Sex Trafficking

     This past Thursday, I attended a seminar on Sex Trafficking and Children, hosted by Carol Simensky. She spoke about sex trafficking on an international level and how its definition is different than what people think it is. By law, it is the recruitment, harboring, transportation and holding of anyone or someone under the age of 18.

    One individual Simensky introduced us to was a woman she called Sara. She was forced to be a servant in a family friend’s household after she was brought to the U.S believing she could have a better life. She was isolated from the outside world and abused for four years before running away. She was 13 when this all began.

    Simensky claims that these types of things occur because people want to get to a better place, often economically better, which leads them to agree to things that they normally wouldn’t agree to. They are told they will be able to send money back home and get their family out of poverty, and any family that says ‘no’ are seen as a bad family for turning the offer down. If accepted, people/children will find themselves in an unknown place, threatened, not knowing where they are or anybody, or even the language. This occurs around the globe and does not have to cross borders.                                                       

           

     Simensky belongs to Ecpat USA, an organization dedicated to helping children, who are 18 and under, who were once victims of sex trafficking. Originally based in Thailand, Ecpat is currently in 75 countries, fighting to protect basic human rights.

     The presentation brought up several points that connect to readings we have discussed over the last few weeks. S.C.W.A.M.P, Johnson and McIntosh can all be grouped together under the 1^st connection. All three articles discuss white privilege, and how a person’s background, race, class etc. affects how they are treated. Sex trafficking you can say, is the lack of white privilege. It does not discriminate against gender, age, ethnicity, income or sexual orientation. Instead those involved, the pimps, look for the most vulnerable kids; abused, foster kids, low income etc. This will increase the chance to convince them to join their ranks in hope of a better life. In an interview a Pimp admits, in reference to a former girl, “she was raped so many times, we might as well pay her for it”. Pimps also focus on recruiting attractive people base on physique, youth and beauty to attract more clients and business. These pimps will play the part that the victims need, whether that is a father figure, first lover, or even just a friend. According to a survivor, they would be given something that they never had before, “like a dream come true”.

     The second connection I see is from Delpit’s article, Silenced Dialogue. In Delpit’s article, people, usually women are silenced because there is not much expected of them. Sex traffic victims, especially the women, are silenced by their pimps and their circumstances. They are cut off from their family and friends, silenced from their old life, and controlled by their pimp. A survivor, Katherine Owens, tells her story and talks about how pimps would treat girls so well that the girls would feel like the pimps were entitled to their services. Once the victims realized they were being used, regardless of the emotional attachment to them, the pimps would do whatever it took to keep the girls under their control. When Owens tried to leave, she not only had to escape her pimp, but also his dog that was set to attack her. The pimps would control their victims so much that they would take away their rights to make their own decisions and to control their own actions. They were even expected to turn all their earnings over to the pimps, taking away any financial freedom they might have had.

     The third connection I see between the readings and sex trafficking is through Kozol’s article and the impact of institutions on individuals. Until recently, most states allowed children as young as 10 to be arrested for prostitution. It is universally derived for these children to be considered bad and there is confusion if the child is entitled to protection or to keep them criminalized. By criminalizing them, it just confirms what the pimp said about them, (‘you’re a bad kid, no one else cares about you but me etc.). Sara, who I mentioned earlier, was warned to stay away from the police because they wouldn’t care about her and would send her back home, which led to her avoiding them when she ran away. A judge claimed there is no effective way to respond to these situations in a five-minute hearing, so it’s easy to send them to a detention center. Although it gets them off the streets for a while, it is only an illusion of a solution. The institution of law enforcement has either terrified victims or made it so they are treated no better than how the pimps treat them. Only 19 states has, as of recently, passed state laws to help trafficking victims.

      If you would need to report any knowledge of sex trafficking, call 888-3737-88. If you want to learn more about the issue or learn how to help, visit www.ecpatusa.com, www.witness.org, or www.ngocstip.com.