Human Trafficking in Greenville, North Carolina

HOW 2 Fight Demand

Everyday Actions

A few months ago on Facebook I was asked some questions about an article from the Chicago Tribune's Mary Schmich. The article was about sex trafficking in America and it included quotes about targeting the "demand side" of the crime. I thought the article was very interesting but the comment I received later caught my attention even more. It goes as follows:

"I read about stopping HT yet, I am flummoxed on the practical application. For instance, in the Mary Schmich article I read, ""You have to make it very expensive and unhappy for the customer," she said. "We've got to punish men who are buying sex from children. We have to stop normalizing it."

"That means going after the customer and making it clear that here in Chicago we're not going to put up with this."

How does one "go after" the customer? How does one actively "make it expensive" - fines and prison time?

My only problem with it was I didn't have an answer. After asking around I realized just how uncommon this answer really is.

So today I'm starting a series about how a normal citizen like yourself can fight the demand of sex trafficking. Before I get started I want to recognize The Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation. Their website provided material for this series and they are also an example for any organization to follow or join in the fight against sexual exploitation, to include sex trafficking.

Underage teen prostitute

1.Ok, the first thing a person can do is understand the role that the demand for commercial sex plays in prostitution. Be vigilant about refocusing conversations about prostitution away from blaming the woman to holding the people purchasing sex accountable for their actions. Challenge people in your friendship circle to stop patronizing sex trade venues. Highlight how practices that have become socially acceptable, such as hiring women to strip at bachelor parties or going to strip clubs, can be harmful and serve to normalize the exploitation aspects of the sex trade.

This step takes us out of our comfort zones the first day. Most of the time when we think of how we can take a stand against sex traffick, we think of someone else and not our friends. But this proves that everyone is in a position to take action. I encourage you to take the first step and watch how people realize you took a stand when they didn't. I think a lot of us are going to be surprised at the results!

"If there were no customers, there would be no prostitution."

DNA is the true detective

Pretty, Sharp, Girl Next Door Forced into Prostitution after Graduation

A young lady describes how after meeting a man on the internet, he lured her into turning tricks on the streets of Hawaii.

19-year old "Robyn", whose voice is altered and her face hidden to protect her identity, tells Hawaii news what was supposed to be a friendly encounter, quickly landed her in a life of forced prostitution.

"I was raised in a good family, I went to church, I went to school, graduated high school with honors, and had five scholarships to any school I wanted to go to" said "Robyn".

Because of stories like Robyn's, Hawaii is in the process of creating a new law, Senate Bill 2045, which would bring new and specific charges for pimps like the man described by Robyn. It would also allow for a witness protection program.

SOURCE

Teenage Girls Guide to Surviving Sex Slavery ft Eve Ensler

Happy Monday!!

The Right Response Against Rape

Perfect for any young lady headed to college.

HOW TO: Children at Risk of Internet Predators

In today's world of obsessions and high pressure demands, the demands of an online sex predator have never been more apparent. In my final "HOW TO", post my goal is to wrap up a series about how to fight online predators. If you've missed out on previous posts, be sure to follow the series in the sidebar for more information on how you and your family can fight online predators.

The first rule of engagement here states that regardless of the situation, any adult involved in any sort of sexual relationship with a child is entirely at fault and takes full responsibility for their actions. But I believe that we can do a better job of guiding our children away from these dangers, and do it without the typical paranoid behavior we all saw after 9-11. With that said, today's topic is going to make you aware of children that are the most vulnerable and walk you through exactly how a predator and even another teen can take advantage of a child in this situation; because not all predators are pedophiles.

Y2K Pimpin'

A pimp that understand brand loyalty

In the following paragraphs my intent is to walk you through a young girl's story. It involves her new pimp, her experiences with sites like Craigslist, and most importantly her disappearance. Stories like this will help us reveal the person(s) really at fault.

She was a 16-year-old California girl looking for trouble on MySpace; he was a 22-year-old self-described pimp who liked the revealing photos she posted to her profile. Three weeks after they met on the social networking site, they were arrested together in real life outside a cheap motel in Sacramento, 50 miles from her home. She was turning tricks. On her arm, a fresh tattoo showed bundles of cash and her new acquaintance’s street moniker in 72-point cursive.

Last week, Marvin Chavelle Epps was held without bail on federal child pornography charges over a video found at his arrest, in which the girl is seen performing a sex act on him while he calls her "bitch" and slaps her in the head with a roll of bills. Though the girl, identified as "S.M." in court documents, denied to police that he was her manager, by his own account Epps is a new kind of pimp — a web-savvy exploiter who uses sites like myRedBook and Craigslist to broker his women.

A review of S.M.’s MySpace profile, which lists her age as 19, suggests she fits that description to a T. When she set up the account last July, the Stockton, California, girl immediately blogged that she was looking for someone to sell her pot and MDMA. A couple of months later, she shared that she’d just been arrested on drug possession charges. "I’m a lot more hood than you think", she wrote one of her 1,000 MySpace friends.

I "BELIEVE" there is a solution

I believe that only by going to the root causes, which are corruption and the demand in destination countries, will we end the trafficking of women and children.

We need to urge all governments, NGOs, and faith communities to focus on reducing the demand for victims of sex trafficking and prostitution. All the components of the demand need to be penalized – the men who purchase sex acts, the traffickers, the pimps, and others who profit, states that fund deceptive messages and act as pimp, and the culture that lies about the nature of prostitution.

We could greatly reduce the number of victims, if the demand for them was penalized. If there were no men seeking to buy sex acts, no women and children would be bought and sold. If there were no brothels waiting for victims, no victims would be recruited. If there were no states that profited from the sex trade, there would be no regulations that facilitated the flow of women from poor towns to wealthier sex industry centers. If there were no false messages about prostitution, no women or girls would be deceived into thinking prostitution is a glamorous or legitimate job. - Donna M. Hughes

Professor & Carlson Endowed Chair in Women's Studies
University of Rhode Island

Source

When Conditioning is Key

The Department of Health & Human Services, Sex Trafficking Fact Sheet states:

Sex traffickers use a variety of methods to “condition” their victims including starvation, confinement, beatings, physical abuse, rape, gang rape, threats of violence to the victims and the victims’ families, forced drug use and the threat of shaming their victims by revealing their activities to their family and their families’ friends.

The National Runaway Switchboard, a 24-hour hotline, says that one of every three teens living on the street is lured into prostitution within 48 hours of leaving home. Most runaways don't need the conditioning required to be in prostitution. Runaways are taught everything they need to know about sex through sexual experiences with an adult or older child. At the time, children feel safer on the street than at home.

Between 1.6 and 2.8 million youth run away each year. To understand more about teen runaways, contact the National Runaway Switchboard by calling 1-800-RUNAWAY or http://www.nrscrisisline.org/

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Call 1-800-RUNAWAY if you are a teenager who is thinking of running from home, if you have a friend who has run and is looking for help, or if you are a runaway ready to go home through our Home Free program. Call if you are a teacher looking for information to pass along to your students about alternatives to running from home. Call if you care about a youth and want information on how you can help someone who may be at risk of running from home.

SOURCES:

Sex trafficking facts

1-800 RUNAWAY

National Runaway Switchboard

A Runaway Love

One in seven youth will run away from home before the age of 18.

David Finkelhor's conclusions about the effects and the impact of child sex abuse is transparently clear. Not unanimously agreed upon, but still clear.

1/3 will be approached to enter the sex trade with in 48 hours.

Obviously, there are a number of variables involved when you look at a person's response to sex abuse. Age, sex of the victim and the offender, the extent of sexual abuse, the relationship between the victim and the offender, the reaction of others to the knowledge of sexual abuse and other life experiences to name a few. But there are four general categories, all having to do with psychological and behavioral effects of a CHILD.

Runaways are often the victims of sexual abuse before they leave home.

#1 Traumatic sexualization. Included in the psychological outcomes of traumatic sexualization are aversive feelings about sex, overvaluing sex, and sexual identity problems. Behavioral manifestations of traumatic sexualization constitute a range of hypersexual behaviors as well as avoidance of or negative sexual encounters.

They feel that it's safer on the streets than to live at home ...

#2 Stigmatization. Common psychological manifestations of stigmatization are what Sgroi calls "damaged goods syndrome"43 and feelings of guilt and responsibility for the abuse or the consequences of disclosure. These feelings are likely to be reflected in self-destructive behaviors such as substance abuse, risk-taking acts, self-mutilation, suicidal gestures and acts, and provocative behavior designed to elicit punishment.
... so they run.
#3 Betrayal. Perhaps the most fundamental damage from sexual abuse is its undermining of trust in those people who are supposed to be protectors and nurturers. Other psychological impacts of betrayal include anger and borderline functioning. Behavior that reflects this trauma includes avoidance of investment in others, manipulating others, re-enacting the trauma through subsequent involvement in exploitive and damaging relationships, and engaging in angry and acting-out behaviors.

Unfortunately, runaways understand abuse.

#4 Powerlessness. The psychological impact of the trauma of powerlessness includes both a perception of vulnerability and victimization and a desire to control or prevail, often by identification with the aggressor. As with the trauma of betrayal, behavioral manifestations may involve aggression and exploitation of others. On the other hand, the vulnerability effect of powerlessness may be avoidant responses, such as dissociation and running away; behavioral manifestations of anxiety, including phobias, sleep problems, elimination problems, and eating problems; and revictimization.

[trauma, stigmatization, betrayal; they also know about being powerless]

 So a pimp doesn't have to put them thru the normal break-in process.

Even though they will try ...

...shes already broken.

SOURCES:

ny times

http://www.huckhouse.org/

Song:Runaway Love - listen now
http://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/usermanuals/sexabuse/sexabuseb.cfm

America Won't Respond to Rape

Curiosity Is Sometimes Deadly

TALK PLAINLY to your own; as it is one of the worst temptations not to know what we have to meet with. - Dr Carle C. Quale