Victim-offender Archives - Shared Hope International

August 21, 2024 by Leif Larson

Shared Hope International Institute for Justice & Advocacy strongly opposes the sentence imposed on Chrystul Kizer

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/08/19/chrystul-kizer-sentence-wisconsin-sex-trafficking/

Chrystul Kizer’s story is one of victimization and survival. She was a victim of child sex trafficking, forced into a life of exploitation and abuse. However, she was treated as a criminal instead of being recognized as a survivor. The outcome of her case has been widely criticized, with many arguing that it fails to acknowledge her victimization and perpetuates an unjust system.

Shared Hope International Institute for Justice and Advocacy’s Senior Director of Public Policy, Christine Raino, J.D., strongly opposes the sentence imposed on Chrystul Kizer. Raino highlights the unjust treatment Chrystul has faced from the beginning and emphasizes the urgent need for Wisconsin to pass a Safe Harbor law. Raino states, “The outcome of Chrystul’s case is tragic because of the unwillingness to acknowledge her victimization. It is a sad reminder of the immediate need for the state to pass a Safe Harbor law to prevent more young people like Chrystul from having their status as a trafficking victim even debated.”

January 8, 2021 by Camryn Peterson

Charges against Zephi Trevino must be dropped

Zephi Trevino was 16 years old when she was first trafficked by a young adult, Philip Baldenegro, who originally posed and acted as her boyfriend. Just prior to meeting Baldenegro online, Zephi had been abused and introduced to drugs by another boyfriend, resulting in trauma that manifested in depression and anxiety, a significant departure from the happy, healthy and engaged child she had always been. Exploiting her trauma, Baldenegro gave Zephi drugs, threatened her and her family, and sold her for sex to adult men. Zephi’s exploitation and trafficking ended the night that Baldenegro shot and killed a man he had arranged to buy and rape Zephi; however, her horrific experiences of injustice, misidentification, and unanswered calls for help did not cease.

Miscarriage of justice.

The night of the murder, Zephi should have been identified by law enforcement as a victim of sex trafficking. Instead, she was arrested as an accomplice in the murder of the very man who had paid to rape her. Upon further investigation, prosecutors and detectives on the case, who were immediately presented with evidence of her exploitation, should have identified her victimization, dropped charges, and referred her to specialized service providers. Instead, Zephi was held in detention for over a year on capital murder and aggravated robbery charges. Only after public outcry and the retention of new counsel was she released on bond and house arrest. Texas state law and federal law clearly define Zephi as a victim of child sex trafficking, yet her victimization is continuously denied by her trafficker’s defense team, whose perceptions of child sex trafficking and sexual violence victimization are both inaccurate and self-serving.

Realities of sex trafficking .

The blatant denial of Zephi’s victimization reflects the persistent misunderstanding of sex trafficking victims’ behavior. Despite concerted efforts by survivors and anti-trafficking allies to decry the “perfect victim” myth and shed light on the realities of victimization and resulting trauma behaviors, we continue to see survivors being denied the rights and protections afforded to victims of sex trafficking due to misidentification of their experiences. Rather than looking at the legal definition, prosecutors and even defense attorneys struggle to see victimization even when the facts spell it out, just as they do in Zephi’s case. Survivors of sex trafficking have endured and survived horrific sexual violence, in addition to often-present physical, psychological and emotional abuse, substance use, stigmatization, commodification, and isolation from healthy and safe support. These experiences, often result in trauma, mental health challenges, and substance dependency linked to self-blame and shame. For these reasons, child sex trafficking survivors almost never self-identify or report their victimization. They don’t seek help from law enforcement, service providers, or even family and friends. Indeed, their traffickers often train them on how to hide their victimization, as Zephi’s trafficker did in this case.

One of the greatest challenges we face in combatting child sex trafficking is the lack of awareness that survivors’ trauma manifests in behaviors and decisions they see as necessary to survive their abuse. However, these are often behaviors and decisions that our systems then use to punish or discredit the survivor. This is the exact injustice Zephi is being subjected to; a history of substance use, running from home, and seeming indifference to violence are red flags of exploitation and abuse, not behaviors that discredit her experiences of trafficking victimization. Failing to fit within the fabricated box of “perfect victim” has not only resulted in additional trauma, it has her facing capital murder charges for a crime committed by her trafficker, deepening her involvement in a punitive system and isolating her from family and systems of support.

Your voice.

Your support matters! Using our collective voice to signal support for Zephi will encourage DA Creuzot to stand with sex trafficking survivors and bring justice to the plights they have experienced by dropping unjust charges against Zephi. Sign the petition today!

May 29, 2020 by Sarah Bendtsen

Bridge to Success– National Foster Care Month

Bridge to Success

May marks National Foster Care month, prompting an annual focus on a system response that impacts nearly half a million children and youth in the U.S. at any given time. During a normal year, advocates and policymakers highlight promising trends, practices, and challenges for supporting foster care youth, including those transitioning out of the system. However, with a global pandemic in the backdrop, the plight for many is magnified, and the time for immediate reform is now. For over 20 years, Shared Hope has been committed to protecting all children and youth from being commercially sexually exploited. To do this, in the midst of the pandemic, requires a heightened need to focus on the most vulnerable among us.

The intersection of sex trafficking victimization and foster care involvement has been widely recognized. We know from anecdotal accounts, survivor voice, and the limited data available that youth survivors of sex trafficking are disproportionately more likely to have experienced at least one foster care placement prior to their trafficking victimization. The trauma, caused by both the experience driving foster care placement and the removal/placement itself, magnifies the vulnerabilities that are inherently present during adolescence. This compounded trauma, which is likely present for all—425,000—youth in foster care, makes the need for thoughtful, age-appropriate, and holistic support for those transitioning out especially dire.

The impact of removal and foster care placement can create vulnerabilities that do not expire upon the child’s 18^th birthday. In fact, such vulnerabilities can be intensified as the child is confronted with new expectations and decreased support systems. Navigating this bridge between adolescence and adulthood is daunting for any child but can be crushing when the child is forced to build their own bridge and cross over it alone. This is the plight that youth transitioning out of foster care experience. As a result, such youth are disproportionately more likely to experience housing insecurity, homelessness, exploitation, and substance use, as well as trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation. Unsurprisingly, this creates a revolving door effect: when discharged into the world with no support, resources, or safety net, transition age youth are forced to make choices out of survival, often leading to criminal justice involvement; those involved in the criminal justice system are more likely to experience having their own children removed and placed in foster care, and the cycle repeats itself. We know from our own work focusing on ending the criminalization of sex trafficking victims that this is often the experience and fate of survivors. We can stop this cycle of abuse-poverty-punishment. We can provide youth with both the support needed to transition into adulthood and access to opportunities that promote health, wellness, and stability. We can build bridges to success.

To promote critical transition age care, Congress passed the Federal Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008, allowing state child welfare agencies to utilize federal funding to extend services and care to youth under 21. Subsequent legislation that passed in 2015, The Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act, amended the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) to permit states to use CAPTA funding to provide extended child welfare services to youth under 24 years of age, recognizing the imperative need for a continuum of care, support, and services during an especially vulnerable period of life. Over the last decade, 45 states have extended foster care systems to include some youth under 21; however, a number of those states have created eligibility conditions that make accessing extended services and care a challenge for many older youth. The barriers to care have manifested in countless stories of youth being discharged into poverty, homelessness, sex trafficking victimization, unemployment, and criminal justice involvement even before the COVID-19 pandemic; the consequences are even more dire now.

Recently, Foster Care Alumni and the National Center for Housing and Child Welfare (NCHCW) issued a joint letter to the National Governors Association, forecasting the serious challenges awaiting approximately 17,000 youth anticipated to transition out of foster care this year. The letter referred to discharging these youth now, in the midst of the pandemic, as “unconscionable and inhumane” as many may face isolation, homelessness, unemployment, and food insecurity at unprecedented levels. Though the letter paints a grim and unsettling picture, it also serves as our call to action.

Shared Hope has long demanded a reformed child welfare response specific to sex trafficked children, but the realities and experiences of youth transitioning out of child welfare’s care demand that we push further to mitigate the vulnerabilities and end cycles of exploitation and abuse. We must develop and provide the infrastructure, resources, and support necessary to ensure the youth’s journey from adolescence to adulthood is not one of survival but, instead, one that promotes the long-term health, safety, and success of the young person. No child or youth in the U.S. should be pre-destined for exploitation, homelessness, poverty, or prison. Yet, many state policies currently provide a one-way ticket to an adulthood riddled with volatility, injustices, and abuse. The onus is on us, as adults and advocates, to reverse the course, engineer new plans, and build the bridges to success for all youth.

Resources:

Child Trends, “Supporting Young People Transitioning from Foster Care: Findings from a National Survey”

Chronicle of Social Change, “The Pandemic You Know, and The One You Don’t: Vulnerable Youth in The Crisis”

Kansas City Star, “Throwaway Kids”

Juvenile Law Center, National Extended Foster Care Review: 50-State Survey of Extended Foster Care Law and Police Executive Summary and Database

National Conference of State Legislatures, Older Youth in Foster Care State Profiles & Data Base

The Field Center, “Human Trafficking Prevalence and Child Welfare Risk Factors Among Homeless Youth: A Multi-Year Study”

Shared Hope, State Impact Memo on Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act (PSTSFA) and Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act (JVTA)

Opportunities for Advocacy & Action:

Coming soon!

March 31, 2020 by Guest

Renting Lacy Reveals Reality: A Student’s Perspective

I was assignment to read Renting Lacy for a class on human trafficking at my university. Renting Lacy was a required book for the course. Though it was a quick read, it was notably substantive.

Renting Lacy is a fictional, yet reality-based story founded upon the biographies of the unfortunate lives that are involved in the child sex trafficking network in the United States.

The novel depicts a story of an underage girl and her co-workers who are trapped in a sex trafficking ring in Las Vegas. Lacy has been a victim of sex trafficking from a very young age and has been loyal to her trafficker, Bobby Bad, for many years now. She manages and cares for the other girls, Star, Sugar, Cherry, Brandi, and KiKi, who are stuck in her same situation. The book explains how Bobby grooms vulnerable girls by using love, affection, and gifts. Once they are hooked on him and the drugs he supplies, he detracts, leaving them wanting more. This is when he knows they will do anything for him, something even as dehumanizing as selling sex for money. Yet, they all feel a sense of loyalty and even fear towards him.

The mental torment, deceit, and violation the girls endure has left an immeasurable impact on me. Even more so, knowing that even though the book is a compilation of replicated accounts, these intertwining stories are consistent with the real life experiences of individuals manipulated into sex trafficking.

A unique aspect of Renting Lacy is the comprehensive approach to defining, analyzing, and understanding the dynamics of a trafficking situation. Not only is the story told through the dialogue of traffickers and the targeted girls themselves, but of police officers, judges, family members, buyers, and sellers that are included as well. This is illuminating because there is so much value in the awareness of multiple perspectives in regards to the study of sex trafficking.

This book is raw, explicit and devastating, but it tells a strong story that is a solemn reminder of the vulnerabilities of our youth. It is a story that needed to be told to really grasp the interconnectedness and intersectional issues that are presented on this topic. The interwoven events of being trafficked and also being forced to engage in the victimization of others results in compounded trauma. For many of the girls in the book, the victim-offender intersections of their experiences makes the girls’ situation that much more complex. This leads them to be identified as criminal, rather than victim. Shared Hope released a report on this very issue in January that you can read here.

I am glad I got the opportunity to cross paths with Renting Lacy and take from it the knowledge and awareness of an issue that is happening all around us. It forced me to take a hard look at the world around me, instead of brushing off this topic as ‘someone else’s issue’. It is all of our problems and we are all part of the solution. This is an important book for future students to read, as well, because is motivates a discussion of the reality of sex trafficking. Renting Lacy is a humbling book that has the ability to spark initiative.

January 23, 2020 by SHI Staff

Shared Hope International Releases Sex Trafficking Victim-Offender Intersectionality Report, Promoting Just Responses to Victims in the Criminal Justice System

The collaboration with the Institute to Address Commercial Sexual Exploitation at Villanova Law follows a three-year study of the phenomenon of treating sex trafficking victims as criminals

WASHINGTON, Jan. 23, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Shared Hope International, a non-profit leader in the fight to eradicate domestic minor sex trafficking, today announced the release of “Responding to Sex Trafficking Victim-Offender Intersectionality: A Guide for Criminal Justice Stakeholders”. A collaboration of Shared Hope’s JuST Response Council and the Institute to Address Commercial Sexual Exploitation (CSE Institute) at Villanova Law, the report will serve as a field guide for criminal justice stakeholders, supporting an overall shift toward a victim-centered approach that recognizes a survivor’s underlying victimization when facing sex trafficking charges.

Shared Hope unveiled the report during a presentation and panel discussion at its Institute for Justice & Advocacy, a Washington, D.C.-based education, research and training center, which opened today.

The report provides resources for anyone who interacts with a sex trafficking victim-offender within the criminal justice system, including law enforcement, judges, defense attorneys, probation officers and victim witness advocates. It seeks to mitigate the risk of injustice when the control exerted by sex traffickers and the influence of trauma on a victim’s decision-making and behavior are not considered.

“A sea change is still needed in how our world looks at, responds to and cares for sex trafficking victims,” said Linda Smith, Shared Hope’s founder and president, and a former U.S. Congresswoman. “This report is a long-overdue resource for understanding and addressing the circumstances that result in treating victims as criminals.”

The CSE Institute educates and provides technical assistance to those who respond to commercial sexual exploitation, promoting victim-centered, trauma-informed multidisciplinary collaboration.

“As a former prosecutor who now routinely educates prosecutors and engages in policy and legislative reforms, I consistently remind prosecutors that the most powerful tool they have is the one of discretion,” said Shea Rhodes, director and co-founder of the CSE Institute. “When making decisions about which cases to charge and bring to trial, it is critical that prosecutors investigate trafficking cases using victim-centered trauma-informed strategies to ensure that the outcomes are fair and just for all involved.”

For the last decade, Shared Hope has graded states on the strength of their child sex trafficking laws through its Protected Innocence Challenge. While the national average grade rose from an F to a B since the Challenge began, the grade for victim protection laws is barely a C at 71.2 percent.

“While we recognize the challenges that arise when trafficking victims are alleged to have engaged in trafficking conduct, approaches such as charging victims as co-conspirators, which effectively deny their underlying victimization and prevent access to comprehensive services, harm victims as well as the effort to bring their exploiters to justice,” said Christine Raino, Shared Hope’s senior director of public policy. “The progress made crafting new legislation that properly punishes sex traffickers is undermined when the laws are implemented in a way that is not victim-centered and trauma-informed.”

The field guidance focuses on three primary objectives:

To improve identification of sex trafficking victim-offenders who have come into contact with the criminal justice system
To enhance understanding of victim-offenders’ conduct through a sex trafficking- and trauma-informed lens
To identify alternative responses to victim-offenders that take into account the impact of their own victimization on their potential involvement in sex trafficking conduct

Shared Hope’s JuST Response Council comprises policy advocates, government officials, medical professionals, law enforcement, prosecutors, judges, academics and service providers. Several members are survivor leaders. Members share the goals of preventing juveniles from becoming sex trafficking victims and ensuring that youth who have been trafficked have access to the tools and support necessary to heal from the trauma they have endured and the skills to create and sustain a life away from trafficking.

To read the “Responding to Sex Trafficking Victim-Offender Intersectionality: A Guide for Criminal Justice Stakeholders” report, visit https://sharedhope.org/what-we-do/bring-justice/just-response-council/

ABOUT SHARED HOPE INTERNATIONAL
Founded in 1998 by then U.S. Congresswoman Linda Smith, Shared Hope International strives to prevent the conditions that foster sex trafficking, restore victims of sex slavery, and bring justice to vulnerable women and children. A non-profit Christian organization, Shared Hope engages in diverse activities that confront sex trafficking in communities throughout America. Our efforts include training first responders and community members to identify warning signs of trafficking and employ intervention techniques to rescue child trafficking victims; providing restorative services to affected children and women; and offering legislative support to those focused on strengthening laws that fight child sex trafficking. Our vision is to coordinate a national U.S. network of protection to improve the response to victims of trafficking. We believe we can create a world where every survivor is surrounded by trained professionals, an alert community, just law and policy, knowledgeable service providers and appropriate shelter options.

MEDIA CONTACT: Rosemary Ostmann, RoseComm for Shared Hope International, rostmann@rosecomm.com, 201-615-7751.