Guest, Author at Shared Hope International

March 16, 2011 by Guest

Don’t Let First Responders Be the Last to Know

The process of restoration for victims of domestic minor sex trafficking can be a long and difficult struggle for healing. Just as in any trauma case, first responders are crucial to the advancement of that journey. However, a shortage of shelters specifically dedicated to victims of sex trafficking has positioned organizations such as rape crisis centers to receive and care for these victims in the absence of more specialized services. In fact, the most commonly accepted estimate reveals that there are probably no more than 100 beds in the U.S. specifically dedicated to sex trafficking victims. When compared to the 100,000 individuals forced into the industry each year, it is clear that America is in desperate need of resources for DMST victims. So, how can rape crisis centers provide the necessary services to these victims with very specific needs?

Rape crisis centers may be one of the first responders in sex trafficking cases, especially with DMST victims, because of their hospital advocacy services and 24hr crisis hotline. In some cases, when a victim is admitted to a hospital for sexual trauma, the hospital will contact a rape crisis center immediately. Hospital advocates assist the victim during forensic exams and forensic interviews with the police in addition to providing the victim with valuable resources about the organization’s services. Rape crisis centers often offer free individual and group therapy that can assist a victim of sex trafficking in their long term healing process. Many rape crisis centers even offer legal advocacy services for those individuals seeking to heal through the justice system, or those who are unjustly being charged with prostitution. Rape crisis centers can be wonderful resources for DMST victims because of their deep understanding of victim empowerment, which is vital to the healing process, as well as their ability to help restore victims at their own pace.

While rape crisis centers can be pivotal in the healing process of sex trafficking victims, there are still many areas of improvement necessary in order to better assist individuals in this unique population. Like many other first responders, rape crisis center advocates and counselors are often not trained to recognize indicators of sex trafficking. This can hinder service provision for the unique needs of this victim population. Rape crisis center advocates and counselors need to be educated on the revealing signs that an individual has been trafficked and the appropriate treatment that individual should receive. Service providers may incorporate these tools by adjusting intake questions to reveal aspects of commercial sex exploitation. Fortunately, there are many online resources, including Shared Hope’s INTERVENE, to help rape crisis centers gain essential knowledge for identifying victims.

Rape crisis centers and other local resources can continue their fight against sexual abuse by expanding their efforts and knowledge to the issue of sex trafficking in their communities. Each of us has a role in this fight, and only by working in tandem at the national and local levels can organizations effectively combat the sexual exploitation of our children.

March 11, 2011 by Guest

Why So Young? — Why the average age a child is first exploited through prostitution is 13

The AVERAGE age a child is first exploited through prostitution is 13 years old.

This shocking number is not a coincidence or evidence that today’s youth are more delinquent than the generations before them. Rather, it reveals the fact that pimps are using more manipulative tactics to recruit younger girls.

To understand why the average age of entry is so young, we must understand the strategy used by pimps. When many people think of sex trafficking, they think of kidnapped children enslaved in a foreign brothel. However, the commercial sexual exploitation of minors occurs in every corner in the U.S. While kidnapping for the purpose of sex trafficking does occur in America, a common tactic used by pimps is trauma bonding. According to Patrick J. Carnes, Ph.D., trauma bonding is defined as the “Dysfunctional attachments that occur in the presence of danger, shame or exploitation.” Pimps often implement this strategy by initially playing the role of a girl’s boyfriend. He takes her out to nice places and showers her with gifts in an effort to gain her trust. As the relationship continues, the pimp starts to exert more power over the girl, engaging in increasingly rough sexual activity, and even beating her. Eventually, the pimp convinces the girl that they are low on money. Isolated from her friends and family, she often has no choice but to comply with the pimp’s demands to sell her body for sex. The trauma bonding process brainwashes the victim into believing that she is choosing to engage in this lifestyle, despite the fact that every step was calculated by the pimp to manipulate her.

According to Shared Hope International’s “National Report on Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking,” 70% of Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking (DMST) victims have experienced physical or sexual abuse prior to being trafficked. In addition, the risk of being trafficked increases exponentially for children who run away from broken homes or abuse. In fact, research indicates that 1 in 3 girls will be trafficked within 48 hours of running away. Girls who have an absent father figure may also be more likely to be targeted for the commercial sex trade. Many DMST victims have one or both parents in jail or on drugs. Though these factors may increase the risk for a girl to be targeted for exploitation in the commercial sex industry, a girl’s most vulnerable point is simply her age. Young girls are often more susceptible to rely on the perceived love and security that a pimp initially offers. Additionally, youth brings a lack of life experience, a lack of social support, an increased difficulty to meet financial needs for survival and fewer coping mechanisms.

In such a lucrative industry, utilizing minors to meet the demand for paid sex is a sly business move – one that turns a huge profit for pimps. Thus, in an industry driven by an ever growing demand, the young and impressionable provide the most convenient and profitable supply for pimps. Shared Hope International is committed to ending domestic minor sex trafficking and activating a nation that protects, rather than purchases, our children.

March 8, 2011 by Guest

Liberty University Cooks Up Some Big Ideas

Last week served up an extra helping of awareness, education, and passion on Liberty University’s campus in Lynchburg, VA, kicking off the 3^rd annual Liberty Abolishing Slavery Week from Feb 28 through March 4, 2011. Throughout the week, Liberty’s Helms School of Government invited locally and nationally renowned guests as experts on the issue of human trafficking to educate and invest in students interested in fighting the world’s modern-day form of slavery. Elizabeth Scaife, Project Coordinator at Shared Hope International, said that she had “never seen a school do anything like this before.” After days of rallying for the fight against the worldwide epidemic of human trafficking alongside fellow students, I’d say Liberty stumbled upon a recipe for success.

Each day, hundreds of students filed in and out of a lecture room—sometimes standing for lack of chairs—to listen to the various speakers inform audiences about human trafficking. Some students that I met listened in between classes, some took off work in order to attend, and some even gave up sleep in the exhausting process of organizing this week-long event. Each ear leaned forward to hear representatives from organizations including Shared Hope International, Polaris Project, Restoration Ministries, Courtney’s House, Truckers Against Trafficking, the FBI and more. And while students soaked up every ounce of information available, speakers gladly provided unique expertise in areas of prevention, policy, awareness, and restoration.

Special thanks goes out to Dr. Michelle Rickert and her husband Paul Rickert from the Helms School of Government for organizing the event and standing as strong advocates for the fight on human trafficking in Virginia. Both professors show a willingness to jump through hoops for raising awareness on this issue. Their leadership inspires students to a movement of change in areas of government, criminal justice, psychology, communications, journalism and more. They have learned all too well how capable America’s college generation can be in accomplishing change among policy. Dr. Rickert even expressed that House Bill 2190, House Bill 1898and Senate Bill 1453 have all passed the Virginia General Assembly in part due to well-supported lobbying from Liberty students.

Liberty Abolishing Slavery — Click to Enlarge

The success of this week goes to show that college students are capable of becoming informed and passionate about the cause. One student shared her honest opinion that persevering through this week was a struggle because human trafficking is “such a heavy subject.” Sadly, as we struggle through one week of discussion on the topic, many others are living it. Congratulations to Liberty University for taking the first step in eradicating it by breaking the bonds of ignorance.

March 3, 2011 by Guest

Everythang’s Bigger’n Texas, Except Their Grade!

This week, Shared Hope International traveled to the Lone Star State to release the third of 51 Protected Innocence Report Cards. In partnership with Children at Risk, Shared Hope International presented the Texas Report Card to trafficking survivors, former pimps, former NFL players, and congressional members in Dallas on Saturday at a community rally sponsored by Traffick 911. In addition, Shared Hope presented the Texas Protected Innocence Report Card at events in San Antonio, Houston and Austin alongside fellow advocates for change including Senator Leticia Van de Putt, Rep. Senfronia Thompson, Attorney General Greg Abbott, Chris Burchell (Texas Anti-Trafficking In Persons) and many others.

Texas scored a “C,” indicating that Texas state law contains some provisions against domestic minor sex trafficking, but leaves generous room for improvement. One of the key findings of the Report Card was that current state law requires proof of force to prove the crime of trafficking-even for children. This is a direct contradiction to the federal Trafficking Victim’s Protection Act, which recognizes any child exploited through commercial sex as a victim of trafficking.

While there is a sizable legislative gap in Texas that threatens to entrap domestic minor sex trafficking victims, Shared Hope International offers solutions. One of the key recommendations is that Texas enact a stand alone sex trafficking of a child statute, which eliminates the requirement to prove force, includes the crime of buying sex with a minor, and ensures identification of a minor victim as a trafficking victim.

Shared Hope International offers this, and many other recommendations, in a complete Analysis and Recommendation document to expose legislative gaps and provide legislators with the tools they need to ensure the protection of victims and the punishment of criminals.

Legislative changes are necessary to help combat the exploitation of Texas’ children. According to a 2009 report by the Texas Human Trafficking Prevention Task Force, “11,942 juveniles were arrested for running away in Texas. An additional 66 were arrested for prostitution and commercialized vice.” Recently, Traffick911 pushed its “I’m not buying it”campaign to help raise awareness about child sex trafficking surrounding Super Bowl XLV. Arlington police made an astounding 59 prostitution related arrests leading up to the game.

Due to the prevalence of human trafficking in Texas, lawmakers have introduced several new bills aimed at increasing penalties for traffickers and providing protection for minors: HB1121,1122, and SB 98 are just a few. This push toward change is mirrored by Attorney General Greg Abbott, who gave a keynote address in San Antonio calling for more collaboration between law enforcement officials to “ensure [Texas] is both hostile territory for human traffickers and a safe haven for their victims.”

All of these efforts are a step in the right direction toward combating domestic minor sex trafficking. Now it’s up to you. If you live in Texas, alert your representative to this critical issue and make your voice count!

February 15, 2011 by Guest

Battle of the Sexes: The Debate for Equal Gender Representation

“No offense, but I don’t trust you,” said Wiveca Holst, a Swedish woman’s rights activist, in an interview with CJ Adams of Polaris Project. Holst explains that her history of working with male activists has been filled with men making honest mistakes, outright poor intentions, and the ‘occasional man who actually respected her as an equal.’ Unfortunately, Holst isn’t alone in her assessment of the male activist role in issues that are often dubbed as ‘women’s issues’. This leads me to wonder, do we need men working on this issue and what do they uniquely contribute to the movement?

As I man, I am ashamed to admit that I know plenty of males who won’t listen to a woman’s opinion, but they will listen to mine. I did not garner their attention based on any merit of my own, but simply because I am a man. There are male leaders combating trafficking; however, from my experience, our presence on the grassroots level is sorely lacking. If we want to effectively combat demand, then we need more active and educated male members joining the fight. Here are three recommendations to activate men to rise as leaders and defenders of America’s children.

Let’s begin educating our kids about the importance of equality. Vern Smith is the founder of The Defenders and the husband of Linda Smith, the founder of Shared Hope International. The Defenders is national initiative aimed at mobilizing 100,000 men in the fight to end the demand for prostituted children. He states the largest problem his organization faces in recruiting new members is ignorance. “So many men I talk to have no idea how big and how close this problem is,” he says. This ignorance might be attributed to the link between children viewing online pornography and how they view sex. One Dutch survey of 471 teens found that the more often young people sought out online porn, the more likely they were to view sex as a purely physical function. If a man views a woman simply as a tool to complete a physical function, can he also view a woman as an intelligent, valuable equal? Unlikely. If our goal is to garner active male support, then we need to combat ignorance toward the issue, and push for gender equality education at a younger age, before children are overexposed.

Prostitutes are victims; let’s change our rhetoric. “Ultimately, the sex industry has made sexual exploitation not only normal but respectable,” stated Janice Raymond Ph.D. of the University of Massachusetts. As Vern Smith states, “the word “prostitute” conveys the idea of willing participation in an immoral act.” By changing our language from calling victims “child prostitutes” to “prostituted children” we not only accurately acknowledge that a crime was committed against them, but support the termination of a damaging stigma.

If you want to become an activist on the forefront of the movement, join The Defenders. Defender’s pledge to not participate in any form of commercial sex, to hold fellow men accountable for their actions toward women, and to take immediate action to protect the ones they love. Take the pledge NOW!