Human Trafficking in the US
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Rhode Island Bans Indoor Prostitution
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Action: Tell the House to Fund Crucial Services for Human Trafficking Survivors Today
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Georgia Supreme Court: Let Teen Strippers Take It Off
Great Idea: Pilates for Hope
Published October 30, 2009 @ 07:00AM PT
I love it when people smarter and more creative than me have great ideas and post them on the inter-webs. That means I get to share those ideas with (and hopefully inspire) you! And some of my favorite ideas are when people turn their skills and passions into fundraisers for human trafficking. A couple months ago, we met a woman whose love of baking pies helped her fight slavery. And next week, an LA-based pilates studio will team up with Project Exodus for Pilates for Hope to raise money and awareness for human trafficking. Now I'm the kinda gal who chooses pie over pilates every time (to my belts' detriment), but an exercise-based fundraiser is great idea for a number of reasons.
First of all, Pilates for Hope is the sort of event you can duplicate in your town with a local fitness club or studio -- whether it's pilates, yoga, kickboxing, kung fu, spinning, or synchronized swimming. One of the great components of this fundraiser is that it offers private instruction. This is a tempting offer for novices like me, who are worried about showing up to a group class where everyone has her legs around her head and panicking that I can barely touch my toes. Plus, the lure of private instruction in any new activity can entice people new to both the exercise and the issue. And this fundraiser also offers massages and other treats to get people in the door.
But perhaps the most creative and practical part of this fundraiser is the way they involved a community partner that, on the surface, has nothing to do with human trafficking. At least, I've never heard of a trafficked pilates instructor before. By including community partners that can become invested in this issue, you are broadening your potential audience. You're also helping to draw attention to a local business. So really, everyone wins in this model of fundraising.
Putting together a succesful fundraiser is not a blindfolded and barefoot trip up Kilimajaro. It does take a little work and dedication, but it's a very attainable goal. Attainable like finishing your first pilates class or baking a delicious pie. And it's a goal that, when you reach it, feels great to more than just you. It feels great to all the abolitionists working to end human trafficking who rely on your innovation and support to continue to free slaves.
Photo credit: khatawat
Sex Buys Survival for Runaway Kids
Published October 28, 2009 @ 01:00PM PT
Nothing calls attention to an issue like an article in the New York Times, and this time the media giant has deigned to shine its blinding spotlight upon domestic minor sex trafficking -- sorta. Never once in the article does the author use the term "trafficking victim" the describe the children in question -- American kids who run away from home and end up in prostitution either for survival or under pimp control. But legally in the U.S., any child under 18 involved in commercial sex is a trafficking victim. Semantics aside, though, the issue of American youth coerced and forced into prostitution by pimps is a significant and growing problem.
Author Ian Urbina gives prostituted runaway youth a face in Roxanne L., a 16-year-old girl from Queens who was picked up for prostitution. Dan Garrabrant, the detective questioning her, has only one hour before he must turn her over to social services. If in that hour he can get her to admit that she has a pimp, he can get her off the street and into victim services. He tries everything -- pushing, commiserating, talking about other stuff, offering safety -- but nothing can get her to admit that she has a pimp. His initials are tatooed on her body, but she denies he even exists overt and over. At the end of the interview, Garrabrant is forced to release Roxanne to a youth shelter. Her body is found several days later, killed by the pimp she insisted never existed. Roxanne is not the first, nor will she be the last, child to die at the hands of her pimp.
Out of the 1.6 million children who run away from home each year, about one third (or over 530,000) trade sex acts for tools of survival like food, shelter, warmth, drugs to feed an addiction, or the promise of protection and companionship.
Publix Secretly Films Labor Protesters to Avoid Paying Farmworkers
Published October 26, 2009 @ 04:54PM PT
Over 100 farmworkers, many of whom pick tomatoes for a living, protested outside a Publix grocery store this weekend to demand an end to exploitative labor practices and a fair price for tomatoes. This protest was on the heels of several others, which a Publix associate had been secretly filming and lying about. Produce and espionage -- now there's two things you rarely hear about together.
Publix has refused to enter into an agreement with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to ensure that the some of the price increase of tomatoes makes it to the workers in the fields. So CIW and their supporters began to protest. And how did Publix respond? Like any Southern grocery chain would -- they send a spy. Thomas McGuigan, who works for Publix, began showing up at a number of the protests to film them. He told the protesters that he was an independent filmmaker and "old hippie" interested in protest culture. He followed them to several protests, lying to them about the nature and purpose of the filming. But as it turns out, he had agreed to turn all his footage over to Publix.
WTF, Publix? Did you really send a spy to infiltrate a group of peaceful protesters with a video camera to avoid agreeing not to exploit farmworkers? What are you now, the Bush administration? Reports from the protesters indicate that McGuigan was spending a disconcerting amount of time filming children at the protest. If Publix wants this footage to see how CIW and their allies are plotting to achieve justice for farmworkers, why are they focusing on the kids? Maybe Publix thinks they are the secret masterminds. Or maybe McGuigan's not the best filmmaker.
Michael Hoffman, Executive Director of the Center for Business Ethics at Bentley University in Massachusetts, has stated that Publix's filming was done under false pretenses and was unethical. He recommends they destroy the tape immediately. I second that motion. People have a right to protest you, Publix, especially when you refuse to take important steps towards protecting the people who produce the food you sell from exploitation. So buck up, work with CIW, and leave the espionage to the professionals. They are much, much better at it.
Photo credit: hyku
Man Sells Foster Daughter Into Prostitution
Published October 26, 2009 @ 01:24PM PT
Pimps can be strangers to their child victims, but they are often someone the victim trusts, like a boyfriend, a parent, or a family member. In a case out of Maryland recently, Shelby Lewis sold his 12-year-old foster daughter, along with three other girls, into prostitution -- the price of the "rent" he charged them for living in his home. This case is an excellent case study of what domestic minor sex trafficking looks like in the U.S., since it has a number of very common factors present.
- First, the victim was a part of the foster care system. It's common for American girls who are eventually trafficked by pimps to have been in foster care at one point in their lives. The connection between foster care and trafficking is due to both the vulnerability of young people without stable homes and the dysfunction of many foster care systems in the U.S.
Second, the pimp was someone the victim knew as a protector. While pimps can be strangers, they often approach victims first as boyfriends, friends, stepfathers, family members, etc. They groom the victim to rely on them and then claim, as Lewis did, that the cost of their protection and love is prostitution.
Third, the victims started in their early teens. Lewis first began pimping his foster daughter out when she was 12. He also sold three other girls, who he began exploiting at 13, 14, and 16. The average age of entry into prostitution is 12-14 in the U.S., so the ages of the victims in this case are typical.
Fourth, one of his victims was registered with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. It's not unusual for children who are reported missing, either as runaways or as kidnapping victims, end up in the hands of pimps like Lewis.
Lastly, child pornography makes an appearance in this case, as it does in many others. Lewis had pictures of his victims tied to beds in sexual poses at his apartment. Pimps can earn money by selling pornographic images of the girls they exploit in addition to selling the girls themselves.
While one of these factors might not be present in all cases of domestic minor sex trafficking, they are certainly present in a number of them. This case is an example of how the issue of child trafficking in the U.S. is deeply connected to the need for reform of the foster care system and better education for girls. The questions this case begs are much broader than just those related to human trafficking: Why are foster youths so susceptible to trafficking? Why are men buying girls so young for sex? It's a reminder that we must always view trafficking within the context of social issues pimps utilize to help them traffic girls.
Photo credit: EOS Cameroun
Supreme Court to Hear "S&M Svengali" Sex Trafficking Case
Published October 16, 2009 @ 07:00AM PT
When she took the job, Sotomayor might not have known she's be talking about whips and handcuffs at work. But that's what will happen when the issue of human trafficking with be put before the Supreme Court in early 2010. And how does human trafficking make it's first appearance at the SCOTUS? In the form of a case that involves S&M, slavery, and some other pretty unsavory sexual stuff. Glenn Marcus, the man dubbed the "S&M Svengali", was convicted of sex trafficking in 2001 and has appealed his case all the way up the legal food chain. It's a case that has potential ramifications for trafficking victims everywhere.
Here's what happened: Marcus had an S&M-themed website in the late 1990s which featured photos of women who were his "slaves" undergoing various levels of physical abuse. He met a woman who court documents just call "Jodi," and she agreed to be on the website. At this point, two stories diverge. Jodi claims Marcus took the relationship too far -- that he forced her to do things she didn't want to do and then write about them for the site. She couldn't escape, and was effectively a slave in real life, although she started out only portraying one on a website. Marcus, on the other hand, claims that everything was consensual and part of Jodi's employment contract. Apparently, even the parts where he carved the word "slave" into her stomach with a knife, shaved her head, and whipped her brutally were part of her contract.
The reason SCOTUS has agreed to hear this case is that the abuse Marcus inflicted on Jodi took place between 1999 and 2001. The Trafficking Victims Protection Act, the law under which Marcus was prosecuted and convicted, was passed in 2000. Marcus's lawyers claim that Marcus's behavior was so different before and after October 2000, that the jury may have only convicted him on evidence prior to the passage of the law. Even if that is the case, was none of his behavior illegal before? I'm pretty sure carving a word into someone's stomach against their will has never been ok.
I'm worried about the affect this case will have on the abolitionist movement for two reasons. One, I think the S&M connection will only confuse SCOTUS's understanding of sex trafficking. Human trafficking and S&M, with the notable exception of this case, are not really connected. Sex trafficking is not about the sort of activities which take place between the victim and perpetrator, but rather the victim's consent to the situation and ability to get out of it. I'm worried that the presence of S&M will bring the court's focus on the wrong set of issues. Secondly, this case could have an impact for victims who were trafficked before 2000. It is dangerous to set a legal precedent where being trafficked before 2000 and after 2000 (instead of just after) may weaken a case.
I'll be following this case closely and will keep you updated on what our good friends on the SCOTUS decide. Hopefully, they're be able to look past the chain-mail-and-leather packaging on this case and see the central issues beneath -- abuse, consent, and slavery.
Photo credit: laura padgett
Dear San Francisco: "Sell Crack or Die" Isn't a Real Choice
Published September 28, 2009 @ 02:00PM PT
Dear San Francisco Superior Court Jury,
After hearing of your recent decision convicting an apparent trafficking victim of selling drugs at gunpoint, I felt compelled to write to you about the concept of control, since it is apparently a foreign concept to you. Should you care to look it up, the definition is here, but I can summarize by saying one person controls another when he has the power to direct or determine that other person's thoughts and/or actions. One example of full and coercive control you may have heard of is the institution of human trafficking, aka modern-day slavery. Since human trafficking has recently been the subject of a Lifetime mini-series, several feature films, and a New York Times series, I will assume that you have not been, in fact, living under rocks and have heard of it.
What you apparently don't understand, based on the explanations you gave of your recent decision that Rigoberto Valle is guilty of being a drug dealer and not a human trafficking victim, is how modern-day slavery works. In modern-day slavery, a trafficker uses force, fraud, or coercion to exploit someone's labor under violence or the threat of violence. Now I don't know if you've ever been forced to do something at gun-point or knife-point (as Mr. Valle described his interaction with his traffickers), but it greatly reduces your bargaining power. If your trafficker holds a gun to your head and says "pick tomatoes," you pick tomatoes over being shot. If he holds a knife to your chest and says "have sex with this man", you have sex over being stabbed. And if he threatens to shoot or stab you if you don't sell crack, well, then you sell crack.
What most trafficking victims don't have the power to do is tell the trafficker "I'm sorry, I'd prefer for you to enslave me in a legal industry, so if I get caught in a police sting, there won't be any confusion as to who was in the wrong." If they can do that, they probably can escape trafficking. So, when you say,
"To me, it came down to that he knew what he was doing was illegal. I don't think he honestly cared,"
I have to disagree. I think he cared a great deal not to be shot, arrested, or deported. I think he cared that he was being forced to do something dangerous and illegal in a country where he didn't understand the legal system. I think he cared not to put his family into further debt. Did he "choose" selling crack over death? Can that really be considered a choice?
I did not sit and listen to two lawyers hash this case out as you did, so perhaps this was not the miscarriage of justice it seems to be. Perhaps Mr. Valle was guilty of selling drugs of his own free will and wove a well-crafted lie about being a pawn in an international organized criminal syndicate to get out of going to jail. I can't say for sure that he's innocent. I can, however, say for sure that trafficking victims are enslaved every day in both legal and illegal industries. Some victims in illegal industries like prostitution and drug-selling are recognized by law enforcement for what they are: innocent people forced to do something against their will. But too often they are arrested as prostitutes or drug dealers or illegal immigrants and deported. The "sell crack or die defense" isn't just a defense -- it's a reality for some trafficking victims.
So, San Francisco Superior Court Jury, when you say you wanted to find Mr. Valle not guilty, I ask you to look deep inside and ask yourselves why you didn't. Was it really easier to believe him capable of inventing a story about evil traffickers forcing him to sell crack than to believe men were capable of enslaving him as a drug-dealer? Or was it easier to think that because he was a grown man, he should have been able to fight back? Was it easier to think that because he was an immigrant who had entered the country illegally, he could have committed other crimes as well? Thinking about human trafficking in a real and meaningful way is rarely easy. And neither are the lives of its victims, no matter what they are forced to do.
Photo credit: Marco Gomes
Oppotunities to Fight Slavery for Muslims and Christians
Published September 24, 2009 @ 07:00AM PT
Are you a Muslim or a Christian? If so, there are some exciting opportunities to fight slavery by engaging your faith. Human trafficking violates the principles of all major world religions, as well as the common human ethical values we share. Slavery is commonly prohibited by religious texts of all the major world religions. There are many way to engage your faith community in anti-trafficking efforts, whether it's spending time in prayer and/or meditation, giving money, or working in service.
For Muslims
American Muslims are coming together to answer President Obama's call to service by focusing on a number of key issues, one of which is human trafficking. The American-Muslim Interactive Network (AMIN) has partnered with human trafficking organization Bridge to Freedom Foundation to help engage Muslim Americans in service for survivors of human trafficking. Specifically, the partnership is focused on teaching at-risk communities how to identify traffickers and the trafficked. For more opportunities to serve human trafficking survivors and others in need with the Muslim American community, you can check out muslimserve.org.
The Muslim American community has been traditionally less involved in the anti-human trafficking movement than Christian and Jewish communities. Perhaps this is because Muslim-Americans have spent so long fighting negative cultural stereotypes about their faith, and they may be reluctant to draw attention to issues like trafficking, domestic violence, and abuse in their communities. As I've mentioned previously, the Quran condemns slavery like other major religious texts, so a call to fight human trafficking is natural for Muslims. I'm excited to see an increased focus on human trafficking by Muslims, since they have a great capacity to engage the Islamic faith in protecting victims and preventing trafficking in both Muslim and non-Muslim communities.
For Christians
The Salvation Army is hosting their 4th Annual Weekend of Prayer and Fasting for Victims of Sexual Trafficking. If you are interested in participating, you can get more information and resources to participate here. The Salvation Army has a number of great resources available on their website, including information for pastors, suggestions for prayers, and fasting guidelines.
Many denominations of the Christian community have been active in the anti-trafficking movement for a long time. Catholic organizations like the U.S. Conference for Catholic Bishops and Catholic Charities were primary recipients of anti-trafficking funding under the Bush administration. The World Evangelical Association just created an anti-human trafficking task force. Christians have a number of opportunities to engage their faith in anti-trafficking efforts, which also means they have no excuses not to.
It's great that these opportunities exist for Christians and Muslims, but I would love to see an opportunity that exists for all people of faith to work together. We all share in our condemnation of slavery and struggle for a freer, fairer world. Do you know of a movement against human trafficking in your faith? If so, I'd love to hear about it!
Photo credit: mufan96
