Human Trafficking in the US
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
Action: Tell the House to Fund Crucial Services for Human Trafficking Survivors Today
Published October 06, 2009 @ 11:00AM PT
Today, we are at a crucial moment in the fight against human trafficking: the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies is about to decide whether or not to provide $15 million for services for survivors of human trafficking. Please, write to Committee Chairman Mollohan and Ranking Member Wolf to urge them to fund services for victims of human trafficking today!
The upwards of 17,500 people who are trafficked into the United States, plus the tens of thousands of Americans trafficked internally each year, are in desperate need of services like medical care, counseling, legal assistance, shelter, education, and employment in order to recover from horrific abuses and rebuild their lives. Without adequate funds those services in the U.S. will be underfunded and inaccessible for many survivors. For many trafficking survivors, these services are the key to a new life after the horrible ordeal of slavery.
The Senate Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Subcommittee has already agreed to fund trafficking victims’ services at $15 million. Now, we are asking the House to support the highest possible funding level to provide trafficking survivors the resources they desperately need. Specifically, we are asking the House conferees to commit to the following:
- To provide the highest possible funding level for Department of Justice grants for programs to end human trafficking and slavery;
- To provide a funding floor for foreign nationals in the Justice grants to ensure continuity of programs;
- Retain the Senate report language requiring the Department of Justice to establish a point of contact in each U.S. Attorney Office to better coordinate human trafficking and slavery efforts in each jurisdiction; and additionally I
- Thank you for the funding for Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit. Support the Senate report language for Justice's specialized Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit.
Please, write to Reps. Mollohan and Wolf and urge them to support the highest possible funding level for Department of Justice grants for programs to end human trafficking and slavery. By doing so, you can help trafficking victims get the resources they need to build a better, freer life.
Photo credit: Jenna Carver
Georgia Supreme Court: Let Teen Strippers Take It Off
Published September 29, 2009 @ 01:00PM PT
Yesterday was a good day for Atlanta area men who like to see young women take their clothes off -- they're about to get to see a lot more of it. The Georgia Supreme Court unanimously ruled that young women ages 18, 19, and 20 have a right to work in strip clubs that serve alcohol, overturning an Atlanta city ordinance raising the age to 21.
Legislators claim the law was created to discourage underage drinking, not to target adult entertainers. However, workers ages 18 to 20 in a number of other industries like convenience stores, concert venues, and stadiums would have been exempt from the law. Adult entertainment clubs where alcohol sales are a major source of revenue, were not. In the end, the court decided the case based on the argument that 18 to 20-year-olds have a right to handle alcohol in their jobs; their right to strip in public was never officially questioned.
This case may have an impact on a growing suggestion within the anti-trafficking movement: move the age of consent for commercial sex from 18 to 21. Some advocates have suggested this change should only apply to prostitution, but others have petitioned for the age increase to apply to young women in pornography, stripping, escort agencies, and other adult services as well. The argument for an age of consent increase is that it gives young women more time to mature enough to make an active decision to enter the potentially dangerous field of commercial sex. As a society, we feel young people are not mature enough to make responsible choices about alcohol until they are 21, how could we expect them to make responsible choices about commercial sex, which can be arguably more dangerous for women, before then? The argument against the age increase is that it unfairly limits 18 to 20-year-olds, who are legally adults, from choosing commercial sex. Young people are considered mature enough to consent to sexual activity at ages ranging from 15 to 18, depending on the state, why should they have to wait until they are 21 to consent to commercial sex? Young women can choose to join the army and put their bodies in front of bullets at age 18, why should they not be able to handle the dangers of commercial sex until 21?
I have no doubt that raising the age of consent for commercial sex to 21 might help some women who are stuck in prostitution get out, and might prevent other women from being tricked or coerced into the industry in the first place. But I also have no doubt it would take away the livelihood of some women who are in legal adult industries, like the Atlanta women who fought for their right to strip. It's a tough issue, but one we don't even need to tackle right now.
The fact is there are plenty of truly underage girls -- 11-17 years old -- in prostitution and other commercial sex industries. Before we even consider raising the age of consent for commercial sex to include a broader number of young women, let's focus on helping the children who are in commercial sex right now get help to get out. We don't have enough shelters, enough social workers, enough counselors, and enough lawyers for all the child trafficking victims in the U.S. as it is. Let's focus on increasing services for child victims, not the age of consent.
I hope Atlanta realizes that 18 is still the low-end cut-off age for teens to be allowed to dance nude or strip in clubs, because I've seen 15 and 16 year old girls who have been exploited in strip clubs in the city. Maybe they will use the resources they would have applied to 18-20 year olds to find and help the younger children who need it the most get out of the industry and on with their futures.
Photo credit: Thomas Hawk
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
Guatemalan Army Admits to Trafficking Kids for Adoption
Published September 21, 2009 @ 12:07PM PT
When it comes to talking about the human rights abuses that took place during their long and painful civil war, the Guatemalan military has acted like a cat next to a bathtub: willing to make a lot of noise but not jump in to the issue at hand. Surprisingly, however, the Guatemalan army has finally admitted to kidnapping and selling hundreds of children in international adoptions from 1977 to 1989.
If you're not up on your Guatemalan history, here's the over-simplified version: From the 1960 to 1996, Guatemala was engaged in a bloody, brutal civil war between right-wing, pro-Reaganonmics type government and the left-wing, Che-had-the-right-idea type insurgents. Over 200,000 people were killed or "dissapeared" by the government and the insurgents committed their share of murders and rapes as well. Human rights were about as well-respected as Paris Hilton's quantum physics term paper. And throughout the whole bloody mess, the army kidnapped kids and sold them as part of "international adoptions" both as a way to generate revenue and punish parents who spoke out against the government.
International adoption in Guatemala is nothing new; it has been a source of income there for decades. The chaos and brutality of the civil war meant less regulation of the army's activities and more opportunities for abuse. Guatemala has the highest per capita adoption rate in the world and is a leading provider of children for adoption to the U.S. In fact, 1 in 100 babies born in Guatemala are eventually adopted to parents in the U.S. who are willing to pay up to $30,000 in fees for a child. This money is a huge financial incentive in a country where 75% of the people live below the poverty level and $30,000 may represent untold hope for a desperate family. Advocates fear that mothers may be coerced, financially or politically, into putting their children up for adoption. Similarly, child advocates want to be sure children aren't being adopted into families which will abuse or exploit them.
The issue of international adoption as a front for human trafficking is international, and has affected several countries, including Guatemala. Romania actually banned international adoptions because the problems with exploitation were so severe. Many international agencies and the U.S. government have since asked Romania to lift or relax the ban, since the country cannot support the number of children who need care and Western families are eager to adopt Romanian children. There are a number of model policies for how to screen potential families and set up protective mechanisms to prevent children from being adopted by unscrupulousindividuals and couples. There are not, however, very many model policies for how to prevent mothers from being coerced into giving up their children. That is an area the international adoption community should look into more thoroughly.
It takes some guts to admit that you did something as heinous as kidnap kids for political reasons and then sell them for profit, but the Guatemalan army did the right thing by telling the truth. Their revelation has helped hundreds of families reunite with lost children, most of whom are now adults. It has also shed light on the important issue of international adoption used as a front for trafficking, which will hopefully help other countries identify policy measures to take in order to protect both mothers and children.
Photo credit: cotaro70s
Children Are Sold for Sex in America's Capitol
Published September 17, 2009 @ 01:00PM PT
Guest blogger Melissa Snow of Shared Hope International discusses their new public awareness campaign to address child trafficking in street prostitution in Washington, DC. Child sex trafficking happens all over our nation's capitol, sometimes only steps from the White House and blocks from a symbol of the end of slavery -- the Lincoln Memorial.
The words ‘sex', ‘children' and ‘13' are an unlikely combination for a campaign message, but this month in Washington, D.C., Shared Hope International confronts a shocking reality; American children are sold for sex in Washington D.C. This September, in collaboration with the D.C. Human Trafficking Task Force, we're unveiling End Child Sex Trafficking: Kids are NOT for Sale in D.C., an awareness campaign to shed light on child sex trafficking in Washington, D.C. In Metro stations near hot tourist spots, on over 200 metro buses, within the Adult Classifieds and Erotic Sections of CityPaper, and on a bus shelter on 14th and K streets, bright yellow advertisements catch the eyes of D.C. residents and visitors that scream messages such as "13 is the average age children are forced into prostitution".
These advertisements, although shocking, reveal that human trafficking is not just an international issue -- it occurs in our nation's capital. Along intersections such as 14th and K Streets, famously populated by lobbyists during the day, and along New York Avenue, young American girls are exploited by a pimp and sold for sex many times a night. These young girls' lives are risked every day when they take to the streets to earn money for their pimp. The advertising campaign, Kids are NOT for Sale in D.C., will make D.C. residents and tourists aware of sex trafficking in Washington D.C. and warn off potential buyers of sex, that buying a child for sex can result in a life sentence.
The Kids are Not for Sale Campaign will run throughout the month of September and is in timing with D.C. Human Trafficking Awareness month. Sponsored by the D.C. Human Trafficking Task Force, a collaboration of local governmental and nonprofit organizations, the Task Force hopes to engage the local community to stop Washington D.C. from becoming a breeding ground for traffickers.
The Washington D.C. area has been identified as a sex trafficking hub, and the D.C. Human Trafficking Task Force is aggressively tackling predators who attempt to buy or sell children in the District. Just last week, Shelby Lewis was indicted by a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C. and charged with five counts of Sex Trafficking of Children and four counts of Interstate Transportation of a Minor for Purposes of Prostitution. Lewis, a Maryland resident, brought underage girls - including a 12 year old - into D.C. where he forced them into prostitution. If convicted, Lewis faces a maximum sentence of life in prison. Shelby Lewis' case proves that human trafficking is occurring in Washington, D.C.; however, his arrest proves that human trafficking is not tolerated in our Nation's capital.
Although sex trafficking is a difficult topic to face, for the young girls and boys who are trapped in this modern day slave trade we must confront and overthrow this organized crime. American kids are being victimized in our nation's capitol and we need your help to stand up to sex trafficking in Washington D.C. Not on our streets, not in our city, not in our Nations' capital - Washington D.C. will not allow the sale of American children for sex.
Photo credit: Ed Yourdon
