Researchers tend to be both curious and risk-averse. Curious because we’re always looking for unanswered questions, and risk-averse because we don’t want to make mistakes as we try to answer those questions. These are generalizations, of course…but we researchers tend to be fond of generalizations, too. I believe it is the push and pull of […]
What The Johns Don’t Want To Hear
In this, the 21st Century, tens of millions of women and children are slaves in their homelands throughout the globe to be used solely for sex. And every year hundreds of thousands of women and children are trafficked to foreign lands and throughout the United States as fodder for the sex trade. As I investigated […]
Demanding Justice in Congress
While we often talk about human trafficking, there’s one important aspect that we often ignore: the man who solicits sex on the street or on the internet. These individuals are also criminals, and they live among us every day, preying on young women and girls. They are the demand that drives this business, because that […]
South Dakota: An Aggressive Prosecutorial Response
South Dakota is not the place one expects to find fourteen-year-old girls being sold for sex on the internet. The grim reality, however, is that sex trafficking is a growth industry and it has taken root even here in rural America. I became the United States Attorney for South Dakota in 2009, and at that […]
Anti-Demand Work as it Relates to Law Enforcement
The issue of law enforcement and sex trafficking is complex and bears much consideration. Outwardly, the relationship seems simple: Police enforce the laws. Invariably, the victim comes under scrutiny in a sex crime and in some cases is blamed. For many it seems troubling. After all, do we blame the store clerk for the armed […]