This year Shared Hope International is proud to honor the men and women who stand bravely against the commercial sex industry. The 2015 Pathbreaker Award recipients have developed innovative strategies to combat demand, expose trafficking and seek justice.  These Pathbreakers join those of prior years who have led the fight against sex trafficking.

John Cotton Richmond

As a federal prosecutor serving as the Special Litigation Counsel with the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, Richmond has investigated and prosecuted numerous victim-centered labor and sex trafficking cases throughout the United States. He frequently serves as an expert on human trafficking for the United Nation’s Working Group on Trafficking in Persons and at the European Union’s multilateral meetings on human trafficking.  He has trained judges, prosecutors, federal agents, law enforcement officers, non-governmental organizations, and international delegations on human trafficking investigative and prosecutorial strategies.  Prior to joining the Department of Justice, John worked on human trafficking crimes as the Director of the International Justice Mission’s slavery work in India.

Alexandra (Sandi) Pierce

Sandi Pierce, Founder and President of Othayonih Research, is a leader in exposing, addressing, and preventing domestic sex trafficking of American Indian, Alaska Native, and other girls of color. Her report, Shattered Hearts: The commercial sexual exploitation of American Indian women and girls in Minnesota was the first research published in the United States on the impact of this issue on Native communities.  As a nationally recognized doctor of applied sociology, she contributes new research on emerging issues including the commercial sexual exploitation of Native women and girls (Shattered Hearts; New Language: Old Problem) and trafficking markets (Mapping the Market). Dr. Pierce draws on her experience as a survivor of sex trafficking to elevate the voice of survivor leaders in the national discussion on sex trafficking. She is of Onondowagah (Seneca) descent.

Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart

Sheriff Tom Dart launched revolutionary efforts to tackle the child sex trafficking industry through a campaign of advocacy and education illustrating the use of the online classified giant, Backpage.com, to promote this industry. In July 2015, Sheriff Dart asked credit card companies, Visa and MasterCard, to join him in his fight against child sex trafficking by removing their cards as payment options on Backpage.com. Within days, both credit cards were no longer available for use on Backpage.com. Though efforts to pressure Backpage.com to shut down the adult entertainment section have continued for years, Sheriff Dart’s fresh approach of educating the credit card companies and their resulting withdrawal impacted the child sex trafficking market and Backpage.com’s bottom line – stirring them to respond.

Prosecutors in Phoenix are celebrating a major victory this week after securing a guilty verdict for a man convicted under Arizona’s “child prostitution” law for attempting to buy sex with a law enforcement officer who he believed to be a 16 year old girl. According to Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery, this is the first jury verdict for this type of operation in Arizona.

The case of Paul Daniel Wagner, which was prosecuted by the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office will have statewide impact as the jury’s verdict clarifies that trying to buy sex with a minor, or someone posing as a minor, is a serious crime.

As Shared Hope’s Protected Innocence Challenge report card for Arizona shows, Arizona has strong laws to combat demand for commercial sex with minors, a driving force behind the sex trafficking industry. However, bringing buyers to justice is a resource-intensive and challenging task. A primary challenge in combatting demand has been the growth of online exploitation of juvenile sex trafficking victims which allows both traffickers and buyers to remain anonymous and avoid detection by law enforcement.

In recent years, Phoenix-area law enforcement have led efforts to tackle demand through online sting operations and as a result, the area has seen a substantial increase in the identification and arrest of offenders seeking to pay for sex with a minor. When Shared Hope conducted an assessment of Arizona’s response to sex trafficking in 2010, research showed that only five of the 87 cases prosecuted under the “child prostitution” law since 2006 had involved buyers. In contrast, when Shared Hope conducted an assessment of anti-demand enforcement in Arizona in 2015, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office had commenced 89 prosecutions of buyers under the child prostitution law since December 2013.

Nevertheless, prosecution of buyers arrested during sting operations has presented its own set of challenges. In Shared Hope’s 2015 research, Demanding Justice Arizona, online sting operations served as the primary method of identifying buyers in the greater Phoenix region but one of the concerns to this approach was whether judges and juries would treat these cases as seriously as cases involving actual victims—particularly when offenders identified through sting operations were attempting to buy sex with a minor older than 15.

The jury verdict finding Paul Daniel Wagner guilty of a Class 2 felony for attempting to buy sex with a law enforcement officer who he believed to be a 16 year old girl indicates a rising intolerance for this crime. This case reflects the growing understanding that buyers of sex with minors—including those who target older minors—are not just guys who “made a mistake” or were “entrapped” but instead are serious offenders deserving of serious penalties.

Help us shift the stigma. #DemandJustice for buyers at www.demandingjustice.org.

The National Institute of Justice hosted a conference on justice-involved youth and the new science in brain development led by Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Assistant Attorney General Karol Mason, in addition to a panel of experts. Attorney General Lynch introduced a wide array of restorative programs and ideas to reduce recidivism among late teens and young adults based on new brain developments. Assistant Attorney General Mason moderated the panel. The conference was primarily concerned with youth and young adults ages 18 to 24 who are in the criminal justice system.

“Young adults are disproportionately likely to be arrested in general; disproportionately likely to be arrested for violent acts in particular; and more likely than any other age group to commit additional crimes within three years,” Attorney General Loretta Lynch began on the morning of September 8, 2015 at the Justice-Involved Young Adults segment of the National Institute of Justice Conference. “Research indicates that as young adults age through their late teens and early 20s, they experience a period of rapid and profound brain development. In addition to providing insight into why young adults act the way they do, brain science also indicates that we may have a significant opportunity, even after the teenage years, to exert a positive influence and reduce future criminality through appropriate interventions.”

According to Vincent Schiraldi, Senior Advisor at New York City’s Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice, adolescence changes through eras and should be based on intellectual milestones rather than age. Elizabeth Cauffman, Psychology Department of the University of California-Irvine, explained that the frontal lobe of the brain, in charge of decision making, is not fully developed until the age of 25. The ability to make intellectual decisions peaks at the age of 16, meaning that a 16 year old has the same cognitive functions to reason as a 30 year old. However, maturity, or a balance of decisions and emotion, does not peak until 25 when the brain is fully developed. So while a 16 year old has the full intellectual capacity to make a decision, the decision relies on impulse controls that are not yet fully developed. At the age of 25, it is expected that these young adults can completely reason through those decisions with a complete balance of cognitive function and emotion.

Now that scientists better understand brain development, law enforcement and policy makers can use this information to inform services and programs to help young adults caught in the criminal justice system. Panelists suggested that demographics such as family structure or income do not need to hinder the success of a young adult if they have hope and a will to change. Today, youth programs within the criminal justice system can be elaborate and are informed by new developments in psychology and science. Youth receive tutoring and education assistance, accountability, substance abuse counseling and more.

Glenn Martin, a previous youth offender and now founder of JustLeadershipUSA, stated, “You know, people tell me I’m the exception and I simply respond ‘I had exceptional programs.”