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Buyers Beware: Mobilizing to End Demand

Without consequences for their actions, buyers continue to purchase sex and remain the driving force behind this industry.  Shared Hope releases a bold new video that features law enforcement agents and prosecutors on what it takes to mobilize to end demand!

“One of the critical gaps in addressing sex trafficking is the failure to address demand.” – Christine Raino, Shared Hope International

Rarely Facing Consequences

Over the years there has been an overwhelming attitude of tolerance towards buyers—“the demand”—in the sex trafficking industry. This attitude stems from beliefs that buyers are justified to purchase sex, even from minors, because it is a “fair exchange,” he’s helping the victim financially, or that buyers are simply good guys caught in the wrong moment. Indeed buyers themselves have had very little reason to fear getting caught for their behavior because they have been rarely forced to face consequences that reflect the weight of their actions.

Fueling Demand

Tolerance does little to deter current and future buyers from purchasing sex. Quite the opposite, it has fueled a continual demand for more supply (victims). Overall, tolerance has been a major setback to efforts seeking to end the injustices of sex trafficking. This is why Shared Hope International is taking a stance against the tolerance for buyer behavior.

When caught, far too many buyers are simply let off the hook or, if convicted, not given severe penalties or jail time according to the Demanding Justice Report. As Sergeant Clay Sutherlin from the Phoenix Police Department explains, “There’s a large number of men out there that are looking for these girls, knowing that they can abuse them, rob them, rape them…and they’re going to get away with it.”

Shared Hope released a bold new video that features law enforcement agents and prosecutors on what it takes to mobilize to end demand!

Watch the Video

Taking Action

Visit demandingjustice.org to see news related to demand in your state. Or check out our latest report, the Arizona Field Assessment, to see how Arizona is working to fight demand through deterrence, enforcement and justice!  Sign the Dear John Letter, an open letter to buyers.

Together, we can start bringing an end to demand and protecting further innocent lives from falling captive to the world of sex trafficking.

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Thank you for making another year of freedom possible.

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Dear Supporters,

June 30 is a big day for us. It’s the day we close the books on the previous fiscal year and put the finishing touches on our financial commitments to restoration partners for the year ahead. It’s an exciting day at the Shared Hope offices.

And we start months in advance. Our program staff accepts partner applications, we thoroughly review and evaluate every shelter and service provider we partner with to ensure that our financial investment and technical assistance, combined with their experience and resources, ultimately make a lasting impact on those victimized and vulnerable to trafficking around the world. Every year, a few faithful supporters offer generous donations to help with this heavy financial outlay in June, they just ask that we meet or exceed their gift through our own fundraising efforts.

This year, as we geared up for our May Matching Challenge campaign, our longtime partner in Nepal was struck by two earthquakes. We helped build Asha Nepal 13 years ago and have been their primary source of support ever since. We immediately called in engineers to assess the damage and prepare a plan to rebuild and we offered immediate aid to supply the residents with emergency food and shelter.

A longtime supporter who visited Nepal to witness our programs and hosted our Nepalese guests during their month-long visit to the U.S. in 2014 immediately gave $100,000, asking that we raise a matching amount.

Honored by these great outpours of financial support, and facing one of the largest matching challenge campaigns in our history, we hit the ground running. For the first time ever, volunteers called our supporters asking for help. We extended the match by 10 days. We sent an extra letter explaining the new circumstances. We worked tirelessly to ensure we could keep the lights on at our partner homes.

Well…

We did it!

We ended the year in the black. Because of you we were able to confidently commit our financial support to 14 partner organizations in four countries.

Because of you…

Together, we will offer freedom from slavery and a loving family to women and children in Jamaica, Nepal, India and the U.S. Thank you for making another year of freedom possible.

Sincerely,

Linda Smith

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How Tennessee Sentenced Buyer to 22 Years in Prison

Editorial Note: After publication of this piece, Michael Kohlmeyer was declared not guilty. The jury’s previous verdict noted below was overturned by Criminal Court Judge Mark Fishburn. Reports indicate that the Nashville District Attorney’s Office plan to appeal this ruling.

He wanted to buy girls “just over 8, not over 16.” That’s what Michael Kohlmeyer told the person answering responses to an online ad for sex.  Thankfully for our children, the person answering the phone was actually an undercover Metro Nashville (TN) police detective.

Men wanting to purchase sex with a child are, unfortunately, not uncommon. What sets Mr. Kohlmeyer apart is that he was the defendant in the Davidson County (Nashville) District Attorney’s Office’s first successful prosecution of a customer of sex trafficking under Tennessee’s enhanced human sex trafficking laws. Kohlmeyer was found guilty of Trafficking for a Commercial Sex Act—convicted of offering to pay $5,000 for sex with a 12-year-old girl and sentenced to 22 years imprisonment.

The case was built on a 2014 law increasing the penalty for patronizing a prostituted person who is under 18 from a Class E felony to a Class B felony, and to a Class A felony for victims under 15.

During Kohlmeyer’s sentencing hearing, End Slavery Tennessee called on a strong volunteer base to pack a courtroom that would have otherwise stood virtually empty. Our intent was to send a clear message that the community cared and would not tolerate the purchase of our children.

Prosecuting those who purchase sex with minors under trafficking laws is one of the tools Tennessee now uses to stem the tide of demand for purchased sex. As with any business, if demand decreases, so does the motivation for suppliers.

In other approaches to lessen demand, End Slavery Tennessee (ESTN) uses a curriculum from the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation (C.A.A.S.E.) with middle and high school boys. These sessions leverage an interactive approach to engage young men in dialogue about the sex trade and empower them to stand as allies against sexual exploitation and violence.

ESTN also teaches a session in the local John school, letting men arrested for soliciting prostituted persons know that their choices drive human trafficking of children. And we educate the participants that adult prostituted women invariably have been abused as children, often multiple times, and that customers perpetuate the abuse when they buy sex.

We’ve shared on our social media and in trainings the excellent research and infographics from Shared Hope’s Demanding Justice Project.

In May 2015, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) agents conducted an undercover operation to identify potential victims of trafficking, arrest those seeking to purchase illicit sex, and learn more about the specific nuances of this type of crime. Among the fourteen men arrested were a pastor, an Army lieutenant, a farmer, and a small business owner. Their names were printed in local newspapers and on local news media sites.

Law enforcement and prosecutors are very much in the game now in Tennessee, thanks to strengthened laws, effective NGO partnership, years of awareness and education efforts and now the energized and organized efforts of those who enforce and prosecute. Other states take notice—our traffickers now seek relocation to a more hospitable business climate. By employing such tools and efforts in every state, we can drive many traffickers out of business.

derri smith photo

 

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How Tennessee Sentenced Buyer to 22 Years in Prison

He wanted to buy girls “just over 8, not over 16.” That’s what Michael Kohlmeyer told the person answering responses to an online ad for sex.  Thankfully for our children, the person answering the phone was actually an undercover Metro Nashville (TN) police detective.

Men wanting to purchase sex with a child are, unfortunately, not uncommon. What sets Mr. Kohlmeyer apart is that he was the defendant in the Davidson County (Nashville) District Attorney’s Office’s first successful prosecution of a customer of sex trafficking under Tennessee’s enhanced human sex trafficking laws. Kohlmeyer was found guilty of Trafficking for a Commercial Sex Act—convicted of offering to pay $5,000 for sex with a 12-year-old girl and sentenced to 22 years imprisonment.

The case was built on a 2014 law increasing the penalty for patronizing a prostituted person who is under 18 from a Class E felony to a Class B felony, and to a Class A felony for victims under 15.

During Kohlmeyer’s sentencing hearing, End Slavery Tennessee called on a strong volunteer base to pack a courtroom that would have otherwise stood virtually empty. Our intent was to send a clear message that the community cared and would not tolerate the purchase of our children.

Prosecuting those who purchase sex with minors under trafficking laws is one of the tools Tennessee now uses to stem the tide of demand for purchased sex. As with any business, if demand decreases, so does the motivation for suppliers.

In other approaches to lessen demand, End Slavery Tennessee (ESTN) uses a curriculum from the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation (C.A.A.S.E.) with middle and high school boys. These sessions leverage an interactive approach to engage young men in dialogue about the sex trade and empower them to stand as allies against sexual exploitation and violence.

ESTN also teaches a session in the local John school, letting men arrested for soliciting prostituted persons know that their choices drive human trafficking of children. And we educate the participants that adult prostituted women invariably have been abused as children, often multiple times, and that customers perpetuate the abuse when they buy sex.

We’ve shared on our social media and in trainings the excellent research and infographics from Shared Hope’s Demanding Justice Project.

In May 2015, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) agents conducted an undercover operation to identify potential victims of trafficking, arrest those seeking to purchase illicit sex, and learn more about the specific nuances of this type of crime. Among the fourteen men arrested were a pastor, an Army lieutenant, a farmer, and a small business owner. Their names were printed in local newspapers and on local news media sites.

Law enforcement and prosecutors are very much in the game now in Tennessee, thanks to strengthened laws, effective NGO partnership, years of awareness and education efforts and now the energized and organized efforts of those who enforce and prosecute. Other states take notice—our traffickers now seek relocation to a more hospitable business climate. By employing such tools and efforts in every state, we can drive many traffickers out of business.

DERRI SMITH is the Founder and Executive Director of End Slavery Tennessee (ESTN), an anti-human trafficking organization working to promote healing of human trafficking survivors and strategically confront slavery in the state of Tennessee.

Previously Derri launched an anti-human trafficking initiative for a worldwide organization of 1,200 workers. But her heart and passion remained for the travesty of this crime, in epidemic proportions yet hidden in plain sight, right here in her own backyard.

Derri has presented sessions on the topic of Human Trafficking and Slavery to thousands in professional and community groups, and recently in the U.S. Capitol and on the TEDx stage. She is recipient of numerous awards, most recently the 2014 Baptist Healing Trust Salute to Excellence award. She sits on both the governor appointed state Human Trafficking Task Force and the Federal Human Trafficking Task Force.

derri headshot glasses final rev

For more information on Demand and to view reported demand activity in your state, visit demandingjustice.org.

Visit demandingjustice.org

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Open Letter to Hawaii Gov. Ige: Establish State’s First Sex Trafficking Law

Hawaii: last state without a sex trafficking law

Shared Hope International, Family Programs Hawaii, Ho ‘ōla Nā Pua, and IMUAlliance have sent a letter to Hawaii Governor Ige encouraging him to allow the enactment of SB 265, which would be the state’s first sex trafficking law.

Learn More

Proposed Advancements for Juvenile Sex Trafficking Victims in Hawaii’s Senate Bill 265 (PDF)

Re: Enactment of Senate Bill 265

Dear Governor Ige:

We, the undersigned organizations, strongly urge you to sign SB 265 and enact Hawaii’s first sex trafficking law, a desperately needed piece of legislation. Hawaii is the only state in the nation that does not have a law specifically criminalizing sex trafficking, but this could change with your signature.

Hawaii and Maui County prosecutors and advocates have supported the 2015 state legislature in passing Senate Bill 265. Both the Senate and the House have voted to establish the crime of sex trafficking in Hawaii and strengthen Hawaii’s ability to combat this serious crime. This bill not only renames “promoting prostitution in the first degree” as “sex trafficking” but it makes a significant change to avoid stigmatizing victims and embody a national trend toward protecting rather than blaming victims. The bill also adds tools that aid enforcement and investigation. Contrary to claims by some opponents of the bill, SB 265 accomplishes much more than change “for the sake of change.”

Senate Bill 265 defines the crime of sex trafficking, recognizing that individuals exploited through commercial sex through “force, threat, fraud or intimidation” are victims of sex trafficking. Like 45 other states and the District of Columbia, this bill also criminalizes child sex trafficking regardless of whether any tactics of force, fraud or coercion were used. SB 265 ensures this crime will finally be acknowledged for what it is—sex trafficking—a severe and deeply harmful form of exploitation.

Contrary to claims that the bill would make prosecutions more difficult, the proposed law adds no additional elements of proof for the government to prosecute child sex trafficking cases. Sex trafficking would be a class A felony, the same penalty that currently applies under the promoting prostitution law. In addition, the bill adds a key enforcement tool—wiretapping, which would facilitate investigations of trafficking rings, especially those that operate as highly advanced criminal enterprises.

Moreover, SB 265 broadens victims’ access to justice by allowing anyone who is subjected to sex trafficking to bring lawsuits against their perpetrator(s). This change particularly affects child victims who currently would have to prove or allege coercion in order to pursue civil claims against those who trafficked them.

This bill accomplishes the important goal of clarifying the severity of harms inflicted on sex trafficking victims by correctly identifying the crime of sex trafficking. Language matters. Labeling victims of sex trafficking as prostitutes by criminalizing sex trafficking as an enhanced prostitution offense stigmatizes trafficking victims. Misidentifying sex trafficking as merely a prostitution offense obscures the realities of sex trafficking.

Advocates support enactment of SB 265, not as a formality but as a critical tool to fight against sex trafficking in Hawaii. Establishing a law that specifically criminalizes sex trafficking will serve as a fundamental cornerstone in that fight. Senate Bill 265 will enable Hawaii to more appropriately identify and protect victims, better hold perpetrators accountable, and shift societal norms to better reflect the realities of sex trafficking.

We urge you to sign Senate Bill 265 without delay to advance justice and restoration for victims of sex trafficking in Hawaii.

Sincerely,

Shared Hope International, Family Programs Hawaii, Ho ‘ōla Nā Pua, and IMUAlliance

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