News from Shared Hope International

December 17, 2015 by SHI Staff

Four Ways to Give to Shared Hope International

In this season of Christmas cheer, spread a little love to Shared Hope to help us fight trafficking all year through. Here are four simple ways to donate to Shared Hope (and some won’t cost you a dime)!

1. Shop on Smile.Amazon.com

When you start your shopping at smile.amazon.com instead of amazon.com, you will access the exact same shopping experience, products and prices, but .5% of your purchase will be donated to Shared Hope! Simply visit smile.amazon.com, select “Shared Hope International” as your selected charity (you will be prompted upon your first visit or you can change your supported charity under the search bar) and Amazon will donate a part of your purchase to Shared Hope!

2. Shop our Store!

Visit www.sharedhope.org/store to purchase books, movies, training resources and apparel! Consider gifting Renting Lacy to your sister and her daughter so they can read the book together and discuss the dangers of trafficking. Team up with a few parents from your child’s class to purchase the teacher a copy of Chosen, a youth sex trafficking prevention video and resource, which makes talking about trafficking easier! Proceeds from the store helps fund our prevention, restoration and justice work all year long!

3. Purchase a Brick!

Help us build the Path to Freedom at Shared Hope’s restoration home, Terry’s House, by donating $250 for an engraved paver stone with your name on it! Engrave the name of a loved one for an extra special Christmas present this year and give the gift of love and encouragement to women at Terry’s House for years to come!

4. Put Shared Hope on Your Christmas List!

Every dollar donated to Shared Hope will be matched dollar for dollar until December 31! Your friends and family can donate in your name by selecting “Dedicate my gift to” and entering your name in the box “This gift is in honor/memory of:”. It’s an easy way to make their donation go twice as far and help support a great cause. They can donate online at www.sharedhope.org/donate.

December 7, 2015 by Guest

Exchanging Food for Sex with Children Amounts to Sex Trafficking

Society is quickly outraged by reports that peacekeepers or aid workers have sexually exploited children in areas of conflict or developing regions. This year, reports surfaced that peacekeepers in the Central African Republic elicited sex acts with young boys in exchange for food. Unfortunately, this scenario is not new. A 1996 study from the UN Secretary-General stated:

Children may also become victims of prostitution following the arrival of peacekeeping forces. In Mozambique, after the signing of the peace treaty in 1992, soldiers of the United Nations Operation in Mozambique (ONUMOZ) recruited girls aged 12 to 18 years into prostitution. After a commission of inquiry confirmed the allegations, the soldiers implicated were sent home. In 6 out of 12 country studies on sexual exploitation of children in situations of armed conflict …, the arrival of peacekeeping troops has been associated with a rapid rise in child prostitution.

When peacekeepers instruct hungry children living in war-torn countries, to perform sexual acts in order to receive life necessities, this resonates with many readers in America as patently exploitative and abusive. In fact, should such an exchange – sex with a minor for life necessities – occur in the United States, this commercial sexual exploitation by a buyer could amount to sex trafficking, under federal law and the sex trafficking law in 41 states and the District of Columbia.[1] Appropriately including the purchase of sex with a minor within sex trafficking definitions reflects the seriousness of this exploitative conduct.

Nonetheless, outrage like that expressed in response to peackeepers’ abuse, does not similarly resound when adults exchange life necessities for sex with minors in the United States. Instead, domestic children induced to perform a sexual act in exchange for food or transportation, or maybe as a form of “rent,” are often blamed for their own victimization. In fact, in 36 states, commercially sexually exploited children may be prosecuted for prostitution and are stigmatized as “prostitutes.” Why is moral or criminal fault assigned to a child who is sexually exploited, sometimes in order to survive?

In these scenarios, the buyer is the manipulator and offender, not the youth. In fact, in instances of sex trafficking, the buyer is the indispensable perpetrator, even more so than a possible trafficker. Without the buyer, there would be no commercial sexual exploitation, at all. However, sex trafficking often is still viewed as requiring a “pimp” or trafficker who controls the child victim. Accordingly, the sex trafficking laws in 14 states, unfortunately, do not accurately reflect the central role of the buyer-perpetrator; these states require the presence of a trafficker or third party control over minor victims.[2] A policy paper by Shared Hope, Eliminating the Third Party Control Barrier to Identifying Juvenile Sex Trafficking Victims, discusses social misperceptions and legal inconsistencies that result from misunderstanding the buyer’s central role and requiring that a trafficker be named. One devastating effect is that many juvenile sex trafficking victims are not identified, nor provided much needed services.

Buyers who prey on vulnerable children by withholding life necessities in exchange for sex should be held accountable. This conduct needs to be understood as the manipulation and exploitation that it is and included within sex trafficking definitions.

——————————————————————————–

[1] Statistic based on laws enacted as of August 1, 2014.

[2] Statistic based on laws enacted as of August 1, 2014.

November 16, 2015 by SHI Staff

Huffington Post: US States Are Getting Better At Combating Child Sex Trafficking

By: Eleanor Goldberg, The Huffington Post

View the original article on Huffington Post.

A number of states are cracking down on these crimes by better protecting victims, instead of criminalizing them.

It remains a crime largely hidden from public view, but U.S. states are at least starting to take a more forthcoming approach to combating child sex trafficking.

When Shared Hope, a nonprofit that fights sex trafficking, released its first assessment of the nation’s response to its youngest victims in 2011, 26 states received failing grades.

This year, no states failed and half the nation earned an A or B on their report card.

But while figures are still concerning, with more than 100,000 children being exploited into sex trafficking every year, a number of states are cracking down on these crimes by better protecting victims, instead of criminalizing them, and closing up loopholes that enabled offenders to avoid jail time.

These 10 states scored the best for their efforts in combating child sex trafficking.

No. 10 Florida, 86.5

In an effort to better protect exploited minors, Google, the Human Rights Project for Girls (Rights4Girls) and the McCain Institute launched the “No Such Thing” campaign last January to urge authorities to stop criminalizing children who are victims of sex trafficking. Since by federal law anyone under 18 who performs a commercial sex act in exchange for compensation is a victim of trafficking, they shouldn’t, by definition, be able to be charged as prostitutes.

In Florida, sexually exploited minors are deemed victims of sex trafficking. and the law notes that “a minor is unable to consent to such behavior.”

No. 9 Oklahoma, 87

Oklahoma climbed from a “C” to a “B” grade and is working to go after all parties involved in child sex trafficking.

Assisting, enabling or benefiting financially from the crime are included as criminal offenses in the state sex trafficking statute.

No. 8 Illinois, 87

Illinois has also ramped up its efforts in protecting exploited children by deeming them“immune” from being prosecuted for prostitution. After an officer identifies a child victim, he’s then expected to connect with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services State Central Register, which is responsible for launching an initial investigation into child abuse or child neglect within 24 hours.

No. 7 Iowa, 87.5

A major flaw in the justice system is that the buyers who demand sex from minors often remain nameless and faceless and aren’t arrested at all.

Iowa is working to combat that issue by classifying anyone who solicits sexual services from a minor as guilty of a class “C” felony. A first conviction is punishable by imprisonment up to 10 years and a fine of up to $10,000.

No. 6 Minnesota, 90

Often, the law allows traffickers and buyers to claim consent as a defense, shifting the blame to the child trafficking victim. Minnesota has gone so far as to declare that when it comes to prostitution or sex trafficking, “consent or age of the victim is not a defense.”

No. 5 Texas, 90.5

Texas is now coming down particularly hard on people who knowingly or unknowingly solicit sex from children.

Engaging in prostitution is treated as a felony of the second degree if the person solicited is younger than 18 years of age, regardless of whether the offender knew the victim’s age at the time the crime was committed.

The charge carries a sentence of five to 99 years and a fine of up to $100,000.

No. 4 Montana, 90.5

The stringency of Montana’s child sex trafficking laws enabled the state to jump from a “D” to “A” this year.

Montana doesn’t allow offenders to claim they believed the child was an adult as a defense. The punishment carries imprisonment for a term of 100 years, a fine of up to $50,000 and requires offenders to complete a sexual offender treatment program.

No. 3 Washington, 92

Traffickers see the Internet as an optimal resource for identifying and luring in victims, since it’s challenging for authorities to monitor it.

But in Washington, if a person so much as communicates with a minor, or someone he believes to be a minor, for “immoral purposes,” which includes the purchase or sale of commercial sex acts through electronic communications, that qualifies as a class C felony. Such communication includes email and text messaging.

No. 2 Tennessee, 93.5

In Tennessee, soliciting sex from a minor is punishable as “trafficking for commercial sex acts”and comes with either a Class A or B felony charge. A Class A felony carries imprisonment from 15 to 60 years and a fine of up to $50,000. A Class B felony is punishable by imprisonment for eight to 30 years and a possible fine of up to $25,000.

Offenders who attempt to solicit minors over the Internet would constitute violating a number of offenses, including rape of a child, trafficking for commercial sex acts and aggravated sexual battery.

No. 1 Louisiana, 99.5

Commercial sexual exploitation of children laws make specific types of exploitation of a minor a criminal act.

A number of states, including Louisiana, employ CSEC laws when it comes to child sex trafficking cases, which is a “better” method of identifying victims and addressing these offenses, according to Shared Hope.

An offender in Louisiana who exploits a minor under 18 faces imprisonment at “hard labor” of 15 to 50 years and a fine of up to $50,000. If the victim is younger than 14, the sentence is between 25 and 50 years and carries up to a $75,000 fine.

November 16, 2015 by SHI Staff

NPR: States Do Better Cracking Down On Child Sex Trafficking, Report Says

Transcript: Lina Wertheimer, WUNC Interview for NPR

Now we bring you some good news coming from a nonprofit group that studies the problem of child sex trafficking. A new report being released today finds many U.S. states are doing a better job of halting this crime. NPR’s justice correspondent, Carrie Johnson, got an exclusive look at the report.

CARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE: When the nonprofit group Shared Hope International started evaluating how well states cracked down on child sex trafficking back in 2011, the report card was ugly. Christine Raino directs public policy at Shared Hope.

CHRISTINE RAINO: We have really seen substantial change. That first year, more than half the states had failing grades. And now, five years later, we actually have half the states – more than half the states have A’s and B’s, and we no longer have any states with failing grades.

JOHNSON: The group tracks how many states have passed criminal laws against trafficking and whether the states punish those who pay for sex with people under age 18. Awareness is starting to grow, Raino says, in part because the FBI works with state and local partners to try to recover children every year in raids like this one in Michigan last month.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Big child sex trafficking sting taking place here in metro Detroit and across the nation.

JOHNSON: Authorities found 19 girls between the ages of 13 and 17 and an even bigger raid in Denver.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: A 14-year-old girl has been rescued from her pimp, a local gang member who was trafficking the girl along Colfax Avenue. She is one of 20 children rescued from sex trafficking operations along the Front Range.

JOHNSON: The federal system prohibits minors from being charged with prostitution or other crimes, but that’s not the case in many states. Fifteen states now officially treat minors as victims rather than exposing them to prosecution for prostitution. Raino says there’s still a long way to go.

RAINO: Looking at victims’ protections and victims’ access to services and really moving toward the recognition that child sex trafficking victims are not committing a crime, but they’re victims.

JOHNSON: The new report from Shared Hope points out that trafficking markets operate on the principle of supply and demand – case in point, the booming oil industry across North Dakota and Montana.

RAINO: What we’re hearing is an increasingly urgent problem of sex trafficking. With the oil boom have come many more people into the region and predominately men.

JOHNSON: And those men have had a lot of disposable income. This year, North Dakota boosted protections for survivors of child sex trafficking, and Shared Hope says Montana strengthened its laws, too. Carrie Johnson, NPR News, Washington. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

November 11, 2015 by SHI Staff

NEW STUDY ON CHILD SEX TRAFFICKING LAWS IN THE U.S. SHOWS GROWING DIVIDE AMONG STATES

Shared Hope International Research Reveals Strongest and Weakest States in the Nation

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WASHINGTON, D.C., A new study released by Shared Hope International finds a growing divide between states that aggressively address child sex trafficking through state laws and those with inadequate protections.

The Protected Innocence Challenge, a report on the state of child sex trafficking laws in the U.S., found that five years of sweeping legislative advancements allowed 47 states to raise their grade since 2011. In 2015, a record-setting 933 bills related to domestic minor sex trafficking were introduced in 50 states and D.C., resulting in the improvement of 14 state grades. Louisiana ranked top in the nation for the second year in a row, earning a 99.5 per cent. Michigan claims most improved state in 2015. View the state grades.

As states like Texas, Tennessee, Washington, Louisiana, Montana and Minnesota crack down on trafficking, earning top scores, Hawaii, Maine, New Hampshire and South Dakota tie for last place – making these states more vulnerable to attracting this illicit business.

Shifting dynamics have states scrambling to tighten laws. North Dakota and Montana, states highly affected by the booming oil industry, significantly strengthened state laws over the past year to respond to the surge of transient workers flooding the area, increasing demand for commercial sex. In contrast, California faces the impending wave of visitors for Super Bowl 2016 and has not improved its laws to handle an increase in trafficking crimes, especially demand.

“In 2011, over half the nation earned a failing grade for its state laws addressing child sex trafficking,” Shared Hope International President Linda Smith said. “Five years later, we’ve made significant strides forward. Not a single state has a failing grade. Increased awareness, coupled with legislative will, is the reason.”

Shared Hope International is an international anti-trafficking organization focusing on prevention, restoration and justice for victims of sex trafficking. Access media resources.

Taryn Offenbacher
Shared Hope International
602-818-3955
Taryn@sharedhope.org

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