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Buyers who Purchase Sex Acts with Minors are Subject of New Study by Shared Hope International

Shared Hope International, Arizona State University Release Findings of New Study on Buyers of Sex with Children

PRESS RELEASE

PHOENIX, ARIZONA – According to a new study which will be released on August 25 by Shared Hope International, in partnership with Arizona State University, buyers who purchased sex acts with minors are avoiding sex trafficking charges. The Demanding Justice Report documents the criminal justice outcomes of buyers, with the ultimate goal of identifying gaps in anti-demand law enforcement in order to generate creative solutions to develop effective strategies to combat demand. The report explores national trends in the enforcement of anti-demand laws. The research also tracks 134 cases from arrest to sentencing in four target locations (Phoenix, AZ; Portland, OR; Seattle, WA; and Baltimore, MD/Washington, D.C.) to determine whether buyers are being sentenced to the fullest extent of the law. On the corresponding campaign website, www.demandingjustice.org, users can view convicted buyers in their state and take action to combat demand.

Demanding Justice Report and Campaign Website Release Press Conference

August 25 | 11:30 am MST
Burton Barr Central Library
1221 N. Central Ave., 85004

Speakers:

  1. Congresswoman Linda Smith (1995-99), President and Founder, Shared Hope International
  2. U.S. Attorney Brendan Johnson, United States Attorney for the District of South Dakota
  3. Commander James Gallagher, Phoenix Police Department and Associate Director of Research Innovation, Office of Sex Trafficking Intervention Research at Arizona State University
  4. Prof. Dominique Roe-Sepowitz, Director, Office of Sex Trafficking Intervention Research at Arizona State University
  5. Sex trafficking survivor and advocate

All speakers will be available for individual interviews immediately following the press conference from 12:00-12:30 pm MST.

On August 26, Shared Hope International, in partnership with AZPOST, is hosting a training for law enforcement officers and prosecutors on how to investigate and prosecute the buyer in child sex trafficking crimes.

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Feds Seize Myredbook.com, Threatening Online Facilitators of Sex Trafficking

The dirty business of child sex trafficking is rapidly migrating to the Internet, due  to the accessibility and anonymity of websites like Craigslist.com, Backpage.com, and Myredbook.com that allow ads for “adult services.” It is well known that these ads mask child and adult sexual exploitation and that big money is being made.

Advocates like Shared Hope International have railed against the injustice of the protections provided to online facilitators of sex trafficking through the federal Communications Decency Act (CDA) immunities that block civil actions by victims and preempt state criminal prosecutions.  Congressman Frank Wolf (R-VA) has repeatedly challenged Attorney General Holder to bring federal prosecutions against the online classified giant Backpage.com. Recently  Congresswoman Ann Wagner (R-MO) introduced the SAVE Act and Senator Mark Kirk (R-IL) is poised to drop his own version; both are intended to bring liability to online facilitators of child sex trafficking.

The dam may have broken!

Last week the FBI and the IRS shut down Myredbook.com – the fifth highest revenue generator from sex advertisements – while they investigate possible money laundering of cash gained from racketeering based on prostitution. Websites that promote prostitution create a dangerous platform for sex traffickers leaving trafficked children more hidden and vulnerable and drive the demand for sex acts.  Demand thrives on these websites.

This investigation may be a chink in the extensive armor these companies have built around themselves including  half-hearted efforts at self-regulation  as well as strident opposition to  victim compensation and state laws that would empower state prosecutors to stop trafficking in their own jurisdictions. The Justice Department, stymied from prosecuting these sites for trafficking due to evidence gaps, may have finally found a way to begin dismantling these criminal enterprises.

The reaction of one buyer of the sex acts being sold on these sites (as expressed on usasexguide.info) says it all: “Holy S**t. Look what happened. Try to click on myredbook.com.”

myredbook

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Buyer Beware, Or Not. Operation Cross Country Slams Traffickers, Rescues Victims, But Where Are The Buyers?

cross-country-8-map
Source: http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2014/june/operation-cross-country/operation-cross-country

One of the most successful national operations targeting child sex trafficking was conducted by the FBI and local, state and federal law enforcement agencies as part of the week-long Operation Cross Country initiative to combat child sex trafficking. Under this initiative, 281 traffickers were arrested and 168 children were recovered. The most recent sting operation was the eighth of its kind and netted the most victims and perpetrators to date, bringing the lifetime total impact of this operation to 2,600 children rescued and 1,450 perpetrator convictions resulting in lengthy sentences and seizure of more than $3.1 million in assets. And while this operation remains a shining example of how 392 agencies in 106 cities can collectively work to disrupt illicit trafficking operations guised as, still illegal, prostitution businesses, buyers were not represented in official sting statistics. In fact, buyers were barely mentioned despite their role as the root cause for this crime.

The trafficking market follows the basic economic principles of supply and demand. As demand increases, so does supply. In the case of child sex trafficking, as demand for sex with children increases, traffickers strive to supply trafficking victims to those willing to pay. Many buyers operate on a common false assumption that the payment they make to the prostituted victim contributes to the victim’s financial well-being. False. A buyer’s payment is simply handed over to traffickers who use it as incentive to further victimize and exploit more children to meet the demand.

So why did buyers escape exposure for their arguably largest contribution to the crime? Online public buyer forums were abuzz with warnings of police activity in cities around the nation during the sting, sharing news and location information about law enforcement activity to help their mongering peers avoid criminal detection. These apparently invisible offenders seemed to have little to fear as they were a rare mention in operation reports. Perhaps law enforcement agencies prioritized the most imminent threat, traffickers. Or perhaps buyers went unreported due to their underestimated role in the crime. Whatever the reason, it was a major miss in the fight to end child sex trafficking. If the source of the crime is not addressed, it will continue to flourish. New traffickers will realize the economic potential in selling children. New children will be victimized to meet the demands of the buyer. The cycle of supply and demand will continue unabated until demand is recognized and prioritized as the most immediate threat to our nation’s children.

The FBI Innocence Lost Task Force Operation Cross Country initiative has had big wins in the fight against child sex trafficking. Add buyers to the operation focus and Operation Cross Country has the potential to be the anti-trafficking juggernaut, crushing the selling and buying that perpetuates the victimization of children through sex trafficking.

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SAVE Act Targets the Advertisement of Human Trafficking Victims

By: Eion Oosterbaan

As its use becomes increasingly universal, the Internet has drastically changed the face of human sex trafficking.  Through this medium, criminals have found a way to expand their reach of influence while simultaneously reducing the risk of their detection by law enforcement to a significant extent.  Traffickers, or pimps, have taken their business operations from the streets to the online realm, openly advertising their victims as if they are items for sale on websites like Backpage.com and Craigslist.  This new practice has caused the selling of human beings for sex to become enormously profitable as human sex trafficking now generates $9.5 billion yearly in the United States.  With hundreds of potential buyers from all over the country viewing these ads daily, a trafficker can make anywhere from $150,000 – $200,000 per child victim in a given year.

SAVE-act2Even more surprising is the fact that websites earned a total of $45 million in revenue from prostitution advertising in the United States last year.  In the average month Backpage.com receives $4-$5 million from these types of ads, which often involve underage children.  Legitimate, legal, multimillion dollar corporations are currently profiting from criminal activity and the plight of trafficked children as they generally choose to ignore the fact that their services are facilitating these crimes.  It should be noted that not every corporation has disregarded this issue, however, as Google has recently made a highly publicized decision to remove all pornographic ads and links to sexually explicit websites from their services.

In order to limit the prevalence and profitability of human sex trafficking and to hold services like Backpage.com accountable, Congresswoman Ann Wagner and members of the Republican Task force on Human Trafficking in the 113th Congress have worked to create the Stop Advertising Victims of Exploitation Act (SAVE Act).  The SAVE Act seeks to criminalize the advertisement of commercial sex acts with minors and victims of human trafficking by amending Section 1591 of the Federal Criminal Code to include “advertising” to the types of conduct that constitute the crime of federal sex trafficking.  This act would effectively target the traffickers posting the ads in addition to the website organizations where the ads are posted.  The bill has already passed through the House of Representatives with overwhelmingly bipartisan support, and has just recently been introduced in the Senate.

The SAVE Act directly coincides with Shared Hope International’s current activity in its fight to eradicate human trafficking.  Shared Hope has taken a proactive approach to the issue of these illicit advertisements by using its resources to identify, track, and report instances of human trafficking activity on websites like Backpage.com.  The criminalization of human trafficking advertisements would significantly increase the impact of this work.  In addition, Shared Hope International’s Sex Trafficking Identification and Response Training would provide the necessary capacity to deal with these types of advertisements.

*Facts and statistics retrieved from the Family Research Council presentation on the SAVE Act at:

http://www.frc.org/eventregistration/pornography-and-sex-trafficking-stopping-online-advertisers-of-trafficking-victims-with-the-save-act

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Prevention, Protection, and International Cooperation Against the Use of Technologies to Exploit Children

23rd Session of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Conference

By: Eion Oosterbaan

In May 2014, a panel discussion meeting took place at the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) at its headquarters in Vienna, Austria.  This discussion served as a side event to the Twenty-third session of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Conference, specifically focused on the prevention, protection, and international cooperation against the use of new information technologies to abuse and/or exploit children. Eion Oosterbaan attended as a representative of Shared Hope International.

UNIn attendance to speak as members of the discussion panel were Tejal Jesrani of the UNODC, Bjorn-Erik Ludvigsen of NCIS Norway, Andrew Oosterbaan of the USDOJ Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, and Ethel Quayle of the University of Edinburgh.

The discussion opened up with an outline of the UNODC’s Study and Technical Assistance Programme to Combat the Misuse of Internet Communications Technology (ICTs) to Abuse and Exploit Children.   The study pointed out the severe and increasing threat that developing technologies pose to our children, and how the use of technology has enhanced the ability of sexual predators to commit offenses.  The use of ICTs has allowed predators to enhance their access to child victims, increase levels of harm and re-victimization, and it has increased the profitability of criminal enterprises.  The severe difficulties of keeping pace with the criminal usage of this quickly evolving technology has presented law enforcement many issues with combating these criminals.

Currently,  law enforcement is falling behind as they severely lack the proper resources to contain the criminal activity of these predators online.  The scale of child abuse on the Internet is too large and widespread to completely eradicate.  New developments in technology have allowed individuals to hide their identity (through the use of IP Address encryption and web browsers such as Tor) as they increase the frequency and ease of their online sexual offenses.  It has become incredibly difficult to track and identify these skilled offenders, as they have found a haven through technology.

The experts on the panel stressed the importance of keeping up with the technology that sex offenders are now using.  If mastered, the use of ICTs can actually be used as a tool for prevention and detection.  Law enforcement has undertaken a policy of proactive investigation through the use of computer forensics to detect and identify online offenders, and they have recognized the need to increase the perceived sense of police presence on the Internet (“Fear of Detection”) as a key to crime prevention. The panelists also stressed the importance of increased information sharing as a key method to combating online child abuse.  Internationally, we must be more willing to share/exchange information and we must establish a certain level of cooperation between Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and law enforcement.

Overall, this meeting/discussion served as a means to identify the significant threat that developing technologies pose to children, get the issues out there, and begin the process of creating a viable solution.  The experts on the panel admitted that there currently exists no concrete solution, but stressed the importance of continuing the conversation and making this a subject of high priority.

Shared Hope International has joined in the effort to help prevent and combat the threat of sexual predators online, and recognizes the dangers that the misuse of technology presents.  The use of ICTs has greatly enhanced the ability for buyers to find and make contact with victims of human trafficking.  Girls are openly advertised on Internet websites like Backpage and Craigslist, yet the identities of the girls, their pimps, and their buyers remain protected and undetectable.  Shared Hope has taken this issue head on, using its expertise and resources to provide Sex Trafficking Identification and Response Training while also tracking the human trafficking cases found on these ICTs.

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