Abby Powell
Dr. Wood
LDS-N2
26November 2016
Sex Trafficking Epidemic
Human sex trafficking is an epidemic across the globe.Sex trafficking is defined as “the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act where such an act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age” (Get Educated). The phenomenon of a pimp and their victim is sadly not uncommon in the United States. However, many of the acts that occur between a pimp and their victims are behind closed doors are not advertised to the public and therefore the problem continues. There is a wide range of violence that occurs in society today including sexual assault, verbal and physical abuse, sex trafficking, and many more. The media talks about campus rapes but they do not discuss the solutions to solving this issue. Similarly, people are aware of sex trafficking but they are not aware that it is happening right in our backyard.
The New York Times article written by Andrea Powell on September 28, 2016 exposes the sex trafficking of an 18 year-old girl, Macy, who was thrown out of her home and into the foster system when she was 17. She met an older man who “promised her that he would protect her and that she wouldn’t have to be homeless” (Powell).However, the situation quickly spun out of control when he started telling her to have sex with other men and selling her on Backpage.com.Backpage.com is “a website where women and girls who are trafficked are routinely sold,” (Powell). She refused his orders, “She said no; then, as she remembers, he threw her on the bed and strangled her until she almost blacked out” (Powell).
After months of abuse, the police were a few feet away from the problem in a sting operation at a hotel they were staking out in Washington, D.C. Macy said she wanted to reach out and ask for help but she was too afraid of the consequences that would come with her honesty. The police brought her in but, “police miss the signs of sex trafficking and fail to offer help to victims in need, unintentionally returning them to their abusers” (Powell).The police eventually figured out she was a victim but the police said they would arrest her if she did not testify against her trafficker. She testified against him and he was put in jail and she was charged with prostitution.
Women with prostitution charges are put in a terrible situation because on top of the psychological trauma they endure, it is difficult to find jobs, get into college if victims were seeking further education and are forced to register as sex offenders.Senator Kirsten Gillibrand proposed the law, The Trafficking Survivors Relief Act of 2016, to expunge the records of survivors of sex trafficking. This law will help survivors of sex trafficking feel safe and hopefully persuade more victims to come forward and seek help.
The victim, Macy, who is currently a freshman in college living in a safe home for other sex trafficking survivors has to live with the memories of what she went through. Is that not penalty enough? It is absolutely absurd that survivors of sex trafficking are forced to register as sex offenders. Being a victim of sex trafficking is not a choice and they should be able to tell their story willingly, not forcefully and should not be penalized for telling the truth. The police should enforce punishment against the trafficker who abused and manipulated them, not the survivor of such a horrific event. Another issue is the lack of awareness of police in identifying a victim of sex trafficking. Police need to find a more efficient way to proceed cautiously instead of angrily with the victims. This article was very interesting for me to read about because my senior year of high school I was involved in a club called Backyard Broadcast, a club that helps raise awareness of human sex trafficking and this article confirms the problem still exists and is not going away unless we provide a solution to it.
The most common reason for entering the sex trafficking world is money,problems or abuse at home. According to an article on The Guardian, “A very high proportion of them have [suffered] physical abuse or sexual abuse even before their entrance into the sex trade, so they are already coming into the sex trade with all of these traumas and behavioral characteristics that make them vulnerable to sex traffickers” (Sullivan).The more vulnerable someone looks, the greater they victimize themselves to being trafficked. The process starts off as seeming normal. A minor falls in love with an older man who says he can provide money, a stable home, and love for her and then all of a sudden the relationship turns from pleasant to verbally and physically abusive.
But, where and how do these relationships start? It all starts with websites such as Backpage.com.Recently this past year, Carl Ferrer, CEO of Backpage.com was arrested and charged with pimping minors at the Company’s headquarters in Dallas, Texas. Lawyers all over the United States have been trying to charge him with something over the past few years but have never been successful. Backpage.com is readily available and easily accessible to many people and allows people to buy men and women for sex. “The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children said there had been a more than 800 percent increase over the last five years in reports of suspected child sex trafficking, much of it online” (Mele).A 15-year-old girl named Natalie ran away from home and was found by a pimp and sold on Backpage.com. She was brutally beaten and raped and forced into sex trafficking by her pimp for 108 days. There have been thousands of cases similar to Natalie’s, yet nothing has been done to stop it until recently.
There are several hub cities around the U.S. with Milwaukee, Wisconsin being a prime city. It has become “the Harvard of pimp school” (Sullivan).Similar to Senator Kirsten Gillibrand in the previously mentioned article, FBI agent Heather Wright has the motive to help the survivor and give them the services they need to successfully recover from the traumatic event they endured. Wright said, “I would like to see stiffer penalties for the traffickers and more services for the individuals being trafficked. There is a reason that they are being trafficked, and they are being targeted because of the lack of supervision and resources for the kids, and adults for that matter” (Sullivan).
An article written from the perspective of a survivor of sex trafficking, she talks about the fears she has about her life after being forced into sex trafficking. She repeated over and over the importance of the accessibility to services to support her after getting out of trafficking. The police raided a brothel and the survivor was able to escape but she was arrested and charged with prostitution. She discussed the many aspects of the situation that her and other people involved in trafficking and how the number one reason they do not want to leave is because they do not want to have charges on their records.A survivor of sex trafficking says, “I ended up back in the life of sex work, in part because, after years of being abused and only experiencing that life, I felt like that’s all I knew how to do or to be”(“I am a Sex Trafficking Survivor”).
From a Christian perspective, the best way to solve this sex trafficking issue is to talk about it and act on the changes that need to be made. God would not want us to just sit back and watch these terrible things happen to people each day. The best solution is to decriminalize sex work when there is clear evidence of coercion and someone being trafficked. This solution involves passing some sort of law or bill to protect and care for the victims of sex trafficking. The bill should protect the victim’s privacy and provide services such as education and therapy for them to recover from being physically, verbally, and emotionally abused.
This bill should also make sure that the victim does not have to register as a sex offender and their records should automatically be expunged. Charges on records make it much more difficult to be successful in life because they do not look good on college applications, job applications, or to any future employers. I am not saying that people with criminal records do not get jobs, but it definitely makes it harder. However, I see it as completely unfair for the victims of such a cruel crime as sex trafficking to be penalized for the torture they suffered.
Another consequence of testifying against the pimp is losing your sense of identity and dignity. Emotions are a huge component of coping with the aftershock of being raped. Court mandated community service and mandatory STD tests are administered as a result of being charged with prostitution. The police and law enforcement see sex trafficking victims as criminals and they treat them that way. The victims are speaking out through writing these articles, creating blogs, and telling their story but they are not being heard. They are clearly saying they want to be treated with respect. Victims of sex trafficking have been labeled as ‘damaged goods’ and they have a rough time improving their life and getting back to normal. After leaving their traffickers, they have a rough time getting back on their feet. They are emotionally and physically hurt and they fear for their safety. Many survivors cannot live in a house with other roommates as soon as they escape the trafficking system. They are too overwhelmed and cannot handle being around people who were not in a similar situation as them.
The people who are buying and selling women for pleasure should be the ones behind bars and rotting in prison, not the vulnerable people that were coerced into this line of work.If we want a real change to happen, we have to work for it. Anything good is worth fighting for, and decriminalizing sex work is an important issue that affects the entire nation.Even after leaving the sex work industry, the survivor talks about how she turned a negative experience into a positive leadership experience.
A survivor of sex trafficking who then went on to tell her story and help kids who could potentially be exposed to this line of work exemplified authentic leadership.The first way the anonymous survivor impacted others was by doing service with the Free, Aware, Inspired, Restored (Fair). It is “a nonprofit providing housing and critical care to survivors of sex trafficking and exploitation” (“I am a Sex Trafficking Survivor”). She conveyed her intrapersonal perspective by processing the trauma she went through and how it impacted her physically, mentally, and emotionally. Her testimony showed that she has been absolutely debilitated by this experience. The knowledge she gained from being a part of a different section of society for so long and for learning what it is like outside of that bubble, she is furthering her knowledge of herself and what happened to her.
As time went on through the several years she went through counseling and mentoring, she used the practical approach to authentic leadership. She established a connection between her and the younger children she mentored through telling stories that are relatable and teach a lesson at the same time. She displayed self-discipline by showing up and volunteering when she signed up to do so and for staying out of the streets even though she was not getting all of the services needed for a prosperous recovery. The positive psychological attributes of confidence and optimism came from the impact she made on the younger children she mentored. She knew she was making a difference in their lives and educating them on a topic that is not generally covered in private or public school education, but should be addressed.
Another example of leadership roles would be Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and FBI agent Heather Wright. These two women are using transformational leadership because they want to change the view of outsiders who do not want to pass the law for Sex Trafficking Relief or decriminalizing sex work. In their fight towards helping victims of sex trafficking, they will appeal to followers of their perspective. They have very high standards of moral and ethical conduct and can be counted on to do the right thing. With their proposals of bills and laws, they have presented themselves as role models to their followers and have established a clear goal in mind. The long-term goal is to decriminalize sex work and have more services readily available from recovery after leaving their trafficker.
There is a lack of leadership on the political end of the spectrum on this issue. The issue of sex trafficking and how sex trafficking cases are being handled was not discussed between either candidates in the recent election. That is concerning because the person who runs our country and who has the power to make a large influence on laws is not aware of the problem or simply does not care. For instance, the arrest of the CEO of Backpage.com was not advertised on the news and I feel that it should have been especially because,“children in 47 of the states have been sold on Backpage,and by one aid groups count” (Mele).It is something that is affecting not only one or two states but94 percent of the United States, and nothing is being done to prevent it from continuing.Overall, sex trafficking is a major epidemic and it should be treated as one. Although the victims of sex trafficking have endured so much pain and emotional trauma, they understand the importance of advocating for the cause and preventing others from enduring the situation they experienced. The leaders and the survivors are trying to reach out and get as many people onboard with their goal of decriminalizing sex work in order to give survivors a second chance and give them a clean record so they can live a productive and healthy life.
Works Cited
"Get Educated."BACKYARD BROADCAST. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Nov. 2016.
"I'm a Sex Trafficking Survivor. America's Laws Won't Let Me Leave My past behind."Opinion. Guardian News and Media, 15 Oct. 2015. Web. 26 Nov. 2016.
Mele, Christopher. "C.E.O. of Backpage.com, Known for Escort Ads, Is Charged with Pimping a Minor."The New York Times. The New York Times, 07 Oct 2016. Web. 26 Nov. 2016.
Powell, Andrea. "Why Do We Lock Up Survivors of Sex Trafficking?"The New York Times. The New York Times, 28 Sept. 2016. Web. 26 Nov. 2016.
Sullivan, Zoe. "Hub of Human Trafficking: Underground Sex Trade Thrives in Milwaukee."The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 02 Nov. 2015. Web. 26 Nov. 2016.