Human Trafficking
Class Session Three
Housekeeping Items
• Trip this weekend—ordering hotel so put on
sign in sheet a definite yes
• Leaving at 3pm Friday. Please meet here at
Carver, unless you are on route to Cincinnati
and put on sign in sheet “to be picked up” and
we will schedule a pick up spot
• Assignments
• Forum
Disclaimer
“Fields of Mudan”
Due to the graphic nature
of this film you may chose
not to watch and may be
excused until the film is
over.
Child Sex Trafficking
• UNICEF reports that across the world, there are
over one million children entering the sex trade
every year
• Approximately 30 million children have lost
their childhood through sexual exploitation
over the past 30 years.
http://www.iast.net/thefacts.htm
Child Sex Trafficking
• http://www.nbclosangeles.com/video/#!/onair/as-seen-on/Riverside-Girl-Trapped-inTijuana-Child-Sex-Trade/133197603
• From Thursday, Nov. 3rd
Child Sex Tourism
• "On this trip, I've had sex with a 14 year-old
girl in Mexico and a 15 year-old in Colombia.
I'm helping them financially. If they don't have
sex with me, they may not have enough food.
If someone has a problem with me doing this,
let UNICEF feed them."
-Retired U.S. Schoolteacher
Child Sex Tourism
• "Maria is . . . prostituted by her aunt. Maria
is obliged to sell her body exclusively to
foreign tourists in Costa Rica, she only works
mornings as she has to attend school in the
afternoon. Maria is in fifth grade."
Child Sex Tourism: History
• The international tourism industry is booming.
• Since the 1960's, international travel has increased
seven-fold.
• As tourists eagerly travel to distant lands to enjoy
new landscapes and cultures, economically
developing countries have welcomed the
expansion of the international tourism industry as
a much-needed source of income within their own
nations.
• With the exponential rise in this industry, however,
comes the growth of a darker, more clandestine
phenomenon: child sex tourism.
Child Sex Tourism: Background
• Sex tourism is a very lucrative industry that spans the globe.
• In 1998, the International Labour Organization reported its
calculations that 2-14% of the gross domestic product of
Indonesia, Malaysia, the Phillipines, and Thailand derives from
sex tourism.
• In addition, while Asian countries, including Thailand, India, and
the Phillipines, have long been prime destinations for child-sex
tourists, in recent years, tourists have increasingly traveled to
Mexico and Central America for their sexual exploits as well.
• Child sex tourists are individuals that travel to foreign countries
to engage in sexual activity with children.
• The non-profit organization End Child Prostitution, Child
Pornography, and the Trafficking of Children (ECPAT) estimates
that more than one million children worldwide are drawn into
the sex trade each year.
Factors Supporting the Child Sex
Trade
• The most significant societal factor that pushes
children into prostitution is poverty.
• Many nations with thriving sex tourism industries
are nations that suffer from widespread poverty
resulting from turbulent politics and unstable
economies.
• Poverty often correlates with illiteracy, limited
employment opportunities, and bleak financial
circumstances for families.
• Children in these families become easy targets for
procurement agents in search of young children.
Factors Supporting the Child Sex
Trade
• They are lured away from broken homes by
"recruiters" who promise them jobs in a city and
then force the children into prostitution.
• Some poor families themselves prostitute their
children or sell their children into the sex trade to
obtain desperately needed money.
• Gender discrimination also works in tandem with
poverty; in many countries, female children have
fewer educational opportunities or prospects for
substantial employment.
• Consequently, they must find other means of
earning a living.
The Role of the Internet
• The Internet has also facilitated the recent rise in
child sex tourism by providing a convenient
marketing channel.
• Websites provide potential child sex tourists with
pornographic accounts written by other child sex
tourists.
• These websites detail sexual exploits with
children and supply information on sex
establishments and prices in various
destinations, including information on how to
specifically procure child prostitutes.
Child Sex Tourism
• Finally, actions by foreign governments may
directly or indirectly encourage child sex tourism.
• National governments in countries which are
struggling economically have become increasingly
tourist-oriented in their search for profitable
sources of income.
• These governments sometimes turn a blind eye to
the sex tourism industry, thus allowing the industry
to perpetuate sexual exploitation upon children in
order to encourage tourism in their country in
general.
The Role of the Internet
• Additionally, sex tour travel agents may publish
brochures and guides on the Internet that cater to child
sex tourists.
• In 1995, there were over twenty-five businesses in the
United States that offered and arranged sex tours.
• One particular website promised nights of sex "with two
young Thai girls for the price of a tank of gas."
• The easy availability of this information on the Internet
generates interest in child sex tourism and facilitates
child sex abusers in making their travel plans.
Victims
• The lives of child prostitutes are almost too
appalling to confront.
• Studies indicate that child prostitutes serve
between two and thirty clients per week, leading
to a shocking estimated base of anywhere
between 100 to 1500 clients per year, per child.
• Younger children, many below the age of 10, have
been increasingly drawn into serving tourists.
Victims
• Child prostitutes live in constant fear; they live
in fear of sadistic acts by clients, fear of being
beaten by pimps who control the sex trade,
and fear of being apprehended by the police.
• It comes as no surprise that victims often
suffer from depression, low self-esteem, and
feelings of hopelessness.
Victims
• Many victims of child sexual exploitation also suffer from
physical ailments, including tuberculosis, exhaustion,
infections, and physical injuries resulting from violence
inflicted upon them.
• Venereal diseases run rampant among these children and
they rarely receive medical treatment until they are
seriously or terminally ill.
• Living conditions are poor and meals are inadequate and
irregular.
• Many children that fail to earn enough money are
punished severely, often through beatings and starvation.
• Sadly, drug use and suicide are all too common for victims
of child sexual exploitation.
Perpetrators
• Perpetrators are found across all socio and
economic classes.
• They may live alone or be in
relationships. They may be heterosexual or
homosexual.
• The majority are adults with no sexual
boundaries (namely, child sex offenders).
• The minority have a sexual preference for
children.
• Child sex exploiters are overwhelmingly male.
http://www.stopdemand.org/wawcs016179/the_problem.html
Perpetrators
• The demand for child sex within prostitution and sex tourism comes
from individuals within a wide range of professions including • Travelling businessmen
• Tourists
• Expatriates
• The military/UN peacekeepers
• Aid workers
• Employers of domestic workers
• Migrant workers
• Seamen & truckers
• Local prostitute users
• (Source: Sex Exploiter theme paper, First World Congress Against
Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, Aug 1996
Child Sex Tourists
• Child sex tourists are typically males and come
from all income brackets.
• Perpetrators usually hail from nations in Western
European nations and North America.
• While some tourists are pedophiles that
preferentially seek out children for sexual
relationships, many child sex tourists are
"situational abusers."
• These are individuals who do not consistently seek
out children as sexual partners, but who do
occasionally engage in sexual acts with children
when the opportunity presents itself.
Child Sex Tourists
• The distorted and disheartening rationales for child sex
tourism are numerous.
• Some perpetrators rationalize their sexual encounters
with children with the idea that they are helping the
children financially better themselves and their families.
• Paying a child for his or her services allows a tourist to
avoid guilt by convincing himself he is helping the child
and the child's family to escape economic hardship.
• Others try to justify their behavior by believing that
children in foreign countries are less "sexually inhibited"
and by believing their destination country does not have
the same social taboos against having sex with children.
Child Sex Tourists
• Still other perpetrators are drawn towards child sex
while abroad because they enjoy the anonymity that
comes with being in a foreign land. T
• his anonymity provides the child sex tourist with
freedom from the moral restraints that govern behavior
in his home country.
• Consequently, some tourists feel that they can discard
their moral values when traveling and avoid
accountability for their behavior and its consequences.
• Finally, some sex tourists are fueled by racism and view
the welfare of children of third world countries as
unimportant.
International Response to Child Sex
Tourism
• Although many of these countries have passed legislation that
criminalizes sexual exploitation of children, these laws often
remain unenforced against tourists.
• Efforts to combat child sexual exploitation often run into
conflict with foreign governments' efforts to promote the
international tourism industry.
• Police corruption is common.
• In Thailand and the Philippines, police have been known to
guard brothels and even procure children for prostitution.
• Some police in destination countries directly exploit children
themselves.
• Thus far, the international community has not been able to rely
on destination countries to adequately protect the rights and
well-being of child victims.
U.S. Response to Child Sex Tourism
• The United States has risen to take legislative action against the growing evils
of child sex tourism.
• In 1994, Congress established 18 U.S.C. § 2423(b), which is aimed towards
prosecution of child sex tourists.
• Section 2423(b) criminalizes traveling abroad for the purpose of engaging in
illegal sexual activity with a minor.
• Currently, successful prosecution under § 2423(b) requires the government to
prove that an alleged child sex tourist from the United States formed the intent
to engage in sexual activity with a child prior to meeting the child and initiating
sexual contact.
• In other words, a defendant is only punishable under § 2423(b) if he has the
intent, while traveling, to engage in sexual activity with minors.
• The federal government has successfully utilized § 2423(b) to target several
child sex tourists.
• Current proposals to eliminate the intent requirement may broaden the
government's prosecutorial power by allowing the government to prosecute
United States citizens who engage in sexual acts with children while abroad,
regardless of when they formed the intent to do so.
Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking
Defined By Federal Law
•
Domestic minor sex trafficking occurs when a U.S. citizen or legal
permanent resident who has not attained 18 years of age is engaged in a
commercial sex act.2
•
“Commercial sex act” means any sex act on account of which anything of
value is given to or received by any person. This includes:
- Prostitution
- Exotic dancing/stripping
- Pornography
2 This definition is from the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) of 2005
25
Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking
in the U.S.
• According to Ernie Allen, Executive Director of the National
Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), data
shows 100,000 to 293,000 children have become sexual
commodities.
• Nationally 450,000 children run away from home each year. 1
out of every 3 teens on the street will be lured toward
prostitution within 48 hours of leaving home. Statistically, this
means at least 150,000 children lured into prostitution each
year.3
• 12 is the average age of entry into pornography and
prostitution in the U.S.4
3 NISMART (National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway and Throwaway Children)
4 From U.S. Department of Justice Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section www.usdoj.gov/criminal/ceos/prostitution.html 26
Case Study: Domestic Minor Sex
Trafficking in Nevada
• Nevada has become a hotspot for domestic minor sex
trafficking.5
• 181 cases of juvenile prostitution were brought before
Hon. William O. Voy between 8/24/05-12/31/06.
• 69 cases were trafficked within Nevada; 112 were
trafficked from out-of-state.
• Ages ranged from 12 to 17 years old.
• 181 cases before ONE judge in ONE court in ONE
state.
5 2004 USDOJ Annual Report
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Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Victims
• Any minor engaged in commercial sex acts is a
victim of sex trafficking.
• As victims of a violent crime, the Federal
Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA 2000)
allows trafficking victims to be protected
rather than punished, even if they
participated in illegal activities, such as
prostitution.
• “I never met a juvenile in prostitution who
didn’t have a pimp.” – Sharon Marcus-Kurn, Assistant U.S.
Attorney for the District of Columbia
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Who are the victims of domestic minor sex
trafficking?
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•
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Youth of any ethnicity, race, or religion
Youth of any socio-economic class
Female, male, and transgender youth
Youth of all ages, including teenagers
Vulnerable youth
30
Who are especially vulnerable to
domestic minor sex trafficking?
• Youth with histories of abuse
– 59% of minors arrested for prostitution in Las
Vegas from 1994 to 2005 had been victims of
sexual assault and/or familial molestation.6
– 74% had run away from home prior to arrest.7
– WestCare Nevada treated 46 minors involved in
prostitution from 2004-2005; 45 of them had a
history of physical and/or sexual abuse.
6,7 From Las Vegas Metro Police STOP Program, Las Vegas. 2005.
31
Who are especially vulnerable to domestic
minor sex trafficking?
• Homeless, runaway or “throwaway” youth
- As many as 2.8 million children live on the streets, a
third of whom are lured into prostitution within 48
hours of leaving home.8
• Youth within the foster care system & child
protective services
- Over 500,000 children in the U.S. currently reside in
some form of foster care.9
8 From The National Runaway Switchboard
9 From The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
32
Case Study: Rhonda, Sex Trafficking Victim
• “I have a history of sexual abuse, a long history of it…
The first time that it happened it was from my
mother’s boyfriend. I remember his name was
Phillip. He was going into the room with me and my
sister ‘to read bedtime stories’. And my mother was
unaware of what was going on. And it happened for
a long time, a long time. The second time was while
we were going to court for the first one. My mother
had a friend who was a sheriff…and while we were
going through the court process for the molestation
charges for Phillip, Ken took me and my sister to his
cabin in Lake Tahoe and he sexually abused me
there.”
33
Case Studies: Toledo and Kansas City
• Toledo: A pimp tricked two cousins, 14 and 15, into his car,
kidnapped them, and forced them into prostitution. He gave
them clothes and fake IDs, and monitored them as they
performed sex acts in Toledo hotels. He prevented their escape
by beating one girl when the other would misbehave. The girls
were rescued in a sting operation and the pimp and his
accomplices arrested. 10
• Kansas City: Two 13-year-old girls and their 15-year-old sister ran
away from home in Kansas City, MO. They were recruited by a
pimp who sold them in exchange for food, clothing and shelter.
The pimp kept 100% of the money the girls earned from
performing sex acts and never provided them with condoms. He
was arrested during an undercover police operation and brought
to justice by the Kansas City human trafficking task force. 11
10 From The Toledo Blade. 2006-01-09.
11 From The Kansas City Star. 2006-06-24. Page: B1
34
Why is it hard to identify domestic minor
sex trafficking victims?
• Physically and/or psychologically controlled by pimps
• Trained by pimps to tell lies and false stories
• Victims’ distrust of service providers & law
enforcement
• Frequently moved from place to place
• Technology can help disguise the real age of the victim
• Easy to obtain fake I.D.s
35
Debate
• Toddlers vs. Tiaras
http://youtu.be/QAxEt5YL8w4
There's a special evil in the abuse and
exploitation of the most innocent and
vulnerable. The victims of [the] sex trade see
little of life before they see the very worst of life,
an underground of brutality and lonely fear.
Those who create these victims and profit from
their suffering must be severely punished. Those
who patronize this industry debase themselves
and deepen the misery of others."
- Former President Bush, addressing the U.N.
General Assembly, September 23, 2003
Awareness Groups
• “Learning is a continuum; it starts with
awareness, builds to training, and evolves into
education.”
http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800
-50/NIST-SP800-50.pdf
References
• http://www.justice.gov/criminal/ceos/sextour.
html
Resources
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Regional Victim Services Program www.rvspky.org
606-679-4782 ext. 279
Crisis Line: 1-800-656-4673
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General Web Resources and Campaigns
- Freedom Network: Freedomnetworkusa.org
- Free the Slaves: Freetheslaves.net
- humantrafficking.org
- Fair Fund: www.fairfund.org
NGO’s and Victim’s Service Organizations
- Bilateral Safety Corridor Coalition: http://www.bsccoalition.org/
- Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (CAST): www.castla.org
- Polaris Project: www.polarisproject.org.
- Project REACH
- Shared Hope International: www.sharedhope.org
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Resources
Legal Resources
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- National Immigration Law Center : http://www.nilc.org/immlawpolicy/trafficking/index.htm
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Government Resources
- Association for Children and Families: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking/
- Department of State, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons:
http://www.state.gov/g/tip/
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- Immigration and Customs Enforcement:
http://www.ice.gov/pi/investigations/publicsafety/humantrafficking.htm
- US Department of Justice: http://www.usdoj.gov/olp/human_trafficking.html
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