Educator And Student Trafficking Education Resource Network

Educational Curriculum
Protecting American Students from Commercial Sexual Exploitation

Level 2 Student Guidebook

WARNING
The trafficking and sexual exploitation of young people is an extremely difficult issue dealing
with mature subject matters. This curriculum is designed for grade levels 8 – 12 and must be
delivered by an educator who has completed all the instructor requirements.

EASTERN Curriculum
P.O. Box 498
Old Saybrook, CT 06475 USA
860-339-5387
EASTERNCurriculum.com
 EASTERN
Educator And Student Trafficking Education Resource Network
Educational Curriculum
Protecting American Students from Commercial Sexual Exploitation

Level 2 Student Guidebook

You are about to go on an incredible journey. With guidance from your instructor, you are about to gain
insight into something not many people know about: Sex Trafficking in America. It’s important you
understand the truth about this topic because everyone your age is in danger of becoming a victim. With
this information you’ll be able to protect yourselves and others.
The EASTERN Curriculum is designed to educate, equip and empower students on the dangers
of Commercial Sexual Exploitation in America. This curriculum is designed to empower you and help you
accomplish more than you ever thought possible.
The ultimate goal of what you learn here is meaningful action. It doesn’t help anyone – you or
your friends – if you don’t use what you learn. At some point, you will be asked some important
questions, like: Now that you know about how Sex Trafficking works in America and how it could affect
your life, what can you and your friends do about it?
First, read this true account of one young woman from New England. Her name is Beverly.

Beverly’s Story . . .
“I was 14 years old when a man made me sell myself. At that age, I was all about finding my own identity
and doing anything to go against my parents. So when a man came into my life and gave me a lot of
attention and listened to me when I complained about my parents, I didn’t care that he was ten years
older than me. He told me I was mature for my age and told me I understood him better than anyone
his own age. I didn’t know he was just trying soften me up by making me believe he loved me. I wanted
to believe him so much. And it didn’t matter what my parents said. They didn’t understand me. HE was
the only one who knew what I was thinking before I did. After six months, I thought I loved him, at least
that is what he told me, so I did what I thought my heart was telling me and ran away to be with him.
We ended up in Cleveland, Ohio. He told me we were going to meet the rest of his family.
I didn’t know his family meant myself and three other girls. After I was introduced to them I was
told what my role would be. I would go out to work that night and bring him back the money. He told
me that’s how we were going to build our dream home. He always told me he loved me no matter what,
but he needed to know how much I loved him by making sure I would do anything for him. So I did.
Later that evening, his friends came by the motel. At first, he told me to have sex with someone.
I didn’t want to. I really didn’t want to, so his friends raped me. After it happened he said it wouldn't
have happened if I had have just listened to him. So then I blamed myself for being raped instead of
being angry at him. I was angry at myself for not listening to him in the first place. After that, he picked
my clothes out, told me what to wear, what to say, how to walk, what to say to "johns" and how much
money I was to bring back to him. Finally, he took pictures of me and put me on some websites where
people could see me and make arrangements for “dates” with me.
While that was all happening he said I had to get trained first so he sent me out to walk on the
streets. I walked around the streets back and forth for hours. Finally, I got into a car because we were
always being watched and I knew I had to get into a car sooner or later. Our quota was $500 and I had
only made $50 that night to give back to the pimp. He was mad I didn’t bring enough money to him. He
beat me up in front of the other girls to make an example out of me and then he made me go back out
until I had made the money. This was the same man who had taken me out to eat and was romantic just
a few days ago. He had listened to me when I wanted to complain about my parents and gave me words
of advice. I was now seeing a side of him that I never saw before - a brutal side where he repeatedly hit
me in front of the other girls to teach us all a lesson.
I was shocked. I was scared. What would happen to me if I tried to leave? Who would believe
me if I told them what was going on? I worked from 6 until 10 p.m. the next night without eating or
sleeping. I came back with the $500, but in his mind I still had not learned my lesson. He sent me back
outside until 5 a.m. the next morning. After the second day, he finally bought me something to eat. But
as a punishment to learn never to defy him again, he locked me in the closet. Since that night, I was
locked in the closet a bunch of times. He broke my finer, which never set right. None of us were ever
allowed to see a doctor so we just took our pain by pushing it deep down inside and trying to forget it
ever happened. I think teenage girls are good at that.
I can't count the number of times people have asked me "Why didn't you just leave?" "Couldn't
you escape?" I want to yell at them and say, "Do you ask a child who is kidnapped why they didn't try to
leave?" No! We all know they are a victim. It wasn't their fault. Now, after all this time, I know it wasn’t
my fault that a pimp manipulated a child.”

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 Section One
The Law of the Land
Depending on the political climates, health issues, religious fervor and, in no small way, the
level of corruption of the day, the buying and selling of sex in the United States has historically run the
gamut from being illegal to regulated, tolerated, legalized, glorified, promoted, forbidden, deregulated,
and back again to every conceivable type of acceptance and rejection.
The attitudes toward prostitution ― and what has been called “trafficking” for more than a
hundred years ― have shifted dramatically over time. The only constant America has demonstrated
pertaining to the sex-for-sale business is the cyclical nature of its attitudes toward those involved.
More recently, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA ― formally the Victims of
Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000) defines the crime of, “trafficking in persons,” as “sex
trafficking in which a commercial sex 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”; or “the recruitment, harboring,
transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services through the use of force, fraud,
or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery.”
For clarification, the US Department of Justice Office of Juvenile Justice and delinquency Prevention
defines the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children as “Crimes of a sexual nature committed against
youthful victims (younger than 18 years old) primarily or entirely for financial or economic reasons.
These crimes include, for example, trafficking for sexual purposes, prostitution, sex tourism, mail-order-
bride trade and early marriage, pornography, stripping, and sexual performances.”
Very simply,
 It does not matter if a victim once consented to work for their trafficker;
 It does not matter if the victim returned to their trafficker after he or she was freed;
 It does not matter if the victim’s enslavement was through chains of mental dependency
or psychological manipulation as opposed to being physically locked up;
 It does not matter if their trafficker was at times nice to them or gave them presents or if they
veered between feelings of love and fear for their pimp. If that adult was held for labor or sex
through force, fraud, or coercion, they’re a trafficking victim. In the case of minors in sex
trafficking, there is no requirement to show force, fraud, or coercion. No child can consent to
being sold into commercial sex. If a pimp used a child for commercial sex that child should be
treated as a victim, not a criminal. Frankly that’s all that matters.
Along with common sense this latter section of TVPA should have, but has not yet, led to the
demise of the term “child prostitute” which is used frequently by the media, anti-trafficking advocates,
law enforcement, and legislators. The law clearly gives young people involved in commercial sex acts the
legal status of victims rather than perpetrators.
The Los Angeles Times, in an article describing services for young victims of trafficking, described
“New York-based Girls Educational and Mentoring Services, founded in 1999 by a former child
prostitute.” The founder to whom they referred was Rachel Lloyd, who was victimized as an adolescent
and began one of the first and finest trafficking victim restoration organizations in America. "These
terms are completely offensive and irresponsible, and reinforce the fantasy that these girls choose to be
out there,” Lloyd explains. “For underage girls, who are forced, misled, beaten, and abused into these
situations, it is not a matter of choice. To be more accurate, these girls are victims of commercial sexual
exploitation (CSE) and domestic trafficking. News coverage must stop using terms like “prostitute” or
“teen hooker” to describe girls and young women who are experiencing commercial sexual exploitation
and domestic trafficking.”
Since it was first established in 2000, TVPA was refined and reauthorized in 2003, 2005, and
2008. Certainly, it will undergo further changes in the future. However, it is by no means the first federal
law to address prostitution in the United States. The Page Act of 1875 outlawed women being brought
into America by "obnoxious persons" for prostitution. Brothels were becoming more common during
this period. Demand for women to work as prostitutes was high, but domestic supply was often limited.
Criminal elements ― usually ethnic based gangs ― were increasingly importing women from oversees
to work in expanding urban areas in the states. The Page Act sought to curb this activity.
The Mann Act of 1910 was enacted out of early 20th century panic over “white-slavery” within
the changing cultures of growing American cities. The law provided a broad legal scope making the
"transportation ...for immoral purposes of women and girls, and for other purposes," illegal. The law
was often used as a catchall for political enemies and as a tool in the practice of racial inequality.
Later, the 1913 Supreme Court ruling in Hoke vs. United States, which challenged the Mann Act
on grounds it violated the Tenth Amendment (the guarantee of State's rights), held that Congress could
not regulate prostitution per se, as the activity was strictly the province of the states. However, the
decision upheld the Mann Act citing that Congress could regulate interstate travel for purposes of
prostitution or “immoral purposes."
Since that time there have also been international efforts to end human trafficking and slavery
of all kinds, the most notable of which is the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights
“adopted and proclaimed” on December 10, 1948. Among its articles the Declaration states
unequivocally that, "Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person. No one shall be held in
slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms. No one shall be
subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."
In 2000, while TVPA was becoming law in America, the United Nations was establishing what
became known as The Palermo Protocol, or officially titled, The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and
Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children. The rule, meant to instill cooperation in
fighting trafficking among diverse nations of the world, defined "trafficking in persons" as "the
recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of
force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a
position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a
person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at
a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced
labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs." It further
declared that "The consent of a victim of trafficking in persons to the intended exploitation set forth
shall be irrelevant where any of the means set forth have been used." The Palermo Protocol also
prohibited signing nations ― nearly 1 signing on as of 2010 ― from "the trafficking of children (which
is defined as being a person under 18 years of age) for purposes of commercial sexual exploitation of
children (CSEC), exploitative labour practices or the removal of body parts." The Protocol went into
effect on December 25, 2003.
In the United States, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 reflected the victim-centered
approach of the Palermo Protocol. Its provisions called for:
 Preventing trafficking through the creation of an Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking
within the State Department, which must report on and rank all nations (including the US as of
2010) in their efforts ― or lack thereof ― to combat trafficking. The President has the power to
impose sanctions on non-compliant nations, though it is not mandatory. It also created public
awareness and information programs, international economic development programs to assist
victims, and a federal task force charged with implementing TVPA.
  Protection and assistance to foreign victims of trafficking through eligibility in the Witness
Protection Program and other benefits similar to those afforded to refugees, such as education,
health care, job training, counseling, and other assistance programs. Protection was also
provided by the establishment of the T Visa; thereby allowing trafficking victims to become
temporary U.S. residents and eligible for permanent residency after three years.
 Prosecution of traffickers by making the activity, as defined by the law, a federal crime with far
more serious penalties than those carried by state or local prostitution laws. Even attempts to
engage in trafficking is criminal. And evidence to the victim centered approach of the law is
found in its mandate that restitution be paid to victims (18 U.S.C. § 1593).
The 2003 Reauthorization (TVPRA) called for creating a budget of $200 million to fight trafficking
between 2003 and 2005. It further required the US government to end contracts with contractors who
engage in sex trafficking, prostitution, or forced labor. And it allowed an easier legal path for victims to
sue their traffickers.
The 2005 TVPRA called for more than $300 million to fight trafficking for a two year period. It
also recognized domestic victims by authorizing new programs for US citizen victims of domestic
trafficking. It addressed the issue of sex tourism through further criminalization and prevention
programs, including offenses committed by US government personnel and contractors while overseas.
The 2008 TVPRA called for the expansion of federal criminal jurisdiction to US citizens who
commit human trafficking crimes overseas.
It significantly expanded the crime of sex trafficking by removing the "knowledge-of-age
requirement" involving underage victims. Previously, the accused trafficker could proclaim innocence
simply because he was not aware the victim was under the age of 18. In response to previous attempt to
prosecute traffickers in specific cases, the 2008 provision modified the law so that the trafficker could be
found guilty whether or not he was aware of the victim's age. It also lowered the legal standard of proof
to “reckless disregard” of the use of force, fraud, or coercion in causing a person to engage in
commercial sex.
Realizing the federal government had defined trafficking in such a way as to render impossible
by sheer volume the prosecution of all crimes within its sole jurisdiction, TVPRA 2008 also bound the
Department of Justice to create a model state law which could be adopted by individual states in order
to more effectively investigate and prosecute human trafficking violations at the their level and within
their individual borders.
Going further than its two previous reauthorizations, TVPRA 2008 required the formation of an
integrated database to collect and utilize human trafficking data from all federal agencies. It also
provided assistance to unaccompanied alien children through the assumption that they may be human
trafficking victims while providing for new services to US citizen trafficking victims.
While America was making progress, the 2010 Trafficking In Persons Report (TIP), submitted
annually by the US Department of State according to TVPA decree, stated emphatically, "More U.S.
citizens, both adult and children, are found in sex trafficking than labor trafficking; U.S. citizen child
victims are often runaway and homeless youth," while clarifying that, "more foreign victims are found in
labor trafficking than sex trafficking." It also recommended that the US should, "offer advanced training
to more federal agents and Assistant U.S. Attorneys with greater depth and frequency on the
complexities of trafficking victim protection and proper identification, investigation, and prosecution of
human trafficking cases."



“When they hear the term “child trafficking,” most Americans think that it only happens
somewhere else, in Southeast Asia or Central America. Even if they acknowledge that
this crime happens in the United States, they assume the victims are foreign children
brought into this country who are trafficked only in large cities. In fact, we have learned that most of the
victims of domestic minor sex trafficking are American kids who initially leave home voluntarily and are
being trafficked on Main Street USA. One police commander said to me, “the only way not to find this
problem in any community is simply not to look for it.” The good news is that America has begun to
look. The bad news is that we have barely scratched the surface.”
Ernie Allen
President and CEO
National Center For Missing and Exploited Children


 Section Two
Myth vs. Reality
It is essential to dispel the commonly held myths surrounding human trafficking and, more specifically,
commercial sexual exploitation. So ingrained are these misconceptions that the facts of any given
human trafficking situation are often questioned because they do not fit into preconceived notions.
Perhaps it is simply easier to move along with the common thinking of the masses rather than dispose of
the obfuscation surrounding trafficking. “Some myths addressed here may prove resistant to
debunking,” writes Joseph Campbell, author of Getting It Wrong: Ten of the Greatest Misreported
Stories in American Journalism. “They may still be widely believed despite the contrary evidence
marshaled against them.”

Myth Number One: Slavery ended.

The first is a broad myth commonly held to be true by most citizens of the world: Slavery ended.
It didn't. Certainly legal slavery has ended around the world and has been denounced by the United
Nations since 1948, but the enslavement of people has never gone away. In fact, slavery ― one person
holding another in bondage for their personal gain ― may be more in practice today than at any point in
human history.
In June 2010, actress and human rights advocate Emma Thompson told an audience in New York
City that, “It is not ‘over there.’ You have a huge number of people in this city who are slaves, who are
being forced to perform sexual acts with 30 people a day, and not being paid; and not being properly
fed, but who are being traumatized to within an inch of their lives. People do not know about this trade.
They do not understand what it is. They think that girls have chosen it and it is just one of those
prostitution rings. They think about it the same way they think about selling drugs. They do not
understand that these persons have not chosen this."
"Elementary students across America are taught that slavery ended in the 19th Century. But,
sadly, nearly 1 years later, the fight to end this global scourge is far from over," declared US Secretary of
State, Hillary Rodham Clinton in November 2010. "Today it takes a different form and we call it by a
different name ― "human trafficking" ― but it is still an affront to basic human dignity in the United
States and around the world. I have seen firsthand the suffering that human trafficking causes. Not only
does it result in injury and abuse ― it also takes away its victims' power to control their own destinies."
On January 4, 2010 President Barack Obama proclaimed, "The United States was founded on the
principle that all people are born with an unalienable right to freedom ― an ideal that has driven the
engine of American progress throughout our history. As a Nation, we have known moments of great
darkness and greater light; and dim years of chattel slavery illuminated and brought to an end by
President Lincoln's actions and a painful Civil War. Yet even today, the darkness and inhumanity of
enslavement exists. Millions of people worldwide are held in compelled service, as well as thousands
within the United States."
Myth Number Two: Trafficking occurs mostly in other countries, rarely in America.
The truth is that human trafficking has the potential to occur in every community in America.
“This is a crime that does not respect borders and jurisdictions” said Nicholas Sensley, Chief of Police in
Truckee, California. According to the US State Department's 2010 Trafficking in Persons Report, "The
United States recognizes that, like other countries, it has a serious problem with human trafficking.”
Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney said emphatically, "too many think that sex trafficking is only a
problem in foreign countries. But here in the U.S. underage girls ― most of them American citizens ―
are exploited through commercial sex each year. This is simply unacceptable. We have a moral
obligation to help; these are America's daughters, granddaughters, sisters, and nieces."

Myth Number Three: Most victims in America are from other countries.
“There is no reason to believe that any set of men would go to the risk and expense of getting
foreign products, when American conditions are over flooding the market with thousands of girls,”
wrote activist Emma Goldman in 1911. The same logic held true a century later.
Again, Ernie Allen, President and CEO of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
(NCMEC), has observed the same truth, saying that trafficking "is happening on Main Street USA, and
that most of the victims are American kids who initially leave home voluntarily." And while many
foreign-born victims are abused and trafficking laws and enforcement are predicated on the false
assumption that victims are from other countries, the truth is that most are from the United States.
Yes, transnational criminals do bring in young women and girls from Asia, Eastern Europe, and
certainly across the nation's southern border. However, most pimps are local and not necessarily tied to
organized crime. They are looking for the most efficient ways to do business, That means staying close
to the turf they know; using girls who speak the language and understand the culture. By doing so, both
pimp and victim can blend in more easily and remain safely hidden from undue suspicion.

Myth Number Four: Trafficking occurs only in cities where minority victims from poor backgrounds are
found.
As Ernie Allen sees it, “Commercial sexual exploitation knows no biases.” Many victims are from
suburban or rural areas. Many, if not most, are NOT minorities. Not all come from economic hardship.
Apparently, human nature does not pay attention to geography, genealogy, bank accounts,
religion, or ethnicity. Likewise, pimps don't care where a girl comes from. He only cares how much
money she will generate for him. And since they know vulnerable girls live everywhere in America, CSE
occurs in cities, suburbs, and rural settings. Furthermore, its victims come from every ethnic and
socioeconomic background.

Myth Number Five: To be considered trafficking, victims must be taken from one place to another;
across national borders, or across state lines.
While it often involves movement, trafficking does not require transporting or moving people to
be considered a crime.
Perhaps human trafficking is a misnomer. The phrase clearly implies movement. It is no wonder
that law enforcement, law makers, and the public hold the common ― and valid ― misconception that
human trafficking involves movement, or the transporting of victims across state lines or international
borders. It does not. The test of force, fraud, or coercion, or the ages of the victim are the primary legal
tests in determining whether a trafficking crime has been committed. While there are laws that take the
transportation of victims into consideration, including TVPA, it is not a requirement. "Many people hear
the word 'trafficking' and associate it with transportation," said Congresswoman Maloney. "But under
current law, transportation is not required for a criminal conviction for human trafficking. While an act
of human trafficking can include transporting victims, in the criminal justice system, the 'trafficking of
persons' federal law is understood more like involuntary servitude and/or the buying or selling of human
beings.", there is movement of CSE victims into and across America. However, this movement by
traffickers, who realize the advantage of keeping their “product” close to “customers,” does not in itself
define the crime as trafficking.
In trying to explain that trafficking has absolutely nothing to do with taking or smuggling victims
from one place to another, Detective Tyson Elliot from Alachua County, Florida explained, “To have
someone who is being psychologically manipulated or coerced or physically threatened or forced into
doing some type of action that they don’t want to do,” is trafficking.

Myth Number Six: This is a victimless crime because most young women are prostitutes by choice and
they make a lot of money.
Essentially, this entire course of study addresses this myth. In brief, if a pimp is involved in an act
of commercial sexual exploitation, force, fraud, or coercion will eventually be used. They are not paid
because they are victims of human trafficking. Therefore many of them do not have a choice or believe
they have choice. They are led to believe that this is the purpose of their life; that they cannot survive
without their pimp; and that harm will come to them should they attempt to leave. Preying on their
vulnerabilities, the misogynist pimp convinces the women under his control that rape is normal and to
be expected.
Having experienced this abuse, one victim who shared her story with me, Simone, said, "When
you’re younger, you have dreams of something you want to be. And nobody ever dreams of being a
prostitute. There’s no way these women can feel okay with it; every day, every night. These girls have no
idea what it will do to you. And once you’re in it, it’s almost impossible to get out. It’s almost impossible
because you lose your self-esteem. You think you can never be anything else. You think that’s all you’re
good for."

Myth Number Seven: Victims are kidnapped.

While kidnapping for CSE does occur ― and makes the best headlines ― this is not the typical
scenario. Pimps/traffickers do everything possible to remain invisible. To kidnap a girl and have the
entire nation notified through an Amber Alert would not be a smart way of doing business. It is far
easier to recruit or coerce victims; even romance and seduce them. The pimp understands his best
target has an extremely low self-esteem. Her self-worth is damaged or nonexistent. He is fully aware
that she has never heard someone tell her she is special; at least not enough so that she believes it. She
is easily beguiled. He knows the power of convincing her that, "I can love you. I can give you everything
you want." These are words she has been waiting to hear all her life. She wants to believe they are true
and will do almost anything to remain convinced that they are; including anything he tells her to do.
The most effective method for controlling a victim is to create in her a desire to stay. She must
want or feel a need to remain loyal to her pimp. The “relationship” he establishes with the girl,
combined with constant fear and the careful administration of drugs, creates an addiction like attraction
to the pimp. She comes to believe she must remain with him, obey him, satisfy him, and pay him.
While this type of “ride or die” loyalty takes a certain vulnerability in a women and a man willing
to exploit it to the extreme, it will not likely occur through kidnapping. It simply isn't necessary. In 2008
Corey Davis, a brutal pimp who called himself "Magnificent," was convicted of human trafficking charges
in Bridgeport, Connecticut. While an active pimp, he gave prospective girls a business card that asked,
"Do You Know What You're Worth?" He would then tell each girl the extraordinary amount of money
she could be make working with him. They quickly came to believe him simply because he proclaimed it
so strongly ― then proceeded to prove it. Like other pimps, he recognized a void in a young girl and was
skilled at filling it.
 The media, seeking a way to heighten the sensational aspects of trafficking while oversimplifying
the issue to the point of inaccuracy, often reports the recruitment of CSE victims as kidnapping.
“Officials say popular sites for teen trafficking include Craigslist and Backpage.com. Children are
abducted by pimps and then forced into the sex trade online,” is typical of the headlines promoting the
myth that trafficking begins with kidnapping. The inevitable barrage of news stories surrounding rare
kidnapping/trafficking cases no doubt magnifies the perception of its frequency.
Another long-standing warning propagated by the media is alerting young women to beware of
places they most often visit and socialize. "Malls are major child prostitution recruiting grounds," was
the headline of a Seattle news report in 2010, which warned parents, "food courts and back hallways
near restrooms are especially popular places for grooming to start."
One hundred years earlier it was movie theatres, shops, and dance halls. In the first few years of
the 20th century, "young women were warned that 'cadets' recruiting for the vice trade lurked
everywhere in US cities and were ready to snatch victims at every opportunity," according to historian
Shelley Stamp Lindsey.
Often, new victims are often introduced by friends or someone they know. A trafficker knows
his best source for finding new girls is the girls he already has; coaxing them to get friends, relatives, any
other girls they know who might be equally vulnerable.
Of course, there are other common methods of induction, especially in cases involving children
and their families. In March 2003 three-term Waterbury, Connecticut Mayor, and ex-Marine, Philip
Giordano were convicted in Federal Court of violating the civil rights of two young girls. While
investigating corruption in that city, the FBI discovered communications between Mayor Giordano and a
local woman who was known to be a prostitute. Thinking they had uncovered yet another politician
paying for sex, the agents soon realized the woman had agreed to take money from Giordano in
exchange for arranging him to receive oral sex from her eight-year-old daughter and 10-year-old niece.
"This case is the worst I've ever seen," said presiding Judge Alan Nevas during Giordano's sentencing.
Speaking directly to the former Mayor, the Judge referred to the girls saying, "You preyed upon them,
and you destroyed their innocence to satisfy your own sexual desires.'' He then sentenced Giordano to
37 years in Federal Prison. He is scheduled to be released from the US Penitentiary in Marion, Illinois in
2033.
The mother and aunt of the two girls, often referred as a "crack-addicted prostitute," was
sentenced to 10 years.
Relatives, friends, boyfriends, neighbors, acquaintances; all near enough, and perhaps trusted
enough, by victims to simply sell them into CSE. No one reports them missing. No one looks for them.
No one knows their pimps are the people closest to them.
The phenomena of this betrayal was explained by Francey Hakes, the National Coordinator for
Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction within the US Department of Justice, “American children
are recruited by pimps and madams from all socioeconomic backgrounds and all races. They become
victims often because of abandonment, abuse, or unhappiness. The children targeted by pimps and
madams typically are runaways, throwaways, or victims of physical or sexual abuse. These vulnerable
children are promised stability, love, attention and a home, but find themselves forced into prostitution
instead. American pimps and madams can recruit children for nearly nothing, and can easily replace one
child with another. They seem to have little fear of law enforcement, confident in their ability to keep
their victims from cooperating against them. And, sadly, these pimps and madams are confident that
they have customers willing to pay to sexually assault these children.”
There is no need to kidnap victims when mothers are willing to give their children away.


"If you want something to stop you have to do something to make it stop. You can’t just sit here and
expect it to go away. It’s gonna grow and it’s gonna get worse. When I was out on the streets of
Waterbury, it was mostly older women. Now there’s girls, like, little girls. You ask the question, ‘Where’s
their mother?’ Their mother is out there trickin’ too. How did not one generation, but two generations,
three generations go that badly wrong?"
Danita
Victim of commercial sexual exploitation on the streets of Waterbury, Connecticut



Myth Number Eight: Human Trafficking in America is new.

"I've read hundreds of medical books, and I've had thousands of cases in real life which have
taught me more than my medical books. What I've learned has not made me any happier, either.
Knowledge doesn't bring you peace of mind on a subject like this. It shows you how much greed and
wickedness and misery there are in the world."
"But, doctor, do you think this white slave traffic is a new development? We've only heard about
it for the last two or three years, haven't we?"
The physician nodded.
"Yes, but it's been there in one form or another. It caused the ruin of the Roman Empire; it
brought the downfall of mediaeval Europe, and whenever a splendid civilization springs up the curse of
sex bondage in one form or another grows with it like a cancer."
"But medicine is learning to cure the cancer. Can't it help cure this?"
"We are getting near the cure for cancer, maybe near the cure for this cancer as well. But this
latest development—organized capture of ignorant, weak, pretty girls, to be held in slavery by one man
or by a band of men, is comparatively a new thing in America.”
From the 1914 book - Traffic In Souls

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Commercial Sexual Exploitation in America is not new. However, it is being proclaimed as new by those
who conveniently ignore history. Reports of non-slavery related CSE go back to at least to 1834. That
year, the “New York Moral Reform Society” began to address the rising problem of male “licentiousness
and its destructive effect on women.” Cities in America were growing rapidly. Young men and women
were leaving their families in rural areas to find work and homes in new urban centers. “The Moral
Reformers were alarmed,” writes Patricia Cline Cohen in her book, A Calculating People: The Spread of
Numeracy in Early America. “One way they chose to communicate that alarm was through statistics.” In
a publication distributed widely by them in the mid-1830s, the Reformers stated emphatically that in
America “there were as many as 12,000 brothels, 75,000 to 120,000 ‘harlots,’ 500,000 licentious wicked
men, and shops selling ‘evil books, pictures, and the paraphernalia of destruction.’” They also claimed
that 20,000 women died each year “as a result of prostitution.”
Indeed, The dynamics of young women being victimized by commercial sexual exploitation in
the United States have remained unchanged for at least 170 years.
A close examination of young girls being sold for sex was written by Richard Henry Dana, Jr. in
1843. The similarities in his first-hand account to contemporary living conditions, prices paid, the abuse
taking place in close proximity to wealth and prosperity, where they come from, and the depths of their
mental and physical captivity are striking. Dana could easily be describing a tour of any such American
area in modern times.
 Born in 1815, Richard Dana belonged to one of New England’s most prominent families. A
champion of the downtrodden from sailors to slaves, Dana was a graduate of Harvard, an attorney, and
author of the book, Two Years Before the Mast. In 1840 Dana began a detailed, daily journal of his life,
thereby providing a rare insight into many aspects of mid-19th century America.
On Wednesday, January 4, 1843, he writes of a stroll he took down Broadway in New York City
and his sudden curiosity to visit an area called Five Points; at the time, New York’s red light district.
“Following Anthony Street down, I came upon the neighborhood. It was about half past 10, and
the night was cloudy. The buildings were ruinous for the most part, as well as I could judge, and the
streets and sidewalks muddy and ill lighted. Several of the houses had wooden shutters well closed, and,
in almost every such case, I found by stopping and listening that there were many voices in the rooms
and sometimes the sound of music and dancing.
“At one door, removed from sight and in an obscure place where no one seemed in sight, two
women were sitting, one apparently old, probably the ‘mother’ of the house, and the other rather
young, as well as I could judge from her voice and face. They invited me to walk in and just say a word to
them.
“I had a strong inclination to see the interior of such a house as they must live in, and finding
that the room was lighted and seeing no men there and no signs of noise or company, I stopped in
almost before I knew what I was doing.
“The room had but little furniture, a sanded floor, one lamp, and a small bar on which were a
few glasses, a decanter, and behind the bar were two half barrels. The old woman did not speak, but
kept her seat in the door way. The younger one, after letting me look round a moment, asked me in a
whisper and a very insinuating air, putting on as winning a smile as she could raise, and with the
affectation of a simple childish way, to ‘just step into the bedroom: it was only the next room.’
“The bedroom was very small, being a mere closet, with one bed and one chair in it, the door
through which we came, and a window. There was no light in it, but it was dimly lighted by a single pane
of glass over the door through which the light came from the adjoining room, in which we had been. The
bedstead was a wretched truck, and the bed was of straw, judging from the sound it made when the
woman sat upon it.
“Taking for granted that I wished to use her for the purposes of her calling she asked me how
much I would give. I said ‘What do you ask?’ She hesitated a moment, and then answered hesitatingly,
and evidently ready to lower her price if necessary, ‘half a dollar?’ I was astonished at the mere pittance
for which she would sell her wretched, worn out, prostituted body. I can hardly tell the disgust and pity I
felt. I told her at once that I had no object but curiosity in coming into the house, yet gave her the
money from fear lest, getting nothing, she might make a difficulty or try to have me plundered. She took
the money and thanked me, but expressed no surprise at my curiosity or strangeness.
“As I retrod the ground very nearly the same scenes presented themselves; and I observed that
there were a great many girls of from 8 or 10 to 12 or 14 years of age in the street and going in and out
of the houses. The greater part of the women in this course of life are victims of seduction, from other
places, and from respectable situations in life, who come or are enticed by cunning to the city; yet it
seems there are some who are bred up to vice from out of its midst.
“From these dark, filthy, violent and degraded regions, I passed into Broadway, where were
lighted carriages with footmen, numerous well-dressed passersby, cheerful light coming from behind
curtained parlor windows, where were happy, affectionate and virtuous people connected by the ties of
blood and friendship and enjoying the charities and honors of life. What mighty differences, what awful
separations, wide as that of the great gulf and lasting for eternity, do what seem to be the merest
chances place between human beings of the same flesh and blood.”
 From the final closing of its “landed” frontier in 1890 until the end of fighting in World War I in
November 1918, America had evolved into an entirely different nation. Every aspect of life and culture
was changing at an unprecedented pace. During the Elliot Spitzer prostitution scandal of 2008, National
Public Radio gave a historical overview of national laws governing the practice beginning at the turn of
the 20th century saying, “the old order of rural, largely male-dominated America began to fade. New
technologies, such as the typewriter, allowed many women to support themselves financially for the
first time, and many flocked to the cities. The modern notion of dating was born. With these changes
came concerns about the country’s moral underpinnings.”
In fact, many were overwhelmed by the influence and rapid increase of industrialization,
urbanization, immigration, communication, and transportation. During this Progressive Era, as Connelly
notes, “the United States was transformed from a predominantly rural-minded, decentralized,
principally Anglo-Saxon, production-oriented, and morally absolutist society to a predominantly urban,
centralized, multi-ethnic, consumption-oriented, secular, and relativist society.”
Historically, the Progressive Era is looked upon as exactly that – progressive and modernizing.
However, there was a vast amount of “tension, anxiety, and fear” throughout the populace
accompanying this period as one of its main tenets was to purify the system of corruption. The 1907
McClure’s article observed that, “for at least half a century, strong reactionary forces have been
continuously at work in this country to drag its inheritance of civilization down again to barbarism. The
lowest point that they have yet attained is their nation-wide organization for the sale of the bodies of
women.” The panic over prostitution was born from a “cluster” of mounting fundamental beliefs,
rampant emotions, and unchecked terror derived from a society that was changing faster than anyone
could perceive.
Previously, prostitution was more of a local issue, with sporadic “purity movements” gaining
momentum, always following the growth of new or expanding urban centers. Prostitution became more
visible whenever and wherever more people began living in closer proximity. Dr. Alfred Blaschko, a 19th
century dermatologist who studied prostitution and the venereal diseases related to it, observed that,
“Although prostitution has existed in all ages, it was left to the nineteenth century to develop it into a
gigantic social institution. The development of industry with vast masses of people in the competitive
market, the growth and congestion of large cities, the insecurity and uncertainty of employment, has
given prostitution an impetus never dreamed of at any period in human history.” The level of opposition
and alarm against it would grow concurrently with its level of conspicuousness.
It was not until the first two decades of the 20th century that prostitution became a “major
national issue,” which precipitated a frenzy of protest and public awareness “quite unlike anything
before.” Reaching a fever pitch after a sensational McClure’s Magazine article, “indignation and concern
over White slavery became intense, widespread, and often hysterical.”
The flames of panic were swiftly fanned into an inferno by competing newspapers, magazines,
publishers, theaters, and “moving picture” companies, eager to make a profit from their new ability to
“instantly” communicate the shameful narratives of these “ruined women.” As Eric Weiner reported in
the 2008 NPR story, “There were rumors, taken as truth, that women were being forced into
prostitution and shuttled around the country by vast networks. Muckraking journalists fueled the
hysteria with sensationalized stories of innocent girls kidnapped off the streets by foreigners, drugged,
smuggled across the country and forced to work in brothels.”
Politicians of the day rode the wave of the public “crisis.” Edwin W. Sims, Chicago’s U.S. District
Attorney, claimed to have proof of a nationwide slavery ring. He declared, “The legal evidence thus far
collected establishes with complete moral certainty these awful facts: that the White slave traffic is a
system operated by a syndicate which has its ramifications from the Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific
Ocean, with “clearinghouses” or “distribution centers” in nearly all of the larger cities; that in this
ghastly traffic the buying price of a young girl is from $15 up and that the selling price is from $200 to
$600... This syndicate is a definite organization sending its hunters regularly to scour France, Germany,
Hungary, Italy, and Canada for victims.”
Sims never shared the “evidence” of which he spoke. However, a friend of his, Congressman
James Robert Mann, as Chairman of the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, drafted
a fast – and vague – bill that would prove to the American people that their Congress was acting quickly
to face the “crisis.” It also had the added benefit of making the United States compliant with a 1904
international treaty addressing what would be referred to 100 years later as human trafficking. Mann
was able to draft the proposed law so rapidly due to the fact that he borrowed much of the language
from the 1907 Immigration Act. That law banned the “importation into the United States of any alien
woman or girl for the purpose of prostitution, or for any other immoral purpose.” What became known
as the Mann Act was put before Congress on June 25, 1910. Facing little opposition the bill passed
without hesitation. President William Howard Taft signed it into law a few weeks later.
Officially known as The White-Slave Traffic Act of 1910, The Mann Act was a part of this “social
reform zeal.”163 Its specific intent was to address prostitution, immorality, and human trafficking.
Unfortunately, the initial ambiguous language allowed prosecutors to use it selectively for criminalizing
all forms of sexual conduct.
In March 1913 two married men, Drew Caminetti and Maury Diggs, took their non-prostitute
mistresses by train from Sacramento, California, to Reno, Nevada. Discovering the clandestine trip, their
wives informed the police. The men were arrested upon their arrival in Reno, tried, and found guilty of
violating the Mann Act. The case reached the U.S. Supreme Court where it was ruled “that not applying
the law in this case would shock the common understanding of what constitutes an immoral purpose.”
Their conviction stood.
This interpretation effectively criminalized all non-marital, sexual relationships, which simply
crossed state lines. It gave criminal justice and politicians a new power to intimidate or even ruin those
they found to be “undesirable.” For instance, the heavyweight boxing champion of the world, Tommy
Burns, was defeated by a Black fighter named Jack Johnson in Australia on December 26, 1908. The fact
that a Black man was now the heavyweight champion of the world was bad enough for traditional
Whites, but to make things worse Johnson made no attempt to hide his numerous affairs with White
women. Inciting institutionalized racism even further, Johnson was married three times to White
women, the second of whom, Lucille Cameron, was a prostitute.
On July 4, 1910, former undefeated heavyweight champion James Jeffries left retirement to
fight Johnson and, as he said, “make an effort to reclaim the heavyweight championship for the White
race.”165 In a special arena built for the event, Jeffries lost for the first time in his career to Johnson.
Race riots ensued immediately across the United States by humiliated Whites, despite it being the July
4th holiday. Unable to defeat him in the boxing ring, federal criminal justice authorities charged Johnson
with Mann Act violations – twice – and convicted him in 1913.
In 1926, architect Frank Lloyd Wright was charged and later acquitted of Mann Act violations for
crossing state lines with Olgivana Ivanovna Lazovich, the woman with whom he lived and would later
marry.
In 1944, actor Charlie Chaplin was acquitted of a Mann Act indictment from a maternity case
motivated by Chaplin’s liberal political views. The charges were instigated by FBI Director J. Edgar
Hoover, who referred to Chaplin as one of the Hollywood “parlor Bolsheviki.”
In 1959, Chuck Berry, the Black rock & roll pioneer, served 20 months in prison after being
convicted of Mann Act violations for bringing an underage Native American girl across state lines. The
girl was later arrested for prostitution.
Never repealed, the Mann Act has been significantly amended over the years. In 1978, Congress
updated the definition of “transportation” in the act, and added protection for minors of either sex
against commercial sexual exploitation. A 1986 amendment further protected minors and added
protection for adult males, and replaced “debauchery” and “any other immoral purpose” with “any
sexual activity for which any person can be charged with a criminal offense.”
In short, The Mann Act was a result of legislation being made because of bad information. It
was rushed through the legislature and was so massively flawed that trafficking has continued to grow
100 years after it was passed.

Myth Number Nine: Most traffickers specifically target, recruit, market, and sell underage victims
while most johns are eager to pay for sex with them.
Yes, this certainly does happen. A certain number of men are seeking to have sex with young
teen girls, sometimes even younger as was the case with Waterbury's former mayor. This crime ―
exclusively horrid among human trafficking violations ― must be a priority for law enforcement and
care givers. Everything is stolen from its victims: their development, their education, their health, and
their right to grow up in a protected and safe environment free from harm.
However, many aspects of commercial sexual exploitation have several layers of complexity
waiting beneath the service. The entire truth is that many underage victims are merely caught up in
trafficking. They are more vulnerable, malleable, and are far easier to intimidate and manipulate.
However, many johns do not want to know they are paying to be with a younger girl. The risk of being
caught, labeled as a pedophile, and serving serious jail time is too great. Unlike others whose
compulsion leads them to abuse younger girls no matter what the risk, many are far too alarmed by the
potential consequences. Pimps face similar risks. If he is caught trafficking an underage girl, he knows his
time in prison will be measured in decades. Yet using younger girls, always posing as young adults of 18,
19, or 20 years old, makes his life easier from the standpoint of controlling her. She is far more likely to
be taken in by his performance.
Adult victims carry fewer risks for pimps. Yet, they are often left with an “optionless life” in the
words of actor and activist Ashton Kutcher. Indeed, there are very few available services for the 25-year-
old American human trafficking victim, especially if law enforcement does not take an interest in their
case.
“We continue to see the devastating effects of sex trafficking, where services for survivors are
as rare as programs that address the demand for their victimization," said Ambassador-at-Large Luis
CdeBaca of the State Department in 2010. "And if they are found, women are locked in “shelters” that
look more like prisons than the safe haven that a survivor needs.”
If she is able to escape from her pimp or the streets, she faces insurmountable problems of
every kind: legal, health, physical, mental, emotional, financial and so on. Most often she gives up and
returns to the only person who ever “cared.”



“We went to the emergency room through Waterbury Hospital; explained the situation, ‘Listen, we’re
both addicted to drugs. We’re homeless, have nowhere to go. We need help.’
‘Sorry, we don’t have any services to help you.’ It didn’t make any sense to me. How could you
not have any programs to help me? There has to be at least someone I can talk to about this. So
Waterbury Hospital was a no go.
So then we went to St. Mary’s. They wouldn’t let us past the front desk. Kicked us out of the
hospital. ‘You’re under the influence. You’re obviously high. We can’t do anything for you.’”
Danita


Kayla’s Story . . .
Rocky Hill is a pleasant and affluent community in central Connecticut. It is also home to one of New
England's largest apartment complexes, Century Hills. With over 900 “luxury” units, four pools (one
indoors), acres of well-manicured lawns and walkways, ponds and a clubhouse, Century Hills was the
last place anyone in the town would expect to find a pimp in residence.
Yet, between 2007 and 2008, Kayla, a 19-year-old woman from Connecticut's shoreline, was
held there against her will by Frank Hill. Hill set Kayla's quota at $1000 a day. She was listed on Craigslist,
danced in strip clubs, and “passed around” in a sports bar after being stripped naked, and then “rented
out”: in a back room.
Kayla is blond and attractive with a very soft voice. She first met Frank Hill, the man who would
become her pimp, while she was attending medical assistant’s school in New Haven. She had
occasionally purchased marijuana from him. They went on a few dates to the movies and dinner. He
quickly told Kayla he wanted her to be his girlfriend.
Eventually they became romantically involved and she moved into his Century Hills apartment.
From there, Kayla saw girls coming and going at all hours. She "had an idea what they were doing," but
said nothing. After all, she was his girlfriend and he had promised to take care of her. The couple lived
this way for two or three months.
Then the day came when he told her she was not allowed to leave the apartment without him
or speak to anyone on the phone except for her mother. Frank Hill told her she was going to work as a
prostitute. He beat her and threatened her family with death when she resisted.
She did what Frank told her to do.
Kayla and the other girls at the apartment were told to address him as "Lord Father." They were
to look attractive at all times, perpetually ready for the next “date.” He also placed restraining orders on
all the girls so that if one of them ever complained to police, he calmly explain that she was a spiteful ex-
girlfriend who had been stalking him.
Through her written statement to police, the extent of abuse she suffered is obvious.
"I was with Frank Hill from October 31, 2007 - January 13, 2008. I advertised on Craigslist and
posted my pictures. One of his friends was a photographer. He took naked pictures of me. I used the
names: Candycummalot and Magic. The advertisement was to have a good time with a girl.
I lived in Hill's apartment in Rocky Hill, Connecticut with Courtney Taft who also posted pictures
on Craigslist. Taft and I fought a lot, because I used to sleep in Hill's room. But then he had her train me
on how to dress so I could get more money out of the guys he (made) me have sex with. I had to watch
her have sex with guys to learn about how to have sex with the guys.
At first I only did three dates a day then it was five dates a day and then even more a day. I gave
him all (the) money, which was $1000 a day. I gave him $,000 in four months. The rates for sex were
$300 an hour for an out call, $2 for an hour for an in call. When he took me out he dropped me out at
the house and would sit outside in his car. In order to make sure the guys were not cops they would
have to touch themselves to prove they are not cops. Or strip naked and leave. At the beginning of the
sex act I would let them know it was (of) my own will and make it known that this is an act of
companionship by agreeing to this you are not an enforcer of the law or any type of the law.
Hill would force me to have sex with the guys. He had a group of friends that he charged a lesser
amount to have sex with me, than the guys from Craigslist. When I told him that I didn't want to have
sex, he said you know what would happen. One time he said to me that he would cut my face, he also
choked me.
I did coke a few times. He gave it to me to keep me up. Whenever I did a shift and I was tired so
he gave me coke to keep me up. I also worked at two strip clubs. The purpose of the club(s) were to
have sex. The guy would buy a ticket for $100 to go into a booth and have sex. The name of the clubs
were Electric Blue (in) Springfield and Cheaters was in Rhode Island.
 He has pre-paid credit cards and debit cards that he keeps in his wallet. He said he owns a house
in New York and has an office for an escort service in Hartford. He told me that if I stay with him for
three years I'd be set for life. I knew it was a lie, just to get me to work. He told me I always had to smile
when I worked.
I am scared of Hill. One time he killed Taft's rabbit in front of me. He wanted me to recruit girls.
He told me to call up my friend, Katie, but I didn't want to get her involved. I got away from Hill when I
was at the Econo Lodge in West Haven. I called a friend, Katie. Katie and her cousin came and got me.
Ron came and fed me. Put me in a hotel room and I just slept. He took me to my Mom's house. I told my
Mom what happened. Then I went to the New Haven Police Department."
The intimidation of Kayla did not end after escaping from Frank Hill. Having stolen and kept all
her identification, he knew exactly where her family lived. Shortly after 10:30 p.m. on the night of
Tuesday, January 22, 2008, a rock crashed through the front window of Kayla's mother's home near New
Haven. As soon as the broken glass settled across the living room, the family "then heard a car speed
away." Sitting amongst the shards of glass was the rock; a tight rubber band holding a piece of paper in
place around it. Their hands shaking, the family pulled the paper off the rock. Unfolding it, they
discovered a photocopy of "a naked picture of me in a bathtub," Kayla explained.
According to New Haven police records, the “provocative” photo attached to the rock included a
note that read, "Your daughter Kayla is a N____R LOVING WHORE she is a SPIC LOVING SLUT as well. She
contracted H.I.V. while prostituting in Atlantic New Jersey as Candy Cummalot. She would sometimes
have sex for cocaine and give the money to a BIG BLACK PIMP."
The message on the rock was only one of several duplicate "flyers" of Kayla that "littered" the
front yard and neighborhood surrounding her home. Kayla told New Haven police that, "it must have
been Frank as he was the only one who had this picture." The report that night recorded Kayla telling
police that, "Frank had taken this picture for a Craigslist posting for prostitution purposes," and that
"only Frank knows this name as he gave it to her and was the one who took her to New Jersey."
Kayla thought she was protecting her family. When it was all over she was unable to eat or
sleep. Kayla found it difficult to trust anyone or share what had happened with friends. She told an
intervention worker that she only wanted to, "get my life back together and for people to understand it
wasn't my choice. I just want to help people. That's why I went to Medical Assistants School."
On Monday, January 12, 2009, one year after evading Frank Hill, Kayla was arrested along with
another girl for assaulting a woman outside her apartment in New Haven. She was found guilty five
months later and was given a one year suspended jail sentence with two years of probation.


Kayla was not the first to be exploited and held captive by Frank Hill at his Rocky Hill apartment.
Frank (aka: Lucas, Daddy, Lord Father) had been using his upscale hideaway as an outpost of abuse for
at least two years prior to Jessica's experience with him.
On January 31, 2008, Tanya told a Detective from the Rocky Hill Police Department what Frank
Hill and Brenda had done to her "about two years ago." With explicit detail she recounted the day that
"my best friend Tilly wanted me to go over to her house in New Haven. I told her I was going to take the
bus. My friend told me that she would have her cousin, Lucas Vann, pick me up in his Mercedes Coupe.
Lucas drove me to a gas station off the Interstate 91 and gave me some Tangaray to drink. Lucas then
brought me to his apartment in Rocky Hill. I kept asking when we were going to go to Tilly's house but
he would not answer me. I then found out that (Tilly) had sex with Lucas two nights before at the Econo
Lodge in (West Haven, CT).
As I didn't plan on staying with Lucas at his apartment, I had not brought any clothes with me.
When we got inside the apartment, Lucas locked me inside and (bedroom) and a girl name Chloe
(Brenda) was there to watch me. Chloe wouldn't let me leave and I didn't know where I was anyway if I
did leave. I was a little afraid and he kept me in the room while Chloe watched me. The bedroom door
was locked and Lucas would leave and Chloe would stay to watch me. I found out that Lucas paid Tilly
between $200 and $300 dollars (get) me.
Chloe said she always called Lucas by the name (Daddy). Chloe said he would be abusing her by
striking her and choking her and so on. Chloe would then bring new girls to the apartment at the
direction of Lucas for him to have sex with and for him to have the girls have sex with other men for
money. Usually $300 or more for sex.
While in the bedroom, Lucas eventually came back and pushed me on the bed. As he pinned my
hands down to the bed I yelled, 'Stop. I'm only 15 years old.' Then he said, 'No you not. You are 18 years
old. Tilly told me so.'
'No, I am 15 years old.'
He ripped my belt off and then pulled down my pants and underwear. He left my shirt on. He
(had) sex with me for about five minutes. He then went into the bathroom and washed up. He then
walked out of the bedroom and locked the door behind him, locking me inside. I then heard him yelling
at Chloe, the door slammed and I think he left. Chloe then stood outside my door for a while. I then took
a shower in Lucas's bathroom which was connected to the bedroom. I was then let out of the room by
Chloe. She talked to someone on the phone saying, 'What daddy says goes,' and that 'he is abusive.'
Chloe and I stayed up because we were waiting for Lucas to come home. Chloe told me that she was
afraid to fall asleep because if Lucas came home and she was sleeping he would beat her bad. Lucas
finally came home between 5 and 6.am. Chloe made breakfast for all of us. Chloe then got in the shower
to clean up. Chloe took too long so Lucas yelled, 'Hurry up bitch and get dressed or I will smack the shit
out of you.'
After being locked in Lucas's house for three days, Lucas drove Chloe and I to a club in Rhode
Island, which was a strip club. The club was bright pink. Lucas dropped Chloe off and he then drove me
back to his apartment in Rocky Hill. Chloe then came home hours later and was dropped off by
someone. Lucas then had Chloe and I get back into his Mercedes and drove to the Regal Inn in New
Haven. When the Mercedes pulled up to the curb, Tilly walked up to the passenger side of the care and
opened the door, and ripped me out before Lucas could pull me back in. Lucas drove off and left me
there.
Last year, 2007, I saw Lucas outside a club in New Haven. Lucas saw me and walked right up to
me. He said, 'Why did you tell the police on me?' I told him, 'I didn't say anything to the police.' He told
me that Chloe was on the run because she had jumped a girl in his apartment with two other girls then
brought her to Bridgeport where they sliced her the face and the arms and left her in Seaside Park. I
heard from a girl on the street that this did happen. I heard that the police were called but no one
believed the girl and nothing happened to Chloe.
When I was interviewed by the police in 2006, I was scared and didn't know who was behind the
mirrored window and didn't want to talk because not knowing who was listening to me behind the
mirror. I still hear about Lucas on the street. I am scared of Lucas since I know he has done this to other
girls. I want him arrested so he does not continue to rape young women like he did to me."


 Section Three
The Girl Is The New Drug
At the beginning to the 21st century's second decade, commercial sexual exploitation in the United
States continues to increase due to several distinct factors. Any one of these singular dynamics was
enough to cause a significant increase in CSE. Combined, they presented an unprecedented increase in
human trafficking of this specific nature. Unlike any previous time in America's long history of slavery,
trafficking in souls, and prostitution, the level of this abuse occurring during this period demonstrated
that our nature had not changed since the days of traditional slavery, nor has our propensity to control
and destroy certain human beings at our slightest whim and for profit.
As these factors began to coalesce they brought a new level of motivation to human traffickers,
people more commonly referred to as pimps. Along with this combination of new opportunities, the
modern pimp had the added advantage of hiding within multiple, ingrained misconceptions about
human trafficking, all too easily accepted by American culture and media. These myths created an
environment in which contemporary pimps were able to conduct their business of selling girls with little
fear of impunity.
Previously, this criminal element would have simply chosen the business of illegal drugs by
which to make their fortunes, all at the expense of others, while putting themselves at enormous legal
risk. Unfortunately for those looking to make it in the drug business, America has been conducting a
“war on drugs” for decades. Every criminal justice professional, including local, state, and federal
investigators, prosecutors, and judges, has an extensive experience and knowledge of these crimes.
They have been fighting this “war” for most of their careers. They know what to look for. They know
what evidence they need to make an arrest and have charges stick. And they know how drug cases work
in and out of a courtroom. While victory in the war on drugs remains elusive, law enforcement has
certainly captured many of the enemy's army. According to the US Bureau of Justice Statistics, America's
prison population topped over 2.3 million in 2008 ― four times the amount of incarcerated people since
1980. At the same time, the juvenile prison population was nearly 100,000.
This increase was not due to a rise in violent crime, which had remained steady and, in some
cases, declined for nearly two decades beginning in 1990. "Perhaps the single greatest force behind the
growth of the prison population has been the national ‘war on drugs,’” claims the organization, Human
Rights Watch, which further states, "The number of incarcerated drug offenders has increased
twelvefold since 1980."
The bad guys didn't need statistics. They knew selling drugs was an increasingly risky business
with a very dangerous paradox: the more success you achieved, the more exposed you became to law
enforcement and mandatory jail time. To stay on top in the drug business, it was necessary to employ
high visibility tactics easily recognized by law enforcement, which spent years learning to recognize
them.
As tens of thousands were arrested for drug crimes and jailed in America each year, thousands
were also being released. For the most part they got out vowing never to return, but with an equally
strong desire to make up for the time they lost in prison. Their new freedom was often coupled with an
increased motivation to make as much money as they could as quickly as they could. However, they all
faced the same challenge. If they were arrested for dealing drugs again, their subsequent sentences
would be even longer.
It didn't take long for them to find a new, more profitable, less risky product to sell.
 "A federal crackdown on drug dealers has succeeded in taking some of Boston's most dangerous
offenders off the streets," wrote Maria Cramer in the Boston Globe. "But it is also driving some dealers
and gang leaders to pursue another line of criminal work: prostitution."
Their new product was girls. In fact, by 2008, the girl had "become the new drug," observed
Sergeant Detective Kelley O'Connell who, at the time, ran the Human Trafficking Unit of the Boston
Police Department. Referring to the girls as a “prized commodity,” O'Connell explained how easy it was
to exploit females in the “digital age.”
" Pimps can advertise girls and women online ― a way both to increase demand and avoid
street arrests."
Paul Fitzgerald, Deputy Superintendent of the Boston Police Department's Drug Unit realized the
change in criminal business models was in part due to his department's tougher crackdown on drug-
related crimes. "They know we're looking hard at drug dealing," he explained. "They're taking the path
of least resistance when they go toward the girls."
Boston was not alone in seeing more pimps and more abuse. "I made the decision to become a
Detective and I went straight to our Vice unit," explained Special Deputy U.S. Marshal James "Chappie"
Hunter to fellow officers in San Diego. "Little did I know this decision would change my life forever. I
thought, 'I’ll go to Vice and get some good undercover experience. I’ll be able to chill out, go to a club,
have a drink or two (partially consumed of course) and visit a strip club a couple nights a month. No case
load and write some misdemeanor arrest reports. A good change of pace and fun stepping stone to
eventually transfer to a detective spot in Investigations.' Not! I walked through those doors and
discovered a world I had kept an uneducated and blind eye to for 16 years.” Detective Hunter soon
discovered "a world full of mentally, emotionally, and physically abused young innocent girls being sold
by a worthless gangster pimp to disgusting sex-driven pedophiles in plain view on our local streets,
motels, hotels, and all over the Internet."
Explaining the nationwide trend in greater detail, Hunter asked, "How many of you have
children with (Facebook) accounts? How many of you take your child to hang out with friends at the
local shopping malls? How many of you have children attending middle and high school? These are the
biggest recruiting grounds by pimps to steal your child away from you. I have even put a 15- year-old
boy in Juvenile Hall twice for pimping a 14-year-old girl who he went to school with."
Gretchen Means, Deputy District Attorney for San Diego County, provided more clarity of the
reduced risk for these new pimps, saying, "With drug sales and gun running, it is the gang members
themselves who take the risk of getting caught and punished. With prostitution, the girls take all the risk
with law enforcement and with their bodies.” That is why, Means said, “Pimping is the new crack
cocaine.”
"This is a reality check," concluded Detective Hunter, "Pimping is the fastest growing crime in
San Diego and across our nation."
A continent away, Kelly O'Connell shared his nightmare. "More and more individuals are seeing
the big money they can make. You're going to be seeing more and more of this demand. There is going
to be more need for product and that product is a girl."



The girl has become the new drug in America due to at least seven unique forces at work in the United
States.
The police in Boston and San Diego had already observed the ubiquity of the first of these
forces: Lower risk for criminals due to less significant investigative and prosecutorial knowledge,
experience, and priorities among law enforcement on the issue of commercial sexual exploitation.
Comparing their risk against those they take selling drugs, the choice is clear for enterprising criminals.
Girls are a safer product to sell. Representative Christopher Smith of New Jersey, who was instrumental
in the writing and passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, shared the frustrations of
the Detectives O'Connell and Hunter. "In the end, the perpetrators must be sufficiently punished for
their heinous acts or they will calculate that the money gained from exploiting women, children, and
laborers, is greater than the threat of prison." Then calling for change in the way CSE crimes are handled
by criminal justice, he said, "We must make this an easy calculation for them ― that trafficking is not
worth the risk.” Smith’s colleague in Congress, Jackie Speier, puts it another way. “Today, we live in a
country where a person is more likely to serve time for selling marijuana than a 14 year old girl.”
The lower risk factor is decreased even further because there is far less suspicion related to the
“product” a pimp is selling compared to that of a drug dealer. If police find someone with more than a
small amount of illegal drugs in their car, their home, their locker ― any location where they can prove
possession ― that person is immediately arrested on charges of “intent to sell.” They are taken to jail
and their product is taken away for evidence. If convicted they may be forced to forfeit all their assets to
the police. On the other hand, if the police find someone with one, two, three, or more females ― the
pimp's product ― it amounts to nothing more than a man hanging out with a few girls. Yes, the police
can ask questions, take IDs, and generally give them a few uncomfortable minutes, but the worst
consequence for the trafficker is that he may be late delivering the girls to their next date.
Certainly the greatest motivation for traffickers is the enormous profit. And perhaps there is no
more profitable crime than human trafficking. The financial gain from CSE is unparalleled. Comparing his
business model to someone selling drugs, the pimp knows the drug dealer has to continually spend
more cash, part of his earnings from selling drugs, to purchase new supply. As he makes sales, he must
reinvest in inventory to keep his supply available to customers.
The pimp does not have this problem. “Unlike drugs and guns which can be sold only once, the
human body can be sold over and over again.” Once a young woman is within his stable, he “sells” her
to each john at 100 percent profit for every trick. There is no product inventory to restock because the
pimp doesn't sell women, he rents them.
The extraordinary profit motive behind human trafficking is best explained analogically by
legendary journalist, Edward R. Murrow, whose landmark television documentary, Harvest of Shame,
exposed the slave-like conditions of agricultural workers in the early 1960s. Describing film of workers
laboring in the fields, Murrow said, “This scene is not taking place in the Congo. It has nothing to do with
Johannesburg or Cape Town. It is not Nyasaland or Nigeria. This is Florida. These are citizens of the
United States, 1960." Having shown the footage to a local farmer, Murrow recounts that the man,
"looked at this and said, 'We used to own our slaves; now we just rent them.'”
The US Department of Health and Human Services explains the results of renting human beings
for profit in a fact sheet explaining that, “Human trafficking is increasingly committed by organized,
sophisticated criminal groups, and is the fastest growing source of profits for organized criminal
enterprise worldwide. Profits from the trafficking industry contribute to the expansion of organized
crime in the U.S. and worldwide.”
Making a strong argument for helping all those who are forced into labor without self-
determination, power, or a voice ― including contemporary victims of commercial sexual exploitation
― Murrow concluded his report by saying, “Only an enlightened, aroused and perhaps angered public
opinion can do anything. The people you have seen have the strength to harvest your fruits and
vegetables. They do not have the strength to influence legislation. Maybe we do."
Perhaps one of the most subtle of factors in CSE's increase is the lower motive among law
enforcement to investigate these crimes over others which typically bring them greater reward. In drug-
related crimes, convictions often lead to “asset forfeiture,” in which the guilty party's ill-gotten gains are
forfeited to law enforcement. According to the US Department of the Treasury, "A wide variety of
merchandise is available, including automobiles, aircraft, boats, real estate, jewelry, electronics, wearing
apparel, industrial equipment, and miscellaneous goods." The money generated by the sale of these
items, usually at local police auctions or websites like SeizedPropertyAuctions.com or
PropertyRoom.com, are usually given back to the police department or arresting agency. While the rules
are complex and often require hours of paperwork, the payoff is worth it to those in charge of budgeting
cash-strapped police departments. This may be another reason why so many criminal justice resources
are used in the war on drugs. It can be a very profitable war for the police. Much of the loot forfeited by
drug dealers goes to their departments. The more drug arrests they make, the more opportunity they
have to increase their budgets.
This scenario does not apply to human trafficking cases. US code 18 U.S.C. § 1593 mandates that
all assets forfeited by those convicted of human trafficking crimes be paid as "restitution" in "the full
amount of the victim’s losses." In short, the girls get the money, not the cops.
While certainly not true in all cases, this establishes a type of conflict of interest between the
police and the laws they choose to enforce. With limited resources, limited experience in human
trafficking crimes, and far less public demand for action against commercial sexual exploitation, it is not
difficult to understand why it may take a very long time to affect change within the culture of criminal
justice.
One consequence of this lower motivation among law enforcement to investigate and prosecute
human trafficking crimes over drug-related offenses is reduced legal pressure on pimps. Nearly
unencumbered, they can operate under the radar; a well-oiled, experienced, increasingly effective radar
that is not looking for them.
Outside these four criminally-related factors pertaining to the increase in commercial sexual
exploitation, three remain, which are derived more from American culture than from the inner workings
of police and offenders.



“It is a conceded fact that woman is being reared as a sex commodity. Whether our reformers admit it
or not, the economic and social inferiority of woman is responsible for prostitution.”
Activist Emma Goldman
1911



The first of these cultural factors is the phenomena of prostitution and pimp culture becoming
mainstream. Prostitution is simply not the taboo it once was. With the increased commodification of
women ― especially younger women ― it has become much more acceptable to look at females in
American culture as objects holding only monetary value; a commodity to be bought and sold. Along
with the glorification of “pimpdom,” the aura surrounding prostitution as a lifestyle has been elevated
to a lifestyle choice with riches and fame as its reward. Few realize how easily and often the abuses of
commercial sexual exploitation hide under the cloak of prostitution.
The pimps who are trafficking young women and girls have a great marketing tool: the media.
You can turn on the TV now and see pimps glamorized in TV shows, music videos, and movies. Young
people use "pimp" in everyday conversation: "my ride is pimped out," "your clothes are pimping." They
do not understand the reality behind the term.
Beverly, whose story you read about earlier explains it like this, “Pimps prey on young women
and girls by finding their weaknesses and then exploiting them. After the pimp gets into your mind, it's
easy for him to maintain control, just like a husband who abuses his wife. Then you have to call him
"daddy" and he’ll punish you if he feels like you have stepped out of line. You have to bring him $500-
$2,000 every night. You are not a woman, you are always a "bitch" or a "ho" and tells you that every
day. You are part of his "stable." If you do not want to follow the rules, then he may sell you anytime to
another pimp.”
The list exemplifying contemporary American culture's reduced sensitivity to the old view of
prostitution while embracing a new “glamorous” perception of it and pimpdom is always increasing.
Television shows like Pimp My Ride on MTV resurrected the word as a new definition for “over-the-top
luxury” and “in-your-face bling.” “Pimping” became equated with exhibiting excessive levels of wealth
and success obtained through street smarts, cunning, victory over all obstacles. Being a pimp became
something young men aspired to. “We almost idolize pimps," said Jason King, head of San Diego's Anti-
Human Trafficking Task Force. "He's controlling girls and making all this money. But the women are
victims. These people are being exploited and are doing horrific things for that lifestyle.”
"Prostitution is no longer anything to be ashamed about. This is what women on the streets say.
This is a business. This is money. There is so much money in prostitution," is the way Danita explains it. It
is “an underrepresented population simultaneously shamed and glamorized, ostracized and glorified,
reviled and worshiped,” according to writer and comedian David Henry Sterry who was a “rentboy” as a
teenager. Along with validating the very concept of the word “pimp,” the culture began to look at
prostitution ― and its relationship to pimps ― in a more positive way. Seen as a lifestyle or professional
choice, prostitution gained greater acceptance through all forms of media including the HBO
documentary, Pimps Up, Ho's Down, the Academy Award-winning song, It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp,
from the movie, Hustle & Flow, the British television series, broadcast on CBS owned Showtime in
America, Secret Diary of a Call Girl, based on a blog in which a “high class London call girl" shares her
secrets to success with the world, the HBO reality series, Cathouse, which shows the true-life stories of
women working at a legal brothel in Nevada, the HBO comedy, and, among many others, Hung, in which
the man is the prostitute and his “pimp” is a woman.
Finally, along with a “pimps and ho's” board game, “pimps and ho's” themed parties, costumes,
and the “Beverly Hills Pimps Ho's” online catalog of clothing, there is Grand Theft Auto IV, one of the
bestselling video games of all time in which players are immersed into a virtual life as the character,
“Niko,” who, despite the giddy, positive reviews of the game from virtually all news media, is a human
trafficker. Once the game's player takes on the persona of “Niko,” he scores points by virtually killing
prostitutes and exotic dancers for real entertainment. “Our culture of flagrant self-exaltation, hardwired
in the American character, permits the humiliation of all those who oppose us,” writes journalist Chris
Hedges. “Human beings are used and discarded like Styrofoam boxes that held junk food.”
For those who wanted to enter the sex entertainment industry in the real world, there was a
book available. The Dancer’s Guide, claimed to be the “first of its kind, written exclusively for
professional exotic dancers and adult entertainers, with input from corporate sales trainers, club
owners, veteran and top earning entertainers, banking professionals, and financial planners.” The
guidebook’s promotional text on Amazon.com stated the reader will learn, “how to read people
immediately and more effectively. The Four Personality Types. How to establish credit while working as
an Entertainer. All the tricks of the Trade, and much more... Never Have A Slow Day Again.”
As prostitution was brought into the mainstream by the further commodification of females and
the glorification of pimp culture, human traffickers specializing in commercial sexual exploitation not
only found their business safer from law enforcement, but much easier to conduct because of the sixth
factor in the crime's increase: their “product” was very easy to obtain.
"It's all about manipulation of the person," said Police Officer Tim Thomason of the Columbia,
Missouri Police Department. Speaking about the phenomena affecting thousands of girls in America, he
explained the pimps had become very effective at "getting that person in and coaxing them in. Many of
the victims of human trafficking in Missouri are children or runaways who are looking for handouts and
are easy to persuade. If a trafficker can offer shelter, offer food, and some larger promise of some better
day, people will buy into that."
The CSE business became irresistible to pimps when they discovered how readily available their
new product had become. The girls they look for ― the product they will be renting ― are everywhere
in America.
"Victims of sex trafficking come from a variety of socio-economic backgrounds, geographic
areas, and ethnicities," concluded a report from the New York State Office of Children and Family
Services.
Certainly many younger victims have been through the child welfare system, or runaways, or
both. Many are throwaways, left behind by whatever parents they were unfortunate enough to have.
However, many are recruited from middle class homes with no prior incidences of abandonment. They
are often from the smallest of towns far removed from the city.
The common factor seems to be that each victim recruited or otherwise forced, defrauded, or
coerced into selling themselves for sex ― all for the profit of the man making them do it ― is some
history of early physical and sexual abuse in their lives. This apparently opens up a door of vulnerability,
perhaps because of damaged or negative self-worth, that traffickers look for. Pimps, and the women
who often recruit for them, will look for young women who have a certain look of wanting about them.
They are often reticent about themselves and more willing to talk about or please others. Recruiters
become skilled at finding girls who are in need: physically, nutritionally, relationally, emotionally,
financially . . . it does not matter. If they can identify a desperate need in a girl, even if that need is
overlooked by her family and friends, they will exploit it.
In essence, they continually seek to exploit women who exhibit the slightest signs of a broken
soul, a damaged spirit, or any wound that has not been healed. As Emma Goldman observed in 1911,
“Desperate, needing protection and longing for affection, these girls naturally proved an easy prey for
cadets, themselves the result of the spirit of our commercial age.”
The final factor contributing to the enormous increase in commercial sexual exploitation of
women in America is by far the most significant. Taken by itself this one element of marketing females
would be extremely powerful. However, combined with the previous six factors ― lower risk for
traffickers, no inherent product suspicion, enormous profit margins, lower law enforcement motive,
mainstreaming of prostitution and pimp culture, and easily obtained product ― the widespread use of
the Internet by human traffickers has changed everything. Quite simply, the web has become the new
“street” where girls are being sold. And like the streets of America, with all their former brilliance,
beauty, and ugliness, all manner of humanity roams there.



Previously men could only go “onsite” to find a girl being sold for sex. This meant going out on
the streets, as they still do, and looking for women being sold in the traditional manner. They might
have used word of mouth through their friends, other men at the office, in a bar, etc. Men could also
meet working women dancing in strip clubs or at stag parties. Hidden brothels are not uncommon.
Often disguised as a massage parlor or a plain, easily accessible condominium, there were still
established places men could go and pay for sex.
They could also look through nightlife and entertainment publications that are common in every
American city. These free publication typically feature classified ads for women to work as escorts and
dancers. Applications for these jobs require that candidates provide their measurements, hair and eye
color, “shaving habits,” height, weight, and race. They do not ask the applicant's age.
However, over the past ten years, the trend in shifted away from using print advertising (though
it still remains) to advertising instantly and inexpensively online. No other development has led to more
change and growth in commercial sexual exploitation. Providing a worldwide opportunity to sell women
locally to every community in America, the Internet provides a new and powerful element to the
exploitation of women: total anonymity for the buyer and seller.
“Now you can go online, you can view different girls, and they can come right to your home.
Nobody knows,” observed Jason King. Previously, "you would have to go down to a street where
prostitution was occurring.”
The most powerful element of the internet is that it allows illicit activity to remain largely
anonymous. Email and international message boards keep buyers unnamed and safe from prosecution.
Suppliers, likewise, have an easier time remaining in the shadows.



Backpage.com, with offices in Dallas and Phoenix, is owned and operated by Village Voice Media
Holdings, LLC, whose flagship publication, The Village Voice, was arguably America’s original “alternative
weekly” first published in 1955. The conglomerate owned several “alternatives” across America along
with VoiceMedia, a marketing consulting group which claimed, “If you want to reach fun, active people
who go out and spend money, Voice Media is the smart turnkey alternative.”
The “escort” classified advertisements placed in the back pages of Village Voice print
“alternatives” across the United States are nearly identical to each other. However, those listed on the
aptly named Backpage.com, the online version of these ads, have the advantage of instant, daily
postings along with multiple photos. The “adult” ads, have no rules.
Here is a typical ad actually taken from Backpage.com: “Hi im Erika. Im 18 and very open
minded... Im ready to please and love doing it... Im new to this but very experienced... Please cum spend
time with me Daddy... Ill be waiting.. *GFE* $Incall donations$ $75 for 15 mins $100 for 30 mins $1 for
60 I offer a Discreet, Safe & Clean Executive Suite location for respectable Gentlemen. Please serious
inquiries only”
While new sites are added everyday by enterprising web designers, often hiding outside the
United States or behind a masked trail of discreet business entities, those that are especially aggressive
in selling girls for sex are:
Escorts.com ― A sophisticated listing of “Escort” Services from which users are able to seek “escorts” in
their specific geographic region.
Fling.com ― A nearly mainstream ‘dating’ site; thinly veiled for prostitution.
AshleyMadison.com – Claiming to be a website for people who want to secretly cheat on their spouses ,
they desperately try to go mainstream by boasting it has been “seen on The View, Ellen, Dr. Phil, Larry
King, Good Morning America” and advertised on Howard Stern’s radio show.
AdultFriendFinder.com ― Another “dating/prostitution” site trying to go mainstream with advertising
on thousands of other legitimate sites.
Eros.com ― A prostitution site which makes it very easy to find victims of commercial sexual
exploitation in specific areas near you.
TheEroticReview.com ― A massive paid site which allows members to post reviews and chat about
specific “providers” – those selling sex for sale - and join forums to ask questions and get/give advise on
practicing ‘the hobby,’ which is what men online call their habitual use of prostitutes.
BestGFE.com ― Similar to The Erotic Review in that men are able to review and discuss individual
women, the “quality” of the services they provide, and pointers on how to access them. Here, however,
the free content drew users.
NaughtyReviews.com ― A massive and detailed listing of “escort” services with descriptions of females
for hire that include
SeekingArrangement.com ― "for Mutually Beneficial Relationship," the site offers a "sugar daddy
dating site" where men with money can “sponsor” young “sugar babes.”
InsiderEscortSecrets.com ― A listing and advice site that has hundreds of other links to “adult
entertainment” and “service provider” sites.
LVFever.com ― Based in Las Vegas, this site openly advertises specific service providers with photos,
rates and services provided.
USASexGuide.info ― "The Internet's largest sex travel website," a vast collection of forums and
discussion groups where men can trade information and contact women who are offering sex for
money.
CityVibe ― Disguising itself as a city entertainment guide, this site offers concise listings of prostitutes
and commercial sexual exploitation victims in specific cities.
CandyDoll ― A Japanese based site, "the place where you can enjoy the beauty of little girls. We made
collections of young and petite girls. You will definitely find these excellent photos worth to be called
true masterpieces." Many of the photos were copied and pasted onto photo albums on Facebook.
EstablishedMen ― Advertising nationally on Sirius XM Satellite Radio ― which claimed to have 20
million subscribers ― Established Men began a paid mainstream media blitz soon after Craigslist bowed
out of the game. Their radio commercial, running frequently on channels like CNN and FoxNews, was a
one-man dialogue with an obvious subtext: "The other day I was strolling down the street with my super
hot girlfriend when I spotted my old nemesis from junior high, Andrew bleeping [sic] Sweeney. After 25
bleeping years I can finally rub it in Sweeney's face how I became disgustingly rich and famous and he
turned into a fat, balding stiff. We meet again Sweeney! And what the bleep? His chick was hotter than
mine! I busted my ass making myself famous and swine-face Sweeney over here ends up with this
rockin' babe who was deeevine. So I hired a PI and Sweeney, I found your secret. You met her on
EstablishedMen.com. By far the easiest place to hook up with a chick. Dude, all you need is a decent job
and the ladies on EstablishedMen will be all over you. Check and mate, Sweeney. And here I thought you
had some game." On their website, one young woman ― Lolita ― lists her "Expectations" of the men
she meets with the words, "Generous Gifts, Monthly Allowance." Instead of just contacting women on
the site, men are urged to "stand out from the crowd" by adding a "gift to your message." There is a list
of gifts that can be sent automatically to the women listed including, "White Pearl Earrings," "Gold
Watch Diamonds," or just a simple "Platinum Card."
Others, such as GlobalCourtesans.com, SexSearch.com, SeekBang.com, and
AmateurMatch.com, cover all areas in the United States and offer the same service. For a fee, men can
seek girls being sold in their area and contact them immediately to set up a “date.”
Increasingly, Facebook and other social networking profiles feature links to these and other sites
for more discreet communications. Most of these websites require a subscription fee which would
seemingly put the users at risk of identification. Thanks to the anonymity of “cash cards,” however, this
is not a consideration. (Cash Cards can be purchased at thousands of retail locations around the world
and are used exactly like credit cards – except they offer complete anonymity for the user.) For many
men who take part in “the hobby” these sites offer an efficient means of communicating secretly with
one another and exchanging information, as well as arranging for “dates.”
Another important distinction is that the sites listed here are designed for men who actively
seek sex-for-money. The females listed through online “escort” services wait to be contacted and then
use the language of “the hobby,” communicating with men who already have a knowledge of how it all
works. It is the online version of girls standing on a street corner and waiting for men to approach them.
Men who buy sex from girls often call themselves “hobbyists” online. These men use
sophisticated, members-only review websites to anonymously exchange information about women who
are being sold for sex. The Erotic Review (TER) and BestGFE, the latter of which calls itself “A
Gentleman's Guide to Pursuing Perfection,” are two of the most popular sites and cover all cities and
towns in America.
Men who register on the sites refer to their practice of frequenting working in prostitution as
“the hobby.” They rely heavily on their coded, anonymous postings to, according to The Erotic Review,
“know exactly what to expect before you make the call and spend your hard earned money. The bonus
is that the opinions expressed are real and not sent in by the adult entertainers themselves. It’s about
time!”
The men are not the only ones taking advantage of these sites. Often, the review sites are
referred to in individual listings of girls posted on Backpage and others, with claims like “Check me out
on TER and you’ll see that I offer one of the highest rated services anywhere!”
Social networking websites like Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter have completely changed this
game. Enormously popular ― and growing every day ― these free sites offer very powerful tools for
men who are buying sex, pimps who are selling it, and pedophiles trading child pornography. In a
brilliantly devious marketing ploy, pimps have used these sites in such a way that men no longer need to
look for girls on the street corner or the internet.. Using social networking, the girls will come to them.
"Facebook faces a security challenge that few, if any, other companies or even governments
have faced — protecting more than 500 million people on a service that is under constant attack," said
Simon Axten, a spokesman for Facebook, concerning security issues with his company’s website.
In the world of online human trafficking, individual females are advertised extensively with
personal pages of information, photos, and updates. It is the perfect forum to begin or continue
conversations with potential johns. This has added a new dimension for pimps and other human
traffickers to aggressively market females working in prostitution: Tugging. Now they can go looking for
men ― pull them in ― instead of waiting for men to contact them.
Some men, curious and perhaps willing to pay someone for sex, but unwilling to actively look for
listings online, are open to having an attractive female “friend” them on Facebook and begin an
innocent conversation. With millions of men sharing their profile on Facebook, it is extremely easy for
those working in the sex industry to scour through profiles, seeking men in their geographic area who
look like they have money to spend. This provides a new level of “sex marketing” efficiency since
Facebook allows almost anyone to see enough information about an individual to determine whether or
not they will make a profitable john.
Once the man receives the “friend” request, and not knowing from whom the request came, he
may be curious enough to look at the sender's profile. With no limitations on who sees her Facebook
page, he will find a wealth of information to beguile him. The female's profile begins with an exhibit of
risqué photos, but still within the guidelines of the website so as not to raise any warning flags with its
administrators. Her “Wall” will have references to her love of parties, men, and sex. Her updates will be
perky, friendly, positive, and alluring.
At this point, the man has two options: “Confirm” or “Deny” the “friend” request from his sexy
new contact. If he takes the bait and presses “Confirm” she will be able to see his entire profile. He will
receive constant updates from her and invitations to “Instant Message” her on Facebook, all in an effort
to draw him in. After a short time, his new female Facebook friend will invite him to follow her on
Twitter as well. Then, she begins inviting him, and other men, to dance where she is dancing, “party”
wherever she is that particular night, or stay wherever she is staying “for the next few days.”
Women being sold are not only waiting on street corners. They are not only sitting by the phone
waiting for men to call from their ads online. They are not waiting for emails and texts to come in. Now
they are cold calling. Through legitimate and accepted websites like Facebook, they are knocking on the
doors of men across America, peering into the windows of their virtual homes, and asking for an
invitation to come inside.
 Far more blatant was the use of Facebook by pedophiles to connect with each other across the
world in order to trade sexually explicit photos of young children. Typically, these men find each other
by posting similar interest to their Facebook profile. Using common profile “likes” such as the novel
“Lolita,” the movie “Thirteen,” or any profile name including the words, “young,” “kid,” or “child,”
pedophiles searching for explicit images of children can successfully search for their otherwise hidden
brethren.
In early 2011, one profile on Facebook, “Marcos Tia,” had over 500 “friends” with whom he
shared hundreds of these photographs directly on Facebook’s pages. His Facebook gallery began with a
single photograph of a young girl, perhaps six or seven years old. She was not smiling in the picture.
With her head turned slightly to the right, she looked coyly at the lens. Her hair was coiffed in a highly
stylized arrangement with green and yellow ribbons. Along with other makeup, she was wearing lipstick,
eyeliner and shadow. She was standing outside, a blue sky and unidentified foothills behind her. She was
holding an inflatable Daffy Duck. She was completely naked.
Most of the child's body is exposed in a sexual manner - making this photograph a violation of
Federal Human Trafficking laws. Anyone involved or possessing the photograph could be prosecuted.
The photographer, the men posting it, and the men downloading it and keeping it on their computer are
all guilty according to the Trafficking Victims Protection Act which states that trafficking and commercial
sexual exploitation of children can take many forms including child pornography.
At the time, this was part of a collection that was growing online by the hour. Along with other
photos of naked, costumed, and posed children, the sexually explicit images are simply a collection
called "Model Kids" on “Marcos Teia’s” Facebook page. “Marcos” is clearly an online “avatar,” a falsified
Facebook profile which effectively hides the true identity of the person behind the page.
“Marcos Teia's” profile, which used Spiderman as a profile photo and has a Brazilian email
address, disappeared every so often. One day he was on Facebook with hundreds of friends - whose
profiles also exhibited sexually explicit photographs of children and adults on the social networking site -
and the next day he was gone. A few days later he was back, eager to confirm friend requests from
anyone.
At the time, most of the reported 500 million users of Facebook probably thought it was
generally safe from such content and well patrolled. With some privacy concerns, the vast majority of
Facebook users, from private citizens, to major corporations, NGO's, politicians, and even the President
of the United States, had no idea that it was home to a massive collection of unreported pornography of
all kinds.
“Marcos’s” profile, images, and friends were growing worse every day. He was reported to
Facebook several times - which could explain why he vanished so often. Facebook may have deleted his
account upon each of my reports. Yet he always returned a day or so later with the same name, profile
photo, birthday, email address and, worst of all, sexually explicit photographs of children in his "Model
Kids" collection.
Then, Facebook "groups" began appearing with names like "love little kids," "anything goes,"
"teen sex," and the like. A Facebook visitor must request permission to be "join" these groups, though
once the request is made, acceptance is generally given within minutes. The images here were far worse
than anything I had encountered previously. These photos - on Facebook - were clearly a violation of
several federal laws, including TVPA laws.
The proliferation of illegal photographs was so profound that the private citizens who
discovered them contacted the FBI and filed the following report: "I am in the final stages of
researching curriculum for a course warning against sexual exploitation in the United States. Some of
the curriculum focuses on the internet and how it is used by those involved in human trafficking and
child pornography. As an essential part of my research, I created a Facebook (FB) "avatar" (fake) profile.
On January 27, 2011, at approximately 10:30 a.m. (EST), through the the avatar profile I requested
acceptance into the closed FB group, “sex litllle girls." Moments later, the avatar was accepted into the
group by a profile known as Marcos Robson. At the time of the avatar’s acceptance, there were 30
photographs posted on this particular Facebook group. These photographs were explicit images of girls
appearing to range in ages between 3 and 9 years. The images showed these girls involved in vaginal,
oral, and anal sex acts. Some are bound with duct tape. According to the group’s Facebook “wall,” “sex
litlle girls” was created at approximately 7 PM EST on January 26, 2011 by a Facebook profile named
Lourdes Tromcos. On January 27, 2011, at 11:15 a.m. EST, “sex litlle girls” had 51 members and the
number of photos posted had grown to 37 including one with what appeared to be a female newborn
and the genitals of an adult male."
The intent was to report the crime and make the authorities aware that these images were not
being traded among pedophiles via some hidden, back channel website flying under the radar. This was
Facebook. These people were openly using Facebook's system to display and trade images of children
being sexually attacked.
It was also at this very moment in Facebook’s young life that it had raised $500 million from
Goldman Sachs and Digital Sky Technologies, a Russian investment firm, in a deal that valued the social
networking site at $50 billion. In January, 2011 this gave the company a value greater than most car
companies, defense contractors, and other online businesses like Ebay, Amazon, and Craigslist.


 Section Four
Challenges of Helping Underage Victims of
Commercial Sexual Exploitation
There are several important challenges facing everyone interested in helping young victims of CSE in
America. You should be ready to face these challenges as you move ahead into action.

1. Misidentification
Misidentification of the victims to be the primary barrier to the rescue and response to domestic minor
sex trafficking victims. This misidentification occurs at all levels of first responses from law enforcement
arrest on the streets to homeless and runaway youth shelters’ intake process, to court adjudication of
the victim as a delinquent for habitual runaway or drug possession, or other offense occurring as a result
of the prostitution of the child. Misidentification causes a chain reaction of negative outcomes. It is
responsible for the failure to deliver the necessary services to interrupt and treat the trauma they have
endured. It is often the cause of their adjudication as delinquents or criminalization as adult offenders of
prostitution, leading to detention and/or a criminal record with resulting lack of access to victim of
crime funds. Misidentification can be remedied only through awareness and education of first
responders and the community at large to properly identify the indicators of domestic minor sex
trafficking and to respond with the appropriate treatment and approach developed by experts in the
specific trauma caused by trafficking.

2. Criminalization of the Victim through Misidentification

Victims of domestic minor sex trafficking are frequently processed as juvenile delinquents or adult
prostitutes. Prostituted juveniles are trained by their trafficker/pimp to lie to authorities and are
provided with excellent fraudulent identification resulting in their registration in the arrest records as an
adult — an identification that follows them through their years as a minor unless and until it is corrected
by the insight of a law enforcement officer who recognizes the victim is a minor and pursues a correct
identification. Law enforcement cited this problem as a barrier to identifying a child sex trafficking
victim. Those victims who are identified as minors are frequently charged with a delinquent act either
for prostitution-related activities or for a related offense, such as drug possession or habitual runaway.
These children are found in detention facilities across the country, as well as in juvenile justice
rehabilitative programs. Due to the unique trauma bonding that occurs between a victim and her
trafficker, these children often run from juvenile facilities right back to the person that exploited them.

3. Criminalization as a Response to No Options for Placement

Law enforcement officers report they are often compelled to charge a victim of domestic minor sex
trafficking with a delinquency offense in order to detain her in a secured facility to keep her safe from
the trafficker/pimp and the trauma-driven response of flight. The frustration of first responders with
this maneuver was widely expressed; however, in the absence of better options, this stop-gap measure
continues. The results are detrimental for the victim who rarely receives any services in detention, much
less services specific to the trauma endured through sex trafficking. Also, the entry of the juvenile into
the delinquency system can disqualify her from accessing victim of crime funds for services in some
states.

4. Inappropriate or Inaccessible Services for Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Trauma

Experts speak of the trauma suffered by child sex trafficking victims as more severe than most sexually-
based trauma given the chronic nature coupled with the reinforced victimization from the community at
large of buyers. Therefore, the services required for a child sex trafficking victim are unique and rarely
available. Many victims cannot access the services due to their detention and resulting label of juvenile
delinquent. In some cases, the victim’s access to services can be contingent on cooperation with law
enforcement in an investigation into the trafficking crime. Sex trafficking is the only sex crime in which
the victim is threatened with incarceration or denial of services to elicit facts about the crime.

5. Burden on the Victim to Build the Case Against the Trafficker/Pimp

Arrest and prosecution of the traffickers is too frequently based solely on the victim’s cooperation and
testimony. This approach places the burden on the victim rather than on the investigators — a burden
that is most often too heavy for these traumatized children who typically require a lengthy amount of
time before they will disclose the facts of their victimization and only if approached with advanced
interview techniques to help them with this disclosure. For these reasons, it is critical in cases of
domestic minor sex trafficking that law enforcement pursue innovative or alternative investigation to
corroborate the victim’s allegations. Currently, law enforcement agencies typically are not trained in
alternative investigative approaches and/or are not provided with adequate resources to develop and
initiate these alternative techniques.

6. Lack of Protective, Therapeutic Shelters for Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Victims
Very few residential facilities specific to this population exist across the country. These include the Girls
Educational and Mentoring Services (GEMS) Transition to Independent Living (TIL) in New York City,
Standing Against Global Exploitation (SAGE) Safe House in San Francisco, Children of the Night in Los
Angeles, Angela’s House in Atlanta, and the Letot Center in Dallas. There are initiative groups striving to
establish these unique shelters for the population of domestic minor sex trafficking victims in their
areas, but the need outpaces the development. The New York State Safe Harbor for Exploited Children
Act passed in 2008 calls for the establishment of such shelters, as will future safe harbor legislation in
states already considering it — establishing these protective shelters is critical for an effective strategy
to combat domestic minor sex trafficking.

7. Insufficient Priority on Combating Demand

Buyers are not being recognized as a critical component in the sex trafficking of children, yet demand is
the primary driver of the commercial sex industry within which children are being exploited for
commercial sex activities and performance. Buyers of sex with children can be preferential (pedophiles),
opportunistic (thrill-seekers), or situational (do not care how old the person being prostituted is) — they
are all committing a crime. Frequently, arrests of buyers are pursued in the traditional investigative
technique of decoys which is limited to targeting “johns” in general and cannot specifically target a
buyer of child sex given the decoy’s age. Innovative investigative techniques that shift the burden of
making the case against a perpetrator away from the juvenile victim and focus instead on arresting all
parties to the crime of the sexual exploitation of a child are required.

8. Lack of Data
Do we have a clear understanding of Commercial Sexual Exploitation in America? Take a look at the next
section to find out. But, DO NOT READ SECTION FIVE until you are instructed!
 DO NOT READ THIS SECTION until you are instructed!

Section Five

Do We Really Have a Clear Understanding of

Commercial Sexual Exploitation in America?
“Statistics are like women; mirrors of purest virtue and truth, or like whores to use as one pleases.”
Dr. Theodor Billroth - 1885

The insensitivity of Dr. Billroth notwithstanding, the issue of commercial sexual exploitation in America
is immensely difficult to define numerically. The only agreed upon statistics are those which have been
repeated so often by so many that they become unquestioned statements of fact. However, simply
stating a thing many times by many people does not make a thing true.
While individuals and organizations working against all forms of human trafficking and those
reporting on it claim with certainty to know the absolute truth about the subject, they seem to have an
extraordinary aversion to the facts.
In 2006 a congressional press release declared that the online child pornography business
generated $20 billion a year in illegal income. The information was widely circulated with help from The
New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, both of which printed the figure and cited the
congressional study.
Unable to verify the information, Carl Bialik of the Wall Street Journal decided to find the
original source of the number. Through a congressional staffer, Bialik discovered the information was
provided by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). Bialik then contacted the
President of NCMEC who told him the fact came from a consulting group, McKinsey & Co. McKinsey’s
representative said they got it from ECPAT (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography, and Trafficking of
Children for Sexual Purposes). ECPAT said they retrieved the number from the Federal Bureau of
Investigation.
When Bialik contacted FBI spokesman, Paul Bresson, he was told, “The FBI has not stated the
$20-billion figure... . I have asked many people who would know for sure if we have attached the $20-
billion number to this problem. I have scoured our website, too. Nothing!”
The origin of the $20-billion figure has never been determined.
No matter. Four years later, on May 11, 2010, the U.S. Department of Justice posted an article
on their “Justice Blog” which states, “It is estimated that more than 200 new images are circulated daily
and the profit derived from these criminal acts could be as high as $20 billion annually.”
In his book, Getting It Wrong: Ten of the Greatest Misreported Stories in American Journalism,
author Joseph Campbell refers to this phenomenon as “media driven myths,” which he defines as,
“dubious, fanciful, and apocryphal stories about or by the news media that are often retold and widely
believed . . . tales of doubtful authenticity, false, or improbable claims masquerading as factual. In a
way, they are the junk food of journalism – alluring and delicious, perhaps, but not especially
wholesome or nourishing.”
When the topic of trafficking children or young women and men for sexual purposes is finally
broached, critical thinking is often pushed aside. The strong emotional factor overwhelms the intellect,
and with good reason. It is a horrible crime that damages the soul of all who are touched by it. Yet, this
is no excuse for otherwise rational people to diminish the importance of the issue with false or
misleading information.
Nonetheless, we crave numbers. We clamor for statistics. We believe that if something cannot
be counted, measured, or charted, it cannot be effectively communicated – or worse, exist at all.
Government officials, human rights advocates, and the media have little faith in the public to consume
the complexities of our societal ills. To change minds and hearts, to pass laws and regulations, to raise
awareness and money, they attempt to simplify the worst of our sufferings with figures, statistics, and
percentages. “In pursuing anti-trafficking projects,” explains Kay Warren, professor of international
studies and anthropology at Brown University, “government bureaucracies and NGOs have become avid
producers and appropriators of popular culture – circulating stories and scenarios that represent
victimizers and the traumatic experiences of those who are victimized – in order to publicize their anti-
trafficking efforts and reach wider publics.
The desire for telling numbers as they pertain to CSE is acute, often leading to disagreement
between otherwise closely related organizations and officials. On June 16, 2010, a panel discussion,
“Hidden in Plain Sight: The news media’s role in exposing human trafficking,” was held at the United
Nations in order to discuss “how the news media have helped expose and explain modern slavery – and
how to do better.” During the discussion, the panel of “leading media-makers and policymakers”
justifiably “urged reporters and editors to avoid salacious details and splashy, ‘sexy’ headlines that can
prevent a more nuanced examination of trafficked persons’ lives and experiences.” The participating
journalists also, “lamented the lack of solid data, noting that the available statistics are contradictory,
unreliable, insufficient, and often skewed by ideology.”
Providing an unplanned example of statistical contradictions and the shared frustration of
responsible reporters, Ambassador Luis CdeBaca, head of the U.S. Office to Monitor and Combat
Trafficking in Persons, stated in his remarks: “Almost 50,000 victims liberated last year worldwide: that’s
great,” [sic] citing “the ILO number.” However, just minutes later, Antonio Maria Costa, executive
director of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime said, “we do not know how big the problem is, the
amount of victims rescued, probably about 20,000 or so, would be about two percent in the sea of
victims."
The new standard for clarification does not require information to be true, factual, or accurate.
The new standard disregards the need for empirical evidence. Rather, it welcomes any bit of information
that simply seems plausible and cannot be proven false. Anyone is now free to quote CdeBaca or Costa
with their respective numbers. By the standards of current media, advocates, and government
reporting, both men are correct – because no one can prove either man wrong.
Local and national media, always searching for a tagline that will bring the most people to their
program in order to boost ratings and subsequent advertising dollars, lap up every salacious quote
nonprofit organizations can bring them.
Of course, in an effort to continually raise more donations, these charitable organizations often
create attention-grabbing, blanket statements out of thin air. Or worse, they will quote other sources
with no reality in their numbers, thereby propagating information which cannot be proven or disproven.
With the NGO jumping into the role of “expert” and the news outlet looking for headlines, everyone
with a stake in the game plays along with the arrangement to bring the ‘important information you
should know about’ to the public. It’s a powerful partnership producing virtually no real knowledge or
understanding.
The information is rarely based on truth, reliable studies, or hard data. Instead, it is fluff; mere
fiction intended to draw in more dollars and more viewers. With the current state of media,
forever on deadline and under constant pressure to produce the most sensational news packages, there
is no pressure to prove the facts or statistics provided by these “go to” anti-human-trafficking
organizations. Anecdotal evidence rules the airwaves and the issue.
 “Numbers take on a life of their own,” observes David A. Feingold, director of the Ophidian
Research Institute, “gaining acceptance through repetition, often with little inquiry into their
derivations. Journalists – bowing to the pressures of editors – demand numbers, any numbers.
Organizations feel compelled to supply them, lending false precision and spurious authority to many
reports.”
“The trafficking of girls and women is one of several highly emotive issues which seem to
overwhelm critical faculties,” according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural
Organization Trafficking Statistics Project, which was initiated as “a first step toward clarifying what we
know, what we think we know, and what we don’t know about trafficking.”
The most common claim made by the local organizations and their partners in the local media is
that their home turf has a particularly bad human trafficking problem; far worse than other areas in
America. “Houston is home to the largest commercial sex industry per square mile,” reported KSBJ radio
in Texas. Their unquestioned source is Rescue and Restore of Houston, who see themselves as “brokers
of change in the anti-human-trafficking movement.” Their source for the claim is never given, however
for $20 they will take you on a bus tour of Houston to see, from the safety of an air-conditioned coach,
‘red flags’ that human trafficking may be afoot” in Houston.
With great affection for the word “hub,” there is a constant flow of stories touting the vicious
local problem of human trafficking.
“Atlanta a hub for child prostitution even after more than a decade of efforts to stamp it out.
Advocates contend at least 400 minors prostitute themselves in Georgia,” reports the Atlanta Journal-
Constitution. “Toledo is a hub in the country for the recruitment of our kids into the sex trade,” says Dr.
Celia Williamson, founder of Second Chance, an “organization designed to help victims of prostitution
and human trafficking.” She claims, “the FBI ranks it fourth in the nation for investigations, arrests, and
rescues of children; children forced into prostitution.” “Florida: A Modern Slavery Hub,” is the title of an
article by the Florida Chapter of the National Organization for Women which goes on to say that,
“Florida is commonly known among law enforcement personnel to have one of the highest incidences of
human trafficking in the country.” “Phoenix is a hub for sex-trafficking, a place where young girls are in
high demand,” proclaims The Colombian Newspaper. “Portland has the highest per capita number of
porn shops of any U.S. city. Now, Portland has been called a major hub for child sex trafficking,” charged
the Portland Tribune, which concluded, “While Las Vegas, Hawaii, California, and Washington are hit
hard by the epidemic as well, Portland is a particular hot spot because it’s situated along the Interstate 5
corridor, a perfect place for pimps in their 30s to recruit girls as young as 12 to disconnect from their
friends and families and start selling their bodies for sex.”
Local media sometimes put aside the basic principles of journalism in order to gain the bragging
rights of having the worst human trafficking problems in their area. On October 7, 2010, Seattle
television station, KCPQ – “Q13Fox” – ran a report titled, “Human Trafficking: The Laws And Challenges
For The State.” The longer than usual story ran three minutes and thirteen seconds (most local news
stories are 90 seconds or less) and focused entirely on the fact that “the numbers of children being
prostituted every year,” in Seattle, Washington, “is growing at an alarming rate.” The story included
interviews with Linda Smith, an unidentified Federal official, and Assistant United States Attorney Ye-
Ting Woo, who speaks accurately to the dynamic of where victims are found: “There are trafficking
victims who were found in quiet, residential, east side neighborhoods. There are trafficking victims who
are found in Southwest Washington, in rural areas, in busy businesses. There’s not one particular area
where you can go and say this is where it’s happening.”
The report and interviews describe the problem of underage prostitution exclusively in Seattle,
Washington. There is no other geographic area covered in the news piece.
To create visual impact during a television news story, the reporter or anchor will often speak
over “B-roll,” which is background video related directly to a particular event. A typical use of B-roll is a
television news anchor, sitting at their desk “in studio” explaining the story of an overnight house fire
while the viewer is shown video of the fire scene. This is a “voice-over” using B-roll to create a news
“package.”
During the KCPQ package on Seattle, Washington, commercial sexual exploitation of “young
girls” the reporter begins the story from inside the television studio explaining how human trafficking
works within the city. However, the B-roll seen by the viewer is clearly from an unnamed Asian city. The
young girls lining the street corners are all Asian. The signs on the buildings are in Asian writing. The
license plates on the automobiles are not the type and size used by any state in America. Quickly, the
scene switches to shots of suburban areas around Seattle, inside the Seattle legislature, and Washington
State’s Capitol building. Then, we’re taken back to Asian girls walking the street – with palm trees in the
background. Next, the view is showing video of young girls, disheveled and filthy, coming out of a
stuffed and hidden cupboard, along with two girls walking through what looks like an attic. No
explanation is given for the footage, its location, or its relevancy to the story.
The reporter was subsequently asked about her source of the footage used in the news story
about CSE in Washington. Her reply: “We used lots of YouTube video for that piece. Most of it was from
overseas as they seem much more aware of the problem there.” With no consideration for the truth or
what they were implying by showing the video, the “journalists” had done what any high-school student
working on a video essay would do: they simply downloaded the worst video they could find from
YouTube and passed it off as factual.
The confusion didn’t end there. The television station posted the entire interview with Linda
Smith on its website, during which the reporter asks Smith, “from talking to members of ICE, the FBI,
Seattle PD . . . they’re telling me that Seattle is coming up number one,” with regards to human
trafficking. Without disagreeing with the interviewer’s assessment of Seattle being “number one,” Smith
replied, saying, “The numbers here are soft. They’re not going to be quantified. I actually don’t know
how many girls and boys that we help. It’s thousands. Whether it’s one or thousands, this area is very
key in setting a tone for the nation.”
Then, without checking the source of the information or the statistics behind the reporter’s
question to Smith, Washington State University’s newspaper, The Evergreen, ran a story titled, “Seattle
ranks first in child prostitution,” on October 15, 2010. The story cited WCPQ verbatim, reporting the TV
station, “aired a special on child prostitution in the Pacific Northwest,” and that “Seattle is first in the
nation in child prostitution.”
That was all the Internet needed. Within 24 hours, hundreds of news stories, blogs, twitter
alerts, and Facebook accounts were lighting up with the news. The “global human trafficking roundup,”
published by Examiner.com, ran the headline, “Seattle ranks the first in nation for child prostitution,” on
the very same day.
True or not, Seattle’s status as the center of child prostitution in America had become “fact.”
“Slavery has been abolished under international law for more than 150 years,” explains
University Law Professor Brian Lepard. “But the fact is slavery persists and contemporary forms of
slavery are actually increasing in many parts of the world. It occurs right here in America and right here
in Nebraska.”
Locals not only enjoy claiming that their particular town is one of the main hubs of trafficking,
but providing melodramatic examples of it happening “right here in the America.” Hopefully, the media
will soon end its perfunctorily feigned shock at the news that human trafficking occurs in the United
States. A quick review of current trafficking stories reported at the local, regional, and national level
shows the vast majority of these reports have a remarkably similar angle: “Think Human Trafficking does
not happen? Think again!” Or, “Human trafficking is a crime more readily associated with less developed
countries than our own safe communities. The sad truth, however, is that the sordid crime has become
a growing problem right here in North Carolina.” Or, “Most Louisvillians would have a hard time
imagining that anything like that could be happening here, but the unfortunate truth is that human
trafficking happens everywhere, especially places like Louisville.” Or, “Farm workers held as slaves?
Where? In the United States.” Or, “Human trafficking isn’t just overseas: It’s alive in D.C. and its
suburbs.” Or, “It’s hard to believe but the sex trafficking of children is happening right here in
Connecticut.”
A typical introduction to this kind of story reads like this: “Housing lacked enough heat in
freezing winters and air conditioning in scorching summers. They repeatedly went hungry and even
trapped wild birds to subsist. That did not occur in Sudan, Burma, or some other infamous Third World
slavery abyss. It happened in Utah . . .”
Occasionally, the story uses the “in our little town” angle. Reporting on “a region better known
for its affluence and desirable coastal lifestyle,” San Diego’s North County Times Newspaper called
human trafficking, “A Blemish on Region’s Sunny Reputation,” further explaining that “two dozen people
were arrested in a prostitution sting involving several health spas. This bust didn’t occur in San Francisco
or New York City. It happened in Vista.”
Stories beginning like this eventually get to the particular case they are reporting. Soon, it leaves
the news cycle. The victims are forgotten and the issue itself goes away. That is until another
exploitation story comes to light. Then the entire cycle starts over again. “Human trafficking in our
town? That’s what police are claiming.” “Yes, human trafficking happens here. And it happens more
than you think.”
Commenting on the way her colleagues report stories of human trafficking and CSE, Lynn Sherr,
a former ABC News Correspondent and writer for The Daily Beast observed that “they are headline
stories, they are sexy headline stories and then nobody follows through on them.”
All too often, the stories of the victims get lost in the high-pitched tenor of the attention-
grabbing headlines. Meaningful information is pushed aside in this habitually circuitous reporting. While
Feingold observes that, “Trafficking is clearly the flavor of the month, forcing its way up the public
agenda,” its coverage in the traditional and new media is repetitive to the point of numbing their
audience. Reporting CSE as rare, unusual, or exotic is just one in a long list of inaccuracies. It is a
monstrous crime, a horrible sin against humanity, a deadly, dirty business. But, it is also commonplace
and has been for a very long time.
“This is a U.S. problem. This is a Florida problem. It’s an Alachua County problem. This isn’t just
one case we have that we stumbled across. This is a local issue,” states Alachua County Florida Detective
Tyson Elliott. Venting his frustration with the perception that human trafficking doesn’t happen very
often and the media’s lackluster reporting of it, Elliott asks, “Drugs are the number one crime in the
world. Guns are the number three crime worldwide. So, if we have those two, why wouldn’t we have
the number two crime in the world, which is human trafficking?” he asked.
“I think we have an easier time looking at these girls when they are in India or Thailand and
being thoughtful or supportive of those girls,” explains Sadaa Saar, executive director of the Rebecca
Project. “But when those girls come from Southeast D.C., or Toledo, Ohio, or Atlanta, Georgia, we are
challenged at being able to see them as victims. It’s much easier to call them bad girls or girls acting out,
as opposed to recognizing these are girls who are vulnerable, who are being raped and exploited.”
CSE in the United States should not be a continuous, repetitive loop in the public discourse.
Slaves were brought and made here when Europeans settled North America centuries ago and there
have been slaves here ever since. Yes, that is news. But it is old news. It is time to move on and dig
deeper into the issue. Otherwise, we are doing a profound disservice to the needs of the victims, the
complexities of the crime, and the methods by which it can be fought.
Perhaps the most dangerous myth is that simply discussing or communicating the issue is
somehow enough. Victims deserve nothing less than a response of courage, sacrifice, and action. Luis
CdeBaca implores the news media as “an independent voice – hopefully the voice of the victim –
hopefully with enough responsible standards that it is not an extra form of exploitation . . . to
strengthen the movement against this crime.”
While excellent, life-saving work is being performed every day by only a handful of American
nonprofit organizations, the majority of self-proclaimed, “modern-day abolitionists” spend their time
writing blogs, blasting e-mails, planning events with every conceivable theme, and creating clever
methods of attracting an all-too-willing media.
The problems discrediting the anti-human-trafficking movement are exacerbated by the
profusion of sensationalists eager to get their version of the issue in the news. Their quest for money
and the spotlight has them spreading statements and statistics without the slightest consideration given
to the original sources or veracity of the information they are quoting.
Melissa Farley, founder of Prostitution Research & Education, an organization that claims to
conduct “research on prostitution, pornography and trafficking,” told The New York Times that “98
percent of sex workers who advertised on Craigslist, were victims – of abuse, drugs, poverty or
circumstance – who desperately wanted out of the profession.” Knowing she had absolutely no proof,
research, or real data to validate her claim, the Times simply printed the quote without challenging or
checking the number, thereby giving validation where none was warranted.
In an 11-page “research report” entitled, “Renting an Organ for Ten Minutes: What Tricks Tell Us
about Prostitution, Pornography, and Trafficking,” Farley offers virtually no cogent statistical analysis,
just hundreds of quotes from johns meant to shock and infuriate readers. The only set of numbers
offered in the 2007 narrative appears in a short list of percentages of men who have ever bought or
“rented a woman in prostitution” in 12 different countries. While presenting the list as valid, Farley
offers the disclaimer: “It is impossible to accurately estimate how many men in the world have bought
women for sex. Representative samples of customers of prostitutes do not exist.” After nullification of
the very information presented, the validity of the “report” is further compromised by the fact that the
figures offered are from other studies, the latest of which was conducted in 2000, while the oldest
figures are from research conducted in 1964 and 1948.
Yet few, if any, challenge the results of such reports. They are either too eager to use the
numbers for their own gains or are apprehensive about questioning a “known authority.”
Like fundamentalist religious and political idealists who demand that constituents strictly adhere
to their particular tenants of faith and governmental philosophies, NGOs often establish strict rules of
obedience pertaining to their organization’s agenda, philosophical perspective, statistical gospel, and
financial goals. Those who do not obey the established order are merely cast aside as heretics. There is
very little tolerance for those whose opinions might interrupt the status quo or put potential donations
at risk.
While the topic of CSE is complex of its own merits, the eager acceptance of false and
misleading information surrounding the issue has led to even greater confusion in the media and the
public. Yet, the chaos and drama caused by activists so often compelled by masked agendas is not
limited to the carnage done by the misinformation they propagate. The real damage is that victims are
being used, once again, by those who claim to be helping them.
Without victims, there would be no reason for these organizations to exist; there would be no
story to report. Solving the problem of human trafficking would bring an end to their stated missions
along with the jobs of those who are employed by them, and the income and attention they enjoy. In
order to “boost awareness” they use victims and numbers with reckless abandon.
This is not to say CSE is not increasing. It most certainly is. The point here is that there is simply
no précis to demonstrate the truth one way or another. The only truth we know with absolute certainty
is that victims suffer – however many there are and wherever they may be. As anti-trafficking groups
become more entrenched and focused on their own existence and, as the media works in tandem with
them to entice the public, victims of trafficking – and the truth – become casualties of twisted priorities.
The real work to save victims and prevent more from being exploited is sacrificed on the altar of self-
promotion and financial gain.
Once again, the pain and suffering of victims are used for the money they can provide to others.



“Don’t take assumptions for granted. Begin by taking a skeptical attitude toward anything that is
conventional wisdom. Make it justify itself. It usually can’t. Be willing to ask questions about what is
taken for granted. Try to think things through for yourself. There is plenty of information. You have got
to learn how to judge, evaluate, and compare it with other things. You have to take some things on trust
or you can’t survive. But if there is something significant and important don’t take it on trust. As soon as
you read anything that is anonymous you should immediately distrust it.”
Noam Chomsky



Finding the numbers too good to pass up, one reporter swallowed whole the statements of The Renewal
Forum, which undertakes “programs of policy research and advocacy to promote respect for human
dignity.” The organization, based “on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.,” boasts “the principals of the
Forum include several leading national experts on human trafficking.” In her Huffington Post blog,
Conchita Sarnoff stated, “According to The Renewal Forum, each year in America 2,300 children [sic] fall
victim to commercial sexual exploitation in Kansas, and 4,700 are victimized in Missouri, with nearly a
quarter of this total (16) being victimized in the Kansas City Metropolitan area.” No backup is given from
the blogger or the organization for these numbers. None is provided because none exists. However, the
data has been repeated in several other forums with unquestioned validity.
On a much larger scale, many are given to quote Professor Kevin Bales, president of the
organization Free The Slaves, whose landmark book, Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global
Economy, first introduced the topic of human trafficking to thousands of readers in 1999. Ten years
later, the numbers from his book are regularly and freely repeated by many looking to inform – and
shock – their audiences with figures they claim to be accurate by mere faith. “Kevin Bales estimates that
there are at least 27 million slaves in the world today,” stated one researcher. “The world has a
population of over 6 billion, yet out of that 6 billion, according to Kevin Bales, 20 million are slaves,”
states another.
Eleven years after Bales’ book was published, Dr. Mick Wilkinson, lecturer on race and social
justice, stated proudly in a British television interview that, “Professor Kevin Bales, who is a colleague
with me at the Wilberforce Institute at the University of Hull, has estimated that there are now 26
million people globally who are actually victims of the slave trade.”
What each Bales commentator fails to mention is that the first person to warn against this use
of information as the last word on the topic is Bales himself. In his book they so often quote he states
emphatically, “No one should assume that I have made a definitive statement about slavery in any of
these countries, about these specific economic enterprises, or about the social relationships that tie
them together. And by no means is this research exhaustive.” Those citing Professor Bales, while
confidently giving life to phantom facts, might be surprised to learn that he firmly believes his research
had to be exploratory because, “contemporary slavery is almost completely neglected in the social
sciences. It is an area wide open for research, but also one in which earlier studies offer little guidance.”
More recently, in his book, The Slave Next Door, Bales admits, “The fact is, the precise number
of slaves in the United States, whether trafficked in from other countries or enslaved from our own
population, is simply not known. Given the hidden nature of the crime, the best numbers on offer are
rough estimates.”
This phenomenon of unapologetically using unsubstantiated data and incorrect facts is
illustrated clearly in one statement from The Slave Next Door in which Bales quotes an FBI official who
was testifying before Congress. “‘The average age range of a child first used in prostitution is 11 to 14,’
FBI assistant director Chris Swecker says, ‘with some as young as 9 years of age.’ It’s another
unsupported statistic,” Bales writes, “but regardless, it is clear that children are being prostituted.”
Though the motive is certainly of good intent, it does not justify citing erroneous numbers.
Stating this data – while hijacking validity from the fact that they were spoken by the FBI – then
immediately declaring there is no evidence or proof to back it up forces the acceptability of unsound
data on the consumer of information. An “unsupported statistic” is nothing more than fiction. Treating it
as anything greater or more valuable is simply dangerous to the issue’s discourse and to finding long-
term solutions. Further publishing and broadcasting “statistics” that are unsupported places the entire
discussion of commercial sexual exploitation on a weak intellectual foundation. The more a statistic,
number, or “fact” is used by “credible sources,” the more false validity clings to it. Credible sources
regurgitating data lacking in credibility do not make the data more dependable. It only makes the person
or persons citing it less credible. In the end, whatever justification is given for using and repeating
mythical data, the victims deserve far better.
Another “go to” human-trafficking commentator is The New York Times Columnist Nicholas
Kristof who has brought unprecedented awareness to the topic of human trafficking. Often called upon
to speak at anti-trafficking conferences and on panel discussions, Kristof has written extensively on the
topic and is perhaps the most well-known anti-trafficking pundit in the media. After quoting the writer
on the topic of human trafficking during a speech in New York City, United Nations Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon validated his statement by saying, “This is the phrase, the language which I have been
using around the world many hundred times, quoting Nicholas Kristof.”
Not immune to putting sensationalism before verifiable facts, Kristof ’s November 27, 2010,
column told the story of “Yumi” who he describes as “a college graduate who says she spent three years
terrorized by pimps in a brothel in Midtown Manhattan.” After relating the horrifying details of “Yumi”
being forced into prostitution on 36th Street in New York City, Kristof states emphatically, “I can’t be
sure of elements of Yumi’s story, but it mostly rings true to me.” Again, rather than offer evidence or
verifiable facts, otherwise reputable journalists provide stories that simply “ring true.” In the same
article, Kristof makes another important qualification pertaining to his – and every – human-trafficking
story in the media, “No one has a clear idea of the scale of the problem, and estimates vary hugely.”
However, this does not downplay the dynamic that, “the victim identity imposed on so many in the
name of helping them makes helpers themselves disturbingly important figures,” according to Laura
María Agustín, human rights advocate, author, and staunch critic of what she refers to as the human
trafficking “Rescue Industry.”

“The number of cases for which we have this data are few, too few on which to base any conclusion.”
Commercialized Prostitution in New York City
1913

The increasingly incestuous discussion going on between all those involved in the “anti-trafficking
community” has been successful mostly at closing off the discourse to all those not within their limited
circle. They use the same sources of information, quote the same data, seek funds from the same
donors, attend the same meetings and conferences, read and write the same information online, clamor
to be near the same celebrities, and take advantage of the same superficial media outlets and publicity.
The repetition of their gospel gives what Stephen Colbert calls a “truthiness” to what they are saying. It
may be true. It may not be. But if we all “feel” like it’s true, then it must be.
The result is an aging merry-go-round filled with riders who call themselves “experts in human
trafficking” whose main purpose is to keep the ride going.
Having worked on the issue of human trafficking for more than 20 years, Matthew Friedman,
regional project manager for the United Nations Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking observe
that, "the real experts in human trafficking are not people like me, they are the people who have been
trafficked.”
Author and former “rentboy” (male prostitute) David Henry Sterry explains, “When I first came
out as an ex-sex worker, I started getting invited to prostitute and sex worker conferences. There are
two distinct groups who inhabit this world: decriminalizationists and abolitionists. Decriminalizationist
conferences are populated by academics, policy wonks and activists, plus a few current and former hos,
hookers, call girls and rent boys. Abolitionist conferences are populated by much the same, plus
politicians and law enforcement. Both groups are evangelical, rhetorical and theoretical. Statistics are
bandied about, dogma is flung and resolutions are passed. The decriminalizationists keep screaming
“Decriminalize sex work!” The abolitionists keep screaming “Sex work is slavery!” and want human
traffickers to be hunted down like dogs.”

“To your request of my opinion of the manner in which a newspaper should be conducted, so as to be
most useful, I should answer, ‘by restraining it to true facts & sound principles only.’ Yet I fear such a
paper would find few subscribers. It is a melancholy truth, that a suppression of the press could not
more completely deprive the nation of it’s benefits, than is done by it’s abandoned prostitution to
falsehood. Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious
by being put into that polluted vehicle. The real extent of this state of misinformation is known only to
those who are in situations to confront facts within their knowledge with the lies of the day. I really look
with commiseration over the great body of my fellow citizens, who, reading newspapers, live & die in
the belief, that they have known something of what has been passing in the world in their time; whereas
the accounts they have read in newspapers are just as true a history of any other period of the world as
of the present, except that the real names of the day are affixed to their fables. General facts may
indeed be collected from them, such as that Europe is now at war, that Bonaparte has been a successful
warrior, that he has subjected a great portion of Europe to his will, etc., etc.; but no details can be relied
on. I will add, that the man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads
them inasmuch as he who knows nothing is nearer to truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods
& errors. He who reads nothing will still learn the great facts, and the details are all false.”
Thomas Jefferson
Letter to John Norvell, newspaper editor and U.S. Senator from Michigan
June 14, 1807

In the United States, the depiction of commercial sexual exploitation becomes increasingly fuzzy with
each new report. After exposing the fictitious $20-billion child-pornography figure, the Washington Post
exhibited its frustration with the lack of data by stating, “Statistics documenting the problem are vague
and vary widely. The government estimates that 14,500 to 17,500 victims of trafficking are brought to
the United States each year. A study funded by the Justice Department found that almost 2,000 children
fall into a category of trafficking victims because they are at risk of sexual exploitation.”
By far, the most widely recognized source of trafficking information and statistics is the annual
Trafficking In Persons Report compiled under federal mandate by the U.S. Department of State. In 2010
the report made the unprecedented move of rating the United States among the worlds’ nations in their
efforts to battle human trafficking. Statistics in the TIP report, released on June 14, 2010, were widely
circulated with incredible speed by advocates and the media – all hungry for numbers of any kind.
Read carefully, however, TIP does not offer much help to anyone looking to clarify the picture of
trafficking of all forms in the United States. For instance, the report admits, “It is unknown how many
U.S. citizen victims were referred to law enforcement or received services.”
With only apparent accuracy, the 2010 report confidently concludes that, “Eighty-two percent of
foreign adult victims were labor trafficking victims, of which 58 percent were men and 42 percent were
women; 15 percent were adult sex trafficking victims, all of whom were women; and three percent were
victims of both forms. Fifty-six percent of foreign child victims were labor trafficking victims, of which
half were boys and half were girls; 38 percent were sex trafficking victims, of which 16 percent were
boys; and six percent were victims of both forms.” While these statistics were repeated around the
world as inarguable fact, many of the repeaters overlooked or chose to ignore an important disclaimer
on the very same page: “Despite the mandates of 2005 and 2008 amendments to the TVPA, uniform
data collection for trafficking crimes or numbers of victims among federal, state, and local law
enforcement agencies did not occur during the reporting period.” How, then, was the data obtained?
Imitating so many others who quote figures with no foundation, the writers of the U.S.
government’s report do not explain how or from where they collected the information they are
providing. This leaves the validity of the TIP 2010 statistics, as they relate to the United States, in serious
question.
Yet, while some cling to its claims with cult-like devotion, others use the report for their own
devices. Politically, the TIP report is used each year as a point of criticism by the opponents of the sitting
Presidential administration. While their motivations are political gain (another immeasurable quantity)
rather than victim salvation, they nonetheless have valid points to make.
Immediately following the release of the 2010 report, the first to cover a full year of the Obama
Presidency and a State Department headed by Hillary Clinton, Janice Shaw, a former speechwriter for
George H. W. Bush, wrote that the report was, “deeply flawed,” stating, “the Department of Justice did
not comply with the mandate to study and tabulate the extent of the trafficking problem in the United
States.”
Much to the dismay of fundamentalist advocates against human trafficking who stand firmly by
any and all published statistics from the noted disciples of their cause, Shaw is absolutely correct in
observing that, “the 2010 TIP report does not address the provisions of the 2008 Wilberforce Act which
required the TIP office to coordinate anti-trafficking efforts across the Federal agencies, thus ensuring
compliance with the legislation’s provisions, including a new model law for states that would make all
acts of pandering and pimping per se crimes regardless of whether or not there is proof of fraud, force,
or coercion, and whether or not the victim is a minor.” She concludes that the TIP’s office at the State
Department and its report’s failure to rate the United States accurately, “effectively gives free reign to
exploiters from Craigslist advertisers, escort services, massage parlors, brothel operators to the street
pimps.”
Here we are reminded of Feingold’s reality check: “It is crystal clear, however, that in the case of
human trafficking, no one really knows the true value of the trade. Trafficking numbers provide the false
precision of quantification, while lacking any of the supports of statistical rigor.”
In an attempt to justify the massive funding it receives from the U.S. Federal Government,537
Polaris Project, an organization “committed to combating human trafficking and modern-day slavery,”
released a “Dirty Dozen” listing of American States “that have failed to enact basic human trafficking
provisions or have provisions that fail to adequately address the growing crime.”538 The list of 12 states
included: Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, South
Dakota, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming. The press release also stated that
 “Human trafficking is a $32 billion a year industry worldwide,” and that “an estimated 100,000
American children are exploited in the commercial sex industry annually.” The release – and
accompanying map – never mentions why these states were selected or the criteria used in targeting
them. Further, absolutely no sources are given for the statistics or the methodology used in arriving at
them. Polaris is often used by the media and anti-human-trafficking advocates as the best source for
trafficking information because of its close alignment with the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS), from which it gets the bulk of its funding. As such, the list of “dirty” states and the
statistics provided in the press release were quickly picked up by organizations and activists who used
the new information to argue that they need more money to “end modern-day slavery.” It was no more
than a tool for more fundraising. While the fine print of its “Dirty Dozen” press release clearly states that
it was paid for by HHS but does not reflect its views, Polaris used the information it created to bolster its
position as a leader in the anti-trafficking movement, thereby assuring its federal funding in coming
years.
“Data is a huge problem,” says Mike McGraw, a Kansas City Star reporter who won a Pulitzer
prize for his series of articles, “Human Trafficking in America.” “There are no good numbers. And the
numbers that we have had have been questioned over and over again by the GAO [Government
Accountability Office] and others.”
Noy Thrupkew, author of The Nation magazine series, “The Crusade Against Sex Trafficking”
agrees. While pointing out unknown agendas behind all the numbers, “A significant issue (is) the
profound lack of data or prevalence of very ideological skewed data or data with questionable
methodology behind the procurement of said data.”
One of the most widely circulated of these questionable “facts” is that “600,000 – 800,000 men,
women, and children are trafficked across international borders” each year. Thousands of websites,
articles, fundraisers, and “experts” continue to quote this spurious figure first cited in the 2004 TIP
Report.
After researching the veracity of the number in 2006, the Government Accounting Office (GAO)
determined that “the U.S. government’s estimate was developed by one person who did not document
all his work,” and that “the accuracy of the estimates is in doubt because of methodological weaknesses,
gaps in data, and numerical discrepancies.” Noting that “The U.S. Government agency that prepares the
trafficking estimate is part of the intelligence community, which makes its estimation methodology
opaque and inaccessible,” the GAO report concluded that the government “has not yet established an
effective mechanism for estimating the number of victims or for conducting ongoing analysis of
trafficking related data.” Citing the government’s methodology for determining trafficking figures, The
Washington Post discovered “an unscientific estimate by a CIA analyst who relied mainly on clippings
from foreign newspapers.”
Despite the serious lack of validity discrediting the “600,000 – 800,000” figure since 2006, it
remained in wide circulation. For instance, the Connecticut General Assembly Interagency Task Force on
Trafficking in Persons submitted a “Final Report” in January 2007, citing the number in its introduction
under the heading, “What is Human Trafficking?” Neither did the GAO’s sharp criticism of the number
stop Ambassador Mark Lagon, then the Director of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in
Persons, from stating in June 2008 that, “according to the U.S. intelligence community, approximately
800,000 people are trafficked across international borders each year.” Nor does the lack of evidence
prevent anti-trafficking fundraising organizations from erroneously proclaiming the apocryphal number
as fact on their donation websites years later.
Realizing the number needed a healthy dose of solid research, the Library of Congress and CIA
contracted Mercyhurst College graduate students to start surfing the Internet, looking for more stories
about trafficking. “The numbers were totally unreliable,” observed David Osborne, who led the Library
of Congress’s Federal research division at the time. “If it was reported that 15 women were trafficked
from Romania into France, French media might pick it up and say 32 women and someone else would
say 45.” Once their anecdotal evidence had been gathered, “a CIA analyst ran the research through a
computer simulation program,” reported The Washington Post in 2007. Finally, the number everyone
was looking for appeared on the computer screen: 14,500 -17,500 victims in America every year.
Since that moment the number has been cited as absolute fact by an ever-increasing club of
giddy usual suspects, few of whom realize they are quoting a machine.
Journalism critic Trevor Butterworth exposes some of the motivations and agendas buried
beneath the surface by explaining, “in the vacuum created by this disconnect and distrust, fear and rage
are ministered to by a mix of aggressive and well-funded activist campaigns and a virtual network of
publications and bloggers lacking in any apparent scientific training or skepticism.”
Another glaring example of questionable data made valid through the mere fact that it was
stated publicly came during the September 15, 2010, hearing before a Congressional Subcommittee on
Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security. The hearing focused on “Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking” and
was the forum to which Craigslist representatives had been asked to testify.
The statements from those testifying during just this one event demonstrate that whenever
otherwise reasonable and intelligent people are under pressure to cite statistics they often fall back to a
certain set of apocryphal numbers that must certainly annoy their intellect at some level. Addressing
these whispers of the mind, there is a pattern among those in the anti-human-trafficking community in
which they provide qualification prior to citing statistics. “Although it is difficult to quantify the scope of
this problem with accuracy,” stated Ernie Allen, president and CEO of NCMEC when he testified that day,
“the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children estimates that at least 100,000 American children
each year are the victims of commercial child prostitution and child trafficking.”
During her statement, former Congresswoman Linda Smith, appearing as the founder and
director of Shared Hope International, stated, “A study done in Georgia used Craigslist advertising to
determine that 12,400 men buy sex with young women in a given month in Georgia, of whom 7,200 end
up exploiting a minor. These 7,200 men account for 8,700 paid sex acts with minors each month in
Georgia, with an average of 300 acts per day.” At the same hearing the report was also referred to as
“the first of its kind to quantify, describe, and understand demand for paid sex with underage girls” by
Deborah Richardson, who was testifying for the Women’s Funding Network.
The report they quoted, “Men Who Buy Sex with Adolescent Girls: A Scientific Study,” was
conducted by The Schapiro Group, a private research firm referring to itself as “a strategic partner for
corporate, nonprofit, public sector and political clients,” that is “pleased to be known” for “flexibility and
imagination.”
After objectively analyzing the entire report, Amanda Flaim, a statistics consultant for David
Feingold at Cornell University, who specializes in demography and research methods, found the report
“extremely problematic on a number of levels,” citing “its various shortcomings in terms of its near
complete disregard for substantiation of research in a body of literature, its insufficient elaboration of
the methodology, its full lack of attention to ethics, and the various extrapolations/ conclusions they
draw out of the ‘statistics.’” Flaim captured the frustration with the ongoing use of data claiming to be
“scientific” by concluding, “It’s truly disappointing that most research on sex trafficking is so poorly
executed. Poor research will not inform strong policy to effectively deal with such a horrific practice.”
An introduction to the United Nations Trafficking Statistics Project brought some clarity to the
cause behind the growing confusion. “When it comes to statistics, trafficking of girls and women is one
of several highly emotive issues which seem to overwhelm critical faculties. Numbers take on a life of
their own, gaining acceptance through repetition, often with little inquiry into their derivations.
Journalists, bowing to the pressures of editors, demand numbers, any number. Organizations feel
compelled to supply them, lending false precisions and spurious authority to many reports.”
 Certainly, this lack of accuracy and the compulsive habit of circulating squishy numbers in order
to advance an agenda are not new to the fight against commercial sexual exploitation. “Anything
resembling an exact figure is obviously impossible to get, but estimates on the total of full-time
professional prostitutes in the United States run as high as 500,000,” reported Time magazine in 1971
with no substantiation. However, the tactic goes back even further, having been used in the United
States for nearly 200 years.
“Few statistics were as inexact and divergent as those pertaining to the population of
prostitutes,” writes Timothy Gilfoyle in his historical study of prostitution in New York City between
1790-1920. Indeed, in 1833 the Journal of Public Morals agreed that the number of 10,000 prostitutes
working in New York was certainly exaggerated, “but it nonetheless continued to employ that figure.”
In 1834, the New York Moral Reform Society began to address the rising problem of male
“licentiousness and its destructive effect on women.” Cities in America were growing rapidly. Young
men and women were leaving their families in rural areas to find work and homes in new urban centers.
“The Moral Reformers were alarmed,” writes Patricia Cline Cohen in her book, A Calculating People: The
Spread of Numeracy in Early America. “One way they chose to communicate that alarm was through
statistics.” In a publication distributed widely by them in the mid-1830s, the Reformers stated
emphatically that in America “there were as many as 12,000 brothels, 75,000 to 120,000 ‘harlots,’
500,000 licentious wicked men, and 500 shops selling ‘evil books, pictures, and the paraphernalia of
destruction.’” They also claimed that 20,000 women died each year “as a result of prostitution.”
Obviously, as Cohen concludes, “their figures were estimates, and there was no way the reader
could evaluate them. But that was less important than the shock value of such large numbers.”
So important were the relevance of numbers to an increasingly educated American public that
Hinton Rowan Helper, a contemporary of Harriet Beecher Stowe and southern anti-slave writer, placed
his 1857 book of “slavery statistics,” The Impending Crisis of The South next to Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s
Cabin in importance and influence, saying, “it is all well enough for women to give the fictions of slavery;
men should give the facts.” Helper’s book rarely mentioned the plight of slaves or Blacks, but rather it
gave an economical and statistical argument that slavery was ultimately bad for White people.
That was enough for the South, where the book was banned and burned.
 “Most of the writing and activism on this issue does not seem to be based on empirical evidence
even when produced by academics,” writes Laura María Agustín. “Many authors lean heavily on media
reports and statistics published with little explanation of methodology or clarity about definitions. The
‘evidence’ is often circular, as officials cite news reports which cite officials.”
Political, financial, and egotistical agendas continually overshadow the true priorities of fighting
commercial sexual exploitation in America: saving current and potential victims. Those recognized as
authorities are promulgating ambiguous statistics, data, and facts for their own gain while consequently
sinking the healing and restoration of victims beneath their personal agendas. Advancing their ideals,
whatever they may be, has become their singular priority. This conspiracy of arrogance is inexorably
destructive to the process of creating best practices and discovering solid answers to extraordinarily
complex questions facing all facets of human trafficking.
It is ironic that we cannot openly and freely discuss ideas with these idealists. By their nature,
they only have but one idea; a singular, confined frame of reference from which they approach all forces
facing the world around them. Unless you are a tried-and-true member of their exclusive tribe of
thought, you, your opinions, your research, your experience, and especially your ideas are invalid to
them, not because of the weight of the evidence you bring, but simply because you are not of like mind.
They draw you into their discourse only to demonstrate their disdain for those who will not loyally recite
the dogma to which they have devoted the whole of their being.
 While the idealist sacrifices truth for the sake of his resolute intellectual stance, he also disposes
of rational unity, critical thinking, and the cooperative creation of lasting solutions. The idealist, no
matter where he stands, does so on one leg. He is an intolerant fool.
In November 2009, one word brought into question the entire theory of global warming and the
scientists who study it. In e-mails hacked from computers at Britain’s University of East Anglia’s Climatic
Research Unit, it was revealed that a well-known, well-respected climatologist had used a statistical
“trick” in a chart illustrating recent, dramatic warming trends. The international media, pundits,
politicians, business leaders, and other academicians immediately denounced the validity of all scientists
studying climate change. The incident irreparably tarnished their reputation as a community. Suddenly,
no one was seeking the truth about the issue at hand. The only matter discussed was the apparent
fallacy of the data and the motives behind those who seemed to be manipulating the numbers. Even if
real answers were to be found, who would believe the scientists who found them? The damage had
been done. The important issue of global warming – true or not – was pushed aside in favor of satisfying
the appetites so inherent in our culture of conflict.

“Fighting human trafficking is not a static exercise. A trafficking law passed last year must be
implemented and improved this year. The lessons learned from last year’s prosecutions should inform
and improve this year’s law enforcement response. Wide disparities between numbers of trafficking
victims identified and trafficking offenders prosecuted should be reviewed with the goal of improving
the capacity of law enforcement responders to deliver justice for victims. Although numbers of
trafficking prosecutions and convictions are important indicators of progress, the quality and impact of
counter-trafficking law enforcement efforts are more significant.”
Hillary Clinton
US Secretary of State

The issue of human trafficking will not be spared from the hunger of world politics. Always seeking a
new issue with which to castigate those who do not agree with their worldview, an issue of this
magnitude will certainly be scrutinized and employed by strategists in America and around the world. To
believe otherwise is to deny basic human nature.
In July, 2010, Nicholas Kristof wrote in The New York Times that trafficking “seems to be
growing,” and that, “various reports and studies, none of them particularly reliable, suggest that
between 100,000 and 600,000 children may be involved in prostitution in the United States, with the
numbers increasing.” At once invalidating the very statistics he is citing, Kristof provides yet another
example of bad numbers repeated in otherwise legitimate journalism.
It is difficult to conceive of a similar statement being made by a respected climate change
advocate: “Global warming seems to be growing. Various reports and studies, none of them particularly
reliable, suggest that temperatures are rising between 10 and 60 degrees, with the numbers increasing.”
The argument for necessary change would collapse on such a weak intellectual foundation.
The pervasive level of puerile reporting on the topic may explain why trafficking is not given the
serious consideration it is due. As such, how long will indeterminate numbers, so often used by
“experts,” stand up to the strict analysis certain to come in the future? Will the issue be pushed aside
yet again? Will life-saving solutions be lost in the din of endless arguing? Most importantly, will its
victims be forgotten once more?
If verifiable facts are not available from those who appreciate true discernment; if the
conversation is filled with fiction while being reported without question as authentic, the consequences
for future victims will be dire.
With the intention of beginning a national moral housecleaning – and selling magazines
– Samuel McClure began a massive public campaign against prostitution and trafficking in 1907 when his
magazine declared, “The gross revenues from this business in Chicago, in 1906, were $20,000,000 – and
probably more. There are at least 10,000 professional prostitutes. Average annual receipts of dollars
each are brought in by these women.” Though no data, research, or evidence for these numbers were
offered, none were needed. The American populace was shocked and demanded action. Within three
years the federal government enacted The Mann Act, a law so massively flawed that over 100 years
later the crime of human trafficking continues to grow unabated.

You cannot take a statistic by the hand. And even if you could, where would you find its heart and soul?
What can be stated as proven fact in the realm of commercial sexual exploitation, human
trafficking, and prostitution is limited to the human suffering of its individual victims. Each of them
began their lives with promise. And each of them had that promise broken and torn away. Though our
urge to quantify the problem often compromises our rational and critical judgment, we must not also let
it diminish the humanity of the individual who is fighting to escape and survive. While many claim to be
experts on the subject of human trafficking, only its victims and survivors have legitimacy in that claim.
Most others are mere observers.
Why is the “world’s oldest profession” reported as something new every time the media reports
it? Why is one of the world’s oldest crimes, slavery, reported with shock every time journalists discover
it? Yes, they are here. They have always been here. There is nothing new about either one. They are as
old as human nature. They are a part of the human condition. But, they don’t have to be. While we
continue the struggle to accurately measure, communicate, and effectively address the issue, thereby
providing it with much needed – and deserved – clarity, the priority must be those who are trapped in
the grip of trafficking without regard to how many there are, but rather to who they are. Their salvation
rests in the public’s realization that whatever their number, these are human beings, equal to us, and
each worthy of a life filled with hope, freedom, and joy.



“Everything that artifice, violence, intimidation, popular countenance, and official connivance can do is
done to conceal the extent of the traffic.”
John Quincy Adams - January 24, 1841
Arguing the L’Amistad Case before the U.S. Supreme Court


 Section Six
Getting Involved in the Fight Against
Commercial Sexual Exploitation

The Internet has created a world in which girls have become the new, addictive drug; a new commodity
to be bought and sold providing an irresistible profit margin. While street walking, strip joints,
newspaper ads, and motels are still going strong – the demand for young women and men is now hyper-
fueled by the Internet and the continually growing number of online listings.
The danger for victims has never gone away. It’s merely hiding and far more efficient. And those
who choose to drive by each day in blissful ignorance are complicit in creating the shadows in which it
lurks.
People seeking its illicit offerings no longer need to drive to the street corners or cruise the strip
to find women for sale. The street corner now comes to them and extends even beyond the front door
of every home in the United States. This Virtual street corner makes its way into the living rooms,
basements, bedrooms, hotel rooms, classrooms, and offices of anyone with a connected computer.
Yes, much of the obvious lewdness of traditional street-corner prostitution has gone away, often
leading us to believe that the continued abuse of these women has disappeared altogether or as
somehow become safe and sterile for those involved. In fact, it has become much larger, more
prevalent, and dangerous than ever before.
You don't have to drive to a theatre to see an X-rated movie. Simply download one at home.
You don't have to go to the store to buy a pornographic magazine. Millions of images are
available for free while you sit on your sofa.
You don't have to go to a “sex-booth” to watch a young female perform for you behind glass.
You can watch her live on your computer.
And while all this virtual content, previously available only in areas known for their proliferation,
are readily available online ― fooling the general public into thinking it no longer exists, making them
complacent or simply content in their ignorance ― the real danger to victims is that the virtual world
has now entered the real world. “Before the internet those who wanted to purchase sex with underage
children had to venture outside of their homes- subjecting themselves to potential arrest and public
stigma,” says Jakie Speier. “Today, perpetrators hide behind their personal computers and have a child
at their doorstep with a click of button.”
No longer does a man need to drive to those areas of town where the women offer themselves
on street corners. No longer does he need to go to strip clubs and find women there who are willing to
do more than dance. No longer does he need to find a newspaper and go to a cheap motel. Now, from
the safety of his home or hotel room, he can simply make a call and have a girl delivered to him like a
pizza.
There is some good news, however.
It is embodied by those who work directly with those who have been abused by commercial
sexual exploitation and stay with them long enough for the victims to become survivors. For years, in
some cases decades, this small group of colleagues has been coping and suffering with few funds and
almost no understanding. In some instances, they have given up hope.
To the detriment of victims, the brave people who are doing the real work to find them and
restore their lives ― by making and keeping life-long, sacrificial, hard commitments ― are being pushed
aside by those who have little experience and even less understanding of the courage, devotion, effort,
and work it takes to save a life damaged by human trafficking.
Articles, conferences, blogs, classrooms, and churches are filled with people and “experts”
talking about doing something, but very few take authentic, life-altering action. The constant call for
“outrage” has created an impotent din with little impact. If real change is to happen it must take place
on a deeply personal level.
“Sex trafficking is too big of a problem to be left to the government alone,” New Jersey
Congressman Chris Smith told his colleagues. While some change can take place at the federal, state,
and local government levels with better legislation and law enforcement, this will not solve the problem
on its own. “Suppression has never worked well,” observed Time Magazine back in 1971. “Even though
punishments for prostitution have at times included mutilation and beheading.” Even if all pimps were
arrested and prosecuted for human trafficking instead of simply “promoting prostitution,” the crime
would continue unabated. US prisons are filled with drug dealers who knew long prison sentences
awaited them. While more victims will be certainly be identified and saved, higher penalties for pimps
only treats the growing symptoms, not the cause.
The cause is men; men who buy and sell girls.
Ultimately, the best way to protect victims is to never allow them to become so in the first
place. And the only way to do this, and prevent the crime from spreading, is by decreasing demand. The
demand for young women who can be bought and sold will only be reduced when pimps and johns
determine that the crime is too risky – or more optimistically, morally reprehensible - to commit. If
demand is reduced in any "product" on the market then the market itself will wither and die. Remove
the demand for girls being sold and fewer will be recruited into exploitation.
This calls for a deep, fundamental change not just in our society, but perhaps in our very nature.
It is not an easy answer. It is a long, complicated answer that will take generations to accomplish.
To begin, legislation can enact better prosecutorial resources and tools that will protect
potential victims of all ages through prevention by reducing demand. This volume, detailing just one
case of human trafficking, adumbrates the exceeding difficulty faced by criminal justice in successfully
prosecuting these crimes. Law enforcement professionals are perhaps most keenly aware of the need
for victims to be healed through healthy, safe relationships. They have a uniquely close perspective from
which they have gained a valuable understanding of a very simple dynamic: victims need to realize their
own personal value and humanity by someone other than their pimps. “This minimally demands a
custodial environment that gives hope of the restoration of a fundamental human need to be cared for
and loved, to have basic survival and safety needs intact, and a diminished sense of hopelessness and
elevated sense of human value,” says Nicholas Sensley, Truckee, California’s Chief of Police. “Without
such circumstances and environments, victims of sex trafficking are readily poised to carry out the
strategic coaching of their traffickers, believe in the false hope they have been given, and flee and return
to their own demise at first opportunity.”
Certainly, the problem of commercial sexual exploitation will not be solved with more rallies,
documentaries, concerts, and charity events that “raise awareness.” These enervated functions gives
those involved the feeling they are doing something, but it does little to pull victims from the dangers of
trafficking or prevent more victims from falling into the pit. Yes, being “aware” of trafficking issues is
important, but often that itself is the implied solution. It is not. In the summer of 2010, everyone in
America was aware of BP's gushing oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, but their awareness did not stop the
leak.
So how do we come to terms with wrong side of the human heart? For whatever reason, it
continues to beat from generation to generation; forever pumping bad blood through the back alley
veins of our world. Telling these hidden demons to simply go away will not rid us of them. Communal
naiveté is no excuse. Denying the existence of these darker angels is as dangerous to the future of
mankind as turning away from our better ones.
They must be confronted up-close, individually, and with utter bravery. Exhilarated shouts
extolled among those who mutually agree only deceive us into believing progress is being made. From
the perspective of the pimps and johns, it is all just silly, useless posturing; a scam made legitimate by its
growing acceptance; a con game equal to their own.
If real change is to happen it will take courageous people – pioneers who are not afraid of
sacrifice, humiliation, and personal loss.
It takes one-to-one, hard, dirty, self-sacrificing work. It takes a willingness to be humiliated,
embarrassed, shamed, poor, rejected, and broken. In other words, it takes a profound determination to
walk in the shoes of the victims; to follow them down into the pit and guide them on their way up and
out.
There are few who have the character and stomach for the hard fight against human trafficking.
And they do so not in the light of publicity and notoriety, but shrouded in the darkness of the dingy
alleyways where they live. Anonymity is their ally – and they would be horrified to have their names
listed here. They are not part of the “anti-trafficking community” so filled with personal agendas,
politics, religion, or professional ambitions. They don’t have time for those who spend their days at
computers, in comfortable offices, or endless meetings. They know their work is a matter of life and
death. They realize the war against human trafficking will not be won through getting their faces on the
news, planning creative fundraising events, or writing another blog posting. They just don’t have time.
The people who are saving the lives of human trafficking victims are not the type to call the fire
department when they see a burning house. They are the people who immediately run inside and look
for those who cannot escape on their own. They put themselves at risk every day. And often, the
burning flames of human trafficking’s fire cause them great pain. This work changes them. It hurts their
relationships with family and friends. They go broke. They lose it all. But they go on because there are
lives at risk; lives worthy of being saved.
The real heroes of human trafficking are hidden. They are quiet and local. They only work a few
streets at a time. They know the players – the good guys and the bad. They stay in the muck of it all for
years. That is why so few people are willing to do what they do. Because real impact takes real sacrifice.
As one survivor of trafficking sees it, "I was once a criminal, once a victim, now I'm a human
rights advocate. I want to make sure that what happened to me happens to no one else. I want those
girls to have options. I want them to have something I never had. A way out! I want people who are on
their side and willing to work hard for their freedom. I only want ride or die people working for victims."
The future is bound to avenge every moment of history we abuse. And ignoring the lessons of
our past is certainly the most damaging abuse we can inflict. Having done so, we will pay a terrible price
in the days to come.
In 1912, the New York State Training School understood the importance of lifelong care. “The
households are practically independent of each other, thereby offering, as far as possible, the conditions
and spirit of a real home. A personal and individual interest in each girl is manifest from the time of
commitment through the school life and for years after the school is left. By careful study each one is
placed in the cottage and environment where she will receive the most help and the best training.
Changes to insure development are made, as necessary. A girls grading depends on her conduct and
proficiency. Discipline is varied, with the principle always in mind that the individual and not the offense
is to be treated. Humiliation and loss of self-respect are avoided.”
Commercialized Prostitution in New York City - 1913


It is not easy, convenient, or sometimes even safe to become friends with a victim of human trafficking,
a prostitute, a drug addict. But, it is the only hope they really have. This war, the war against an old kind
of slavery, will not be fought on battle fields with muskets and cannons. It will be fought by caring
individuals, who accept the hard fact that they must work and strive to save one life at a time.
There can be no mass production when making survivors out of victims. That is why the only
truly effective way for anyone to individually and effectively fight human trafficking is on their local
level; in their backyard.
If you choose to do this work, you have to go to the worst locations in your area and look for the
one crazy, dedicated person who is already knocking on the doors of dingy motel rooms in the middle of
the night. Find the woman who barges in and makes friends with people who scare you. You may not be
able to do what she does, but you can certainly help her do it. And they certainly need as much help as
you can give them.
But understand they don’t want to be found. They won’t trust you at first. You are going to have
to earn the right to help them. They have been on the streets a long time. That’s why they are so
effective. They will trust addicts, prostitutes, and pimps faster than they will trust you. These are their
people. That is where their heart belongs and that is why they are trying to save them. You are not part
of their world and your motives will be suspect.
They will test you. They will not make it easy for you to help them because they have seen “do-
gooders” come and go. Too many people with good intentions have made promises, broken them, given
up, and moved on to easier tasks or other issues that are safer to deal with.
Do not go in with an agenda, whether it is to hand out food, Bibles, or condoms. Do not enter
the situation with any assumptions ― or arrogance ― about what victims need or what those who are
trying to save them need to do their work. In fact, don't say anything; at the very least say as little as
possible. Enter listening. Listen for as long as it takes to really understand – and accept – what the
problems are and the kind of specific help they need. It might not be help you can, or are willing to, give
them. But, if you hear them out ― if you genuinely seek to understand their challenges ― there will be
something you can do.
Remember, if you are male, the challenge will be even greater simply because they see you ―
everything about you ― as the problem. This also gives you the added burden and opportunity to
demonstrate the innate heroism of men. You can show them, perhaps for the first time in their lives,
what a champion is.
If you are devoted enough, if you stay long enough to find out what their needs are, then you
have a real decision to make. How long will you stay in someone else's darkness? How close to the fire
are you willing to get? How much dirt are you willing to get on your hands?
One thing is most important over all: if you make a promise – any promise, large or small – do
whatever it takes to keep it. Human trafficking victims and advocates alike have suffered through a
thousand broken promises. They expect them, but they don’t need more. The problem for the victims is
they don’t think they have enough personal worth for anyone to keep a promise to them. For their
advocates, they think no one truly cares or understands the real issues. That’s why it is so important for
you to keep every promise you make to anyone and everyone. It is part of the healing process for the
victims and part of the trusting process for advocates. They have a very tight relationship and they will
be watching and waiting to see if you fail them. Don’t.



"People don’t realize what you go through, what you come in contact with, what you experience.
There’s so much that people don’t know – like just the raw, nasty putrid shit of it. Your living conditions,
the lack of food, clothing, everything. The way you’re spoken to, the way you’re treated. You’re beaten .
. . You don’t do that to a dog. It’s more than just overcoming a drug addiction. There’s how it affects
your mental health, your physical health, your finances – everything. You literally have to pick yourself
up and pick up little tiny slivers of what’s left of your life. And you have to do it gracefully. And you have
to do it with pride and you have to keep your head up. You have to just ignore all the crap you hear
people saying about you. And to do that by yourself is not an easy thing. You just can’t stop caring. You
just can’t stop because it’s a hard thing to do. There’s only a select few people that seem to be on our
side and want to fight the same battle we do."
Danita
Human Trafficking Survivor

"When I look back to when I was innocent, I was happy. I know my life will never be the same. I just
want my kids to know what a beautiful woman is."
Simone
Human Trafficking Survivor

"You know sometimes I sit here and think, 'maybe I was a victim of my own devices.' Had my life
become just that unimaginable that I really was looking for someone to take control and tell me what to
do and how to do it, who to be? Is there a day when judgment will come for me and condemn me once
again? Have I sinned? Was it all my fault? Then I talk to someone on the streets or think back to
conversations in jail with other girls who are streetwise, and even they tell me that there is a reason for
me to tell my story. They say what happened to me isn't right and that they’re sad to hear me speak of
such things. They cry and can't get over my story and want me to tell more of it to them and others, like
little kids waiting for the reader to turn the page. I think, well then there is a reason why I am so open
about it and why I think people should listen. Though it feels like so often like I am screaming at the top
of my lungs and no one hears me and no one cares to listen. If they are interested in my raw and
unedited details of this whole ordeal then maybe there is a reason for me to pursue this and keep on
truckin'. Otherwise there are so many days that go by and I think that this is going to get me nowhere
and that my story is useless."
Marie
Human Trafficking Survivor


 Section Seven
Other Forms of Human Trafficking
Commercial Sexual Exploitation is one of several crimes often placed within the realm of human
trafficking. Other major forms of trafficking include:

Forced Labor
Considered to be the largest sector of human trafficking in the world, forced labor is defined in various
ways, but certain factors are common among its practice. Victims are induced into slave-like exploitation
through fraud, force, or coercion; they receive little or no pay; they are subject to physical, sexual, and
psychological intimidation and abuse; and they are not free to leave their situation.
Forced labor is found in almost every sector of agriculture, manufacturing, domestics, and
nearly every business activity in which unskilled labor is needed to generate a profit. “Human trafficking
is a heinous international crime,” stated the US Department of Homeland Security. “It is unfortunately
flourishing due to the current global financial crisis. With global demand for labor decreasing,
impoverished workers find themselves taking greater risks than before in order to survive. The result: ‘a
recipe for greater forced labor of migrant workers and commercial sexual exploitation of women in
prostitution.’”
Certainly, the similarities between this modern form of slave labor and traditional slavery are
many. However, the differences are equally striking, often placing 21st century victims in greater
danger. For instance, legal ownership of one person over another is no longer legal anywhere in the
world. Consequently, a person being held in forced labor by another is no longer considered their
property under the law, and therefore is not protected by any legal means. As such, an underground
temporary possession is established by individuals conspiring to acquire as much free labor as possible
by any means necessary. Unlike the colonial era, which provided a legally protected, lifelong ownership
of human beings ― the way individuals purchase homes and have a deed to prove ongoing ownership,
even after death ― people can be purchased and sold in the modern era for very little cash, compared
to the small fortune slave buyers paid during legal slavery. This has created a situation where those
purchased are “disposable.” With such a large supply of potential victims, individuals can be replaced at
virtually no cost. The value put on them is far lower than during traditional, legal slavery since supply
and demand levels are more equal today. In large part, the greater supply exists because slavery no
longer seeks to enslave one particular culture or race. Forced labor in the 21st century crushes its way
across nationality, race, ethnicity, gender, age, class, education level, and all other socioeconomic lines.
Modern human trafficking necessarily involves transnational crime, gangs, warlords, and other criminal
elements along with corrupt criminal justice and government officials.

Domestic Servitude
Within international Forced Labor, Domestic Servitude is an enormous sector of human trafficking. Its
victims ― of both sexes and all ages ― are often forced into grueling service as house servants,
housekeepers, as well as care givers for children, the elderly, and the ill. Not limited to just one activity,
they are frequently called upon to perform any duty the family keeping them insists upon. They are
rarely allowed to leave the particular premises in which they are imprisoned or seen by those from the
outside. With the “masters of the house” controlling every aspect of their lives, they often experience
ongoing sexual abuse.
Child Soldiering
Armed conflicts pervade human history. Boys and girls used forcibly used as soldiers has been as
common as war itself ― both historically and contemporarily. Susceptible because of their age, poverty,
and lack of education, children are recruited by manipulation, force, or threats. Often abducted at
school, on the streets, or at home, they are inadequately trained, treated harshly, and rapidly pushed
into combat. Once forced into service, they are used in battle, for sexual purposes, as spies, or to clear
landmines.

Forced Marriage
In many parts of the world, it is common for a young girl to be promised ― sold ― into marriage with a
much older man. Money changes hands and the family is pleased to have one less mouth to feed,
especially in cultures which do not value female lives as highly as males. No matter how old she is, her
childhood is over. Forced into constant domestic service, she will no longer be educated, allowed to
develop freely, or even have access to basic healthcare. She is expected to become pregnant almost
immediately, even at an early age. She is now the property of her husband. With her freedom gone, the
course of her life has been hijacked.

Organ Harvesting
Increasingly, medical science advances our ability to save and improve lives by using body parts from
other humans. Since the early 1970s, when drugs were developed to control the body’s rejection of
foreign objects, organ transplantation has developed from being an experimental procedure performed
in a few advanced medical centers, to a fairly common operation performed in hospitals and clinics
throughout the world. This rapid spread of transplant capabilities has created a global scarcity of
transplantable human organs. Looking at the market for human body parts from a completely inhuman
perspective, is there really a shortage? In 2011, the global population was estimated to reach seven
billion people. From organized crime's perspective that equates to seven billion human factories
potentially producing body parts for those who need them and are willing to pay for them. In their view,
there is no supply problem. This only presents the problems of acquisition and distribution, which like all
forms of human trafficking is solved in large part by the Internet where the trade in human flesh is
carried out with little risk of exposure.