Understanding the Layers
After our Senior Pastor
spoke about the Human Trafficking of young girls and the sex industry making
money through the tourism trading in child sex, I wanted to find out more about
it.
When Abigail Kuzma from
the Indiana Attorney Generals Office, who is the Director and Chief Council of
Consumer Proctection and Co-Chair of IPATH which stands for Indiana Protection
of Abused and Trafficked Humans, spoke at our Stopping the Porn Culture – A
Pastor’s Forum, I had no idea of the scope of the problem.
IPATH goals are PREVENTION,
PROTECTION, AND PROSECUTION
IPATH uses a collaborative
strategy to implement it’s goals by working with the U. S. Attorney’s Office,
FBI, Homeland Security, Department of Labor, and locally with the Indianapolis
Metropolitan Police Department, Department of Child Services, the Julian Center Exodus Refugee Center
IPATH’s five (5) areas are
Law Enforcement, Victim Services, Protocol, Awareness, and Training. IPATH is also a part of PILLARS OF HOPE- a
national initiative- Attorney’s General United Against Human Trafficking. What
we learned was an overview of IPATH, who is involved, and what we can do to
stop Human Trafficking.
What
is Human Trafficking? What is Sex Trafficking?
Sex Trafficking and Labor Trafficking
Sex Trafficking: in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud,
or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such acts has not
attained 18 years of age or
Labor Trafficking: The recruitment, harboring,
transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor, services,
through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to
involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery. (Federal Law-Victims of Trafficking and
Violence Prevention Act of 2000)
The Pillars of Hope National 2011 Initiative is headed by Indiana
Human trafficking is a $32
billion global industry driven by trafficking profit. It’s the fastest growing
and second largest criminal activity in the world, just behind arms and ahead
of drug dealing.
Eleven years ago, the
United Nations created the international standards against trafficking in
persons, and the US US US
It is estimated that 76
percent of transactions for sex with underage girls start on the Internet [1],
which triggered a rash of activity by Attorneys General and public outcry
against organizations such as craigslist and backpage.com. Coalitions of technology,
anti‐trafficking
NGOs, and government authorities have been developed to take action across the
public and private sector. Media attention is fueling awareness and stepping up
actions to stop sexual and labor exploitation in our communities. Human
trafficking awareness is at a tipping point in our society. With this in mind,
Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna, the 2011‐12 President of the National
Association of Attorneys General, has selected this problem as the focus of his
presidential initiative.
Pillars of Hope: Attorneys
General Unite against Human Trafficking is built upon the following four
pillars:
Pillar 1): Making the Case
Gather stat-specific data on human trafficking and create a
database that assists local authorities with identifying human trafficking
cases.
Pillar 2): Holding Traffickers
Accountable
Establish and implement comprehensive anti-human trafficking
laws in all 50 States.
Pillar 3): Mobilizing Communities to Care
for Victims
Coordination among service providers, law enforcement, and
state agencies to assist in indentifying and protecting victims.
Pillar 4): Raising Public Awareness &
Reducing the Demand
Increase public awareness campaign regarding human
trafficking that will assist the victims and work to reduce demand for
trafficking
Our Pastor’s Forum learned that studies have shown there is
an increase in the demand for commercial sex services surrounding large
sporting events or conventions such as the Super Bowl, World Series, etc. Any increase in the commercial sex industry
also increase the potential risk for exploitation and human trafficking.
A study conducted by
Traffick 911 out of Fort Worth , Texas
- Saturday, January
15th 135
- Saturday, January
22nd 179
- Saturday, January
29th 232
- Saturday, February
5th 367
Also, 59
Prostitution arrests were made before and on the 2011 Super Bowl
11 of the arrests
were suspected of being Human Trafficking (Jessica Huseman Dallasnews.com 2/14/11 )
A Growing Problem World Wide……
According to the US Dept of State’s 2010 Trafficking in
Person’s Report-
-12.3 Million Adults and Children are forced into labor,
bonded labor and forced prostitution. (this is a subject for my next article)
……and At Home
With 2,515 trafficking investigations were opened by the
Dept of Justice Anti-Trafficking Task force between 2008 and 2010 you have the
following breakdown:
-239 cases in the Midwest
-46 opened by Indiana
651 Trafficking investigations were opened by the US
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in 2010 which resulted in
* 300
arrests
* 151
indictments
* 144 convictions
90 ICE Cases were in the Midwest
*43 arrest
*25 indictments
*22
convictions
*69 of
those cases involved sex trafficking and 21 involved labor trafficking.
925 trafficking cases were opened by the FBI since 2004
*61 FBI
cases were in the Midwest
*37 of
those cases involved sex trafficking and 27 involved labor trafficking.
Sex Trafficking and Pornography- Supply and Demand…
(to be Continued)
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