The American Red Cross

28 April 2010

No Volunteers For This Job

I came across a Facebook post a couple months which included a guy inquiring about teen prostitution. "... How someone could allow themselves to be pimped anyway", he says. So I took him by the hand and guided him to the right information and kept him informed on the whats, whys and hows of sexual exploitation, because there just isn't one answer.

After today you can say you know a little more yourself. The first thing you've got to know is no one volunteers to be exploited. Regardless of popular opinion, opportunists prey on young, weak and naive victims.

In the process, women and girls that are pimped or trafficked can go down many roads that all lead to degradation and humiliation for another person's gain. There are sometimes visible indicators of this typeof behavior in and around business establishments. These indicators include:

Heavy security at the commercial establishment including barred windows, locked doors, isolated location, electronic surveillance and women that are never seen leaving the premises unless with an escort are all sign that clue you in to an environment that involves forced prostitution or trafficking.

When workers or victims live at the same premises as the brothel or work site or are driven between quarters and "work" by a guard understand that this is not meant to protect the sex worker. For labor trafficking, victims are often prohibited from leaving the work site, which may look like a guarded compound from the outside.

Victims are kept under surveillance when taken to a doctor, hospital or clinic for treatment; trafficker may act as a translator. Ask questions when you're alone with the person. See if there's anything to it. Notice high foot traffic especially for brothels, houses, apartments, hotels etc, where there may be trafficked women. There could be an easy to spot 'stream of men' going in and out of the premises.

Next, I'm going to talk about where you can find these places.

SOURCE:
http://www.humantrafficking.org/combat_trafficking