CSEC in Miami

Man Sells Foster Daughter Into Prostitution

2009-11-03T09:02:00.000-08:00

**This is a case from Maryland, but I wanted to repost this blog entry by Amanda Kloer to highlight an issue that often gets overlooked in our overburdened foster care system. When I worked in New York, I ran into a couple cases of this as well, so this is not a fluke occurance. We need to keep our eyes open to identify these cases even in the homes of people we assume are there to care for the children.
-Sandy**

by Amanda Kloer

Published October 26, 2009 @ 01:24PM PT

Pimps can be strangers to their child victims, but they are often someone the victim trusts, like a boyfriend, a parent, or a family member. In a case out of Maryland recently, Shelby Lewis sold his 12-year-old foster daughter, along with three other girls, into prostitution -- the price of the "rent" he charged them for living in his home. This case is an excellent case study of what domestic minor sex trafficking looks like in the U.S., since it has a number of very common factors present.

First, the victim was a part of the foster care system. It's common for American girls who are eventually trafficked by pimps to have been in foster care at one point in their lives. The connection between foster care and trafficking is due to both the vulnerability of young people without stable homes and the dysfunction of many foster care systems in the U.S.
Second, the pimp was someone the victim knew as a protector. While pimps can be strangers, they often approach victims first as boyfriends, friends, stepfathers, family members, etc. They groom the victim to rely on them and then claim, as Lewis did, that the cost of their protection and love is prostitution.

Third, the victims started in their early teens. Lewis first began pimping his foster daughter out when she was 12. He also sold three other girls, who he began exploiting at 13, 14, and 16. The average age of entry into prostitution is 12-14 in the U.S., so the ages of the victims in this case are typical.

Fourth, one of his victims was registered with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. It's not unusual for children who are reported missing, either as runaways or as kidnapping victims, end up in the hands of pimps like Lewis.

Lastly, child pornography makes an appearance in this case, as it does in many others. Lewis had pictures of his victims tied to beds in sexual poses at his apartment. Pimps can earn money by selling pornographic images of the girls they exploit in addition to selling the girls themselves.

While one of these factors might not be present in all cases of domestic minor sex trafficking, they are certainly present in a number of them. This case is an example of how the issue of child trafficking in the U.S. is deeply connected to the need for reform of the foster care system and better education for girls. The questions this case begs are much broader than just those related to human trafficking: Why are foster youths so susceptible to trafficking? Why are men buying girls so young for sex? It's a reminder that we must always view trafficking within the context of social issues pimps utilize to help them traffic girls.

Human trafficking `survivor' to speak at Miami summit

2009-10-28T19:42:00.000-07:00

MIAMI HERALD
Posted on Wed, Oct. 28, 2009

BY JARED GOYETTE
jgoyette@MiamiHerald.com

She was only 13 years old, a runaway fleeing an abusive father, when a pimp reeled her in with the promise of fast cash and an independent life.

`You're 13 years old and you see $400, $600, $800 in your hand,'' she said in an interview. `I'm seeing all this money and I'm like, I could get somewhere, I could make it on my own. I don't need my parents for nothing.''

Mia, who did not want to disclose her last name, would end up far from her Arizona home, trafficked by pimps to California, and later traveling to New York. She estimates she was arrested more than 50 times.

Now, five years later, she lives in Miami and is trying to rebuild her life. She has a job and is in school. Her priorities have changed -- now she has a young son to take care of.

On Thursday, Mia will tell her story during the second day of a two-day statewide Summit on Human Trafficking at the Miami Hilton downtown.

The summit, the first of its kind in Florida, brings together law enforcement authorities, social workers and community groups to help combat human trafficking and assist `survivors.''

Among those addressing the summit: Department of Children & Families Secretary George Sheldon and Cameron Holland, the State Department's legal counsel on human trafficking.

`Traffickers are selling women and children on our cities' streets, they are forcing large numbers of victims to work in our fields and in our factories. They are enslaving workers in the very hotels we stay in,'' Sheldon said in a written statement.

`We must ensure that we have more people who can recognize trafficking for what it is and establish the ways for reporting, investigating, prosecuting perpetrators and treating victims, giving them the support and services they need to become survivors and lead healthy and successful lives, free from oppression,'' he said.

Earlier this year, the Florida Legislature created the Statewide Human Trafficking Task Force, to be co-chaired by DCF and the commissioner of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

U.S. Justice Department officials estimate that as many as 200,000 children each year are trafficked within the United States as part of a vast sex industry. As many as 17,500 foreign nationals are trafficked into the United States each year.

United Nations officials say human trafficking generates $31.6 billion a year in global business profits, second only to drug trafficking.

The summit -- Recognizing the Problem, Collaborating on a Response -- is being held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday at the Miami Hilton Downtown, 1601 Biscayne Blvd.

Clinton Global Initiative: The Body Shop Unveils Latest Action to Stop Child Sex Trafficking

2009-09-25T06:53:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK, Sept. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, CEO of The Body Shop International, Sophie Gasperment, unveils an innovative new approach to addressing the global issue of child sex trafficking, at the fifth Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting in New York.

The Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) this year is offering a unique opportunity to bring world leaders together to recognize the importance of tackling child sex trafficking, an issue, by its very nature, affecting every country around the world. At the CGI, Ms. Gasperment will unveil an innovative 'Progress Card System' which paints a global picture of how the world's governments are taking action and assesses their progress in their efforts to tackle child sex trafficking in more than 40 countries worldwide.

The Body Shop has been invited to participate at the CGI in recognition of its 'Stop Sex Trafficking of Children and Young People' campaign which launched across the world in August in partnership with ECPAT International (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes). The Body Shop and ECPAT International believe the launch of these ground-breaking cards will dramatically accelerate progress to end child sex trafficking over the course of the next three years.

"When The Body Shop undertook its global commitment to help bring an end to child sex trafficking we wanted to do more than just talk about it; we wanted to take action that could really have a tangible and positive impact in the countries where we have stores. The Progress Cards System we are launching today takes us that next step closer to effecting measurable and essential change," states Ms. Gasperment.

The Body Shop is the original, natural and ethical beauty brand, with more than 2,500 stores across over 60 countries, and a strong heritage of campaigning on important issues.

Ms. Gasperment adds: "We are proud to have been invited to the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting to present this new approach and gather feedback and support from so many truly inspiring global change-makers. It will be invaluable to the development of this powerful campaign. Today, the first findings from the Progress Cards we release reveal that many countries are still ill-equipped to deal with the issue of sex trafficking of children and young people."

Carmen Madrinan, Executive Director of ECPAT International added, "The first findings from the Progress Card project reveal a truly challenging situation. By reaching out to the public with this information, we aim to elicit broad interest in child protection and enable wide public participation and support to accelerate change in partnership with the private sector, civil society and with government in the lead."

Ms. Gasperment will take part in a CGI Working Session entitled, "Leadership Solutions to End Human Trafficking and Forced Labor," alongside panel members including Ambassador Luis de Bacc of the US State Department, Kailash Satyarthi - Global March Against Child Labor; a representative from Rugmark; and actress Julia Ormond, a UN goodwill ambassador and founder of ASSET.

Background:

The comprehensive Country Progress Cards focus on the specific situation at a country level, enabling its citizens to:

Monitor the measures implemented by individual governments to protect children;
Assess their nation's effectiveness against child sex trafficking;

Identify urgent actions required to protect children from becoming victims of sex trafficking; and

Encourage countries to turn binding and moral agreements into concrete positive outcomes for children.

Key Progress Card findings for 2009:

Only 10% of countries reviewed have special police units established across the country to investigate child trafficking cases with appropriate specialized training;

60% of the assistance and care services offered to children in countries reviewed are not comprehensive or specialized for child victims of trafficking;
1 in 3 countries do not have help lines to provide specialized assistance to vulnerable children or child victims of trafficking;

1 in 3 countries do not have specialized shelters to accommodate child victims of trafficking;

Only 2% of nations are reported to offer comprehensive and specialized counselling services to specifically address the particular needs of child victims of trafficking for sexual purposes, whilst 29% do not offer any type of services to accompany the psychological healing of child victims.

Over the next three years of the partnership between The Body Shop and ECPAT International, it is believed the Country Progress Cards will:

Increase the amount of information made available, reflecting the urgency of the situation in more countries and analysing the progress made to "Stop Sex Trafficking of Children and Young People";

Increase resources and knowledge to build commitment to the goals of the campaign among a larger public and strengthen the grassroots base in each country;
Create a channel to mobilize active supporters and demand action from governments and decision-makers.

About the Campaign:

The Stop Sex Trafficking of Children & Young People campaign complements and supports the continuing work of the various monitoring bodies, such as the UN Human Rights Council and, in particular, the UN Special Rapporteurs on the Sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography and on Trafficking in Persons, to ensure that the rights of children are respected and that nations are held responsible for guaranteeing this commitment is fulfilled.

By 2012, when the final global assessment is released by The Body Shop and ECPAT (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes), it is expected that significant progress will have been made by individual governments and other relevant stakeholders to honor their commitments and secure a safer world for children.

The Body Shop has taken a major leadership position on the issue of child sex trafficking, working with ECPAT International to launch a report, "Their Protection is in Our Hands - The State of Global Trafficking of Children and Young People for Sexual Purposes."

To learn more about and to support the Stop Sex Trafficking of Children and Young People campaign visit http://www.thebodyshop.com/stop.

The Body Shop is raising funds through sales of a new Soft Hands Kind Hearts Hand Cream, all proceeds of which go to ECPAT affiliates and ECPAT International.

A summary of the Country Progress Cards System is available upon request.

About The Body Shop

The Body Shop International is the leading natural and ethical cosmetics company, now operating more than 2,500 stores in over 60 markets worldwide. The Body Shop has constantly sought out wonderful natural ingredients from all four corners of the globe to bring you products bursting with effectiveness, to enhance your natural beauty. We strive to use our planet's resources wisely, searching for outstanding natural materials and ingredients from across the globe to include in our range of products. We continue to lead the way, introducing 100% recycled packaging, raising funds and awareness to help prevent the spread of HIV/ AIDS, and continuing to support marginalized communities around the world through our unique Community Trade program.

About ECPAT International

ECPAT International is a global network composed of more than 81 member organizations in 75 countries. Members of ECPAT work to combat commercial sexual exploitation, including providing direct care to child victims' public information campaigns and working with governments to design and implement action to protect children.

About the Clinton Global Initiative

In 2005, President Bill Clinton established the Clinton Global Initiative to turn ideas into action and to help our world move beyond the current state of globalization to a more integrated global community of shared benefits, responsibilities, and values. By gathering world leaders from a variety of backgrounds, CGI creates a unique opportunity to channel the capacities of individuals and organizations to realize change. To fulfill the action-oriented mission of CGI, all members devise practical solutions to global issues through the development of specific and measurable Commitments to Action.

CGI Annual Meetings have brought together more than 100 current and former heads of state, 14 Nobel Peace Prize winners, hundreds of leading global CEOs, major philanthropists and foundation heads, directors of the most effective non-governmental organizations, and prominent members of the media. These CGI members have made more than 1,400 commitments valued at $46 billion, which have already improved more than 200 million lives in 150 countries. Commitments made at the 2008 Annual Meeting are expected to impact almost 160 million people.

MEDIA CONTACTS:
Mike Rosen or Tara Madden Shelley Simmons
Bratskeir & Company (for The Body Shop) The Body Shop
212.679.2233 212.480.9878
mrosen@bratskeir.com shelley.simmons@thebodyshop.com
tmadden@bratskeir.com

SOURCE The Body Shop International

ACORN staffers assisting traffickers - VIDEO

2009-09-11T12:36:00.000-07:00

Here is the video of the ACORN staff members assisting a "pimp" and his "young prostitute" in tax evasion and trafficking of 13 Honduran minors for prostitution. Most notable is when the ACORN worker is advising the pimp to "train the 14 year old girls to keep their mouths shut".

Rachel Lloyd Receives Prestigious Ashoka Fellowship

2009-09-03T07:52:00.000-07:00

**CONGRATULATIONS!! I am so proud of Rachel Lloyd, and so honored to have had the opportunity to work for her and share her innovative model of working with DMST victims here in Miami.** -Sandy

Rachel Lloyd, the founder and executive director of Girls Educational and Mentoring Services has been recognized by the renowned Ashoka organization as one of the worlds leading social entrepreneurs and awarded its prestigious “Ashoka Fellowhip”.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PRLog (Press Release) – Sep 02, 2009 – Rachel Lloyd, the founder and executive director of Girls Educational and Mentoring Services (GEMS) has been recognized by the renowned Ashoka organization as one of the worlds leading social entrepreneurs and awarded its prestigious “Ashoka Fellowhip”. Ashoka Fellows are recognized for their innovative solutions to some of society’s most pressing social problems and benefit from being part of the Ashoka global fellowship for life along with a 3-year stipend to support their work.

Ms. Lloyd was elected for her work as a voice and activist at the local, state and national level to promote policies that support American girls and young women, ages 12-21 who have experienced commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking. GEMS is the largest non-profit organization in America designed to empower commercially exploited and trafficked youth.

Ms. Lloyd successfully completed Ashoka’s rigorous selection process to join the global fellowship of over 2000 leading social entrepreneurs, Nobel Prize laureates and exceptional nonprofit leaders who share qualities traditionally associated with leading business entrepreneurs – vision, innovation, determination and long-term commitment – but are committed to systemic social change in their fields.

Being awarded an Ashoka Fellowship is a significant achievement for Ms. Lloyd as she continues her efforts to transform public perception of sexually exploited youth that has included being instrumental in the successful passing of the NY Safe Harbor for Sexually Exploited Children Act and co-producing the critically acclaimed Showtime documentary, ‘Very Young Girls’.

A graduate of Marymount Manhattan College and City College with degrees in Psychology and Applied Urban Anthropology, respectively, Ms. Lloyd is an activist, educator, author, mentor, and recipient of other notable awards including The 2006 Reebok Human Rights Award, Susan B. Anthony Award from the New York City Chapter of the National Organization for Women and named one of Ms. Magazines '50 Women Who Change the World'.

Rachel Lloyd’s vision and success is exemplary of one of Ashoka’s core tenets --that citizens who channel their passion into action can do almost anything.

For more information about GEMS: www.gems-girls.org
For more information about Ashoka: www.ashoka.org

Fort Myers ministry helps women leave sex trade

2009-09-01T14:21:00.000-07:00

Click here to see full article with photos and video

August 31, 2009

BY Cristela Guerra
cguerra@news-press.com
www.news-press.com

For seven years and in 13 cities, Julie Taylor Shematz was Diamond. She danced in front of strangers in dark, smoky rooms to make a living.

In the dressing room, it was a different story.

“She would come in and say she’d had it,” Shematz said. “She” was any of her fellow strippers at any given time.

“She’d be bawling, crying and cussing, saying she’s quitting. And everyone knew she’d be back.”

Shematz, 44, has given up the strip-club circuit and now headlines Beauty From Ashes with her husband, Steve. The nonprofit counsels erotic dancers, sex workers, porn actors and sex-trafficking victims.

Starting Tuesday, Shematz’s ministry will hold its annual Beauty From Ashes National Strip Club Outreach & XXX Ministry Training at Word of Life Church in Fort Myers.

Its purpose is to coach volunteers on how to reach out and offer workers in sex trades a way out.

In the sex industry, Shematz said the line between stripping and exploitation can often become blurred.

“I didn’t realize was how all that mental, physical, verbal abuse would affect me over time,” she said.

On the horizon, Shematz is seeking to develop Freedom Children’s Home, a home for minors who are victims of domestic sex trafficking.

Nola Theiss, coordinator of the Lee County Human Trafficking Task Force and executive director of Human Trafficking Awareness Partnerships, said there are only two other homes in the nation that reach out to juvenile sex victims.

“A 12-year-old gets picked up and forced into the sex trade,” Theiss said. “She’s under the radar for three years until she’s rescued. But what do you do then? You don’t put her in the 10th grade and say ‘good luck.’”

Detective Mike Zaleski of the Lee County Sheriff’s Office has seen too many trafficking cases with young girls in prostitution rings.

“There are many documented cases where victims have been sexually battered, beaten, tied up, and also tortured,” he said by e-mail. “In every instance there have been emotional traumas that the victim has endured.”

Shematz works up to 60-hour weeks with the “overcomers,” as she refers to the women. Through her Web site and social networking sites such as Facebook, she reaches dozens.

“It takes a long time for these girls to become adjusted to society,” she said. “The temptation to go back is always there crouching at your door.”

Aid could be assistance through education, job placement, relocation if necessary, and short-term housing.

Shematz visits the ministry’s adopted club, Fantasy’s at the Beach in Fort Myers Beach, once or twice a month, bringing food, provisions and sometimes prayer. She also has referred women to her home church, Word of Life Ministries in Fort Myers.

The church’s New Life Center on Collier Avenue is a self-contained haven for people looking to change their lifestyle, and an alternative to jail. The facility houses 113, providing room and board while clients go through a rigorous 18-month program.

“We provide personal counseling and biblical healing. There’s a need in the community for restoration,” said Bishop Gaspar Anastasi, who founded the first center 26 years ago in Freeport, N.Y., and in Fort Myers six years ago.

The program costs $700 per student, which the church’s congregation pays for through donations. The ministry boasts a 98 percent success rate.

Woman and men at the Word of Life Church eat, sleep and pray in separate areas.

Some mothers live at the facility with their children.

Arneteria Benford-Jones, 36, hopes to join the program. The Fort Myers woman met Shematz through church.

“I started at a (strip) club in Tampa,” Jones said. “I was 19 years old. You see all activities, club owners, drug dealers and pimps. It made me grow up fast.”

Jones said she’d been beaten and raped while feeding a cocaine addiction. Now, she considers herself an “overcomer.”

“I look at Julie and I don’t know why she loves me so much,” Jones said. “God sends people into your life for a reason. Though you struggle and go through storms, that’s what makes me special. If God can help me, he can help anyone.”

Reality struck Shematz when she decided to complete her college degree at 28. She was taking classes in Indianapolis while working up to five part-time jobs.

“I just thought to myself, ‘I’ll do it for a short while,’” Shematz said about stripping. A short while turned to years, even while working at what she called “the nicest club in Indianapolis.” Stripping fed her desire for attention, Shematz said, but it also made her hate herself later.

Today, Shematz has trained outreach groups in Indianapolis, Detroit and Daytona Beach — all cities in which she performed.

“All little girls, when they’re young, get up on a coffee table and ask their dad, ‘Am I pretty? Am I pretty?’” she said. “A lot of these girls never had this, and on stage what they’re saying is, ‘Look at me, do you like me? Do you want me?’”

Jeff Isacksen, 41, night manager at Fantasy’s, has watched Shematz come in to speak to his club’s dancers for years.

“The truth is, it’s a tough business that takes a lot of trust,” Isacksen said.

“But it gets old fast,” Isacksen said. “It’s more grief and heartache than anything else.”

Fantasy’s is the only strip club in the area in which Shematz has ministered. She’s waiting for the right time to go to other clubs in town.

Not all performers want to be saved. At Lookers on Fowler Street, Zahara works on her routine making what she said is up to $500 a night at times.

She’s not ashamed, but said she’s used to people such as Shematz telling her to quit.

“Everyone sees strippers as drug addicts and whores, but the thing is, a lot of the girls aren’t,” said Zahara, who declined to give her real name. “I’ve been clean for six months.”

The 21-year-old said she strips to provide for her sister and niece. She said it’s hard to do sober, but she tries.

As a professionally trained dancer, Zahara’s love is the waltz. Instead of gliding across a ballroom, her body takes shape around a pole, spinning and contorting with the rhythm.

To her, “Lookers is like a family.” But Zahara has other dreams. “Sometimes it’s hard to put on that smile,” she said. “But it pays the bills.”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kristi House newsletter highlights Project GOLD

2009-09-01T13:43:00.000-07:00

Project GOLD is featured on the front page of Kristi House's most recent newsletter. Click here and check out our latest successes.

State Representative Maria Sachs Appointed to the Statewide Task Force on Human Trafficking

2009-07-28T15:04:00.000-07:00

PRESS RELEASE
CONTACT: Rep. Maria Sachs, 561-266-6645
For Immediate Release--Tuesday, July 28, 2009

TALLAHASSEE – State Representative Maria Sachs (D-Delray Beach) will serve on the Statewide Task Force on Human Trafficking, under an appointment made by Florida Governor Charlie Crist.

The Statewide Task Force on Human Trafficking is a 19-person panel created to evaluate the problem of human trafficking and to recommend strategies and actions for reducing or eliminating the unlawful trafficking of men, women and children into Florida.

“I am honored to be appointed to serve on the Statewide Task Force on Human Trafficking for the state of Florida,” said Representative Sachs. “Human trafficking has become the number one crime issue in South Florida and one that impacts all of us. It has truly become a problem and Florida is at the center of this global epidemic.”

Shared Hope International Exposes Child Sex Trafficking In South Florida

2009-07-23T17:48:00.000-07:00

Posted on: http://www.robertstevenduncan.com/2009/07/shared-hope-international-exposes-child.html

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

(RSD) -- Shared Hope International will release a report and training video on domestic minor sex trafficking at the upcoming Child Slavery in Our Community Leadership and Training Summit.

The Assessment of Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking in Broward and Dade Counties, Florida reveals that child victims of sex trafficking are being arrested for prostitution in Broward and Miami-Dade counties. These severely victimized and traumatized children are being misidentified as juvenile delinquents and punished for the crime that is being committed against them.

In fact, the report documents more than 500 juveniles were arrested for prostitution in Miami-Dade County from 1998-2008. A lack of training for social service providers and first responders is noted as the primary gap causing the misidentification of child victims of sex trafficking.

"Many service providers currently work with victims of domestic minor sex trafficking, but are not aware of how to properly identify and respond to these children. Misidentification of just one child victim of sex trafficking is too many. However, I believe that the upcoming training we are hosting this Thursday will provide a springboard for response and action as the communities of Broward and Miami-Dade Counties come together to find a solution," said former Congresswoman Linda Smith, President and Founder of Shared Hope International.

On July 9, 2009 law enforcement officers, social service providers, and child advocates from Broward and Miami-Dade counties convene at St. Thomas University School of Law for the Child Slavery in Our Community Leadership and Training Summit. Organized by Shared Hope International, the summit will bring an exclusive focus on Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking - the commercial sexual exploitation of children through prostitution, pornography, and stripping.

Shared Hope International said it will use this event to release video with surveillance footage, survivor interviews, and expert testimony to educate and inform social service providers on how to identify and respond to American children who are commercially sexually exploited.

The new training video INTERVENE: Identifying and Responding to America's Prostituted Children, reveals how American children are recruited and tricked into prostitution in the United States and will assist social service providers in understanding who these victims are and how to better serve them.

In the video, child sex trafficking survivor "Maya" who was trafficked in South Florida said this of surviving prostitution as a child, "I would tell a social worker that she needs to be understanding and when she's talking to the girls to really focus on more or less why they want to be out of the life... If I had someone like Sandy from Kristi House years earlier I could have probably spared me a lot of years of abuse - of all the trauma and negativity."

Feds: Man promised to make girl a 'star,' instead turned her into prostitute

2009-06-18T16:10:00.001-07:00

OrlandoSentinel.com
Amy L. Edwards
Sentinel Staff Writer

5:36 PM EDT, June 11, 2009

When Dwayne Lawson befriended a 17-year-old Central Florida girl on MySpace, he promised to make her a "star."

Instead, he made her a prostitute -- pimping her out on streets thousands of miles from home, and selling her services on Craigslist, according to a federal criminal complaint.

Now, the 28-year-old Orlando man is behind bars in a California jail, accused of one count of sex trafficking of children. Lawson, also known as "Christopher Young," "Christopher Yoong," and "Staydown," met the girl through her MySpace page in October, the complaint said.

Lawson told the girl, identified in the complaint as "FM," he had a house, cars and money.

"FM thought she was going to be a star," the complaint said.

Lawson bought the teen a bus ticket and she traveled to Las Vegas, where she met up with him and an 18-year-old woman who had been working as a prostitute for Lawson for several years. From there, the complaint said, Lawson took the teen and unidentified woman to Orange County, Calif.

Lawson told FM the rules -- like don't kiss men on the mouth -- and told her how much to charge.

Lawson and the woman took nude photos of FM, posted them on Craigslist advertising sex in that area, and coached the teen on how to talk to "customers," the complaint said.

After FM met with a customer, all of her money went to Lawson.

Eventually, Lawson put FM "on the track" in California and Las Vegas. She was twice arrested on prostitution charges, providing a fake ID to law enforcement on both occasions, and was ticketed and released, the complaint said.

While in San Diego, FM was experiencing severe pain and Lawson did not want to take her to the doctor. When he eventually dropped her off at a hospital, a doctor told FM she shouldn't have sex for at least one week. The complaint said the teen asked the doctor to put it in writing so she could show Lawson. But Lawson told FM she could still make money.

In February, FM bought a bus ticket to get away from Lawson, but the teen returned after he repeatedly called her and talked her into coming back. When she did return, the complaint said, he took off his rings and threatened to beat her if she left again. He then took her cell phone away.

Local and federal law-enforcement agents compared photos of FM on Craigslist to that of a girl depicted in an endangered runaway poster through the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and determined it was the same teen.

Lawson, who is listed as a fugitive with the Florida Department of Corrections for absconding felony probation, was arrested and is slated for trial in August.

Amy L. Edwards can be reached at aledwards@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5735.

Copyright © 2009, Orlando Sentinel

Girls on Our Streets

2009-05-12T12:46:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK TIMES

May 7, 2009
Op-Ed Columnist

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
ATLANTA

Jasmine Caldwell was 14 and selling sex on the streets when an opportunity arose to escape her pimp: an undercover policeman picked her up.

The cop could have rescued her from the pimp, who ran a string of 13 girls and took every cent they earned. If the cop had taken Jasmine to a shelter, she could have resumed her education and tried to put her life back in order.

Instead, the policeman showed her his handcuffs and threatened to send her to prison. Terrified, she cried and pleaded not to be jailed. Then, she said, he offered to release her in exchange for sex.

Afterward, the policeman returned her to the street. Then her pimp beat her up for failing to collect any money.

“That happens a lot,” said Jasmine, who is now 21. “The cops sometimes just want to blackmail you into having sex.”

I’ve often reported on sex trafficking in other countries, and that has made me curious about the situation here in the United States. Prostitution in America isn’t as brutal as it is in, say, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Cambodia and Malaysia (where young girls are routinely kidnapped, imprisoned and tortured by brothel owners, occasionally even killed). But the scene on American streets is still appalling — and it continues largely because neither the authorities nor society as a whole show much interest in 14-year-old girls pimped on the streets.

Americans tend to think of forced prostitution as the plight of Mexican or Asian women trafficked into the United States and locked up in brothels. Such trafficking is indeed a problem, but the far greater scandal and the worst violence involves American teenage girls.

If a middle-class white girl goes missing, radio stations broadcast amber alerts, and cable TV fills the air with “missing beauty” updates. But 13-year-old black or Latina girls from poor neighborhoods vanish all the time, and the pimps are among the few people who show any interest.

These domestic girls are often runaways or those called “throwaways” by social workers: teenagers who fight with their parents and are then kicked out of the home. These girls tend to be much younger than the women trafficked from abroad and, as best I can tell, are more likely to be controlled by force.

Pimps are not the business partners they purport to be. They typically take every penny the girls earn. They work the girls seven nights a week. They sometimes tattoo their girls the way ranchers brand their cattle, and they back up their business model with fists and threats.

“If you don’t earn enough money, you get beat,” said Jasmine, an African-American who has turned her life around with the help of Covenant House, an organization that works with children on the street. “If you say something you’re not supposed to, you get beat. If you stay too long with a customer, you get beat. And if you try to leave the pimp, you get beat.”

The business model of pimping is remarkably similar whether in Atlanta or Calcutta: take vulnerable, disposable girls whom nobody cares about, use a mix of “friendship,” humiliation, beatings, narcotics and threats to break the girls and induce 100 percent compliance, and then rent out their body parts.

It’s not solely violence that keeps the girls working for their pimps. Jasmine fled an abusive home at age 13, and she said she — like most girls — stayed with the pimp mostly because of his emotional manipulation. “I thought he loved me, so I wanted to be around him,” she said.

That’s common. Girls who are starved of self-esteem finally meet a man who showers them with gifts, drugs and dollops of affection. That, and a lack of alternatives, keeps them working for him — and if that isn’t enough, he shoves a gun in the girl’s mouth and threatens to kill her.

Solutions are complicated and involve broader efforts to overcome urban poverty, including improving schools and attempting to shore up the family structure. But a first step is to stop treating these teenagers as criminals and focusing instead on arresting the pimps and the customers — and the corrupt cops.

“The problem isn’t the girls in the streets; it’s the men in the pews,” notes Stephanie Davis, who has worked with Mayor Shirley Franklin to help coordinate a campaign to get teenage prostitutes off the streets.

Two amiable teenage prostitutes, working without a pimp for the “fast money,” told me that there will always be women and girls selling sex voluntarily. They’re probably right. But we can significantly reduce the number of 14-year-old girls who are terrorized by pimps and raped by many men seven nights a week. That’s doable, if it’s a national priority, if we’re willing to create the equivalent of a nationwide amber alert.

"Very Young Girls" Documentary Available to the Public

2009-04-27T10:54:00.000-07:00

Many of you have asked me how you can see the documentary "Very Young Girls"; the film about the young ladies of Girls Educational and Mentoring Services (GEMS) in New York City and their journey to be free from lives of sexual exploitation and violence. This is a fabulous film about human trafficking right here in the United States. The part I like most is that the girls themselves were fully empowered and involved in the creation of the film. Kudos to Positive Youth Development! We should all take a page from Rachel Lloyd's (GEMS Ex. Dir.) book on how to be youth-centered and inclusive of the youth in programming meant to benefit them.

Oh and, by the way, if you like the film, and are looking for ways to do something about the issue of domestic minor sex trafficking, GEMS will accept your contributions in New York City. Kristi House is also working with girls locally, here in Miami, and you can contact them for ways to help out. Lastly, make sure everyone you know sees the film.

Here's the update on the film:

The film is now being shown on Showtime on Demand. It's available on DVD via Netflix. You can also buy a copy of the film or other great products from GEMS by visiting their online store.

CSEC Working Group Meeting

2009-04-21T08:03:00.000-07:00

Our next Commercially Sexually Exploited Children's (CSEC) Working Group meeting is:

Wednesday
June 10th
2:30-4pm

Kristi House
1265 NW 12th Ave.

We look forward to seeing you there.

New Laws Treat Teen Prostitutes as Abuse Victims

2009-04-21T07:53:00.000-07:00

Kristi House is gearing up to take model legislation from California and New York and promote it here in Florida!! Read more about the new laws.

***************

Associated Press
By CHRISTINA HOAG Associated Press Writer
Published: Saturday, April 18, 2009 at 2:18 p.m.
Last Modified: Saturday, April 18, 2009 at 2:18 p.m.

LOS ANGELES - By the time she was 8, Amanda had been sexually abused by her father's friend for four years. At 12, she was peddling crack. At 14, she was selling sex on the sidewalk.

Her pimp beat her weekly to keep her working, stitching up her wounds himself to avoid questions at a hospital. Her average earnings of $600 for a 13-hour day of turning tricks bought him a car.

Now 15, Amanda is rebuilding her life. Caught when a cop stopped one of her customers for a broken tail light, she was sent to Children of the Night, a residential program in suburban Los Angeles that rehabilitates teen prostitutes.

"All my life my plate was like overfilled with problems," she said. "I always asked God to give me something good, and this is it."

The fact that Amanda was rescued instead of arrested reflects not only a stroke of luck but a decidedly different take on tackling the juvenile sex trade. Courts and law enforcement are increasingly treating young prostitutes as child abuse victims - and their pimps as human traffickers.

"This is an institutional shift," said Nancy O'Malley, an Alameda County prosecutor who wrote California's new sexually exploited minors law. "It's about getting people to shift their attention and judgment from the minor and seeing what's beyond this criminal behavior."

New York also has a new law that calls for underage prostitutes to be sent to rehabilitation programs instead of juvenile detention, along with more training for law enforcement in handling the troubled teenagers and taking a harder line on their pimps.

In many other states, prosecutors are charging pimps with human trafficking, or the transportation of people for illicit commercial purposes. Convictions can land traffickers in prison for decades.

The approach comes as pimps are getting increasingly sophisticated and harder to bust. They run loose networks across states lines that distribute girls like drugs and set up Internet sex operations that are tough to infiltrate.

The result: Teen prostitution has spread to towns across the country, said Michael Langeman, who heads the FBI's Crimes Against Children unit. The FBI's work is also bolstered by federal trafficking laws to crack down on pimps.

In Nevada, a man was sentenced to life for transporting two girls from that state to cities around California to work as prostitutes in 2006. Last year, three people pleaded guilty to sex trafficking of children in San Diego for running an Internet-advertised sex ring with 14- and 16-year-olds.

"This isn't like the old days of a slap on the wrist," said Keith Bolkar, who heads the FBI's Cybercrimes unit in Los Angeles.

Rescuing the girls is an important part of the equation. In most cases, they're troubled, often sexually abused, lured into prostitution by "boyfriends" who shower them with the loving attention they lack at home.
Gifts and outings, though, turn into violence and emotional manipulation.

That was the case with Samantha, a 15-year-old from Orange County and now at Children of the Night. At 14, she said, she started using drugs and skipping school. She soon met an older man.

"He gave me money, drugs, clothes," she recalled. "I was having fun. Then he started hitting me."

The boyfriend took her to Arizona, made her pose for photos in lingerie and have sex with men who responded to Craigslist ads.

"I complained a lot so he gave me drugs," she said.

She was rescued when another girl was arrested and told police about her.

Children of the Night, which has 24 beds, is one of about four rehab programs for teen prostitutes around the country. The others are in New York City, San Francisco and Atlanta. Two more are planned to open this year in Oakland and Toledo, Ohio.

The dearth of programs means girls from all over the country are sent to Children of the Night.

Gladys, a 17-year-old from a Miami suburb, found herself there after she ran away from home to be with a boyfriend. The boyfriend advertised her as a prostitute on Craigslist and threatened to kill her if she didn't comply.
She was shuffled around motels over a two-month period until one of his other "girlfriends" got arrested.

"I was like 'thank God. I want to go home. What did I get myself into?'"
she said.

Now, she's completing high school and driver's instruction and looking for a job.

The Associated Press doesn't routinely identify the victims of sexual abuse. The names Amanda, Samantha and Gladys are pseudonyms.

Programs that build the girls' self-esteem, push them to finish high school and heal their trauma are ideal, but funding is always short for a cause that generally doesn't engender public sympathy, said Lois Lee, a sociologist who founded Children of the Night 30 years ago in her home and runs it on $2 million a year in private donations.

Once a girl becomes involved in prostitution, her prospects are bleak. An arrest usually offers the only hope for escape. Even then, there's a small chance the girl is offered rehabilitation - and accepts it. Lee said 61 percent of 94 girls at Children of the Night in 2008 completed the program.

Amanda, now studying for her high school diploma, realized that was her fate if she didn't accept Children of the Night.

"I said to myself 'If I go back to the streets, I'm there 'til I die,'" she said. "I knew this was my chance."

CSEC Working Group Meeting

2009-04-03T11:17:00.000-07:00

Our next Commercially Sexually Exploited Children's (CSEC) Working Group meeting is next week:

Wednesday
April 8th
2:30-4pm

Kristi House
1265 NW 12th Ave.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Now This is Thinking Outside of the Box

2009-03-11T09:50:00.000-07:00

NY Assemblyman Wants to Tax Patrons of Strip Bars

ASSOCIATED PRESS
March 11, 2009

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — You might call it a "pole tax." The New York legislator who brought the nation its first law against driving while using a cell phone is proposing a $10 tax for patrons of nude and seminude dance clubs and strip bars.

Assemblyman Felix Ortiz, a Bronx Democrat, says the revenue would go toward helping victims of human trafficking at a time when government budgets are being slashed.

The bill doesn't have a Senate sponsor yet.

In Texas, state lawyers are fighting to preserve their $5 "pole tax," a cover charge on strip clubs, is being challenged by business owners.

The Texas Legislature approved the fee in 2007, hoping to spend the money on sexual assault and health insurance programs, but a judge declared it unconstitutional. The state is appealing.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Miami Beach man faces federal pimping charges

2009-03-03T12:47:00.000-08:00

Miami Herald
Posted on Mon, Feb. 23, 2009

By EVAN S. BENN

Federal investigators charged a Miami Beach man with running an escort service that took advantage of immigrant women by forcing them to work as prostitutes.

Rafael ''Marco'' Bernabe-Caballero served as pimp of MiamiUltimate.com, flying women from Miami to hook up with johns in Detroit, Chicago, Minneapolis, Cleveland and Washington, D.C., according to a 20-page indictment unsealed last week.

It wasn't until the women were in their hotel rooms and johns were on the way that Bernabe-Caballero told them they had to perform sexual acts in exchange for cash, investigators said. The women were required to have sex with as many as 10 men a day.

''If women refused or resisted, Bernabe-Caballero made various threats to coerce their compliance, such as he would cause the women or their families to be harmed or killed or he would report the women to immigration officials'' if they were not citizens of the United States, the indictment notes.

After the sexual encounters, the women were required to wire 40 percent of the money they earned plus traveling expenses to Bernabe-Caballero. Investigators found wire transfers of $225 to $1,800 from various Michigan cities from March 2007 through November 2008.

Bernabe-Caballero, 34, remained without bond in Miami's Federal Detention Center Monday night and was scheduled for a 10 a.m. hearing Tuesday about extradition to Michigan, where the grand jury in the case had convened. Bernabe-Caballero's attorney, Rene A. Sotorrio, declined to comment about the case.

Also charged in the MiamiUltimate.com escort sting: Michael Porru, a Maryland man who worked in cahoots with Bernabe-Caballero by posting positive online reviews of MiamiUltimate's escorts in exchange for sex discounts, the indictment alleges.

Porru and Bernabe-Caballero also are accused of exchanging e-mails where they discussed starting a new escort service together in the Washington area.

Bernabe-Caballero, who has a listed address at 25th Street and Collins Drive, does not have a criminal record in Miami-Dade County, records show.

C 2009 Miami Herald Media Company. All Rights Reserved.

FBI sting rescues child prostitutes around country

2009-02-23T09:49:00.001-08:00

Miami Herald
Posted on Mon, Feb. 23, 2009

BY DEVLIN BARRETT

The FBI has rescued more than 45 suspected teenage prostitutes, including two in South Florida, in a nationwide sweep to remove kids from the illegal sex trade and punish their accused pimps.
Over a three-night initiative called Operation Cross Country, federal agents working with local law enforcement also arrested more than 50 alleged pimps, according to preliminary bureau data.

Agents in cities from Miami to Chicago to Anchorage took part in the operation. The teenage prostitutes found in the investigation ranged in age from 13 to 17.

Miami, Miami-Dade and Miami Beach police helped local FBI agents in the investigation last weekend, Special Agent Judy Orihuela said. They took a 16- and a 17-year-old sex worker off the streets, and local police filed 28 misdemeanor prostitution charges and one felony drug charge.

Historically, federal authorities rarely play a role in anti-prostitution crackdowns, but the FBI is becoming more involved as it tries to rescue children caught up in the business.

''The goal is to recover kids. We consider them the child victims of prostitution,'' said FBI Deputy Assistant Director Daniel Roberts.

'Unfortunately, the vast majority of these kids are what they term `throwaway kids,' with no family support, no friends. They're kids that nobody wants, they're loners. Many are runaways,'' Roberts said.

Most of the children are put into the custody of local child protection agencies.

The federal effort is also designed to hit pimps with much tougher prison sentences than they would likely get in state criminal courts.

Government prosecutors look to bring racketeering charges or conspiracy charges that can result in decades of jail time.

''Some of these networks of pimps and their organizations are very sophisticated, they're interstate,'' said Roberts, requiring wiretaps and undercover sting operations to bring charges.

The weekend's roundup marked the third such Operation Cross Country, and is part of a broader federal program launched in 2003 to crack down on the sexual exploitation of children.

Miami Herald staff writer Evan S. Benn contributed to this report.

Human Trafficking Conference at St. Thomas University

2009-02-05T11:24:00.000-08:00

Join the LL.M./ J.S.D. Program in Intercultural Human Rights & the
Coalition of Catholic Organizations against Human Trafficking

for a conference on:

“Human Trafficking: Global and Local Perspectives”

Thursday, February 12, 2009
9 AM – 5 PM

Moot Court Room
St. Thomas University School of Law
16401 NW 37th Avenue
Miami, FL 33054

The most vulnerable members of our human family, the victims of human trafficking, in their silent pain call for help. Millions of them suffer each year from one of the greatest affronts to human dignity the world has ever seen. This shocking phenomenon now successfully rivals drugs and weapons, becoming one of the most lucrative criminal enterprises in the world.

The community of nations has stood up to face the challenge. The United States continues to be in the forefront of international efforts to combat this horrendous crime. Successes are great, but the challenge even greater. Governed by our duty as civil society members to help shed light on this phenomenon, but also to assess needs, analyze situations, and suggest solutions, academic and religious communities, non-governmental organizations and interested individuals gather to contribute their efforts to defeat this scourge. Through presentations and discussions, questions and answers the conference will play its modest role in battling this 21st century slavery.

Sessions will examine:

• Human Trafficking: A Human Rights or a Criminal Law issue?
• The Necessity of a Victim-Oriented Approach to Human Trafficking
• Trafficking Initiatives in South Florida
• Research and Training Needs in the Field and Incipient Responses

Open to the public. No reservations required.

For more information contact:

Dr. iur. Roza Pati, LL.M.
Executive Director & Adjunct Professor of Law
LL.M./ J.S.D. Program in Intercultural Human Rights
Phone: 305 474 2447
E-Mail: rpati@Stu.edu

Conference Agenda:

8:30 AM – 9: 00 AM --Registration and Continental Breakfast

9: 00 AM – 9: 30 AM --Welcome & Opening Remarks:

Reverend Monsignor Franklyn Casale
President of St. Thomas University

Dean Alfredo Garcia
Professor of Law & Dean, St. Thomas University Law School

Dr. iur. Roza Pati, LL.M.
Executive Director & Adjunct Professor of Law
LL.M./ J.S.D. Program in Intercultural Human Rights

9:30 AM-11AM

Panel I: Human Trafficking: A Human Rights or a Criminal Law issue?

Speakers:

Professor Dr. Ryszard Piotrowicz
University of Aberystwyth, Department of Law and Criminology
Wales, United Kingdom

Ann Marie Villafana, Esq.
Assistant U.S. Attorney, Southern District of Florida

Mark Kielsgard, Esq. LL.M., J.S.D. Candidate
Human Rights Expert

Karlyn J. Hunter, Esq.
Assistant U. S. Attorney, Southern District of Florida

11:00 AM-12:30 PM

Panel II: The Necessity of a Victim-Oriented Approach to Human Trafficking

Speakers:

Professor Dr. Federico Lenzerini
University of Siena School of Law, Siena, Italy

Ana Isabel Vallejo, Esq., LL.M., J.S.D. Candidate
Supervising Attorney, Lucha: A Women’s Legal Project
Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center

Jasna Vujin, Esq., LL.M.
Human Trafficking Expert, Serbia

Kara Franker
Legal Fellow
Shared Hope International

12:30 PM-1:30 PM Lunch

1:30 PM- 3:15 PM

Panel III: Trafficking Initiatives in South Florida

Speakers:

Regina Bernadin
Program Manager, International Rescue Committee
Florida Freedom Partnership

Maria Jose Fletcher
Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center

Martha Mino
Case Manager, Awareness Campaign & Victims Specialist
Florida Coalition Against Human Trafficking

Janette Mendoza
Program Specialist, Unaccompanied Refugee Minors Program,
Catholic Charities, Archdiocese of Miami

Sandy Skelaney
Program Manager
Kristi House

3:15 PM- 4:30 PM

Panel IV: Research and Training Needs in the Field and Incipient Responses
Speakers:

Dr. Elzbieta M. Gozdziak
Research Director & Editor, International Migration
Institute for the Study of International Migration, Washington D.C.

Professor Dr. Johnny McGaha
Director, Esperanza Project
Florida Gulf Coast University

Professor Dr. iur. Siegfried Wiessner, LL.M.
Director, LL.M. /J.S.D. Program in Intercultural Human Rights
St. Thomas University School of Law

4:30 Wine & Cheese Reception

Very Young Girls final dates on Showtime

2009-02-05T11:22:00.000-08:00

The GEMS documentary Very Young Girls only has 4 more airdates, starting tomorrow Feb 5th at 7pm on SH3. Please tune in if you haven't seen it, and please tell your friends to watch it. More info is below...

And again, thank you for getting involved and invested!
************************************************

Very Young Girls, a powerful film that tells the heart-breaking and ultimately inspiring stories of barely adolescent girls who have been seduced, abused, and sold on New York's streets.

Broadcast throughout the country to living rooms, schools, community organizations, and public institutions, Very Young Girls has awakened viewers to the brutal reality of commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking. Experience this compelling film for yourself, then join GEMS in its heroic efforts to empower sexually exploited girls.

Turn viewing into action

Watch Very Young Girls live or set your DVR.
Check the schedule at right for upcoming airdates on Showtime and its networks, including the next broadcast on Thursday Feb 5th at 7:00 PM on Showtime 3

View anytime on demand. Very Young Girls is available on Showtime anytime now through March 3, 2009.

Host a screening party for friends and family. Register your party with GEMS and our RSVP system will help coordinate your guest list; complete a short post-screening evaluation and receive a free copy of Very Young Girls along with other gifts from GEMS. Visit gems.memberlodge.org to register your event.

Get involved! Visit the GEMS website to donate and learn how you can help end the commercial sexual exploitation of our youth.

CSEC Working Group Meeting

2009-01-30T07:16:00.001-08:00

Wednesday
Feb. 11th
2:30pm - 4pm
Kristi House

Please RSVP to sandys@kristihouse.org

Coalition in Tampa to track sex traffickers over Super Bowl weekend

2009-01-30T06:56:00.000-08:00

When I do trainings, people often raise their eyebrows when I tell them that in places where there is a large number of transient males, there will be a flourishing adult sex industry and children being exploited in prostitution and pornography. Transient men include tourists, business travelers, attendees at special events such as the Super Bowl, migrant workers, truck drivers and others. I suppose they never considered the connection, but it's quite simple really: "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" or in the case below "What happens in Tampa, stays in Tampa." We may behave and care for our own communities because we live there, but when we go somewhere else, we leave the watchful eyes of our neighbors and exploit the land, resources and people of a place to which we don't have a personal / emotional connection or incentive to maintain the integrity of. "We don't sh*! where we sleep", but we will certainly do it where other people sleep and then go home to our nice clean beds the next day. So the connection is clear. Anytime you find yourself in a place that attracts transient men, even if you don't openly see the child exploitation, you can assume that it exists and flourishes, because that's what research across the globe has taught us over the years. Sad fact. I'm happy to hear that FCAHT will be addressing this issue in Tampa. We need to get on board and start planning to do something for the Superbowl in Miami 2010.

-Sandy

****

By WINK News
Jan 29, 2009 at 10:27 PM EST

A local organization is in Tampa trying to track down sex traffickers over Super Bowl weekend.

The Florida Coalition Against Human Trafficking assists police by pointing them toward potential prostitution rings. The group is also handing out fliers to party-goers, hoping to send a message that human trafficking is alive and real right here in the U.S.

"Every time we have a big event like Super Bowl, you have pimps that move people across the nation to where there is a large activity and a quicker way to make a lot of money," Anna Rodriguez, the non-profit's founder, says.

Leaders and volunteers with the Naples-based organization plan to stay through the Super Bowl weekend.

Tampa authorities report busting 20 people involved in prostitution already this week.

Find this article at:
http://www.winknews.com/news/local/38677447.html

Sex Trafficking Summit draws 150 people

2009-01-23T08:45:00.000-08:00

TCPALM.com
Thursday, January 22, 2009

By Monique Mattiace

STUART — About 150 people from agencies across the Treasure Coast gathered at the Treasure Coast Hospice Mayes Center in Stuart for a Sex Trafficking Summit hosted by the Soroptimist International of Stuart Thursday evening to raise awareness for the issue.

The group hopes a task force of some sort will form, said Margaret Richebourg, chair of the Soroptimist International of Stuart.

A 10 minute video of undercover footage of buying and selling young girls in the U.S. kicked off the meeting before the two guest speakers took the stage.

“All of you who reluctantly came here saying it doesn’t happen here, get over it,” said Nola Theiss, guest speaker, former mayor of Sanibel, and executive director of Human Trafficking Awareness Partnerships Inc.

Theiss started her comments with media reports on the arrest of a Port St. Lucie man for trying to swap children for sexual acts - proving that sex trafficking is happening in the area.

“People don’t know it’s around them until they look for it and know what to look for,” Theiss said. “My goal is to inform and desensitize the community so they can do something about it.”

Theiss gave countless accounts where law enforcement agencies have overlooked dozens of sex trafficking victims because they weren’t trained to look for the signs.

“Learning the red flags and recognizing them and demanding local law enforcement to get involved is what needs to be done,” she said.

Guest speaker Linda Smith, former congresswoman and founder of Shared Hope, started fighting sex trafficking after she took a trip to India and saw hundreds of caged girls who were sold to men for sex 40 times a night.

“The undercover videos I found in the U.S. shocked me more than anything I saw around the world,” Smith said.

Smith shared the story of two girls who were tricked into trafficking by the promise of a safe place to live, clothes, freedom, money and more.

One of the girls was taken from her grandmother after the trafficker followed her for months; he sold her for four years around the U.S., took her to truck stops, hotels and forced her to walk the streets for hours. She was arrested over 14 times by law enforcement and was never looked at as a victim, but instead was labeled as a prostitute.

The goal is to communicate with the community. To make law enforcement get trained on how to spot sex traffickers and the victims so the victims don’t get lost in the system, Smith said.

“If you knew a little girl today who was being raped, could you go to sleep tonight? So do something about it,” said Smith.

For more information, about joining a local task force to fight sex trafficking contact the Soroptimist International of Stuart at call (772) 288-9955.

Human Trafficking:

Human trafficking is modern day slavery - forced labor and sex in any form.

Traffickers use force, fraud or coercion to control their victims.

Florida has the second-highest incidence of human trafficking in the country.

The average age of entry into prostitution is 12 to 14.

Underage girls are the bulk of victims in commercial sex markets – pornography, stripping, escort services and prostitution.

Close to a million people a year are trafficked across borders.

About half of all missing children and runaways may be trafficked.

Human trafficking is a $9 billion to $17 billion international crime second to drug trafficking.

About 400 potential victims of minor sex trafficking has passed through the hands of various agencies.

Rest in Peace: Norma Hotaling 1951-2008

2008-12-23T08:07:00.000-08:00

With all my respect and gratitude for the knowledge and tools you gave us to expand our work with commercially sexually exploited children throughout the United States. You have been a true pioneer. - Sandy

Norma Hotaling, founder and Executive Director of the SAGE Project in San Francisco died on December 16, 2008 following a short illness.

Norma Hotaling transformed her own experiences in prostitution into a mission of social justice for her sisters and brothers who had also been trafficked and exploited in prostitution. As a direct result of Ms. Hotaling’s life work, many now have a profound understanding of the harm of prostitution and the responsibility of buyers for that harm. Through Ms. Hotaling the voices of survivors of commercial sexual exploitation reached the forefront of the global movement against human trafficking. Her life and her work dissolved myths about prostitution, proving it to be the world's oldest oppression rather than a victimless crime. She was a beacon of courage and an extraordinarily effective champion of victimized and marginalized women,children, men and transgendered people.

At the SAGE Project, Ms. Hotaling created a service agency for all survivors of sexual exploitation. SAGE especially welcomed those who had been prostituted and trafficked. Her model of peer-led services offered by those who had “been there, done that” as she explained, inspired people in prostitution who felt that they previously had no hope. Many survivors of prostitution who arrived at the doors of SAGE are emphatic that their lives were saved by the example of Ms. Hotaling’s life and her affection for them as people who she deeply cared for.

Ms. Hotaling founded The First Offender Program , a prostitution diversion program run jointly by SAGE and the San Francisco District Attorney’s office. Informally referred to as the "johns’ school,” the First Offender Program continues to offer educational programs to men arrested for soliciting prostitution, teaching them about prostitution’s harms to women, the community, and to their own health. Hotaling's model of the "johns’ school" is now used throughout the United States and in Canada, South Korea, and England.

Ms. Hotaling led The SAGE Project's staff while she also frequently spoke at conferences and provided counsel to public policy experts. She frequently testified for the United States Congress and the California legislature about the harms of prostitution and the needs of those in it. Although based in San Francisco, Ms. Hotaling’s work took her around the world where she worked with governmental leaders and agencies. She worked tirelessly with journalists in the print and broadcast media to help create a comprehensive picture of prostitution.

Ms. Hotaling was a board member and leader of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW), one of the many organizations she worked with. She received numerous awards for her work. In 1998, SAGE and the First Offender Prostitution Program were recognized as one of the best examples of innovation from among more than 1,800 nominated programs. The programs were given the Innovations in American Government Award jointly from the Ford Foundation, Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and the Council for Excellence in Government.

In 2000 SAGE’s peer education program was celebrated with the Peter F. Drucker Foundation Award for Nonprofit Innovation.

In 2001, Ms. Hotaling was honored with an Oprah’s Angel: Use Your Life Award which brought national recognition to SAGE. Ms. Hotaling accepted the award on behalf of SAGE on the Oprah Winfrey show.

In October 2008, Ms. Hotaling was most recently honored by the Center for Young Women’s Development who gave her the Cheyenne Bell Award honoring her work with young women escaping San Francisco street prostitution.

When she spoke, Norma Hotaling used experiences from her own prostitution that moved her audience to tears while educating them about the cruelty of prostitution. She made it clear that almost everyone in prostitution had a burning desire to get out. Yet when Hotaling herself was struggling to escape prostitution, the only available services were inside jails.

At a San Francisco Health Department hearing on harm reduction Ms. Hotaling described the time in her life when she was turning tricks, was addicted to heroin and was prostituting for a pimp who frequently beat her but to whom she was attached. She described having approached a San Francisco health department program to ask for help and they told her she should resolve her heroin addiction. In the meeting, Ms Hotaling said, "You don't understand, I said I need help."

Norma Hotaling dedicated her life to what is called harm elimination in today’s public health language: providing women, men, and the transgendered in prostitution not only condoms and emotional support but services informed by an understanding of the multitraumatic nature of prostitution. Rather than assuming that exit from prostitution was impossible, as some allege, Ms. Hotaling fought for the right of those in prostitution to the same quality of life that others in society have.

Ms. Hotaling’s legacy is that the help she herself sought is now far better understood by public health agencies, even if budgets are not yet offering those services to the thousands of people in prostitution who seek to escape it. Her pioneering work lives on in the expansion of services for trafficked and prostituted people, and in the requirement of accountability for those who buy and sell human beings. The loss of Ms. Hotaling is felt and mourned by the thousands of people she touched in her too brief life.

Born July 21, 1951 and raised in Palm Beach Florida, Ms. Hotaling attended San Francisco State University. She graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in Health Education. She is survived by her mother, Norma Louise Hotaling, her brother James Hotaling, and her beloved companion dog Emma. A public memorial will be announced for January. In lieu of flowers, donations are requested to SAGE Project, 1275 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94103, in honor of her life and work.

-written by Melissa Farley, with help from friends of Norma Hotaling.

"Very Young Girls" Showtime Debut

2008-12-03T08:12:00.000-08:00

I am very excited to announce that the long-awaited documentary "Very Young Girls" will be airing on Showtime on DECEMBER 11th at 8:30pm!!!

This film was shown with much acclaim at the Miami International Film Festival this year. The exploitation of underage girls who are forced, bullied and coerced into prostitution is examined in this documentary from director David Schisgall, that also follows the efforts of survivor Rachel Lloyd to rescue young women from the streets with her New York-based organization, Girls Educational and Mentoring Services (GEMS).

Congratulations to Rachel from GEMS and to all the young women whose voices and stories are heard loud and clear in this film.

UN World Congress Takes Place in Rio

2008-12-03T08:02:00.000-08:00

The following is an article about the World Congress III Against Sexual Exploitation of Children that took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, November 25-28th. Kristi House was one of 15 non-governmental representatives chosen to represent the United States and attend this international event that gathered over 3,000 from 137 countries.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=29070&Cr=Children&Cr1=Sexual

Four Arrested for Sex Trafficking in South Florida

2008-12-03T07:46:00.000-08:00

U.S. Department of Justice
United States Attorney
Southern District of Florida
99 N.E. 4 Street,
Miami, FL 33132
(305) 961-9001

November 21, 2008

NEWS RELEASE:

FOUR ARRESTED FOR SEX TRAFFICKING OF IMMIGRANT WOMEN IN BROTHELS ACROSS SOUTH FLORIDA

R. Alexander Acosta, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Anthony V. Mangione, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced today that Arturo-Rojas- Gonzalez, Elodia Capilla-Diego, Fidel Gutierrez-Gonzalez, and Rosalio Valdez-Nava were arrested on November 19, 2008 for sex trafficking of women in several brothels across South Florida following an ongoing investigation coordinated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

This investigation was made possible by the extensive collaboration among law enforcement agencies committed to combat this modern day form of slavery. Law enforcement also worked with non-governmental organizations to identify, rescue and provide assistance to the victims. The defendants made their initial appearance before United States Magistrate Judge Edwin Torres yesterday at 1:30 p.m. in Miami, and detention hearings are scheduled for each of the defendants on November 25, 2008 at 10:00 a.m..

According to the criminal complaints filed with the United States District Court, ICE conducted an intensive investigation into more than a dozen brothels and stash houses where immigrant women were being forced into prostitution. Through statements of former victims, corroborated by surveillance and evidence obtained through search warrants, ICE arrested the four alleged brothel operators as part of a larger criminal organization operating similar brothels across South Florida. Additionally, as part of ICE’s efforts to dismantle this brothel network, nine victims were rescued from locations where search warrants were executed on November 19, 2008.

Mr. Acosta commended the investigative efforts of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) who worked on this investigation with the assistance of other partner agencies of the South Florida Human Trafficking Task Force, which included the Miami Dade Police Department (MDPD), Homestead Police Department, The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the U.S. Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) and the Miami Dade Medical Examiner’s Office. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Daniel Rashbaum and Brent Tantillo. A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls.

South Florida prostitution ring busted, feds say

2008-11-24T06:21:00.001-08:00

sun-sentinel.com/news/local/crime/sfl-flbtrafficking1122sbnov22,0,3411650.story

By John Holland and Luis F. Perez

South Florida Sun-Sentinel
November 22, 2008

They spent the hours between the beatings and threats and forced sexual encounters cloaked in suburbia, stashed invisibly in quiet family homes.

Now they are free, and the ring of smugglers who prosecutors say kidnapped them in Mexico and shuttled them to brothels across South Florida to service as many as 100 clients per week are behind bars.

Federal agents this week charged five people with operating a prostitution gang that targeted girls as young as 14, smuggled them across the border and forced them into a "modern day form of slavery," the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

Arturo Rojas-Gonzalez, Timoteo Reyes-Perez, Rosalio Valdez, Fidel Gonzalez and Elodia Capilla Diego are being held without bond on charges of federal sex trafficking. They will be back in court next week; the investigation is continuing.

The arrest affidavits outline the victims' lives spent bouncing between homes and brothels in West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Homestead, Miami and elsewhere, always watched over by vicious handlers. At least one was held captive for nine years.

According to the affidavits:

The women collected $25 per encounter. Nearly all of the money went to their pimps. Some called the men their husbands, but all said they lived in constant fear that they or their families back home would be harmed.

The plot began unraveling in January when a victim started cooperating with law enforcement agents. From then until this week, investigators talked to more victims and tracked the smugglers.

The first woman to come forward had been kidnapped in Mexico in 1999, smuggled through Arizona and wound up on the streets of New York.

"She had no freedom of movement whatsoever, and was closely watched by her husband and his associates," Immigration & Customs Enforcement agent Mildred Laboy wrote in the criminal complaint. "She attempted to escape several times, but was unsuccessful and severely beaten for her attempts. She also attempted to take her life on numerous occasions."

Eventually she was ushered to South Florida, joining an organized and elaborate network of "stash houses" where the women were kept. Often, the cover included families, some with children, living in the same house. The women were imprisoned there until they were shipped out to spend up to a week in various brothels, a 15-year-old girl told investigators.

On June 23, law enforcement officers stopped a van carrying three of the women near Naples.

"All three women had small notebooks containing phone numbers and dates," the affidavit said, along with "tallies indicating how many customers they had seen on the particular date."

Officers let the group go, but federal agents installed a global positioning system tracker on the van. Investigators traced it to a Homestead home where the teenager lived and to "some of the brothels that Victim 2 has identified."

On Wednesday, agents searched a home occupied by Valdez, "who matched the descriptions of the pimp running the locations," agents wrote.

They found passports and luggage belonging to the victims, along with $2,000 in cash. Inside Valdez' car agents found "20-50 condoms and a commercial size bottle of lubricant."

With the first batch of arrests complete, prosecutors Friday released a statement that served as a reminder of the dangers the women faced: the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner's Office had been brought into the investigation, because of fears that the beatings could turn into murder.

John Holland can be reached at jholland@sun-sentinel.com or at 954-385-7909.

Copyright © 2008, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Kristi House Chosen to Participate in World Congress III

2008-11-21T07:22:00.000-08:00

Kristi House Children’s Advocacy Center Program Coordinator Sandy Skelaney was chosen as one of fifteen delegates from the United States to join nearly 3,000 people from five continents in Brazil for the World Congress III against the Sexual Exploitation of Children. It will be taking place November 25 to November 28 in Rio de Janeiro.

The World Congress is organized by the Brazilian Government in partnership with ECPAT International (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes), UNICEF and the NGO Group for the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The First World Congress took place in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1996 and the Second one was in 2001, in Yokohama, Japan.

Kristi House began its initiative in 2007 to coordinate a system of care for children being exploited in prostitution and pornography in Miami-Dade County. Commercial sexual exploitation is a severe form of human trafficking affects up to 300,000 American children and thousands of foreign nationals annually. The connection between child sexual abuse and CSEC is strong with estimates as high as 80 to 90% of child victims of sex trafficking having been sexually and/or physically abused in the home.

Kristi House’s Sandy Skelaney has emerged as a local leader on this issue by creating the Commercially Sexually Exploited Children’s Project at Kristi House. The program combines a prevention curriculum aimed at empowering and raising awareness among at-risk girls, with intervention and rehabilitation services that assist those who are in need of case coordination and therapy.

Throughout the three-day World Congress, workshops and intensive discussions will focus around five key areas: forms of commercial sexual exploitation and its new scenarios, legal framework and accountability, integrated cross-sector policies, initiatives of social responsibility and strategies for international cooperation.

Congress organizers see it as being practical, solution-driven and innovative; promoting a genuine dialogue and exchange of good practices; setting practical targets; and fostering new cooperation between governments, civil society and the private sector. The outcomes document that will be created and agreed upon by world governments will be a tool to guide the pubic and private sectors in preventing and caring for all children being exploited in the sex industry.

"Sexual exploitation of children is a crime against humanity, and one that knows no boundaries," said Sandy Skelaney. "American and foreign-born children are being exploited by the hundreds in our own backyards, right here in Miami. The damage it causes to its victims is hard to over-estimate."

According to the 2007 UN Study on Violence Against Children, sexual exploitation of children and adolescents is on the rise. In addition, trafficking in human beings - many of whom are children - is now considered one the most lucrative and fastest growing transnational criminal industries, worth some US$ 10 billion a year to its perpetrators according to some estimates.

Founded in 1996, Kristi House has served more than 7,000 victims of child sexual abuse and their families. Thousands more are reached every year with education and prevention outreach programs. Services include case coordination/case management, therapy, comprehensive assessments, transportation, advocacy and emergency assistance. Visit www.kristihouse.org for more details.

Click here for more information about the World Congress III against Sexual Exploitation of Children and instructions on how to watch the Congress online.

UNICEF highlights CSEC problem in the US

2008-11-21T06:45:00.000-08:00

I feel somewhat vindicated. The public response to the commercial sexual exploitation or sex trafficking of American children has evolved a great deal in the past seven years. When I began focusing on this issue, the plight of American children being exploited was largely ignored. International trafficking was the hot issue drawing attention from young advocates, governmental agencies, and media outlets, money from funders and shock and horror from Joe the plumber. Studies were done; the UN was involved and most people understood, with a little education, that a victim of international human trafficking was, in fact, a victim.

Not so for the domestic victim of sex trafficking. Advocates for children who were being exploited in the sex trade here in America began to raise their voices, and after many long years, it appears that people are begining to recognize that these children are not delinquents who are committing crimes of prostitution willingly. They are in fact victims who are often manipulated and controlled by pimps and subject to great deals of violence on a daily basis. Many of the elements involved in prostitution that American girls find themselves in are the same for international victims, only we tend to see international victims as having no choice and no agency, while domestic victims choose this lifestyle. This ethnocentric and infantalizing view of foreign-born victims has been central to the formation of our policies and funding on this issue for many years. Domestic victims "choose" a life of violence and exploitation just as much as the international victims do. It's about time we began seeing that domestic victims of sex trafficking here in our own backyards are just as deserving of services, money and simple empathy as international victims.

I am happy to see that UNICEF, as an agency of the United Nations, recognizes that domestic sex trafficking of minors is a problem within the United States, and that the American government has been taking an increased interest in the issue over the last several years. I feel like all the hard work done by a relatively small group of advocates and survivors in a rapidly growing field is finally paying off. We have a long way to go, but this is a good sign of things to come.

http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/usa_46464.html

FREE Online Conference: Combatting Demand for Sex Trafficking

2008-11-14T11:04:00.000-08:00

Until the demand for commercial sex is eliminated, sex trafficking will continue unabated. Join the global audience that will examine ways to combat demand for sex trafficking during an online conference Tuesday, November 18th, 2008 from 2:00pm - 4:00pm EST.

Details are below, as is the link to the online registration and instructions. The conference is hosted by the Initiative to Stop Human Trafficking at Harvard University's Carr Center for Human Rights Policy and the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation. Please forward this invitation to your professional and personal contacts and consider organizing a group of colleagues to watch the conference together.

Sincerely,
LinaLina NealonManager Modern-Day Slavery Project *working title*Hunt Alternatives Fundoffice: 617.995.1943 cell: 617.448.5864 fax: 617.995.1982 www.huntalternatives.orgProvoking change...for good

Online Event: Sex Trafficking: Best Practices to Combat Demand

Sex Trafficking: Best Practices to Combat DemandNovember 18, 2008: 2 - 4 pm (EST)

~Online event. Registration required, and free of charge.~

The trafficking industry flourishes due to the persistent demand for commercial sex. Robust demand unleashes powerful market forces: the opportunity for profit ensures a steady supply of pimps and traffickers, and there is no domestic or foreign shortage of women and girls in desperate circumstances who are vulnerable to exploitation.

What is being done to address the consumer side of this human rights issue? This online conference will focus on the best practices to combat the demand of sex trafficking. The discussion will be moderated by Michael Shively, Ph.D., Senior Associate, Center on Crime, Drugs, and Justice, Abt Associates, Inc.

The panel will feature:
Donna Hughes - Ph.D., Professor and Eleanor M. and Oscar M. Carlson Endowed Chair, Women's Studies Program, University of Rhode Island
Sgt. Lavonnie Bickerstaff - Bureau of Police, Pittsburgh, PA
Stephanie Davis - Policy Advisor on Women's Issues, Office of the Mayor, City of Atlanta, GA

For more information about this free online event, visit our event page at:http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/spotlight.html?id=1761&preview=0

6 Local Kids Rescued From Human Trafficking Operation

2008-10-30T05:38:00.000-07:00

By JOSH POLTILOVE and RAY REYES
jpoltilove@tampatrib.com and rreyes@tampatrib.com

Tampa Bay Online (www.tbo.com) October 28, 2008

Undercover Operation Video

TAMPA - One became a prostitute at age 12.

All six Tampa Bay teens rescued in a law enforcement operation last week worked prostitution hotspots such as Nebraska Avenue or were pimped on the Internet.

The operation to combat trafficking of children for sex led to the rescue of five Tampa teens and one from St. Petersburg, according to the FBI. The six were 16 or 17 years old, FBI Tampa spokesman Dave Couvertier said.

Five adults from Tampa were arrested on prostitution-related charges during "Operation Cross Country II," which was completed last week, authorities said. The FBI, Tampa Police Department, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office and other agencies participated in the crackdown locally.

Law enforcement agencies conducted the operation in 28 cities. There were 642 arrests, and 47 children were affected. A similar operation occurred in June and one child was rescued in Tampa.

Authorities focused on "hot spots" for prostitution, including motels along Nebraska Avenue in Tampa, casinos, large events that take place in the Bay area and online social networking sites.
Law enforcement agencies used stakeouts, undercover officers and tips from the public to find the children, Couvertier said.

Four of the six area children rescued were categorized as endangered runaways by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The teens are typically runaways who come from foster care or broken homes, Couvertier said.

Pimps or people who work for pimps coerce the children into a life of prostitution by preying on their weaknesses, he said.

Some children are given drugs to feed their addictions. Others are promised "the good life," money, or more emotional fulfillment than what they have at home, Couvertier said.

It is very difficult for children to escape because pimps intimidate and threaten them to stay, he said.

Most teens are rescued during undercover operations. Sometimes, it's as simple as locating the children, getting into contact with them and arranging for a law enforcement officer to pick them up and drive them to safety, Couvertier said.

"Sex trafficking of children is one of the most violent and unconscionable crimes committed in this country," FBI Deputy Director John S. Pistole said in a written statement.
Reporter Josh Poltilove can be reached at (813) 259-7691.

Find this article at: http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/oct/28/282015/fbi-says-operation-effective-against-trafficking-k

LAW & DISORDER: Man held in sex trafficking

2008-10-07T10:34:00.000-07:00

The Florida Times-Union
October 3, 2008

A Virginia man was arrested Thursday on charges of bringing two minors to Jacksonville to engage in prostitution.

Marvin Leigh Madkins, 28, of Newport News was indicted last week by a federal grand jury in Jacksonville on two counts of sex trafficking of minors and one count each of transporting minors to engage in criminal sexual activity and possessing a shotgun to further a crime of violence.

Federal prosecutors said Madkins recruited the two minors in Virginia and brought them to Jacksonville between April and June. He faces a life prison sentence and $1 million in fines if convicted.

U.S. Magistrate Monte Richardson ordered Madkins held until Monday, when he has scheduled a detention hearing.

Paul Pinkham

Klaas Kids is Doing Great Work.

2008-10-07T08:37:00.000-07:00

I never feel I have thanked Brad Dennis of Klaas Kids Foundation enough for all the work he's done raising the awareness of American kids being exploited and trafficked in the sex trade in our own backyards. Together, through trainings and advocacy, we have brought the voices of our domestic victims to the table to be heard throughout Florida.

The Klaas Kids Foundation works to search and assist missing and trafficked children and their families. They provide many resources to families whose children run away, are missing or are known to be exploited in the commercial sex trade; including search and rescue services for children deemed "endangered" runaway/missing. They are also a wellspring of information and resources for the general community. Inquiries are taken from private citizens, social service agencies, law enforcement and others at (415) 331-6867.

Click here for Klaas Kids' October 2008 newsletter.

CSEC Working Group

2008-09-09T10:23:00.000-07:00

The next Commercially Sexually Exploited Children's Working Group meeting will be

Wednesday
September 10th
2pm - 4pm

Kristi House
1265 NW 12th Ave.

If you are not on the member list, please send an email to sandys@kristihouse.org to RSVP.

CSEC 101 Trainings

2008-08-07T08:33:00.001-07:00

RSVP today for the following trainings on commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC). Please come if you are interested in learning about the issue of domestic minor sex trafficking and identifying and engaging youth for services, particularly girls, who are at-risk or being exploited in the sex trade.

CSEC 101 / Identifying & Engaging Victims for Services (MIAMI)

Thursday
August 14th
5-8pm

Kristi House
1265 NW 12th Ave.
Miami, FL

Parking is free and plentiful. Water and coffee provided. Feel free to bring your own food.

RSVP / Questions: Sandy 305-547-6855 or sandys@kristihouse.org

************************************************

CSEC 101 / Identifying & Engaging Victims for Services (FT. MYERS)

August 28th
8am - 12pm

Sugden Welcome Center
Florida Gulf Coast University
Ft. Myers, FL

RSVP / Questions: Christina cgallagh@fgcu.edu

Coming Soon....

2008-07-22T16:05:00.000-07:00

The CSEC Project at Kristi House is preparing to launch the Girls are Not for Sale outreach campaign spearheaded by GEMS and using the documentary film Very Young Girls . Watch the trailor below and check out the links and the following article to find out more. Contact Sandy at 305-547-6800 if you are in South Florida and you would like to schedule a training on CSEC.

Village Voice - July 2, 2008
Feminist Law Professors Blog
New York Sun – July 3, 2008
New York Times – July 4, 2008
“Very Young Girls” trailer – You Tube

A Look at the Harrowing Lives of Child Prostitutes

2008-07-22T15:53:00.000-07:00

The New York Times - City Room

July 3, 2008
By Sewell Chan

A scene from “Very Young Girls,” David Schisgall’s documentary film about child prostitution and sex trafficking in New York City. (Photos: Swinging T Productions)

Dominique ran away from her home in the Bronx at 13, fleeing domestic violence. She quickly fell under the sway of a man who soon had her circling the blocks of Hell’s Kitchen, looking for johns. She explained the pimp’s influence this way: “He used to get into bed with me and used to, like, hold me like I was his kid. … He took care of me.”

“Very Young Girls” is an 83-minute documentary film that opens on Friday at the IFC Center in Greenwich Village. This is the film’s first commercial release; it received critical acclaim at its premiere last September at the Toronto International Film Festival. (See a review by Jeannette Catsoulis of The Times.)

The film offers a vivid and disturbing look at the sexual exploitation and trafficking of teenage girls in New York City. The average age of girls when they enter the sex industry is 13. The girls interviewed in the film — all identified by their real first names, except for one given the pseudonym Nicole — were participants in a New York-based nonprofit advocacy group, Girls Educational and Mentoring Services, which was established in 1998 by Rachel Lloyd, a former prostitute, originally from England, who has dedicated her career to combating human trafficking and sexual exploitation of girls. GEMS now works with about 200 girls a year.

The first part of the film intersperses interviews with the girls with scenes shot by two brothers, Anthony and Chris Griffith, who taped their exploits in the New York area as pimps for what they hoped could become a cable television series. (The brothers were ultimately convicted of trafficking minors across state lines and were sentenced to 10 years in federal prison; the videos were used as evidence.)

Among the girls interviewed are Shaneiqua, a former A student who craved affection and described her first time having sex with her pimp in this way: “I thought that was the best thing that ever happened to me — the best, best.” Soon the man, nearly 20 years her senior, told her, “I would love you a lot more if you brought in more money.” After the first time she had sex for money, she said, “My whole body just felt dead.”

Another girl, Shaquanna, 15, is shown on a hospital bed, ingesting liquid medication that had been injected into a cup of Jell-O for her. She had been found on the side of a road, unconscious; she could not remember who had attacked her. Yet even in her painful condition — bruised, bloodied, her front teeth missing and chipped — she expresses relief. “I was praying for a situation to happen so that I’d be able to go home.”

The filmmaker, David Schisgall, said he had been making films about young people in war zones for MTV’s “True Life” series. “International sex trafficking was on our list of topics,” he said in a phone interview. “In the course of our search we found that there was trafficking going on in the United States that nobody was talking about.”

Mr. Schisgall, 40, who grew up in the Maryland suburbs outside Washington, said the “audience response has been overwhelmingly positive.” He said the film would be broadcast on Showtime in December.

He said he believed that the criminal justice system treated child prostitutes as criminals, rather than as victims. “It struck me as a great scandal,” he said, “and also as a great story.”
The girls make clear why leaving the men who exploit them is not easy. As one girl, Kim, tried to pack her suitcases, she recalled, her pimp “told me the next time I leave, he’s going to put me in a suitcase.”

Another former prostitute, Martha, put it this way: “I am his investment. I am his way of getting money. At the end of the day, if you think about it, a pimp does nothing more but collect the money.”

But the emotional ties are even stronger, in some cases, than the threat of violence and the relationships of economic dependence.

Ms. Lloyd, who was an executive producer for the film, says in the film: “Our primary competition is pimps. They’re spending 110 percent of their time and energy on recruiting, on brainwashing, on making this girl feel loved and special, and pulling her back in every time that she almost leaves. This has been four years of her life, from 12 to 16. He’s 35. He basically raised her.”

Ms. Lloyd is shown winning a human rights award from Reebok, the athletic footwear company. In her acceptance speech, she says that many Americans recognize sexual exploitation in countries like the Philippines, Thailand and Ukraine, but not in their own backyards. “When it’s happening two blocks away from this auditorium, when it’s happening in Bedford-Stuyvesant or Hunts Point or Queens Plaza, we look the other way.”

Dominique says in the film that she ran away from her family at 13 because of domestic violence. She quickly fell under the influence of a pimp.

The film pulls few punches. Though it portrays the girls as victims, it does not hide the consequences of their actions. “Can you sit back and think about that, of what your mother must have felt?” Miranda, Dominique’s mom, asks her, describing her daughter’s actions as “despicable.”

The film provides only a fleeting glimpse at the men who patronize prostitutes, showing a scene from the “Brooklyn John School,” a program in which men arrested for patronizing prostitutes complete an educational course and have their charges dismissed if they stay out of trouble for six months.

Several of the girls in the movie made it out of the sex trade. Mr. Schisgall said that Shaquanna, the girl who had been beaten and hospitalized, recently graduated as the valedictorian of her high school class in New York City.

Other girls had less certain futures. One, Ebony, became a prostitute at 15 and moved to Miami to be with a pimp. Despite Ms. Lloyd’s efforts to save her — including tracking her down during a vacation to Miami — Ebony ultimately returns to the street life, in part because she cannot stand the disapprobation and stares of her neighbors during a brief return to New York.

“I’d rather have him beat me than being over where people are looking at me sideways,” Ebony says, adding, “I have a home in Miami where I can go back to with no problem.”

The shoes of “Nicole,” who was arrested at 14 on prostitution charges. Her lawyer said Nicole’s pimp expected her to have sex with 30 men over four or five days.

Region Needs To Wake Up To Teen Sex Trafficking

2008-07-22T12:31:00.000-07:00

The Tampa Tribune
July 13, 2008

Last month, FBI Director Robert Muller announced a nationwide sweep of pimps who trade in the most abhorrent form of prostitution - child prostitution.

Tampa was one of the 16 cities mentioned by the FBI. That may be shocking to some, but authorities say child prostitution is common, if little noticed, in the region.

Tampa's inclusion on the FBI's list underscores the need for a concerted local effort to wipe out this vicious crime.

The local office of the FBI is tight-lipped on the case that was included in Muller's announcement of Operation Cross Country.

Officials say only that one child was recovered in a joint investigation with the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. The FBI says the investigation is continuing into what might be a case of multiple pimps and multiple victims.

The local child was one of 21 rescued nationwide during Operation Cross Country, and one of 433 rescued in the five years of the FBI's Innocence Lost initiative.

The law does recognize the pimping of children - formally known as domestic minor sex trafficking - as a serious offense. It's considered human trafficking in federal law, and Florida law has made it a first-degree felony to recruit, transport or coerce a child into prostitution.
But the laws have been inconsistently enforced.

This spring, Shared Hope International released a report on child sex trafficking in the Tampa Bay area that concluded teen prostitutes were largely hidden from view and the legal system tended to consider them criminals, not victims. The organization, headed by former U.S. Rep. Linda Smith, concluded there was "an acute lack of awareness" that allowed pimps to ply their trade and victims to go unnoticed.

Smith says the biggest problem is that the law enforcement and social workers most likely to encounter young prostitutes have not been viewing them as victims, but as individuals who have chosen to break the law.

The reality is many of the youngsters are brainwashed by their pimps, dependent on them for drugs and have been taught not to trust authorities.

Local court systems are not particularly punitive to teen prostitutes - most plead guilty to lesser charges and are released. But they often return to their pimps, and Smith says law enforcement generally hasn't focused on bringing charges against the pimps or traffickers.
And the teens aren't getting the kind of counseling and rehabilitation services they need to break free of their pimps, Smith says.

So for now, the practice of prostituting minors goes largely unchecked. Yet the victims are not hard to find: They are the boys and girls being ferried up and down Florida's highways, where they sell their bodies at truck stops. They are brought to town for major conventions and sporting events. They are even sold to tourists, who don't have to go all the way to Thailand to sexually exploit a child.

Consider the case of Wayne Banks Jr., an Ohio man who was arrested in Florida after beating up one of his teen prostitutes. He is now serving an unprecedented 40-year sentence for child sex trafficking.

"They were like a traveling sales company: city to city to city," Escambia County Sheriff's Detective Troy Brown told the Toledo Blade. "They'd been to Tampa, Miami, Atlanta."
Law enforcement agencies are notably aggressive when it comes to protecting children from child pornographers or from predators who try to entice victims via the Internet.

But the youngsters working the streets and truck stops are often viewed with less sympathy.
It is easy to forget they are only children - and children worth saving. Tampa's place on the FBI's list should alert us all to the need to furiously combat the vile trade that sells their bodies and steals their souls.

The Justice Department, Blind to Slavery

2008-07-21T20:28:00.000-07:00

OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR

By JOHN R. MILLER (July 11, 2008 - Washington)

PRESIDENT BUSH has won support abroad and bipartisan praise at home for his efforts to combat human trafficking, the slavery of our time. But now that work is imperiled by his own Department of Justice.

At the United Nations in 2003, Mr. Bush denounced the sex trafficking of women and girls around the world. A little more than two years later, he signed into law a bill that included a broad array of measures to reduce the domestic demand for sex trafficking.

Sex slavery is not the only modern incarnation of this ancient institution — factory slavery, farm slavery and domestic servitude are still with us — but it is the largest category of slavery in the United States. People who have spoken with the president say that he wants the fight to end modern slavery to be one of his legacies as president.

From 2002 to 2006, I led the State Department’s efforts to monitor and combat human trafficking. I felt my job was to nurture a 21st-century abolitionist movement with the United States at the lead. At times, my work was disparaged by some embassies and regional bureaus that didn’t want their host countries to be criticized. I didn’t win every battle, but the White House always made it clear that the president supported my work and thought it was important.

Imagine my surprise, then, when the Justice Department started a campaign against a new bill that would strengthen the government’s anti-human trafficking efforts. In a 13-page letter last year, the department blasted almost every provision in the new bill that would reasonably expand American anti-slavery efforts.

Should the State Department’s annual report on trafficking, which grades governments on how well they are combating modern slavery, consider whether governments put traffickers in jail? The Justice Department says no. Should the Homeland Security and Health and Human Services Departments streamline their efforts to help foreign trafficking victims get visas and care? No. Should the Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, State and Justice Departments pool their data on human trafficking to help devise strategies to prevent it? Amazingly, no.

In its letter, the Justice Department even opposes authorizing the president to create new awards for the international groups that are leading the struggle for abolition. It also doesn’t want the State Department to be required to give the names of American anti-trafficking phone lines to visa applicants at American consulates overseas. It doesn’t want a citizen task force to help develop an information pamphlet for victims.

Some objections like these are, regrettably, to be expected in a Washington turf battle. But the Justice Department is consistent — it opposes changes to expand its own efforts to combat human trafficking, too.

Should the department prosecute the American sex tourists who create demand for adult human-trafficking victims in foreign countries? No. Should Congress make clear that there should be increased penalties for Americans who sexually abuse children abroad? No way. Should we give our courts jurisdiction over Americans who traffic human beings abroad? Certainly not. Should the attorney general include information in his annual report on his department’s efforts to enforce anti-trafficking laws against federal contractors and employees? No. Too “burdensome,” says the Justice Department.

The department strongly objects to a provision that would make it easier to prosecute pimps, the chief slaveholders in the United States. The Justice Department opposes taking away from pimps the defense that they did not know a child’s age. And it opposes easing the requirement to prove force, fraud or coercion in order to prosecute a pimp for human trafficking.

How did President Bush’s Justice Department come to these positions? In conversations, department employees emphasize the threats of diversion of federal resources and intrusion on state and local rights.

But it is hard to believe these are the reasons. After all, the Justice Department knows that it will prosecute only the biggest pimps just as it goes after only the biggest drug dealers. It knows that pimping has long been recognized as an interstate activity with a federal role. And the Justice Department knows that the states have had very limited success when trying to convict traffickers.

A culture clash, I suspect, is the real reason for the Justice Department’s opposition. This isn’t the usual culture clash of right and left, religious and secular. In this case, the feminist, religious and secular groups that help sex-trafficking survivors are on one side. And on the other are the department’s lawyers (most of them male), the Erotic Service Providers Union and the American Civil Liberties Union — this side believes that vast numbers of women engage in prostitution as a “profession,” by choice.

As one Justice Department lawyer put it at a meeting I attended, there is “hard pimping and soft pimping.” The department’s letter hints at this view. Adult prostitutes who are transported across state lines, in violation of the Mann Act, should not receive grants under the Victims of Crime Act of 1984 because they “do not meet the legal definition of ‘victim,’” the letter states.

Both sides agree there is a small group of expensive call girls — the kind paraded in recent political scandals — who may choose to engage in prostitution. But that’s where agreement ends. Those who work with trafficking victims and those who have interviewed survivors believe that most prostitutes are poor, young, abused, harassed, raped, beaten and under the control of pimps against their will.

Put me on the side of those who have worked with the victims. I have talked with survivors all over the world, including the United States, and I share the view that these women and girls — the average age of entry into prostitution is 14 — are not participating in the “oldest profession” but in the oldest form of abuse. They are slaves.

It is hard to believe that the Justice Department’s perspective reflects the man at the top of the Bush administration. Yet the unusual anti-slavery coalition that President Bush helped to forge now finds itself battling the president’s own Justice Department.

The department lost the battle in the House, which passed the new anti-human trafficking bill almost unanimously, by a vote of 405 to 2. Unfortunately, the department seems to have more influence with the Senate, where the bill is stalled in the Judiciary Committee. And Senator Joseph R. Biden, Democrat of Delaware, has introduced a bill that largely complies with the department’s views.

The president may never have seen the Justice Department’s letter. But Representatives Carolyn Maloney, Democrat of New York, and Deborah Pryce, Republican of Ohio, two of the leaders of the Congressional Caucus on Human Trafficking, have been unable to arrange a meeting with the president to express their concerns to him.

President Bush should meet with them — and his own Justice Department — before he loses his legacy and his leadership on the abolition of modern slavery.

John R. Miller, a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center and a senior fellow of the Discovery Institute, is the former State Department ambassador at large on modern slavery.

Changemakers Competition for Anti-Trafficking Initiatives

2008-07-18T11:18:00.000-07:00

We were notified about this competition too late to submit a proposal, but there are a couple other initiatives from Florida listed, including, Florida Coalition Against Human Trafficking and Miami Movement Against Human Trafficking, and they need your vote to win. Good luck!

http://www.changemakers.net/en-us/competition/freedom

Google Alerts

2008-07-18T11:13:00.000-07:00

If you don't already know about this Google service, you should.

http://www.google.com/alerts

You can submit your favorite search string and everytime new things are posted on the internet matching your search string, Google will deliver them to your inbox.

Try submitting "human trafficking" "child trafficking" "commercial sexual exploitation" and variations on that theme to get all the breaking news and initiatives in the field.

Resources for Working with CSE Youth

2008-07-18T06:46:00.000-07:00

Please follow these links for a few resources I have found very helpful to working with commercially sexually exploited youth. One thing I have had to repeatedly emphasize to people is that our services and approach need to be youth-centered. People don't respond well to being forced to do something, even for their own health. Change needs to come from within, and our role as people working with youth, is to help youth to articulate and understand the goals and dreams they have for themselves and assist them in developing thier own plan to achieving their dreams. Often, especially in the case of CSE youth, this means that changes will need to be made, but if we are patient and skilled and refrain from inserting our own agendas, emotions or expectations, we will be able to assist the youth in recognizing and acting on this change for themselves - in their own way and with their own agenda.

This is the Positive Youth Development philosophy that is a hot catch phrase right now to describe "Youth Participation", a concept that has been prioritized in the fight against CSEC since the the First World Congress Against the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in Sweden in 1996. Motivational Interviewing is one tool that can be used to help facilitate that process. There are many other resources available through a simple google search. Here are some that I have found useful:

Positive Youth Development Toolkit 2008
Motivational Interviewing Assessment: Supervisory Tools
The Psychosocial Rehabilitation of Children Who Have Been CSE
The Psychosocial Rehabilitation of Children Who Have Been CSE - Study Guide

Sexual Exploitation Bill in Governor's Hands (CA)

2008-07-02T21:05:00.000-07:00

This really is groundbreaking! This is the only law on the books in the entire country like this one, and it won with a landslide. (New York's version, the Safe Harbor Act, didn't pass last year.) How exciting that finally we are getting a state law passed that DECRIMINALIZES prostitution for minors!! I would like to say that Florida is next but the reality is that we've only just begun to even see the issue, much less address it. You never know.

****************************************

Legislation would decriminalize actions of children involved in sex trade, instead treating them as victims.

By Kamika Dunlap
Oakland Tribune

OAKLAND — Potentially landmark legislation that would decriminalize the actions of minors involved in the sex trade and instead treat them as victims, reached Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's desk Tuesday to be signed into law.

Assembly Bill 499 this week cleared the Assembly 66-0 after passing the Senate 73-1 last week, with bipartisan support along the way. Lawmakers' voting indicates the need to address the growing number of sexually exploited youths in the Bay Area who have been forced into prostitution, child pornography or human trafficking. During the past several years, the sexual exploitation of minors has exploded in Oakland, with children as young as 11 peddled on the streets and over the Internet for sex, authorities said. In addition, the city has become a stop on the sex-trade circuit in the Bay Area and Las Vegas.

"Unfortunately, commercially sexually exploited minors are currently arrested and processed through the criminal justice system as offenders," said Assemblyman Sandre Swanson, D-Oakland, who sponsored the legislation. "These youth do not receive the services necessary to protect them from harm, with the result that many repeatedly fall victim to the same predators upon release."

Schwarzenegger has until Sept. 30 to sign the bill into law, otherwise it will automatically become law.

Currently, if a minor younger than 18 is picked up for prostitution, she is charged as a criminal and sent to juvenile hall.

However, social service workers and law enforcement agencies are hoping a new law would change that and connect them with the services they need. The law also would help girls who want to bring charges against a pimp.

"It is a moral imperative that we act quickly to rescue these children and track down the violent predators who are the true criminals," Swanson said.

The outcome of AB499 will help to crack down on pimps, prosecuting them with maximum sentences, Swanson said.

Recently, authorities in Oakland rescued four child victims of human trafficking and arrested 12 people in connection with child prostitution charges, according to FBI officials. The arrests by the Oakland Police Department were part of a larger federal sweep that lasted five days and targeted 16 cities nationwide. Called "Operation Cross Country," a Justice Department-led effort, recovered four children in Oakland June 18, the most children recovered in any location that night, FBI spokeswoman Patty Hansen said.

Oakland police also conducted their first citywide sweep last month to make sure several hundred registered sex offenders were in compliance with state laws, including verifying residency and having DNA samples on file with authorities. Operation Compliance Check 2008 resulted in 231 compliance checks, which netted 12 arrests and the collection of DNA from five registered sex offenders.

"The biggest problem is the issue of awareness," said Lt. Kevin Wiley, commander of the Special Victims Unit for the Oakland Police Department. "(AB499) brings everyone to the table, makes it everyone's problem, and gives them the opportunity to solve the problem through education, training and awareness."

Reach Kamika Dunlap at 510-208-6448.

AB499's provisions:

**Increase coordination between government, law enforcement and child advocates working with sexually exploited children to ensure they are treated with similar types of care to that received by victims of domestic violence, which includes access to shelters and counseling.

**Create a pilot program in Alameda County to implement a uniformed training curriculum to properly treat sexually exploited minors as victims of coercion and not criminals of intent. The curriculum also would train law enforcement, prosecutors and public defenders to properly recognize the signs of sexual exploitation of children.

**Require that the training curriculum be available to area law enforcement and criminal justice agencies.

Other links to AB499:
http://www.statesurge.com/bills/45062
http://democrats.assembly.ca.gov/members/a16/newsroom/20080129AD16PR01.htm

Advanced Techniques in Interviewing of Adolescents

2008-07-02T13:47:00.001-07:00

Conference presented by Kristi House featuring
SGT. BYRON FASSETT and DET. CATHY DE LA PAZ
Dallas Police Department, Child Exploitation Squad

Monday & Tuesday, July 28 & 29, 2008
University of Miami Campus, Coral Gables

Organized for service provider and law enforcement professionals in Miami-Dade County, this two-day, intensive training will focus on adolescent victims and sexual abuse, and will be led by two experts who have conducted thousands of interviews of high risk victims. The goal is to provide specialized education and skills for working with populations of vulnerable and victimized teens, in particular runaways, the seemingly compliant and those commercially sexually exploited. These adolescents have traditionally been among the last to receive help or services, and are frequently further victimized by systems of justice and care that should be protecting them. Through presentations, mock interviews and case studies, the training will advance the skills of those dedicated in Miami-Dade to punishing perpetrators and helping children escape abuse and recover.

SCHEDULE

July 28:
8-8:30 a.m. Registration / 8:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m. Training

July 29:
8:30-5:00 Training

(12-30-1:30 Lunch on your own both days)

To register for this conference, please visit the Kristi House website at http://www.kristihouse.org/conferenceinfo2008.php.

CNN Article Misses the Mark Just a Bit

2008-06-28T13:00:00.000-07:00

Let me draw your attention to the overriding contradiction that is presented in the following article. How can "child prostitutes [who] sell themselves" have "pimps who control them"? Let us be accutely aware of the fact that these are cases of commercial sexual exploition of children and not criminal or immoral choices that children make. Our language and how we frame the issue need to reflect this distinction so that these children can be treated with the dignity and priority that is shown to so-called "innocent victims" of crime.

The work of the Innocence Lost Task Forces throughout the country last week is commendable, yet I must also point out that it was just the tip of the iceberg. Changing public perception of exploited and enslaved children as victims rather than willing participants in prostitution is one step that you can take to help stop the violence.

***********************************************

Child prostitutes sell themselves on Craigslist

By Veronica De La Cruz and David FitzpatrickCNN

SACRAMENTO, California (CNN) -- For more than two years, undercover cops on the Sacramento Police Department's vice squad have been working one of the most draining beats: trying to crack down on online child prostitution.

Police have nabbed nearly 70 girls under the age of 18 since 2005. Most of the girls were released to foster or group homes. Those are just the official figures; investigators think there are many more child prostitutes out there.

It is no easy task.

"We're asking these girls to do a big thing ... which is to stop what they're doing," said Sgt. Pam Seyffert of the Sacramento Police Department. "Stop what's working for them. Surviving is basically what they're doing."

Sacramento police are working with the FBI as part of a nationwide campaign to combat underage prostitution called Innocence Lost. The goal of the program, which is now in almost 30 U.S. cities, is to decriminalize the girls and concentrate on catching the pimps who control them.

"It really makes me angry," Seyffert said. "I think everybody on the team has different reactions to it, but I just flat out get really angry that some guy thinks he can take this girl and basically deprive her of her freedom."

It is not uncommon for the officers on the unit to put in 30-hour shifts. Oftentimes, their work is heart-wrenching.

Child prostitution is even tougher on the parents of these girls. Roslyn and Sergio's daughter had been missing for more than two weeks. They waited for hours at police headquarters in hopes that their daughter would be found.

Vice squad officers found her in a downtown apartment with Bruce William Carter, a 21-year-old man who police said had posed on the Internet holding fistfuls of cash. He pleaded not guilty to charges of statutory rape and was held in lieu of $35,000 bail.

The couple's daughter, who had just turned 17, was detained but not arrested.

"It hurt," said Roslyn, who appeared weary and a bit shell-shocked. "Because you don't want to see your children involved in things like this. You don't realize how dangerous the Internet is. Now, we got to keep her away from the Internet."

Police say most of the ads appear on Craigslist, the popular and free Internet classifieds site, under a category named "Erotic Services." Even though Craigslist has posted a bold disclaimer warning against human trafficking and the exploitation of children, law enforcement officials said it doesn't seem to deter girls from posting the ads or men who are searching for sex.

But why would a girl sell her body online?

To help answer that question, Sacramento police made arrangements for CNN to interview a 14-year-old girl who said she'd started selling herself as a prostitute at the age of 11.

"I wanted to feel loved. ... I wanted to feel important," said the teen, who wanted to be identified only as Monique.

She said she used Craigslist because it was free and she could post dozens of ads a day. Even though she understood the seriousness of what she was doing, she said she didn't care.

"You could put stuff in your ad like 'wet and wild,' 'fun and sassy,' things like that to catch their attention, to make them want you," she said.

Craigslist executives said they abhor the fact that their site is being used for child prostitution but believe that the problem could be harder to track if they removed the category.

"It would be a bigger problem if we removed that category and had those ads spread throughout the site," said Jim Buckmaster, chief executive officer of Craigslist.

Both legal experts and police say Craigslist bears no legal responsibility. Undercover officers said the fact that the listings can be traced helps them pinpoint the girls and sometimes leads them to pimps.

For her part, Roslyn has a strong message for the man arrested in connection with her daughter's detention.

"I want him to stay away from my daughter," she said. "I'm going to put a restraining order on him. Every time he goes near my daughter, I'm going to call the police and have him put in jail."

Even though they have more work than they can handle, vice officers hold out hope that they can save more girls from a life of prostitution.

Miami Brothel Bus

2008-06-25T17:28:00.000-07:00

Click the following link to see video:
http://www.nbc6.net/news/16702426/detail.html?dl=mainclick&taf=ami

Police: Luxury Bus Caught In Prostitution Sting
Investigators Say Vehicle Was 'Brothel On Wheels'

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. --
Miami Beach police said 75 people were arrested during a weekend prostitution sting -- including some people on a quarter-million-dollar luxury bus. Investigators described the bus as a "brothel on wheels." Undercover detectives spotted the bus cruising Miami Beach. When they boarded the bus, they saw five women servicing customers, police said.

"There were lap dances, friction dances and sexual acts," an officer said in court. Police said the bus was owned by Christine Mortha, 29, who also stripped on it.

"There was a charge of $40 to enter the bus," an officer said in court. Police said money was all over the bus. "It was on the floor, it was on their G-strings, you name it," a police officer said in court. "It was in the register. In 19 years, I've never seen this."

The arrests on the bus were part of weekend-long prostitution sting. From Thursday through Saturday, 75 people were arrested. Seven of them were charged with felonies.

During the effort, police said they also seized narcotics, a firearm and located a missing woman.

Miami Prostitution Sting

2008-06-25T17:18:00.000-07:00

Arrests Hundreds In Child Prostitution Stings
Agents Rescue 21 Kids, Arrest Pimps In Nationwide Crackdown

WASHINGTON (AP) ― Hundreds of people have been arrested and 21 children rescued in what the FBI is calling a five-day roundup of networks of pimps who force children into prostitution.

The Justice Department says it targeted 16 cities as part of its "Operation Cross Country" that caps off five years of similar stings nationwide.

Many of the children forced into prostitution are either runaways or what authorities call "thrown-aways" -- kids whose families have shunned them. Officials say they are preyed upon by organized networks of pimps who lure them in with shelter or drugs, then often beat, starve or otherwise abuse them until the children agree to work the streets.

"We together have no higher calling than to protect our children and to safeguard their innocence," FBI Director Robert Mueller said Wednesday. "Yet the sex trafficking of children remains one of the most violent and unforgivable crimes in this country."

In all, authorities arrested 345 people -- including 290 adult prostitutes -- during the operation that ended this week. Since 2003, 308 pimps and hookers have been convicted in state and federal courts of forcing youngsters into prostitution, and 433 child victims have been rescued, Mueller said.

The cities targeted in this week's sting are: Atlanta; Boston; Dallas; Detroit; Houston; Las Vegas; Los Angeles; Miami; Montgomery County, Md.; Oakland, Calif.; Phoenix; Reno, Nev.; Sacramento, Calif.; Tampa; Toledo, Ohio and Washington.

The problem of child prostitution has taken on a new urgency in recent years with the growth of online networks where pimps advertise the youngsters to clients. The FBI generally investigates child prostitution cases that cross state lines.

The cases aren't easy to convict.

In April 2006, for example, charges against a Nevada man resulted in a hung jury after his 14-year-old victim refused to testify against him. Months later, however, a second jury found Juan Rico Doss of Reno, Nev., guilty of forcing two girls -- ages 14 and 16 -- to sell sex in Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Francisco and Oakland.

A University of Pennsylvania study estimates nearly 300,000 children in the United States are at risk of being sexually exploited for commercial uses -- "most of them runaways or thrown-aways," said Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

"These kids are victims. This is 21st century slavery," Allen said. "They lack the ability to walk away."

Trafficking in Persons

2008-06-17T10:31:00.000-07:00

Kristi House will be hosting foreign authorities with the Miami International Visitor Leadership Program for a discussion on trafficking in persons. Join us at Kristi House on Wednesday, June 18th 3:30 to 5:00 PM.

For more information contact Ayesha at miamiciv@miamiciv.org.

New Shelter for CSEC Victims

2008-06-17T10:23:00.000-07:00

Great news! Boston’s DCF has taken the lead to open a CSEC specialized home before anyone else in the country, and we will keep advocating for this until we can get it here too….
-Sandy

DSS to help teen sex slaves
Figures: 70 percent of prostitutes are runaways

By Marie Szaniszlo
Sunday, June 15, 2008
http://www.bostonherald.com

The state Department of Social Services will open more than a dozen beds for youngsters next month as part of a groundbreaking $1 million program to help victims of sexual exploitation.

Beginning July 1, DSS will reserve nine beds at a secure, undisclosed Boston location for girls ages 12 to 21, most of whom are former runaways who were coerced into prostitution, said Jennifer Kritz, a spokeswoman for the Executive Office of Health and Human Services.

The move comes amid a spike in cases of runaway teens who become prostitutes. “In recent years, there have been growing concerns nationally about youth exploitation and human trafficking,” Kritz said.

Lisa Goldblatt-Grace, director of the My Life, My Choice prostitution prevention program at the Home For Little Wanderers in Boston, called DSS’s program “groundbreaking, both for Massachusetts and nationally.”

“This is the first time in our entire country that a child-protective services system has stepped up to the plate in terms of providing money, resources and time to fund a continuum of care for commercially, sexually exploited kids,” Goldblatt-Grace said.

Statistics released in 2007 from the Teen Prostitution Prevention Project indicated that 70 percent of underage prostitutes identified in Suffolk County since 2005 are runaways. Nationwide, National Runaway Switchboard estimates that 1.6 to 2.8 million youths run away every year, and many are vulnerable to sexual exploitation.

Last week, a 17-year-old runaway from Boylston who had been kidnapped and forced into prostitution in New York was found shaking and beaten in Brighton after she bolted from her captor’s car. The victim gave a description of the car and her alleged kidnapper was arrested.

The state also is setting aside five beds for girls, boys and transgender youngsters in private homes with foster parents specially trained to work with teenagers who have been sexually exploited, Kritz said.

“There’s definitely a huge need for safe beds for these kids,” said Stacy Dellorfano, development officer at Bridge Over Troubled Waters in Boston. “A lot of these kids come from broken families. They’re runaways - sometimes throwaways - who fall into the wrong hands.”

All 14 youngsters, as well as approximately three dozen others referred by DSS, also will have a mentor to help guide them, Kritz said.

“In most communities, child protective services say this is a juvenile justice problem,” Goldblatt-Grace said. “In Boston, we know these are kids who have survived, who are strong and who have a right to have adults who don’t betray them and don’t exploit them and instead go to great lengths to ensure their safety so that they can find hope.”

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/general/view.bg?articleid=1100873

"HOLLY" screening in Coral Gables 5/16

2008-05-15T10:46:00.000-07:00

Mexican national pleads guilty to human trafficking

2008-05-12T09:44:00.000-07:00

*KUDOS to the hardworking investigators and prosecutors who tirelessly worked almost ten years to see justice!*

By Missy Diaz | South Florida Sun-Sentinel
May 9, 2008

A Mexican national has pleaded guilty to conspiring to smuggle Mexican women and girls into the United States and force them into prostitution, the U.S. Attorney's Office said Thursday.

Juan Luis Cadena-Sosa, 43, is one of 16 defendants charged in 1998 with smuggling the women and girls from Mexico to Florida and South Carolina. Cadena-Sosa remained a fugitive until November 2007 when he was extradited from Mexico to the United States.
Nine of the defendants, including Cadena-Sosa, have now been convicted in federal court; one was convicted in state court and another was convicted on related charges in Mexico. A third defendant died while a fugitive. Three remain at large.

According to federal court documents, Cadena-Sosa, his brothers and a nephew operated a number of brothels, some staffed by girls younger than 18, throughout South Florida. The women and girls were smuggled into the country primarily from Veracruz, Mexico, by Cadena-Sosa and his associates. Once in the United States, the women and girls were informed that they owed a debt to the Cadena organization for bringing them here and that they would be required to repay the debt by working as prostitutes. The women were not allowed to leave the organization. Those that tried to escape were tracked down. The men used physical violence and threats of physical harm to intimidate the women and girls, according to court records.

Cadena-Sosa, who pleaded guilty on Wednesday, will be sentenced on Aug. 20. He faces 15 years in prison and a $500,000 fine.

Prosecutions of human trafficking cases have increased seven-fold over the past seven fiscal years, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Missy Diaz can be reached at mdiaz@sun-sentinel.com or 561-228-5505.

Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Video

2008-05-06T06:53:00.000-07:00

This 30-minute awareness-raising video is courtesy of Shared Hope International, who has also conducted several studies on domestic minor sex trafficking in the United States, including the one below on Clearwater, Florida. Visit their website for more information. The video will also be embedded into the sidebar of this blog.

Florida TV Station Sheds Light on Sex Trafficking of Minors

2008-04-16T12:21:00.000-07:00

A Clearwater/Tampa Bay study on the sex trafficking of minors was recently released (see previous post for a link to the study). The CSEC Working Group is conducting a similar study in Miami with the goal of garnering awareness for commercially exploited children.

Florida CSEC Study

2008-04-14T14:09:00.000-07:00

Click on the following link to view the closest study done to Miami to date. This study was conducted in the Clearwater/Tampa Bay Area by Shared Hope International.

http://www.sharedhope.org/files/FINAL_Clearwater_032408.pdf

2 Young Girls in Sex-Abuse Tapes ID'd

2008-04-10T06:32:00.000-07:00

Miami Herald April 8, 2008
By Ani Martinez

Two young girls who were allegedly videotaped or photographed by a 36-year-old Hollywood man accused of sexually abusing underage girls have been identified by authorities.

Matthew Sheley faces one count of sexual performance by a child and one count of sexual battery on a child less than 12 years old, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said. He is accused of sexually abusing underage female victims and videotaping the encounters -- a capital offense.

Investigators identified the female victim in the videotape in Sheley's former residence. A second juvenile victim was identified through photographs, FDLE said.
Police are still trying to find other victims, who authorities suspect were possibly between the ages of 7 and 9.

Hallandale Beach detectives and FDLE investigators said they issued several search warrants and have seized videotapes, computer equipment and other items.
The challenge for police: The reported crimes occurred at least five years ago and few clues exist to identity the victims.

''We are looking at hundreds of videotapes, but we have not been able to identify a victim by name,'' said Andrew Casper, a spokesman for Hallandale Beach police. ``We are concerned about their whereabouts.''

''Additional child pornography-related charges are pending,'' Casper said. ``We believe there are possibly other tapes and other victims.''

''This is going to be a long, long process,'' he added.

Click here for the rest of the article: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking_news/story/487639.html

The Pimps' Slaves

2008-04-02T21:41:00.000-07:00

New York Times * March 16, 2008

by Nicholas D. Kristof (OP-ED COLUMNIST)

Reading between the sheets, the world of “Kristen” and Eliot Spitzer may seem relatively benign. She may have been abused as a child, and tangled with drugs and homelessness, but she was also a consenting adult who apparently kept half the cash that customers paid for her.

That’s a dangerously unrepresentative glimpse of prostitution in America. Those who work with street prostitutes say that what they see daily is pimps who control teenage girls with violence and threats — plus an emotional bond — and then keep every penny the girl is paid.

“Sometimes I meet a girl who says, ‘I have a really good pimp — he beats me only with an open hand,’ ” said Rachel Lloyd, a former prostitute who runs a program for underage prostitutes in New York City. “Many of the girls see the pimps as boyfriends, but violence is integral to everything that happens in the sex industry. That’s how you get punished for not bringing in your quota for that evening, or for looking your pimp in the eye.”

Bradley Myles, who works in Washington for an antitrafficking organization called Polaris Project, says it is astonishing how similar the business model is for pimping across the country. Pimps crush runaway girls with a mix of violence and affection, degradation and gifts, and then require absolute obedience to a rigid code: the girl cannot look the pimp in the eye, call him by his name, or keep any cash.

Every evening she must earn a quota of money before she can sleep. She may be required to tattoo the pimp’s name on her thigh. And in exchange he may make presents of clothing or jewelry.

It’s complicated: What keeps her isn’t just fear, but also often an emotional connection. “When somebody wields power over you to kill you and doesn’t, you feel this bizarre thankfulness,” Mr. Myles said. “It’s trauma bonding.”

When a middle-class white girl ends up controlled like this — think of Elizabeth Smart, the Utah girl who was kidnapped in 2002 and apparently did not try to escape — then everybody is outraged at the way the kidnapper manipulated her. But when the girls are black, poor and prostituted, there is either indifference or an assumption that they are consenting to the abuse.

“It’s about race and class,” said Ms. Lloyd, who is bewildered when she sees Amber alerts for abducted children. Last year she worked with 250 teenage girls who had been prostituted, and not one of them ever merited an Amber alert.

“If we served 250 white girls from upstate middle-class homes, we’d be rolling in money,” she added, “and we’d be changing the law.”

Changing the law is on the agenda. The House of Representatives passed a landmark bill in December, by a vote of 405 to 2, that would make the federal authorities much more involved in cracking down on pimps and trafficking.

But the Justice Department is fighting the House bill, and Senator Joe Biden, who is chairman of a crucial subcommittee, has dawdled on it. A broad coalition of antitrafficking leaders from left and right sent the Justice Department a furious letter scolding it for being soft on pimps.

That may be the only letter in history signed by both Gary Bauer and Gloria Steinem, by executives of the National Organization for Women and the National Association of Evangelicals.

Of the 100,000 prostitution-related arrests each year, the great majority of them are of women and girls; pimps and johns are much less likely to be arrested.

All those girls will never get a tiny fraction of the attention of the Elizabeth Smarts or Natalee Holloways, who fill the cable television niche for a “missing blonde” story. So let’s not let “Kristen” displace the broader reality.

Sure, there are young women who voluntarily sell sex; some of them have posted lately on my blog, nytimes.com/ontheground. Reasonable people can disagree about whether the police should devote resources to such cases.

With prostitution as with narcotics, no legal model has worked perfectly. I’ve argued that the approach with the best record is the Swedish model — decriminalizing the sale of sex, while making it an offense to pimp or to buy sex.

But whatever one thinks of legalizing prostitution, let’s face reality: The big problem out there is the teenage girls who are battered by their pimps, who will have to meet their quotas tonight and every night, who are locked in car trunks or in basements, who have guns shoved in their mouths if they hint of quitting. If the Spitzer affair causes us to lose sight of that, then the biggest loser will be those innumerable girls, far more typical than “Kristen,” for whom selling sex isn’t a choice but a nightmare.

Children in the sex trade are victims, not criminals

2008-03-28T21:25:00.000-07:00

Tallahassee Democrat * March 26, 2008

Sun-Sentinel * April 1, 2008

Wendi J. Adelson and Sandy Skelaney

Former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer has received a fair share of sympathy for what some perceive as cruel and unusual punishment for bad choices that did little harm to anyone other than his family and himself.

Some say that prosecuting Spitzer to the full extent of the law for consensual conduct between adults would force arrest of all the "johns," which would overwhelm the legal system.

Left out of that debate, however, is that we already flood the system with prostitution arrests, but usually only the prostitutes are punished. This classic double standard further disempowers women and girls who may be victims of controlling and violent pimps.

Another provoking question that arises from the Spitzer fallout is what should happen to prostituted minors. Research has shown the average age of entry into prostitution in the U.S. is 13 years old. That means that many of the girls assumed to be adult prostitutes are actually children who are being commercially sexually exploited.

Introduced in the Legislature this year is Florida HB 605 (sponsored by Speaker Marco Rubio, R-West Miami, and Rep. David Rivera, R-Miami), which offers some protection in a state that some experts consider ground zero in human trafficking. The legislation seeks to eliminate the "force, fraud or coercion" requirement for a child to prove that he or she was induced to perform a commercial sex act. This bill's passage would bring greater protection for prostituted children in this state, and it marks an important first step in addressing the needs of trafficked and prostituted children.

Children are extremely vulnerable and more easily manipulated and controlled by pimps and exploiters who often use violence to extract obedience. Shockingly enough, most criminal statutes around the country fail to distinguish between adult prostitution and the prostitution of children.

Those urging criminal law reform need to address whether the thousands of children who are prostituted should be treated as victims, the way the federal statute covering human trafficking treats them, or as criminals, the way many state statutes treat them.

In 2000, Congress enacted the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) to "combat trafficking in persons, a contemporary manifestation of slavery whose victims are predominantly women and children." With the TVPA in effect, it became indisputable that victims who might otherwise have been in violation of U.S. law (because of engagement in prostitution) are to be treated not as criminals, but instead as victims of crime.

Under the TVPA, sex trafficking of a minor is treated like statutory rape. However, counting the victims has proven very difficult. New York and Chicago estimate that there are between 5,000 and 10,000 children being exploited in prostitution in each of their respective cities.

We also know that there are as many as 2.8 million homeless youth in America today, one-third of whom will be solicited to sell sex within 48 hours of leaving home. The numbers are staggering, and there has yet to be a targeted study done in Florida that would reveal the numbers of children being exploited in the sex industry that exists in our back yards.

In Miami, there were 22 arrests of children for prostitution in 2007, but this number pales next to the 500 prostituted youth who were served by agencies. Several reasons explain why the number of prostituted children is larger than the arrest numbers would indicate.

First, children are usually picked up for other prostitution-related crimes such as loitering, disorderly conduct and other minor misdemeanors. Many prostituted children are also mistakenly arrested and processed as adults because of the difficulty in accurately determining their age. Runaway teens are often placed in detention.

It is also more difficult to charge someone with prostitution, because the amount of evidence needed to prove the crime is higher for prostitution than it is for disorderly conduct, for example.

Therefore, while it is almost impossible to possess exact statistics on the population of commercially sexually exploited children, it is known that the number is a large one.

Florida law, under HB 605, can begin to address this vulnerable and growing segment of the population.

Check out this upcoming special on Oxygen Channel…

2008-03-17T11:34:00.000-07:00

Who Cares About Girls: Sex Workers or Victims?
OXYGN CHANNEL
Sun, Mar 30th 9:00 PM

Foes of Sex Trade Are Stung by the Fall of an Ally

2008-03-12T20:37:00.000-07:00

New York Times
March 12, 2008

By NINA BERNSTEIN

As New York’s attorney general, Eliot Spitzer had broken up prostitution rings before, but this 2004 case took on a special urgency for him. Prosecuting an international sex tourism business based in Queens, he listened to the entreaties of women’s advocates long frustrated by state laws that fell short of dealing with a sex trade expanding rapidly across borders.

And with his typical zeal, he embraced their push for new legislation, including a novel idea at its heart: Go after the men who seek out prostitutes.

It was a question of supply and demand, they all agreed. And one effective way to suppress the demand was to raise the penalties for patronizing a prostitute. In his first months as governor last year, Mr. Spitzer signed the bill into law.

Now the human rights groups, which credit him with what they call the toughest and most comprehensive anti-sex-trade law in the nation, are in shock. Mr. Spitzer stands accused of being one of the very men his law was designed to catch and punish.

“It leaves those of us who worked with his office absolutely feeling betrayed,” said Dorchen Leidholdt, director of Sanctuary for Families Legal Services, one of the leaders of the coalition that drafted the legislation.

The law, which went into effect Nov. 1, mainly deals with redefining and prosecuting forms of human trafficking, which Governor Spitzer called “modern-day slavery.” It offers help to the women who are victims of the practice, rather than treating them as participants in crime.

But it also lays the groundwork for a more aggressive crackdown on demand, by increasing the penalty for patronizing a prostitute, a misdemeanor, to up to a year in jail, from a maximum of three months.

That was a key shift in approach for New York State, and one the governor and his top aides seemed to support wholeheartedly, said Ken Franzblau, now director of the law’s implementation at the State Division of Criminal Justice Services. Generally, the law and its enforcers focus on pimps and prostitutes, and treat customers as an afterthought.

“If you eliminate the demand, you eliminate the problem,” said Mr. Franzblau, who worked for years with Equality Now, a women’s advocacy and human rights group that had long urged prosecution of the Queens sex tourism business operating as Big Apple Oriental Tours.

“In fact, the demand is really the lower-hanging fruit,” he added. “The johns are really afraid of being caught. The idea is that if we get some real penalties, and get D.A.’s to insist on them, we really could create a deterrent to this.”

For Equality Now, and a core of high-profile supporters that included Gloria Steinem and Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, the Big Apple Oriental Tours case was a frustrated seven-year campaign for prosecution that became a turning point. Even after Mr. Franzblau posed as a would-be customer, gathering what was described as “smoking-gun evidence,” the Queens district attorney, Richard A. Brown, declined to prosecute.

Mr. Brown maintained that under state law he had no legal jurisdiction over acts of prostitution that took place in Thailand and in the Philippines, even if those acts were being promoted by a travel business operated in New York.

Mr. Spitzer disagreed. Newly re-elected as attorney general, he began an investigation, slapped the business with a civil action that shut down its Web site, and in February 2004, won a grand jury indictment of the two operators in Dutchess County, where they lived. He proclaimed it the first criminal charge against a sex tourism business based in the United States.

But the case stalled, and despite another indictment in 2005, it has yet to reach trial.

Efforts to clarify and overhaul New York’s penal code on prostitution and human trafficking seemed stuck in legislative gridlock.

“We had tremendous difficulty trying to get this law passed, year after year,” said Taina Bien-Aimé, executive director of Equality Now. “Our only hope was for Eliot Spitzer to be elected governor.”

“He understood,” she added. “He got it, unlike hundreds of other politicians and law enforcement officials that we talked to.”

She and Ms. Leidholdt said the governor put his muscle behind the legislation, detailing top aides to work with sponsors of piecemeal bills that had languished, to consult with a coalition of human rights and women’s groups, and to lobby labor unions whose support was won through provisions addressing the trafficking and exploitation of workers.

Peter Pope, one of Mr. Spitzer’s point people on the bill, declined to comment through the governor’s press secretary, Errol Cockfield.

The law explicitly made sex tourism and its promotion a crime, resolving the jurisdictional debate that had mired the Big Apple prosecution for so long. But more important, Ms. Bien-Aimé said, it demonstrated a comprehensive approach to the larger issues.

“One of the goals of the human trafficking law was the acknowledgment that demand is a critical factor in sex trafficking,” she said. “And as a result of that, it increased the penalties for patronizing a prostitute across the board, whether or not the person is trafficked.”

Too often, Ms. Bien-Aimé maintained, the public imagines a huge divide between the kind of glamorous call girl depicted in a movie like “Pretty Woman,” and the lurid, violent world of trafficked women in a film like “Eastern Promises.” But they are all part of a commercial sex industry that buys women’s bodies, she said, citing studies that put the average age of entry into prostitution in the United States at 14.

“There’s no sliding scale in the exploitation of women,” she said. “Either you exploit a woman in the commercial sex trade or you don’t.”

Because Mr. Spitzer seemed to agree, she said, “he was our hero.”

NY Governor Eliot Spitzer Tied to Prostitution Ring

2008-03-10T20:30:00.000-07:00

Just when we thought NYC police officers forcing minor girls into prostitution was the height of hypocrisy, we learn that NY Governor Eliot Spitzer is linked to a prostitution ring. He was apparently a client of a high-end escort service that did business in New York, Paris, London and Miami. There are a few points that really need mention in this regard:

(1) As the former NY Attorney General, Spitzer oversaw the prosecution of at least two prostitution rings by the state's organized crime task force, which reports to the attorney general. I try to imagine how useless our trafficking or organized crime task forces might be if they were being led by someone who benefits from trafficking and organized crime...

(2) Spitzer transported the prostitute from NY to DC. The feds haven't yet brought up formal charges, but he can potentially be charged under the Mann Act, which is essentially the statute US Attorneys use to more easily prosecute cases of human trafficking. It carries stiff penalties, up to 15 or so years in prison. That's big.

(3) Most importantly, is it no surprise why the blood, sweat and tears of several New York anti-trafficking agencies, including GEMS, was all for naught when the proposed NY Safe Harbor Act failed to pass last year?

As reported in an editorial in the New York Times, "Gov. Eliot Spitzer of New York and his colleagues in the Sate Legislature got deserved kudos earlier this year for passing a law that provides aid and protection to victims who are smuggled into this country and forced to work as sex slaves. Unfortunately, the sex trafficking law did nothing to protect the growing numbers of American-born children, as young as 12 or 13, who are forced into prostitution by street pimps.

During the last term, the Legislature failed to pass a bill that would have provided those protections. Under the Safe Harbor Act, children who are too young to legally consent to sex would no longer be charged with prostitution and would no longer be treated as criminals. The courts would instead be required to provide them with counseling, medical care and the long-term shelter they end to reclaim their lives." (NY Times 9/15/07)

It was reported by Safe Harbor advocates that some members of the Legislature were only slightly interested in hearing the young survivor's testimony, perking up when she named off some clubs she used to work at in a manner that suggested that they were flipping through their mental rolodexes to remember if it was one of the many that they have patronized in the past. There may be a few rational arguments one can make against a bill of this nature, but I'd bet money that some to many of the nay votes had to do more with Legislators' de facto acceptance of the sex industry and their view of American children in prostitution as bad kids making a bad choice (and thus not "innocent victims" like foreign victims of trafficking), than any well thought out reasoning. It makes you wonder what Spitzer was thinking through all these deliberations. "Dang, I can't wait to get home and call 'Kristin'. This is getting real boring."

What really burns me up is that you can educate people. You can educate them with interesting information in an interesting way. You can give them all the horrendous facts they need so that there is no denying that most of the girls involved in prostitution have a traumatic life. Many are minors, even if they don't say so. Many are getting beat and raped regularly, even if they cover their bruises with makeup and put a smile on their faces. Many don't get to keep a dollar of the money they make, even though they brag about living the glamorous life in the public eye. Granted, the high-class circuit may not be as oppressive as the street prostitution rings, but it is oppressive nonetheless. It's all a facade. We never kept that a secret from you. They really need our help, not our judgment, not our complacent acceptance of "the world's oldest profession". What burns me up is that you can make the reality of the trauma blatantly clear...and they just don't give a damn.

Now who knows how the girls working for VIP Escorts were treated or whether there were any minors involved. It doesn't matter. When the political will is non-existent, bills fail. Period. Is it any wonder now where the will went when the Safe Harbor Act failed?

The Wrong Target

2008-02-19T13:06:00.000-08:00

New York Times
February 19, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist
By BOB HERBERT

A New York City police detective and his girlfriend have been accused of kidnapping and forcing a 13-year-old girl into prostitution.

According to the Queens district attorney’s office, the detective, Wayne Taylor, and the girlfriend, Zalika Brown, would parade the girl at parties and other places where adult men had gathered and force her to have sex with them for money — $40 for oral sex, $80 for intercourse.
The child was an investment. The couple allegedly told her that she had been purchased for $500 — purchased, like the slaves of old, only this time for use as a prostitute.

Other than the fact that one of the accused in this case is a police detective, there was nothing unusual about this tale of trafficking in young female flesh.

Our perspective is twisted. It was a big story when a television newsman was crude and thoughtless enough to use the term “pimped out” in a reference to Chelsea Clinton. The comment generated outrage — as it should have — and the newsman was suspended. But if someone actually pimps out a 13-year-old child, and even if that someone is alleged to be a police detective, it generates a collective yawn.

Across the country, young girls by the many thousands — children — are being drawn into the hellishly dangerous world of prostitution. They are raped, beaten and exploited in every way imaginable.

As part of the staggeringly lucrative commercial sex trade, the role of these children is to satisfy the sexual demands of johns who in most cases do not fit the stereotype of a pedophile.

“Many of the guys who buy sex with children would never consider themselves pedophiles,” said Rachel Lloyd, founder of an organization in New York called GEMS that offers help to under-age girls in the sex trade. “They’re not necessarily out there looking for 12-year-olds or teenagers. They just kind of don’t care.

“They feel like they have the right to buy sex from someone, and they prefer it to be someone who looks younger and cleaner and less drug-addicted.”

In the case of the accused New York City detective, the authorities acted promptly and effectively. The girl managed to escape and notified the police, who investigated immediately. Detective Taylor and Ms. Brown were arrested and the case has been turned over to the office of Queens District Attorney Richard Brown. Both are in custody.

But law enforcement does not always respond in a positive or constructive way. It is common across the country for under-age girls engaged in prostitution to be arrested, which is bizarre when you consider that it is a serious crime — statutory rape — for an adult to have sex with a minor.

If no money is involved, the youngster is considered a victim. But if the man pays for the sex — even if the money is going to the pimp, which is so often the case — the child is considered a prostitute and thus subject in many venues to arrest and incarceration.

“We often see the girls arrested and the pimps and the johns go free,” said Carol Smolenski, the head of Ecpat-USA, a group that fights the sexual exploitation of children. “One of the big problems is that there is this whole set of child sex exploiters who are not targeted as exceptionally bad guys.”

What’s needed is a paradigm shift. Society (and thus law enforcement) needs to view any adult who sexually exploits a child as a villain, and the exploited child as a victim of that villainy. If a 35-year-old pimp puts a 16-year-old girl on the street and a 30-year-old john pays to have sex with her, how is it reasonable that the girl is most often the point in that triangle that is targeted by law enforcement?

A measure of how far we still have to go is the fact that some enlightened officials in the state of New York tried to shift that paradigm last year and failed. The proposed Safe Harbor Act would have ended the practice of criminalizing kids too young to legally consent to sex. Under the law, authorities would have no longer been able to charge children with prostitution, but would have had to offer such youngsters emotional counseling, medical care and shelter, if necessary.

Legislative passage was thwarted in large part because prosecutors made the case that it was necessary to hold the threat of jail over the heads of these children as a way of coercing them to testify against pimps. In other words: If you don’t tell us who hurt you, little girl, we’re going to put you in jail.

It was an utterly specious case, filled to the bursting point with tragic implications and unworthy of a civilized society.

Cyber prostitution den found in suspect's home

2008-01-21T12:08:00.002-08:00

Posted on Sun, Jan. 20, 2008

When detectives arrested reputed gangster Bird Road Rudy, they made an unsettling discovery inside the Southwest Miami-Dade home where he was found: an Internet prostitution den.

Police say they arrested Hugo Olmo Gonzalez, 30, last week on prostitution and sex trafficking charges.

According to an arrest report, Miami-Dade Detective Yannile Hernandez was searching the house at 10281 SW 58th St. when she spotted ``several computers containing pornographic material with minors involved.''

A 17-year-old girl told police Gonzalez was her pimp and was ``ordered to call him daddy.''

Detectives were there to detain Rudy Villanueva, Bird Road Rudy, who caused a furor among police after a video of himself, armed and taunting police, was posted on YouTube.com.

He and another man were arrested on federal guns charges.

MORE ARTICLES ON THIS: http://www.wikio.com/news/Rudy+Villanueva

Inspiration from Dallas

2007-12-14T05:34:00.000-08:00

Dallas has been hailed as a city with a model response to the commercial sexual exploitation of children. Sgt. Byron Fassett leads the Child Exploitation Squad and has been instrumental in finding new and effective ways to identify victims, interview them and work together with social service providers to ensure that the victim is safe and on the path to healing. Read the following article for more information on the work being done in Dallas.

http://www.cyc-net.org/today2006/today060712.html

An Underground Issue? Really?

2007-12-06T07:40:00.000-08:00

Billboard off of I-95 in Broward County

When considering the risk factors that lead to a child being commercially sexually exploited, we may think prior history of abuse in the home, poverty and other likely suspects. The greatest risk factor, however - and one we typically gloss over – is DEMAND. Wherever there is an adult sex industry, there are children being exploited within it. The demand for buying sex and societal acceptance of it culminates in a double standard that allows and encourages men (1 out of 7 men to be precise) to purchase (often) a woman for sex without judgment, while the “prostitute” is dehumanized and treated as a morally and legally inferior citizen. This dehumanization of “prostitutes” in general leads us to be desensitized to the fact that children are being exploited in this industry and thus ignore the problem.

Most men soliciting children for sex are not pedophiles. They are situational abusers. They may not necessarily seek out children to buy, but if they are available and they happen to be under 18, they simply don’t care, as long as they meet their criteria for appearance. And in today’s world, we know two things: that sex is available for sale and that young is sexy.

This billboard shouts out from the side of I-95 in Broward County. Prostitution is illegal, but this advertisement clearly shows its acceptance. People often say that child prostitution is hidden underground, and that’s why it’s a difficult issue to tackle. This is clearly not the case. Children are walking the streets being sold alongside all the adults you see. They are listed on Craig’s List as 18 years old when they are not. Their photos are being shown in magazines and sent to entice men to travel abroad for sex. It is clearly not an underground problem. It’s an ignored problem.

We are seeing children being exploited in the sex industry every day, but since we are so desensitized to the adult sex industry, we don’t even stop to consider if that young looking girl is really an adult. Makes you wonder about this billboard.

CSEC Working Group

2007-12-06T06:20:00.000-08:00

CSEC Working Group meetings will be held on a quarterly basis
2:30pm - 4pm
@ Kristi House

RSVP to sandys@kristihouse.org

If you are not currently a member of this group,
please contact Sandy to check on space availability and confirm the time and location.

Atlanta's Child Prostitution Business is Booming

2007-11-10T07:30:00.000-08:00

This 2006 article shows us how Atlanta is dealing with the problem of commercial sexual exploitation of children and similarities that you will find here in Miami. He also mentions some Miami specific information.

"Hooray! Atlanta is in the running to be No. 1! Let's have a parade.

Uh, maybe not. Our city has earned a distinction, but it's hardly one we crave. According to the FBI, Atlanta is among 14 cities vying for child prostitution capital of America. We're up there with such hot destinations as Tampa, Miami and Washington, D.C." - John F. Sugg 4.26.06

Click here to read the full text of the article:

http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/content?oid=oid%3A66047

2007-11-03T09:17:00.000-07:00

The following article is a great example for law enforcement. We need to start recognizing commercially sexually exploited children and teens as victims and stop criminalizing them. In a recent meeting with the Miami-Dade Juvenile Assessment Center, we were told that they see children arrested for prostitution frequently. Not only that, but children arrested for prostitution do not qualify for the diversion program, a program that essentially allows a delinquent child to enter a program to receive assistance and rehabilitation in lieu of formal criminal proceedings. However, if a teenager BUYS sex, even if from another child who engaged in prostitution, that person DOES qualify for the diversion program. What kind of sick irony is that?

19 June 2007
U.S. Law Officers Take New Approach To Combat Prostitution
Maryland police treat trafficked persons as victims, not criminals
By Lea TerhuneUSINFO Staff Writer

Sex trafficking is a global issue, illustrated by an unidentified Ukrainian girl freed from her abductors in another country. (USAID)

Washington -- A new trend in U.S. law enforcement is the way police handle prostitution, at least in Montgomery County, Maryland. Investigators go after pimps who smuggle people for forced prostitution, while extending a helping hand to their victims, the prostitutes.

“The way we treat prostitution is completely different from when I first came up here,” Montgomery County vice squad Detective Thomas Stack told USINFO. “It was go out, pick them up, take them over to jail, that was it.” But not anymore, he said. “We treat every person as a victim, and it’s important that we should do that. Everyone is a victim first.”

Stack and his partner, Detective Leland Wiley, recently assisted in the successful prosecution of six people for crimes including transporting illegal immigrants from New Jersey and New York to engage in prostitution and money laundering. The investigation was coordinated among local police, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Internal Revenue Service.

Stack and Wiley described how Elsy “Yolanda” Aparicio and her family transported hundreds of women, mostly from Mexico, over several years to Maryland to service a primarily Latino clientele in brothels set up in apartments. The women were charged $70 for food and $40 for condoms each week; of the $30 the women received for 30 minutes of sex, they kept $15 to take back to their “padrotes.”

“Padrotes are pimps. They are responsible for the actual trafficking aspect, getting the girls over here to the States, and they lure them in the usual ways, [promising] marriage or domestic work around here at a restaurant,” Wiley told USINFO. But when they get here, they are forced into prostitution.

The padrotes threaten to kill the women’s families in Mexico or shame them by disclosing they are prostitutes. The women are beaten and abused by the pimps, and are often victims of violence in brothel robberies. Gangs such as Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, extort payments or simply rob the brothels of cash. Each woman can bring in hundreds of dollars a day.

The detectives recounted cases of girls kidnapped or duped into coming to the United States. One girl, kidnapped from her remote village by a family of traffickers when she was 15 years old, was thrown in a basement and repeatedly raped by the father and brothers for a month before they put her in a brothel. She eventually was trafficked into the United States. After authorities discovered her, she took advantage of the assistance offered and has turned her life around. After being exploited for more than a decade, she now has a job, studies English and awaits her T-visa, a special visa given to trafficking victims in exchange for their cooperation with law enforcement officials.

Many victims do not cooperate out of fear or misplaced loyalty to their pimps. “Our success rate is not very high in getting females to admit that they are victims,” Stack said, but it is “not through lack of effort.” Although women are interviewed with sensitivity and offered help, he said, most remain mistrustful of police.

A number of nongovernmental organizations work with police to assist victims. Polaris Project and Ayuda are two such support groups. (See related article.)

HUMAN TRAFFICKING A DOMESTIC ISSUE IN THE UNITED STATES
The detectives say most of their cases today involve illegal immigrants trafficked for sex or labor. According to U.S. Department of Justice figures, an estimated 17,500 foreign nationals may be trafficked annually into the United States.

Wiley told USINFO, “When you say ‘trafficking,’ people think it’s an international issue. It’s not, it’s a domestic issue, too.” Runaway teenagers are frequent victims.

Much investigative work is done on the Internet. “It is absolutely out of control on the Internet,” Stack said. Instead of streetwalking, prostitutes and pimps now advertise on Craigslist or other Web sites.

Stack and Wiley speak at police academies, colleges, to firefighters, building inspectors and community groups on how to recognize the signs of trafficking. They say education is an important tool. Their informants range from paid contacts to apartment house managers and alert citizens.

Local and federal agencies work together -- if state lines are crossed, the FBI becomes involved. Federal penalties are stiffer. “These guys who are doing these heinous crimes,” who “force these women into prostitution” deserve long prison sentences, Stack said, “and they should get every day that’s coming to them.”

Hollywood contributes to the problem, Stack said. Films such as Hustle and Flow that glamorize pimps are used in the sex trade. “That’s a recruiting video for the pimps,” Stack said, adding that pimps make the girls watch movies and read books to learn the trade.

“These girls, for the most part, they are the victims … because they are trafficked into this country and they are forced into prostitution,” Stack said.

For more information, see Human Smuggling and Trafficking.

(USINFO is produced by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

FREE Trafficking Workshop

2007-10-22T09:01:00.000-07:00

Modern-day Slavery Exists in SE Florida: Why, How, Where?

SaturdayNovember 3, 2007
9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Florida Atlantic University - Boca Raton
Social Sciences Bldg., Room 250
FREE WORKSHOP
Guest Speakers:
NOLA THEISS, Co-Chair of the Lee County Florida TaskForce on Human Trafficking
Deputy Chief Robert Schwartz

Event Sponsored by:The Institute for Universal Human Rights, Inc, The Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing, The Florida Regional Community Policing Institute, The Florida Coalition Against Human Trafficking, The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Questions: contact@floridaslavery.org or 954-966-2997

"I don't want to do this anymore."

2007-09-30T12:37:00.000-07:00

I accompanied the police on an "innocence lost" sweep last week. They were looking for commercially sexually exploited kids, not to arrest them, but to help them, and I was riding along to do some local research. It only took us ten minutes of driving through "the tracks" to come across a young-looking local girl. She claimed to be eighteen, though she was obviously younger. She wasn't dressed or acting in any particularly obvious manner, in fact her dress was rather plain and conservative, and her manner was calm, scared, child-like. When we approached her, she was with another young woman and they were talking to a middle-aged man in a truck in the parking lot of a motel, likely the "john". He had a few drinks so the cops cuffed him for a little while then sent him home in a cab.

What struck me about this girl is that she was still very new to "the life". She had run away from the residential shelter she was placed in to remove her from a home with an abusive father. It had been three weeks, but I'm sure it only took about a week of living desperately in the streets to be recruited by a pimp. When we found her last week, she was seemingly being trained by the other young woman. The closer the police came to uncovering her real age, the more anxious she became. The worse fate, of all the possibilities, it seemed, was to be returned to her father, especially in this way. After some investigation, it was found that SHE WAS ONLY FOURTEEN YEARS OLD. As we spoke to her, the pain in her eyes was evident. "I don't want to get arrested," she said. "My father can't find out," she lamented. But when she said "I DON'T WANT TO DO THIS ANYMORE," with a voice laced with despair, I just wanted to scoop her up and rescue her from her pain. Who knows what abuse she was suffering at the hands of an exploitative pimp. I searched my brain desperately for options, but was at a loss. There is no solution here yet to the problem of commercially sexually exploitated children.

We are just begining to make needed changes here in Miami and to build on the momentum created by other national and international initiatives. Kristi House is taking the lead and partnering with Girls Educational and Mentoring Services in New York City to replicate their best practices in engaging and helping victims of CSEC. I am proud to say that a coalition of service providers and law enforcement agencies has just been formed to address the needs of commercially sexually exploited children locally. We will work tirelessley to ensure that any child being exploited in sex industry; forced into street prostitution, dancing in our so-called "adult entertainment clubs" or being sold on Internet forums such as Craig's List will find the help and support they need to escape and stay safe. And next time we hear a fourteen-year-old tell us "I don't want to do this anymore", we will be able to reply, "well, here are your options."

GEMS PSA

2007-09-30T11:53:00.001-07:00

Letter to the Editor re: Barry Kutun

2007-09-30T10:39:00.000-07:00

When the former North Miami City Attorney Barry Kutun story first broke several months ago, his lawyers were quick to call his actions against a 16-year-old commercially sexually exploited child a “victimless crime”. The language used by his lawyers and the press, alike, has not since challenged this perception. A teenage girl being exploited in the sex industry is a victim, she is a commercially sexually exploited child; she is not a “teen prostitute”. The latter term carries age-old stereotypes and stigma and implies a level of agency that does not exist for the girl.

Consider these facts:

* The average age of entry into prostitution in the United States is twelve years old.

* There are currently up to 300,000 children being exploited in the commercial sex trade in the United States, thousands of which can be found in Miami.

* 80-90% of girls involved in prostitution are under the control of pimps, who often use violence and coercion to extract obedience and do not allow the girls to keep the money they earn.

These are children who, oftentimes, end up on the streets after exiting an abusive home and are quickly found and recruited by pimps looking for vulnerable youth to exploit. Escaping “the life” is incredibly difficult for most, as they are held in virtual slavery.

If a 66-year-old man had sex with a 16-year-old girl, it would no doubt be considered child sexual abuse. Once money is exchanged, however, we begin to see the child as a free agent. We need to wonder why Kutun is able to walk away with nine months of house arrest and doesn’t have to register as a sex-offender. Is it because, as his lawyers state, this was “an aberration in an otherwise stellar career” or because we really believe that “he’s not some street thug or criminal” and that our perception of an exploiter, laced with race and class stereotypes, is exactly that?

Kutun doesn’t fit into the nice little box that we like to categorize sex offenders. He’s not a creepy, under-the-bridge pedophile; he’s likely a situational abuser. He just doesn’t care if she is under eighteen, as long as she has features that are attractive to him, namely, she is young looking. This is not an aberration; in fact, it’s all too common among men of all stations. The biggest risk factor for children becoming exploited in the sex industry is the demand. One in seven men has been found to have purchased sex at least once in their lives and the demand for younger girls is on the rise. Remember, the average age of entry into prostitution is twelve.

The commercial sexual exploitation of children is not a hidden crime. It exists in plain sight and we choose to ignore it. Nicholas Spangler’s article in Saturday’s Herald made only marginal reference to the victim in the case, calling her a “16-year-old prostitute” who was only mentioned as a piece of evidence against Kutun. Her welfare was completely ignored by the press.

Likewise, her welfare was trivialized by the sentences handed down on Kutun and Orenbuch, the girl’s pimp. The commercial sexual exploitation of children is a crime of human trafficking, which is a federal crime carrying a fifteen-year sentence. The victims don’t have to be foreign nationals, they don’t have to be transported, and they don’t have to prove force, fraud or coercion. If they are minors being engaged in the sex industry, they are victims of trafficking according to law.

If we continue to dehumanize the child victim through our indifference and the way in which we speak about commercial sexual exploitation, the victims will continue to have limited access to needed services and the abusers will continue to go free or get significantly reduced sentences. We need to start making some changes. We need to understand that commercially sexually exploited children are victims of trafficking and of child sexual abuse and should be treated as such.

CSEC in Miami

Man Sells Foster Daughter Into Prostitution

Human trafficking `survivor' to speak at Miami summit

Clinton Global Initiative: The Body Shop Unveils Latest Action to Stop Child Sex Trafficking

More ACORN videos

ACORN staffers assisting traffickers - VIDEO

Rachel Lloyd Receives Prestigious Ashoka Fellowship

Fort Myers ministry helps women leave sex trade

Kristi House newsletter highlights Project GOLD

State Representative Maria Sachs Appointed to the Statewide Task Force on Human Trafficking

Shared Hope International Exposes Child Sex Trafficking In South Florida

Feds: Man promised to make girl a 'star,' instead turned her into prostitute

Girls on Our Streets

"Very Young Girls" Documentary Available to the Public

CSEC Working Group Meeting

New Laws Treat Teen Prostitutes as Abuse Victims

CSEC Working Group Meeting

Now This is Thinking Outside of the Box

Miami Beach man faces federal pimping charges

FBI sting rescues child prostitutes around country

Human Trafficking Conference at St. Thomas University

Very Young Girls final dates on Showtime

CSEC Working Group Meeting

Coalition in Tampa to track sex traffickers over Super Bowl weekend

Sex Trafficking Summit draws 150 people

Rest in Peace: Norma Hotaling 1951-2008

"Very Young Girls" Showtime Debut

UN World Congress Takes Place in Rio

Four Arrested for Sex Trafficking in South Florida

South Florida prostitution ring busted, feds say

Kristi House Chosen to Participate in World Congress III

UNICEF highlights CSEC problem in the US

document.write("<a href=\""+ pageURLTracking.replace(/.html/,".rhtml") +"\" >");document.write(pageTitleOriginal);

FREE Online Conference: Combatting Demand for Sex Trafficking

6 Local Kids Rescued From Human Trafficking Operation

LAW & DISORDER: Man held in sex trafficking

Klaas Kids is Doing Great Work.

CSEC Working Group

CSEC 101 Trainings

Coming Soon....

A Look at the Harrowing Lives of Child Prostitutes

Region Needs To Wake Up To Teen Sex Trafficking

The Justice Department, Blind to Slavery

Changemakers Competition for Anti-Trafficking Initiatives

Google Alerts

Resources for Working with CSE Youth

Sexual Exploitation Bill in Governor's Hands (CA)

Advanced Techniques in Interviewing of Adolescents

CNN Article Misses the Mark Just a Bit

Miami Brothel Bus

Miami Prostitution Sting

Trafficking in Persons

New Shelter for CSEC Victims

"HOLLY" screening in Coral Gables 5/16

Mexican national pleads guilty to human trafficking

Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Video

Florida TV Station Sheds Light on Sex Trafficking of Minors

Florida CSEC Study

2 Young Girls in Sex-Abuse Tapes ID'd

The Pimps' Slaves

Children in the sex trade are victims, not criminals

Check out this upcoming special on Oxygen Channel…

Foes of Sex Trade Are Stung by the Fall of an Ally

NY Governor Eliot Spitzer Tied to Prostitution Ring

The Wrong Target

Cyber prostitution den found in suspect's home

Inspiration from Dallas

An Underground Issue? Really?

CSEC Working Group

Atlanta's Child Prostitution Business is Booming

FREE Trafficking Workshop

"I don't want to do this anymore."

GEMS PSA

Letter to the Editor re: Barry Kutun