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December 6, 2023 by stephen

St. Nicholas: Patron saint for people caught in sex trafficking

By Stephen Padre

Today, December 6, is the feast day of St. Nicholas. He was the Bishop of Myra, which is part of modern-day Turkey, and lived from 270 to 343. While he’s the patron saint of sailors, merchants, archers, repentant thieves, children, pawnbrokers, and students, you may know him best as the model for Santa Claus because he had a reputation for secret gift-giving.

There are various legends surrounding St. Nicholas, and many of them center on him helping people in dire circumstances. In one of the most famous legends, Nicholas rescued three girls from being forced into sexual slavery by dropping a sack of gold coins through the window of their house each night for three nights so their father could pay a dowry for each of them. For this reason, Nicholas is also the patron saint for victims of sex trafficking as part of his protection of people who are oppressed and vulnerable.

The Christian traditions that honor saints like Nicholas do not worship the saints themselves but view them as models of a godly life. As individuals and through our collective work under the banner of Shared Hope International, we can follow the examples of saints like Nicholas in our own efforts to live as God intends us to.

Whether true or not, the story of Nicholas rescuing three girls from a life of sexual slavery has some lessons that we might apply to our work and some parts we might emulate. Shared Hope does not engage in actual rescues of people involved in sex trafficking. But we see in Nicholas’ actions in his rescue that he was aware of what was happening to the girls and recognized that action needed to be taken. He did what he was able to given his position in life and the resources he had at hand.

In what ways are you able to act to end sex trafficking given your circumstances? If you have the means to support the work of Shared Hope through donations, you could give money. If you have time and are able to use a computer to send messages to your state legislators about pending legislation related to sex trafficking, you could engage in Shared Hope’s advocacy efforts. If you are good at talking to and influencing others, you could become an Ambassador of Hope and speak to groups you are part of or seek out other groups like schools or social clubs to make presentations to. There are many ways to take action that are rooted in the awareness and concern that you have about sex trafficking like Nicholas did.

Saints like Nicholas can inspire us to carry out God’s work in the world. God also equips us to do God’s work in the world. Sometimes that is through our association as individuals with organizations like Shared Hope that have the history, expertise, and connections to address big problems like sex trafficking. We at Shared Hope invite you to join us, either for the first time or more deeply in our work in bringing an end to sex trafficking.

For many, St. Nicholas Day is an occasion for giving candy to children, who leave their shoes by the door of their house the previous night and hope they don’t receive a lump of coal instead. But given Nicholas’ supposed connections to victims of sexual slavery, he is a worthy example to follow in our work of ending sex trafficking. He is also known in song as “jolly old St. Nicholas.” Surely we can be jolly with him at Christmastime, but we can also live like him and remember people who are sex trafficking victims and survivors in our prayers and actions.

Stephen Padre is the director of communications and public relations at Shared Hope International.

Photo: Portrait of St. Nicholas from the first half of the 13th century at Saint Catherine’s Monastery, Sinai (Egypt). Source: Wikimedia Commons

November 27, 2023 by stephen

Shared Hope partner in Missouri helps new and old clients

In Missouri, a Shared Hope partner provides care for young teen girls who have been sexually trafficked or exploited in a residential setting and counseling, educational and support services for youth and adults in the community.

The organization recently brought its prevention and intervention program to youth at a juvenile detention center. Teens at the center have often had challenging pasts. The risk factors that may have led them to make decisions that landed them in the detention center also make them vulnerable to sex trafficking and exploitation. These risk factors include the lack of consistent, fully functioning adults in their lives.

The program is teaching the youth about trafficking red flags, healthy boundaries and relationships, and online safety. Program staff report that the information has resonated with the youth, who are already seeing where it applies to real-life examples. At the first session in the detention center, one of the teens identified that she had been trafficked. This was confirmation that the organization’s services are needed for this population of youth. This teenager is now receiving further services from the organization.

The organization is also serving two young sisters, ages 6 and 8, in its community-based services program. The girls were being exploited by a family member, but they are now in a foster home and are receiving therapy and case management through organization.

A former client at the organization’s residential home reached out to become a client of the organization’s community-based services program. The organization is supporting her with case management and life skills training as she works to maintain her housing. Staff say they are grateful she knew she could reach out to them for further support.

Shared Hope is proud to partner with organizations like this one as they work with survivors who are restoring their lives and to prevent other young people from becoming victims of sex trafficking.

November 15, 2023 by stephen

Children in sex trafficking still unprotected by laws in most states, Shared Hope’s Report Cards on Child and Youth Sex Trafficking show

Nonprofit’s annual evaluation of all 50 states and Washington, D.C., shows progress in certain states’ legal protections and supports for victims, gives 32 states failing grades for laws addressing child and youth sex trafficking

WASHINGTON, NOVEMBER 15, 2023—Tennessee is the highest-performing state for laws to protect children and youth from sex trafficking and the first to achieve a grade of A in Shared Hope International’s Report Cards on Child and Youth Sex Trafficking, released today. As the only U.S. nonprofit organization working in every state to advance legislative protections for child and youth sex trafficking survivors, Shared Hope’s 2023 Report Cards for all 50 states and Washington, D.C., gave the majority of states – 32 – a grade of F, while Florida (B), Minnesota (C), California (C), and Washington (C) ranked in the top five of highest grade earners behind Tennessee.

The Report Cards are used to press for a national standard of victim-centered justice, which can be achieved only if all states are actively working to develop and implement robust protections and just responses to children and youth who have experienced trafficking. Through the Report Cards, Shared Hope is pushing states to ensure all minor victims of sex trafficking have access to protective care and services that help survivors heal and rebuild their lives.

“We applaud the progress that states have made in recent years, especially Tennessee in earning an A this year, according to our grading criteria,” said former U.S. Congresswoman and Shared Hope Founder and President Linda Smith. “At the same time, many states continue to struggle in their legislative efforts. This creates a wild patchwork of statutes across the country, with the number and quality of legal protections and responses literally all over the map. Regardless of state of residence, no minor should be punished for their own trafficking victimization. Instead, these minors deserve critical services and care.”

The Report Cards are the result of a comprehensive analysis and assessment of all legal responses to child and youth sex trafficking in each state. While Shared Hope recognizes a range of policy, practice, and cultural responses to sex trafficking victims in each state, the Report Cards evaluate only statutes and use 40 policy goals in six issue areas in its grading system. States are assigned up to 2.5 points for each policy goal for a possible total score of 100 (with a possibility of up to 10 extra credit points) and then assigned a letter grade – A, B, C, D, or F – based on their score.

The Report Cards are part of a larger toolkit that Shared Hope has produced for each state, which includes a State Analysis Report specific to each state’s statutes on child and youth sex trafficking. Shared Hope has produced the Report Cards and state analyses annually since 2011 as a tool to assist public policy activists and state elected officials in developing and advocating for better laws to support sex trafficking survivors.

In addition to the letter grades that Shared Hope has given to each state, the toolkit for each state this year includes the addition of a Safe Harbor Scorecard. This component was added to support and assist efforts as most states continue to develop robust Safe Harbor laws. Safe Harbor laws ensure victims of child and youth sex trafficking are not involved in the juvenile or criminal justice system but are instead directed toward restorative and protective services. Sustainable protections for vulnerable youth must start with laws that prohibit arresting, detaining, charging, and prosecuting all minors for prostitution offenses, while also requiring law enforcement to direct children and youth to specialized services and care. These laws are a subgroup of all statutes covered by the Report Cards and are at the core of Shared Hope’s policy goals. The organization has been working on safe harbor laws for the last 12 years out of its total 25 years of existence.

“As states make significant legislative reforms to move away from criminalizing survivors, access to appropriate services is critical to successful implementation of safe harbor laws,” said Christine Raino, Senior Director of Public Policy at Shared Hope. “This necessary and encouraging shift is demonstrated by this year’s top-scoring states, which have all appropriated substantial state funds towards specialized services for trafficked children and youth.”

The national average of numerical scores on the 40 policy goals is 57.9 for 2023. The average has risen from 51.2 in 2022 and 47.9 in 2021, the year that Shared Hope strengthened its grading criteria to shift the focus from criminal laws to victim-centered responses and services. Prior to that, Shared Hope had issued its annual Report Cards for ten years under a different evaluation framework emphasizing criminal law responses.

Send your state’s Report Card to your legislators

October 5, 2023 by stephen

A whole lot more than rescues: Our sound approach to sex trafficking

Shared Hope International’s Founder and President, Linda Smith, speaks about our work as restoration-focused in the U.S., not in overseas rescues.

Thanks once again to Hollywood, America added a new character this summer to the pantheon of action superheroes it has created: the swashbuckling man who sweeps into corrupt foreign countries to rescue children from the clutches of sex trafficking. Americans love the archetype of an outside savior boldly setting things right and exacting justice on those who deserve it.

This is the plotline that the film industry has created for us with children and sex trafficking. Although Hollywood has programmed us into believing that ending trafficking can be accomplished with brave rescues, it’s more complicated than that. Disrupting and dismantling what is a developed and multi-faceted industry involves a lot more than what can be shown in a dramatic and suspense-filled story that’s neatly wrapped up in two hours.

Let’s unpack what a rescue is, why it’s problematic, and why Shared Hope International takes a different approach.

Shared Hope does not carry out rescues

Mention “rescue,” and most people will think of a forceful snatching-back of children who have been kidnapped and exploited. By their nature, rescues are dramatic and attention-grabbing.

Shared Hope takes an approach to the sex trafficking industry that is broader and wholistic and that includes more proactive responses. Our work is in three major areas:

Prevention: Through highly developed training for both laypersons and professionals, guidance on internet dangers, and with Ambassadors of Hope (volunteer representatives) across the country, we work on prevention strategies.
Restoration: Our strategic guidance and funding helps local organizations expand shelter and services for survivors.
Bringing justice: Our recommendations through our Report Cards on Child and Youth Sex Trafficking are changing the legislative and policy landscape in every state.

Working in these areas is sometimes slow and requires involvement in activities on a smaller scale. Changing large systems from within takes a lot of time. Reforms to whole industries do not happen overnight. Healing and recovery for survivors often takes place over many years.

We acknowledge that making a difference in a slow, often low-key way is sometimes frustrating and not as thrilling as a dramatic movie-type rescue. Yes, we work with urgency, knowing that especially children are at risk, but we pace ourselves to run not a sprint but a marathon. We believe the only way to create long-term, permanent change is to be in the work for the long haul. We’ve been at it for 25 years and have developed a good understanding and expertise to tackle the complexity and multiple facets of this issue.

Restoration is the real rescue

People who are able to escape trafficking situations need to be treated with a high level of care and connected immediately to services and supports. Lacking that, a trafficked person is likely to return to his or her former life by choice or by force. A very real danger then is re-exploitation by the original conditions that brought about the vulnerability to trafficking in the first place.

In addition, survivors need time on the long road of recovery. They are often afraid of or feel victimized by law enforcement. They have to learn to trust other people who want to care for them after living for years as enslaved property, being coerced and threatened, forced to live in dependent and abusive situations.

Shared Hope focuses on restoration with two strategic programs. One is through the amazing efforts of our restoration grant partners who do the immediate work that includes providing safe shelter, medical and mental health care, spiritual renewal, education, life skills, job training and vocational skills. The other restoration program is at the core of our long-term strategy. It involves our efforts in every state to promote legislation that requires restoration services to be provided for survivors of sex trafficking.

Rescues are paternalistic

The idea of a rescue is inherently tied to having a savior character. And with that, the person being rescued is viewed as helpless and powerless. That attitude is in and of itself re-victimizing. Shared Hope, in its assistance to and support of survivors, recognizes their agency, their own will and desire to be restored and to recover from their trauma. We strive to acknowledge their autonomy and empower them by giving them a voice. A survivor-centered approach requires that we do not carry out actions intended to burnish our own image or demonstrate our own strength.

Shared Hope’s approach is not designed to create or focus on a single hero. Thankfully, the anti-sex trafficking movement has many heroes, and each year we recognize some of them through our restoration grants program and our Pathbreaker Awards. These individuals and organizations are the real heroes. Our daily work is in outreach to creators of policies and average people who can be part of combatting trafficking as part of their professional and personal day-to-day lives.

Focused and steady wins the race

In the measured, deliberate approach that Shared Hope takes, we work to disrupt the sex trafficking industry from various angles. Our philosophy is that each person has a role to play in preventing and ending commercial sexual exploitation and that a collaborative, community-wide response is necessary. It takes the different parts of our society — the institutions and systems of law enforcement, governments at all levels, and the justice system, as well as the smaller, social units of families, parents, churches and other communities, healthcare professionals and teachers playing a part to undo what commercial sexual exploitation has built.

Shared Hope’s work is in building relationships and making connections between advocates and organizations. Our focus is educating school counselors, changing attitudes of judges and building the grooming-detection skills of youth. This all takes time, but we are` making progress.

We’ll leave the dramatic rescues to Hollywood. A real rescue is only one part of a much larger picture, and Shared Hope is applying its years of experience and expertise to all parts of the scene.

August 25, 2023 by Sidney McCoy

Unjust Criminalization: Zephi Trevino’s Story

Zephaniah “Zephi” Trevino has pleaded guilty and has been sentenced to 12 years for murder and five years for aggravated robbery. The Dallas County District Attorney alleged Zephi —along with two men— had taken part in a robbery that left one man dead from a gunshot wound and another injured. Although Zephi was not responsible for pulling the trigger, she was charged as an accomplice. What has been left out of the DA’s narrative, however, is that Zephi is a victim of sex trafficking. The two men who were “lured” by Zephi to the apartment where they were ultimately robbed, were there to purchase sex from 16-year-old Zephi. Zephi was charged as an adult and was facing a capital murder conviction. She took a plea deal, citing the risk of a life sentence was “too grave.”

While discouraging, this result is unsurprising as Texas has refused to see those who have been trafficked as victims, rather than criminals. Indeed, Texas remains one of the few¹ states that still criminalizes minors for prostitution—the very crime that is synonymous with their exploitation. In 2019, Governor Greg Abbot vetoed a bill that would protect minors from criminalization for prostitution and would instead direct them to receive assessment and services through child welfare and community-based services. That same year, after passing unanimously through the House and Senate, Governor Abbot vetoed a bill that would establish a clemency review panel for certain offenses committed by victims of domestic violence and human trafficking.

As it stands in Texas, a human trafficking survivor who has been unjustly charged with a crime has just one remedy: a “nondisclosure petition²,” a form of post-conviction relief that is limited to prostitution, marijuana, and certain theft offenses if the offense was committed “solely” as a trafficking victim.³ The relief is further limited because survivors are ineligible for the relief if they have additional convictions, and it requires survivors to provide assistance to law enforcement and prosecutors.⁴

Legal protections for victims of human trafficking are imperative given deeply pervasive forced criminality that exists in trafficking situations. In a 2016 survey, the National Survivor Network found that 90% of trafficking survivors reported being arrested and 60% reported being arrested for crimes other than prostitution or drug possession.⁵ Perhaps most significantly, the survey demonstrated that over half of all respondents believed that 100% of their criminal-legal involvement was directly related to their trafficking experience.⁶ These victim-offenders⁷ are retraumatized by their detention and prosecution. They are also left with a criminal record that hinders their ability to secure safe housing, employment, education, and other services. Contrary to the TVPA’s decree those trafficking victims not be criminalized as a result of their victimization,⁸ survivors continue to be charged with crimes related to their trafficking and states such as Texas fail to provide adequate legal protections to prevent criminalization.

What’s worse, the criminal-legal system itself can often mimic the power and control dynamics that exist in a trafficking situation. Justin Moore, one of Zephi’s defense attorneys, alluded to this in his comments to the press, stressing an “urgent need for a legal system that is trauma-informed . . . and that also calls into question the unchecked power that [prosecutors] have in this country and how they can bully defendants who are victims into taking plea deals.”⁹ This “bullying,” the pressure and coercion that is often applied on victims who are charged alongside their traffickers and co-conspirators, is a tactic used all too often. Indeed, the same youth who are charged as defendants alongside their trafficker may also be called to testify against their trafficker, and that testimony could be central to their successful prosecution.¹⁰ Although it does not appear that the Dallas District Attorney is pursuing trafficking charges against Zephi’s co-defendants, studies have shown that conditions of the juvenile/criminal justice process, secure confinement, and the stigma of criminal records alone further harm and traumatize child sex trafficking victims.¹¹ Prosecutors must weigh considerations of the harm to victim-offenders and the injustice of coercive charging tactics, and further, should be trained on victim-centered investigations and prosecutions to ensure positive identification of survivors and prevent unjust criminalization. Texas does not currently mandate such training.

Sex trafficking victimization and forced criminality are intrinsically linked. Arresting and prosecuting sex trafficking victims for criminal offenses, even violent ones, is in direct conflict with a victim-centered criminal justice approach and reflects a limited understanding of the complex nature of victim-offender intersectionality. Prohibiting the criminalization of sex trafficking victims for offenses related to victimization accounts for the nature and extent of control exerted by sex traffickers, and the influence of trauma on the decision-making process and behavior of survivors. Accordingly, states must enact non-criminalization laws, including an affirmative defense law, that don’t draw a “hard line” on the qualifying offenses and should extend to accomplice and co-conspirator liability.

Successful implementation of this change in law and practice will require training as well as active participation from criminal justice stakeholders, including law enforcement, victim advocates, prosecutors, and judges. To improve identification of sex trafficking victim-offenders, criminal justice stakeholders should take proactive steps throughout the criminal justice process to assess whether a person that is suspected of trafficking had also experienced trafficking victimization.

Finally, non-criminalization and post-conviction relief laws are two sides of the same coin. It is inevitable that survivors will “slip through the cracks” or go unidentified, resulting in unjust convictions. These survivors must be afforded an opportunity to vacate convictions they’ve received as a result of their victimization. States must not limit the types of crimes or charges for which a sex trafficking survivor can seek post-conviction relief to prostitution offenses. States limiting post-conviction relief to trafficking survivors who are convicted of prostitution or other sex offenses leave many sex trafficking survivors without any avenue for relief.

1 As of August 2023, twenty-nine (29) states plus Washington D.C. have passed laws preventing minors from being criminalized for prostitution-related offenses. Eighteen (18) states go on to expand non-criminalization laws to protect child sex trafficking survivors from being prosecuted for other crimes committed as a result of their victimization. Nine (9) states prohibit criminalization for, or provide an affirmative defense to, violent felonies. See Safe Harbor page.

2 See Texas Government Code § 411.0728. Juveniles in Texas are afforded additional opportunities to vacate delinquency adjudications under certain circumstances. However, this relief is not afforded to juveniles convicted of criminal offenses. See generally Tex. Fam. Code Ann. § 58.253, Tex. Fam. Code Ann. § 58.255, and Tex. Fam. Code Ann. § 58.256.

3 Freedom Network USA Texas – Freedom Network USA

4 Id.

5 National Survivor Network Member Survey: Impact of Arrest and Detention on Survivors of Human Trafficking, August 2016. Microsoft Word – VacateSurveyFinal (nationalsurvivornetwork.org)

6 Id.

7 Victim-offender is used to refer to an individual who has experienced, or is currently experiencing, sex trafficking victimization and is alleged to have engaged in conduct that violates the law. See generally Shared Hope Int’l, Responding to Sex Trafficking: Victim-Offender Intersectionality (2020) https://sharedhope.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/SH_Responding-to-Sex-Trafficking-Victim-Offender-Intersectionality2020_FINAL.pdf.

8 22 U.S.C. § 7102(17) (2000) (“The term ‘victim of trafficking’ means a person subjected to an act or practice described in paragraph (9) or (10).”); Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act of 2015, Pub. L. No. 114-22, § 109, 129 Stat. 239 (“[S]ection 108 of this title amends section 1591 of title 18, United States Code, to add the words ‘solicits or patronizes’ to the sex trafficking statute making absolutely clear for judges, juries, prosecutors, and law enforcement officials that criminals who purchase sexual acts from human trafficking victims may be arrested, prosecuted, and convicted as sex trafficking offenders when this is merited by the facts of a particular case.”).

9 “Grand Prairie’s Zephi Trevino sentenced to 12 years in prison in fatal 2019 robbery” Jamie Landers and Kelli Smith Aug. 21 2023

10 Supra note 7.

11 Id.