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Home>Archives for Guest

July 16, 2025 by Guest

New Rights4girls Research

Rev. Dr. Marian Hatcher 
Shared Hope Policy Consultant 

Shared Hope International (SHI) has focused on demand deterrence and victim centered responses since its inception—clear-sighted that ending sex trafficking requires emphasis on both. One of the earliest research reports published by SHI, in association with the Hickey Foundation and Arizona State University, was the Demanding Justice Report in2014. This addressed demand for sex acts from children as well as enforcement efforts related to Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC).

That same year, I was privileged to be the recipient of the Pathbreaker Award for “determined leadership in pursuing the buyers of sex trafficking” on behalf of the Office of the County Sheriff, Thomas J. Dart. Since then, Shared Hope has continued to advocate for demand reduction, in particular by ensuring that laws against trafficking children and CSEC unambiguously include buyer conduct and include meaningful penalties to stifle demand.

This past January, Shared Hope ally Rights4Girls published new “Buyers Unmasked” research. As a survivor leader and expert on demand reduction, this was music to my ears! Not only did the release resonate with me as one who has participated in research of this type in the past, it resonated because it finally offered what survivors know all to personally: a look into the type of men who buy sex and the horrific impact they cause marginalized women and girls.

Demand is buyer driven, fueling and financing an industry built on intimidation, violence and lack of personal autonomy. The report uses the buyers own words to make clear their motivation and lack of concern or remorse for the buying of sex acts. I have personal experience with this, not only as a survivor, but as a civilian member of law enforcement.

From 2011 to 2019 I was responsible for coordinating the Cook County Sheriff’s Office National Johns Suppression Initiative. In that role I saw not only trends and attitudes, but the cooccurring dangers and criminal activities associated with sex buying.

Buyers would sometimes have children, even infants with them when to trying to purchase sex. I remember a buyer left his seven year old daughter in the car while they went into the motel. Another had an infant in the backseat while a loaded weapon was in the front seat.

While difficult to read, the sex buyers in this report reflect a community far from Hollywood’s Pretty Woman fairytale but rather embody the disturbing mantra of ‘your body, my choice.’ Their words reveal them to be fully aware and indifferent to signs of violence, trafficking, coercion, substance abuse and desperation in the women and girls they purchase for sex.”

Yasmin Vafa, Executive Director-Rights4Girls

Having collaborated with Yasmin since 2016, this report is a breath of fresh air. It addresses problems with the solution of the “Full Decriminalization” model which I have long espoused. This approach does not control or constrict the sex trade, it expands it trying to meet the supply. Fallout increases sex trafficking of adults and minors as well as increases organized crime.

The solution offered in the report is the “Survivor Model”, also referred to as the Swedish model, Nordic Model and Equality Model. The Survivor Model is in my opinion appropriate, as we are looking how we can best provide a solution for those involved in the sex trade to find their way out. The solution requires 1) exit strategies, 2) end exploitation by targeting demand for prostitution.

This report provides a roadmap that is hopeful, aligning with my personal and professional beliefs as a survivor leader as well as Shared Hope International’s principles. We look forward to partnering with Rights4Girls supporting this effort.

 

June 25, 2025 by Guest

Sean (P Diddy) Combs Arrest: Response from a Survivor Leader

Rev. Dr. Marian Hatcher 
Shared Hope Policy Consultant 

First, I must state as a retired civilian member of law enforcement, Mr. Combs is of course innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

The charges are grave and pierce my soul as a survivor of sex trafficking and substance use disorder. They include racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution (the Mann Act). All for the pleasure of an organized crime boss. Living above the law. What is alleged is horrific and triggering for those of us who suffered atrocities such as those outlined in the unsealed indictment.

Unfortunately, in the age of the internet many instances of what is alleged to have taken place is seen in video and pictures. While horrible to watch, they have yet to be proven as criminal acts, and many are obviously manipulated to implicate others.

Criminal enterprises are built on the backs of willing and unwilling participants. Many are victims of sexual and labor abuses. They can also be ordered to procure and dispense illegal items such as weapons, narcotics and more.

I was discussing Sean Combs’ arrest with a good friend, Doug Gilmer, President of Resolved Strategies LLC, and retired federal law enforcement leader at Homeland Security Investigations. We commiserated that as we focus on the carnage of the Sean Combs case, there is always more. Doug said,

“Homeland Security Investigations is leading the Sean Combs case, just as they did with R. Kelly. Big name cases, right? But they aren’t the only cases. In fact, during this past year, HSI has also identified and provided services to well over 700 other HT victims, initiated about 1400 new cases, made over 3600 human trafficking arrests, seen over 1000 indictments, and about 630 human trafficking convictions. This is just one federal law agency; it doesn’t include the work being done by state and local agencies across the country. HSI’s numbers are just a fraction of what is really out there. Meanwhile, everyone is focused on Sean Combs. It’s sensational. But guess what? The suspects are not all R Kelly’s and P Diddy’s. Some are gang members, but many others are schoolteachers, community leaders, and family members engaged in trafficking. The victims are young and old, are from every socio-economic class, every ethnicity, both foreign and U.S. citizens.” [Stats from the Homeland Security Investigations and the DHS Center for Countering Human Trafficking.]

Spanning decades, men and women alike are alleged to have endured prolonged abuse. The testimony by Cassandra “Cassie” Ventura, was four days of heart wrenching details of violence, manipulation and coercion. She bravely shared her dehumanization, aware of the victim blaming to come. In the later stages of her third pregnancy, she did for herself and others what was necessary and held Sean Combs accountable.

The common thread of all of this is societal numbness, the normality of this lifestyle. The pervasiveness. There are ecosystems of criminal and exploitive threads in our society that do not protect minors or adults. We must strive to address the willingness to ignore or accept, depending on which way you look at it, the lifestyle described above which exists in hiding and/or glaringly in our face. No one should have the opportunity or privilege to act with impunity, stripping victims of their dignity, respect and liberty. We must continue to bring all manner of bad actors to justice.

March 24, 2025 by Guest

Survivors forced to commit crimes deserve justice through the Trafficking Survivors Relief Act

Rev. Dr. Marian Hatcher
Shared Hope Policy Consultant

Great news, the Trafficking Survivors Relief Act (TSRA) H7139 has been introduced by Rep. Russell Fry (R-SC-7) in the 119th Congress. Although it stalled at the close of the 118th Congress, it now has strong bipartisan sponsorship with more than 50 sponsors. Once passed by the House, Senator Hyde-Smith (R-MS) is expected to lead in the Senate. The bill provides relief for survivors who were forced to commit federal crimes (misdemeanors or felonies) by their traffickers in order to survive their trafficking situation—the so-called, victim/offender.

This gives great hope to those of us who for years have been engaged in the difficult—yes, even contentious process of making progress in the anti-trafficking movement.

While the movement itself tends to be made up of silos with differing perspectives and missions and competition for funding, it is also occupied by the polarizing impact of those working to legalize the human rights violation that is called the “sex trade”.

After all, legalizing the selling and buying of sex certainly unburdens society’s collective conscience in matters of survivor recovery, let alone the pursuit of legislative efforts to provide direct services, programs, restoration of rights etc., to survivors.

Refusing the legalization argument leads to the extremely complicated intersection of victim and offender. The TSRA is a federal remedy that acknowledges the reality that many survivors of sex trafficking have been incarcerated for crimes they were forced or coerced to commit by the trafficker or survive their trafficking situation.

I was a victim/offender in Illinois, blessed with a second chance through jail-based treatment at the Cook County Department of Women’s Justice Services. After completing my sentence, I actually became an employee of the Sheriff’s Office in 2005.  Ten years later I helped coordinate the Global Summit to End Sexual Exploitation, hosted at the Carter Center to formalize policy proposals and to honor survivors just like me.

It was at this distinguished convening, that I had the opportunity to talk directly to the 39th President of the United States about my experience as both a victim and an offender. I was humbled that I could engage on behalf of Sheriff Dart, a visionary and great humanitarian, with someone who also embodied those rare attributes.  I stated “Mr. President, I have been good for the last nine or 10 years, I work for law enforcement. I shouldn’t be a convicted felon”. President Carter shook his head in agreement and simply said “well done”.

In 2017, the Friday before Christmas I received a call from my attorney informing me that my application for Executive Clemency and Expungement was granted by then Governor Bruce Rauner.  It was the only remedy available for me, due to the narrow scope of the vacatur statute in Illinois. I am, however, grateful. It was a triggering experience to re-live my trauma to provide a detailed chronological application which basically required an apology for my own exploitation.  

It is our responsibility to survivors, known and unknown, to get the Trafficking Survivors Relief Act (TSRA) passed in the 119th Congress. The reason is simply the words below. Rest in peace sir.

“The most serious human rights violation on earth is
the abuse of women and girls, and prostitution is the foundation
for all other abuses of women and girls.” 

 Former President Jimmy Carter May 2015

More resources:

  • Unjust criminalization blog
  • TSRA fact sheet
  • TSRA Myths vs Facts
  • Tell your elected officials to support the TSRA

February 29, 2024 by Guest

The Importance of Black History Month in the Fight Against Human Trafficking

Dr. Marian Hatcher
Shared Hope Policy Consultant
Ambassador-at-Large, United Nations

Each January we start off the new year with renewed vigor to fight human trafficking as we acknowledge and consider the long road ahead during National Human Trafficking Prevention month. Of course, we know we can’t address Human Trafficking in one month, and the reality is that human trafficking cuts across so many different issue areas that most months have some relevance to this fight, and offer a different perspective on the issue as we move through the year. However, as we move through February, there is a unique importance to pause and consider the impact of Black History month on human trafficking. Sadly, the data continues to show that trafficking disproportionately impacts Black communities, especially Black children and youth, largely due to structural inequality.

“These vulnerabilities do not exist “because of racial identity but because of deeply entrenched systemic practices and structural responses to race, ethnicity, and socio-economic status.” Thus, many of the factors that increase Black girls’ risk of being trafficked also make them more likely to be criminalized as a result of their trafficking victimization and directed into the justice system. The disproportionate arrests of both exploited Black girls and women, is glaring.”

Currently, there are two federal bills that exemplify the need for shifting the trajectory that puts at-risk youth in the crosshairs of abuse and exploitation while also addressing the resulting harms when our systems failed to shift that trajectory and those young people not only experience trafficking, but also find themselves facing the immense burden of a criminal conviction. We must view juvenile justice packages of legislation as well as long term consequence legislation as intertwined opportunities, which serve as building blocks for more just responses overall.

It is imperative we connect the dots, no longer passing legislation in silos, but instead realizing the problems and their solutions are a part of a puzzle. Vulnerabilities resulting from being a runaway can lead to homelessness for our young people, which in many situations results in trafficking. Circumstances such as this will become an environment where criminal behavior becomes an act of survival to meet a trafficker’s demands or to meet basic needs such as food and shelter.

This is why the Runaway and Homeless Youth and Trafficking Prevention Act (RHYTPA) is so critically important. As the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act celebrates its 50th anniversary, this bill would reauthorize and expand the critically important programs that enable RHY providers to be the force that shifts the trajectory for young people facing homelessness and housing insecurity. Recognizing that these adversities don’t simply dissipate on a young person’s 18th birthday (indeed these adversities are often compounded as that young person ages out of supports provided through child serving systems), RHY programs extend critically needed supports to youth 18+ and can be a lifeline at a critically important stage of a young person’s life.

If we don’t address the vulnerabilities and systemic failures aimed at our younger population, we will be addressing the same issues when they become adults. Tragically, as a survivor-leader and anti-trafficking advocate, I have seen the failure to support young people early on play out day after day. I have seen how failing to shift the trajectory early on, leads to greater harms and often unjust involvement in the criminal justice system. Then that involvement in the criminal justice system compounds the trauma of that experience by leaving survivors with a criminal record that impedes access to housing, education, even basic financial resources that are needed to move forward, requiring a different, but equally important, type of legislative remedy to address the injustice of criminalization that arises from victimization.

The Trafficking Survivors Relief Act (TSRA) provides that remedy at the federal level. This bill is essential to (1) provide criminalized survivors of trafficking the opportunity to address unjust criminalization at the outset of a prosecution by asserting an affirmative defense, (2) remove convictions and arrests resulting from trafficking and enable trafficking survivors to shed the incredible burden of carrying an unjust federal conviction and criminal history, and (3) ensure that this remedy is available to a wide range of survivors.

“Victim-Offender Intersectionality (VOI) is at the heart of the Trafficking Survivors Relief Act (TSRA). It is the solution to unjust criminalization when addressing vulnerabilities, years of exploitation, and long-term consequences. Consequences impacting a survivor’s ability to secure safe housing, employment, education and financial stability.

As a member of the SHI Just Response Council, a survivor leader, who received Executive Clemency & Expungement on the state level in Illinois, I have agonized over the substance of this legislation. It is therefore my deep belief in the need for a federal remedy to alleviate long lasting legal effects on survivors, that I support Affirmative Defense and Vacatur.” (Rev. Dr. Marian Hatcher, January 31, 2024).

When we don’t connect the dots between runaway and homeless youth, trafficking, and juvenile and adult criminal justice in a uniform manner, we inevitably find ourselves addressing the lack of viable solutions to harm after the fact. Trying to fit the individual pieces of a puzzle together can be challenging and sometimes discouraging, but the victory in completing the puzzle is always of great reward! We must end the cycle of harm and take action to prevent all the harms of trafficking, right from the beginning by protecting young people, and down the road to prevent trafficking victimization from being the end of the road.

June 23, 2023 by Guest

Reflections on the Intersection of Mental Health, Human Trafficking and Unjust Criminalization

Dr. Marian Hatcher
Shared Hope Policy Consultant
Ambassador-at-Large, United Nations

Last month was Mental Health Awareness month and as annual attention to this issue prompted introspection about my own personal experiences, I began to think about how the mental health needs of trafficking survivors so often intertwine with the need for federal vacatur and post-conviction relief for trafficking victims.

While the focus on mental and behavioral health overall gained traction beginning in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s, finally resulting in the current Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) established in 1992, the focus on human trafficking didn’t manifest until the year 2000 with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA). Even then, it has taken over two decades for human trafficking to become widely understood as a crime that impacts people across the United States and isn’t just a crime that “happens over there,” no less how mental health plays a role in creating vulnerabilities to trafficking.

Has the formal attention and organization of governmental agencies, programs and initiatives focusing on trafficking made a difference in how trafficking victims are viewed and provided services? Yes, and no. When we look at how long it took for the puzzle pieces of mental health and human trafficking to be named, and considering from 1949 to 2000 discussions around mental health didn’t yet have the framing of human trafficking (although many of the impacts on survivors were inevitably part of those conversations), it makes sense that mental health responses to human trafficking victims have been lacking in critical ways and the mental health needs of trafficking victims/survivors are only recently becoming central to how we respond to human trafficking.

On a personal level, both my mother and I have backgrounds which require us to check the box of having a mental health history. Childhood and adult trauma triggered both of our experiences. I was molested by a trusted family member at the age of seven, which perverted my sense of intimacy and I was also a victim of domestic violence as an adult.

Mental health issues are an “outside looking in” multilayered system of good stressors, bad stressors, pain, suffering, joy and feelings one can’t name or label. In Asheville Insights, Chelsea Jennings stated: “From the outside looking in, it’s hard to understand. From the inside looking out, it’s hard to explain.” While this quote is related to an “immersion” trip experience, I feel the words profoundly describe the mental health journey and what trauma means to trafficking survivors.

“There are many complex and varied issues that affect survivors of trafficking, both medical and otherwise. An article by Lederer and Wetzel (2014) found alarming rates of injury and illness among sex trafficking victims. It does not require a stretch of imagination to infer that these adverse physical and psychological health impacts are the direct result of trauma from victims’ time within the sex trade. For example, a peer-reviewed article on traumatic brain injury (TBI) found that prostituted women suffer rates of TBI at much higher rates than the national average. (Farley, Banks, Ackerman, & Golding, 2018).”[1]

Trafficking is a traumatic experience often resulting in verbal and physical abuse, lack of control, loss of liberty, loss of family and more. It stands to reason, if there is an existing mental health problem, additional trauma(s) would exacerbate that. Substance use, existing or introduced in a trafficking environment also has an impact. Survivors look normal until worn down. At the beginning of my trafficking experience, other people on the street said I looked like the “po po.” At the end I was considered just another “crackhead.”

It’s the wearing down, the lack of good nutrition, lack of sleep, lack of good hygiene, lack of love, lack of empathy…lack lack lack. Where does the lack push you if not to the point of no return? Do I have a memory, of, even if off in the distance, of normalcy to instill hope that it is still achievable? The buildup of lack–physical and mental abuse, torture that is a “prostitution/sex trafficking experience”— creates a wall preventing healthy choices, education, stability, love, care, safety, nutrition, financial security, etc.

I was fortunate, in that I did have a normalcy to claw through the fog of trauma, drugs, guilt, shame, confusion etc. I had a family that never stopped looking for me when I was missing for almost two years. I also had a formal education and career, that I would sometimes have glimpses of, through the pain of beatings and rape and hunger.

There is a shade of gray for each person’s trauma. The hues too numerous to quantify. The names of mental health diagnoses are so many. Anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, OCD, oppositional defiance, borderline personality, PTSD, complex trauma and so on.

Where in this unsavory recipe for disaster, do we realize trafficking victims are surviving, often living exploitative lifestyles with or without nice trappings. These experiences are certainly harsh in many cases, but often so subtle they appear as “willing” participation or cooperation to those without clinical training or personal experience.

What does that mean when it’s time to step out of the darkness of trafficking, into the often blinding light of life?  Mainstream society? Family? Motherhood? Employment? School? Financial health? Criminal justice ramifications of victimization that often exist long after trafficking while gaps in post-conviction relief persist? How do we remedy these harms so survivors can heal?

For me, I was able to emerge from the burden of my criminal history by seeking executive clemency from the Governor of Illinois. However, I am fortunate not to have had federal charges, in which case I would have had to seek an executive pardon from the President of the United States. What a daunting hurdle for survivors of exploitation and abuse to have to face in order to not carry a criminal record as a constant reminder of their victimization? This is why I am now an advocate for federal vacatur.

In the Victim Offender Intersectionality (VOI) report, which I contributed to as member of Shared Hope’s JuST Response Council, there are actually many opportunities for a “just response” to criminalized trafficking survivors, but these can’t happen until…

Until the millions of grey hues in the color pallet of pain that is trafficking are understood.

Until the impact of unimaginable sexual violence trauma bonds is considered.

Until there is less bias and more connective tissue between law enforcement, prosecution, and victim services.

Without this, we will continue to face barriers.

So, what can we do? We must wear them down with the truth and a greater understanding of the impact of mental health on human trafficking. And until federal legislation models/mirrors or learns from many states’ efforts to enact vacatur, survivors with federal convictions will be treated unfairly.

[1] Marian Hatcher et al., Exited prostitution survivor policy platform DigitalCommons@URI, https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/dignity/vol3/iss3/10/ (last visited Jun 16, 2023).

 

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