How to Protect Children from Sex Trafficking

-Educate your kids about human trafficking: that it exsts, what it looks like, and to talk to you or another responsible adult if they think they see it.

-Communicate with your kids and let them talk to you without judgment. They need to know they are safwer with you than anywhere else,

-Technology is a big part of how sex trafficking happens with kids. Know your kids’ passwords and what is on their phones. Your child’s privacy is important, but so is their safety.

-Know your kid’s friends. Have them over to yur home. Feed them a pan of brownies or a batch of cookies, and sit doown and talk to them. Know where the hang out and what they like.

-Get your kids in positive things: community youth groups, sports, music, community service, and church youth groups. Surround them with positive peer pressure.

Questions to Identify Trafficking Victims

-What type of work do you do?

-Are you being paid?

-Can you leave your job if you want to?

-Can you come and go as you please?

-Have you or your family been threatened?

-What are your working and living conditions like?

-Where do you sleep and eat?

-Do you have to ask permission to eat/sleep/go to the bathroom?

-Are there locks on the doors/windows so that you cannot get out?

-Has your identification or documentation been taken from you?

Vulnerability Factors

-Abuse within the home, which normalizes that type of maltreatment

-Economic disadvantages such as coming from a single parent home.

-Exposure to drugs and alcohol in the home, which makes that lifestyle seem normal.

-Seeking a father figure to fill a “daddy hole.”

Safe Harbours Act

A  provision granting protection from liability or penalty if certain conditions are met. A safe harbor provision may be included in statutes or regulations to give peace of mind to good-faith actors who might otherwise violate the law on technicalities beyond their reasonable control.

Common Work and Living Conditions

The Individual(s) in question:

-Is not free to leave or come and go as he/she wishes

-Is under 18 and is providing commercial sex acts

-Is in the commercial sex industry, and has a pimp/manager

-Is unpaid, paid very little, or paid only through tips

-Works excessively long and/or unusual hours

-Is not allowed breaks or suffers under unusual restrictions at work.

-Owes a large debt and is unable to pay it off

-Was recruited through false promises concerning the nature and condtions of his/her work

-High security measure exist in the work and /or living locations

Poor Mental Health or Abnormal Behavior

-Is fearful, anxious, depressed, submissive, tense, or exhibits nervous/paranoid behaviou

-Exhibits unusually fearful or anxious behavior after law enfrcement is brought up

-Avoids eye contact

Poor Physical Health

-Lacks health care

-Appears malnourished

-Shows signs of physical and/or sexual abuse, physical restraint, confeinement, or torture

Lack of Control

-Has few or no personal possessions

-Is not in control of his/her own money

-Is not in control of his/her own identification documents

-Is not allowed or ale to speak for himself/herself

Other

-Claims of just visiting and inability to clarify where he/she is staying

-Lack of knowledge of whereabouts

-Loss of sense of time

-Has numerous inconsistencies in his/her story

Red Flags to Watch For:

-Truancy, having a lot of sick days, being frequently absent

-Clothing that is inappropriate for the weather or other conditions, baggy or provacative clothing

-A demeanor that is either withdrawn, depressed, and fearful

-The presence of an older, controlling boyfriend or female companion

-Not being allowed to talk

-Being handled roughly or touched inappropriately

-Malnourished or eats as if ravenously, eating disorders

-Sudden Changes in attire, behavior, possessions

-Branding, tattoos, or carvings

-Evidence of mutilation

-going to the doctor often or not at all

-Scripted answers, inconsitent stories

-Frequent travel to other cities, or numerous short trips

-Varied stages of bruising, with clumps of makeup covering marks

-Possession of motel room cards, escort service cards, condoms, large amounts of cash or gift cards

-Lack of proper docuents

-Use of terms common to the sex industry

-Poorly formed or rotten teeth, fainting, nausa frequent headaches, grooves in their nails

– parents not showing up when child experiences medical problems at school

-frequent bathroom visits, sensitivity or itching in their private areas, frequent urinary tract or yeast infections

-memory lapses, becoming dissociated or zoned out in class or during activity

-being overly touchy with adults in a sexual way, talking about sexual things

-being afraid of bedtime

-not being able to attend or host sleepovers

-talking about being locked in closed spaces or closets

-not good at communicating/playing with their peers

-talking about wearing costumes at home with frequent special parties

-talking about adults coming over and spending the night with them

-not being able to make choices, always deferring to their parents

-being startled easily or having exagerrated startle responses

-major variations in grades

-re-enacting abuse, physically or sexually with classmates or friends

Steps in Indoctrination

–Lover Boy tactic-are human traffickers who usually operate by trying to make young girls or boys fall in love with them.

–Honeymoon Phase-the trafficker will do anything to make the potential victim fall in love with him. Often when an individual is emotionally attached to someone, they tend to care and do things for them that they wouldn’t do for anyone else.

–Trauma Bonding-When a victim perceives a threat to their physical and psychological survival at the hands of their trafficker, trauma bonding may occur. Traffickers may isolate and threaten victims, induce exhaustion, and interfere with their believed or real ability to escape.

–On Automatic-A term denoting the victim’s “automatic” routine when her pimp is out of town, in jail, or otherwise not in direct contact with those he is prostituting. Victims are expected to comply with the rules and often do so out of fear of punishment or because they have been psychologically manipulated into a sense of loyalty or love. All money generated on “automatic” is turned over to the pimp. This money may be used to support his concession/phone account or to pay his bond if he’s in jail.

Becoming a Bottom-A female appointed by the trafficker/pimp to supervise the others and report rule violations. Operating as his “right hand,” the Bottom may help instruct victims, collect money, book hotel rooms, post ads, or inflict punishments on other girls.

Porn Industry Recruitment Techniques

-Agencies typically drop names of major networks, television shows, and popular men’s magazines. It’s a way to look legitimate to the recruits and draw them in.

-Many young, good-looking men/women are sent by agencies to college and high school campuses as well as to parties around the country. Their job is to recruit birls and boys in much the same way pimps recruit victims. Often calling them modeling or acting scouts.

– Some of these young recruitsers will also pretend they want to date the victims that they are trying to recruit. They tend to rent upscale hotel rooms to impress.

-MySpace, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and other social networks are commonly used to recruit boys/girls.

-Once a boy/girl answers a “casting call,” the recruiter convinces them that they have what it takes.

-All personal information is gathered, including friends’ and family members’ names, ages, contact information, financial history, and anything else that may be used at a later date to compel them to remain in their servituse.

-To earn more money, the model is encouraged to do hard-core porn.

-Another path to higher earnings involves servicing private parties.

-As soon as the model has posed for nude shoots, the agency will try to shoot a scene involving sexual interactions with others. It doesn’t stop there, the ultimate goal is prostitution.

How to Eradicate Human Trafficking

-Raise awareness to the point of the general public knowing what human trafficking looks like and what to do if they see it.

-Adequately educate law enforcement officials and the courts.

-Enact laws that uphold justice against traffickers and sex buyers.

-Provide adequate services for victims and survivors.

Commonalities of Johns

-Median age of 37

-41% were married

-42% had a bachelor’s degree

-35% had attended some college

-81% were employed full-time

-26% reported serving in the military

-64% reported purchasing sex at least once in the last twelve months

-Approximtely 30% watched a pornographic video either a couple of times a month, weekly, or every day.

Affects of Sex Trafficking

-Sexually transmissible infections

-Drug and alcohol addiction

-Malnutrition

-Sterility, miscarriages, and menstruakl problems

-Physical injuries such as broken bones, burns, and vaginal and anal tearing

-Traumatic brain injuries, including concussions

-Death

-Depression or hopelessness

-Low self-esteem

-Anxiety

-Insomnia

-Extreme grief

-Fear

-Dissociative disorders

-Suicidal thoughts and behaviors

Sex Trafficking Legislation

-Section 230 of the Communications DecencyAct of 1996 granys Internet providers a measure of immunity from liability against child sex trafficking.

-Senate Bill S.1118-Child Sex Trafficking Data and Response Act of 2013, would require that foster care and adoption assistance agencies officially document any child who has been identified as a victim of sex trafficking

Divergence from Normal Development

-repetitive, casual, and seemingly thoughtless lying

-apparent indifference to, or inability to understand, the feelings, expectations, or pain of others

-defiance of parens, teachers, and rules

-continuall in trouble and unresponsive to reprimands and threats of punishment

-petty theft from other children and parents

-persistent aggression, bullying, and fighting

-a record of unremitting truancy, staying out late, and absences from home

-a pattern of hurting or killing animals

-early experimentation with sex

-vandalism and fire setting

Disruptive Behavior Disorders: Three subcategories

–attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder-characterized by developmentally inappropriate degrees of inattention, impulseiveness, and hyperactivity

-conduct disorder-a persistent pattern of conduct in which the basic rights of others and major appropriate societal norms or rules are violated

-oppositional defiant disorder-a pattern of negative, hostile, and defiant behavior without the seriousness violations of thhe basic rights of others that are seen in conduct disorder

Barriers to Treating Adult Psychopaths

• The fact that many mental health professionals, including some clinicians, consider psychopathy to be frightening, disturbing and foreboding and some may be unwilling to treat it.
• Difficulty identifying clinicians with expertise and experience in treating adults with psychopathy and related disorders using empirically validated approaches.
• Distinctions between primary and secondary psychopathy, which require distinct treatment approaches.
• The fact that secondary psychopathy sometimes results from being shamed or humiliated. In some cases, people cope with a narcissistic collapse ( when shame is engendered by a failure and one feels exposed) by identifying with the aggressor, suppressing vulnerability, creating a callous exterior, and doing cruel things. If the shame, humiliation and feeling of exposure can be addressed therapeutically, it is possible that the psychopathic tendencies will abate.

• Psychopathy is a personality disorder, not a mental illness.
• There is no “cure” for psychopaths, and they will never be able to change.
• If they are in prison, psychopaths can be managed with reward-based treatment.
• But this is simply a means of control, rather than a cure.