Cross, 2018). Her mother recently visited the White House,
where she looked on as the president signed legislation that would combat
online sex-trafficking (Koeske, 2018).
This bill, the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA), increases
criminal penalties for sites facilitating prostituting or sex trafficking. The bill also provides those who have been
trafficked with restitution (House of Representatives Judiciary Committee). It seems hardly meaningful to merely hope such
legislation will have an impact, though I can’t help but hope the legislation
initiates greater change.
A
need for greater policing of sex trafficking in the US is necessary, though the
industry remains fairly protected due to the lack of awareness that such a
problem exists. Perhaps this tendency is
driven by women being undervalued. Such
is evident in sex trafficking being relatively ignored, similarly to other forms
of violence that commonly effect women, such as domestic abuse or intrafamilial
sexual abuse (Farley, 2006). These
women, many of them young, female minorities of low socioeconomic status, describe
violence as normality. Captive to a life
that presents little reasonable escape, sex trafficking victims experience
recurrent trauma that is largely overlooked.
Why
is it that this epidemic is absent from common discussion? How are women so
undervalued in the 21st century that more controversy surrounds the reactions
to peaceful protesting at a sporting event than the dead bodies and recurrent
victimization of women and children that peaks at each Superbowl (Finkel &
Finkel, 2015)? How does this problem,
somehow, not seem to matter?
Without
a presence in regular dialogue we cannot even begin to address sex
trafficking. An absence of awareness
contributes to unintended ignorance, reflected in failing to realize that women
and children are trafficked even within our own communities. The pseudo-safety
within many neighborhoods creates a false sense of security. And yet we are hardly far removed from the
risk of sex trafficking. A greater
awareness and sense of responsibility must be developed if any meaningful change
is to occur. Action is secondary to education
and can be reflected in educating others, advocating for legislative policies
that enhance protection of potential victims, or becoming active in outreach. However, acknowledgment of this prevalent
issue is a vital start.
The winter seemed to last a bit
longer this year, leaving many people hesitant to trust that the warmth would
linger for more than a few days. Despite
this, the sun was refreshing, evident in what seemed like the world exhaling
relief to have transcended the cold.
Captive by the relentless demands
of life, I could not help but notice for the thousandth time how everything
seems better when blanketed by the sun.
Moods lift. People relate to one
another’s joy. Even music sounds better
than usual: Old favorites become new again. The sun, at times, seems to exist
as a cure for the winter and anything weighing heavy on the soul.
At the conclusion of what could
hardly be defined as a break, I reflected once more on the girls I hoped to
help transition into womanhood. With the
podcast interrupted by my schedule demanding I reorient my attention away from
reflection and onto work, I still briefly wondered about the fate of women and
girls who don’t absorb the soothing nature of the sun, those who remain in a
world that is cold and harsh no matter the season. My mind entertained the potential of a person
bringing meaningful change: What would that change be and for whom, and who is
capable of having an impact?
By: Aimee Poleski
Brooks.
M. (2017). Suburban family shares their
story on sex trafficking in hopes of warning others. NBC
Chicago. Retrieved from https://www.nbcchicago.com/investigations/Suburban-Family-Faces-Sex-Trafficking- Firsthand-Looks-to-Warn-Others-410543245.html
Department
of Justice, U.S. Attorney’s Office: Northern District of Indiana. (2018).
Northwest Indiana man
arrested for sex trafficking. United States Department of Justice. Retrieved from https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndin/pr/northwest-indiana-man-arrested-sex- trafficking
Cone,
A. (2017). Report:
Human trafficking in U.S. rose 35.7 percent in one year. UPI. Retrieved
from https://www.upi.com/Report-Human-trafficking-in-US-rose-357-percent- in-one-year/5571486328579/
Cross,
L. (2018). East Chicago woman sentenced to 17 years in
prison for sex trafficking teen girls
on backpage.com NWI.com Retrieved from http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/east-chicago-woman-sentenced- to-years-in-prison-for-sex/article_f2fed2c1-08df-51fe-b1db-5918845d77a9.html
Cross,
L. (2018). Hammond man gets life in prison for sex trafficking teen girls on Backpage.com, out of Lansing hotel. NWI.com. Retrieved from http://www.nwitimes
.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/hammond-man-gets-life-in-prison-for-sex-trafficking- teen/article_f8f92ad2-3a09-5041-ae82-5d45ecd9a26e.html
Farley,
M. (2006). Prostitution, trafficking, and cultural amnesia: What we must not
know in order to keep the
business of sexual exploitation running smoothly. Yale JL & Feminism, 18, 109.
Finefrock,
A. (2017). Charged Wisconsin man takes girl to Chicago
for prostitution. Rare Chicago. Retrieved from https://rare.us/local/chicago/charged-girl-chicago/
Finkel,
R., & Finkel, M. L. (2015). The ‘dirty downside’of global sporting events:
Focus on human trafficking for
sexual exploitation. Public health, 129(1), 17-22
Franklin,
L. (2016). Schererville man pleads guilty to
transporting prostitutes. NWI.com.
Retrieved from http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/lake/schererville-man-pleads- guilty-to-transporting-prostitutes/article_58b331ab-b428-5ead-81e9-3d46a15bec31.html
Gerassi,
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House
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Hounmenou,
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Koeske,
Z. (2018). Mother of slain Chicago teen who was victim
of sex trafficking attends white
house bill signing. Chicago Tribune. Retrieved
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Lowe,
M. (2017). Authorities including FBI investigate Indiana
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(2016). National hotline calls
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from https://humantraffickinghotline.org
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