The Worst Traffic

I recently watched “Rambo: Last Blood.”  It’s an ultra-violent movie with lots of blood and gore, exploding bodies, and worse.  What set the mighty Rambo off this time was what happened to a girl who was like a daughter to him.  She was kidnapped in Mexico by a sex-slavery ring.  So our hero killed, maimed, and generally messed up the health records of dozens of people involved in that ring.

Now, I’m not saying I would be as violent as Rambo if someone I loved was taken by that kind of people…if you can call them people.

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According to the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) 2012 report, at that time 20.9 million people were subjected to forced labor, and 22% (4.5 million) were victims of forced sexual exploitation.  The same organization said, by 2016 there were 5 million victims of sexual exploitation.  Yes, that’s 5 MILLION…a 5 with SIX zeros!  That’s somewhere between the population of Los Angeles and New York City.  5,000,000 human beings forced to perform sex acts against their will dozens or even hundreds of times each day.  And every single one is someone’s daughter or son.

Worse yet, because sex trafficking is so covert, it’s difficult, if not impossible, to get accurate numbers.  So 5 million is arguably a LOW number. 

Sex trafficking is so prevalent because it is so lucrative.  Some traffickers in Atlanta reportedly make more than $32,000 a WEEK.  That’s $1,344,000 in a year!  Sex slavery is the fastest-growing business of organized crime and the third-largest criminal enterprise in the world. The ILO estimated the global commercial profits for sexual slavery at 99 billion.  Yes $99,000,000,000.

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But these are all people who have made the decision to become prostitutes, right?

Wikipedia says, “According to ECPAT USA, the average age of entry into street prostitution is between 12 and 14 years old.  The demographic of street prostitutes range from poor women, kids, ethnic minorities, and immigrants. In the United States, sex traffickers and pimps often find their victims in malls or on the streets.  Sometimes vulnerable looking girls will be abducted while walking to their cars.  Other times the pimps will go up to a victim and convince them to leave with them, often offering a job of some kind and money.  Vulnerability increases when girls are young or homeless.

Emotional and physical coercion is used in order to convince the victim to trust the pimp and build a relationship.  This coercion often makes the relationships between trafficker and trafficked and pimp and prostitute difficult to identify.  Frequently, the victims are tricked into thinking they will have freedom in the work they are promised along with a large sum of money but instead, they become a sex slave.  After the victim has agreed to the pimp’s offer, they are forcibly dissuaded from leaving by forcing addictive drugs on them; by withholding money; and through physical/sexual abuse.  Girls are often motivated by finances and basic survival. It is very common in the United States for pimps to own a business or store, especially nail salons and massage parlors.  It is also very common for sex slavery businesses to be conducted near U.S. military bases, because of the business soldiers bring.”

Did you notice that paragraph was talking about the U.S.A.?  Yes, sex trafficking is big business in the good old United States of America.  According to one report 1 in 7 reported runways in the U.S. in 2018 is likely a victim of child sex trafficking.  That is only one aspect of this abhorrent industry.

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As I have said, there are many ways traffickers get their victims.  The criminal may befriend them, in person or online.  The perpetrator may offer the victim a lucrative job in modeling, au pair work, or in the catering and hotel industry, or maybe working in bars or clubs.  The criminal may simply kidnap a victim.   Traffickers may seek out potential victims who are traveling alone, are separated from their group, or seem like they have low self-esteem. They may go to places like malls, parties, or high school sporting events where they are more likely to find girls without those who protect them.

The victim may then be drugged or tied up and taken to a place where the trafficker can more easily control them, limiting access to communication, threatening punishment or death.  They may actually “romance” their victims, convincing them that the criminal loves them and wants them around.

Believe it or not, one of the most common forms of sex trafficking is where the victimizer is a member of the family who allows children to be sexually exploited in exchange for something of value, like drugs or money.  I am personally familiar with cases where mothers have let a boyfriend abuse their own child(ren) in exchange for security or, get this, his love.

Familial trafficking can be among the hardest forms to detect as the child may still be allowed to take part in school and after-school activities.  Also, sometimes the kids don’t even understand that they are being trafficked, or they may be afraid to try to end it because getting out of the situation will cause them to lose everything familiar and everyone they have ever known and loved.

Another study indicates that girls in foster care are particularly vulnerable.  Girls who grow up in the instability of the child welfare system, particularly those placed in multiple homes, are “vulnerable to the manipulation of traffickers who promise to love and care for them.  Indeed, some traffickers purposely troll for youth in certain group homes because they are aware of this vulnerability.”  

Forced marriage is a type where, usually a girl, is forced into a marriage they do not fully agree with.  It is estimated that 140 million girls under the age of 18 will be forced into early marriages between 2011 and 2020.  That is about 39,000 girls every single day!

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Corey Davis was one of those sex traffickers. 

According to an FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, “In December 2008, Corey Davis, the ringleader of a sex-trafficking ring that spanned at least three states, was sentenced in federal court in Bridgeport, Connecticut, on federal civil rights charges for organizing and leading the sex-trafficking operation that exploited as many as 20 females, including minors. Davis received a sentence of 293 months in prison followed by a lifetime term of supervised release. He pleaded guilty to multiple sex-trafficking charges, including recruiting a girl under the age of 18 to engage in prostitution. Davis admitted that he recruited a minor to engage in prostitution; that he was the organizer of a sex trafficking venture; and that he used force, fraud, and coercion to compel the victim to commit commercial sex acts from which he obtained the proceeds.”

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In, Sex Trafficking: The New American Slavery, Leif Coorlim and Dana Ford (CNN) recount the story of one former teen prostitute:  “Sacharay, which is how she wants to be known, was 14 years old and looking for a friend.

“’I used to get picked on a lot about being dark-skinned. I started wearing glasses and was called ‘four-eyes.’ And then they knew because I was so sensitive, they knew it was getting to me,’ she said.”

“But when an older classmate approached her and offered to be her friend, Sacharay thought maybe her fortunes had finally started to turn.”

“’I thought she was like my best friend because I could tell her everything. One day she asked if I wanted to skip school and have fun, you know, so we went to the barber shop. When I was there, she introduced me to these guys,’ said Sacharay, now 19.

“One of the men, in his mid-30s, immediately took notice of Sacharay. He soon began courting her with gifts, paying her compliments and offering advice on the daily dramatics of adolescent life.

“‘If me and my sister would be arguing, he’d be like, ‘You can’t get into an argument with your sister like that.’ He was more like a dad, but then again we had sex, so it wasn’t. It was just in the communication and how he talked to me,’ she recalled.

“It was child rape.”

“‘But this subtle, subversive mix of romantic love and parental care can create havoc in the mind of an adolescent, said Anique Whitmore, a forensic psychologist in Atlanta.  ‘What we know about sex crimes is that it’s not about sexual pleasure. It’s about control,’ said Whitmore.  ‘What is similar to some of those girls that I work with is their self-esteem or lack thereof. You either become vulnerable to a man on the street or a man you meet in school. You become vulnerable because you’re looking for attention.’

“Soon, Sacharay’s trafficker began asking for ‘favors’ — asking her to help make some money for him, by sleeping with another man.

“‘He was like, ‘I love you for that, I love you so much,'” said Sacharay. ‘Then he would slowly put two, three more guys. I got upset when I first realized what he was doing, but I kept doing it because he made me feel like I was special.’

“The exploitation continued to escalate. Sacharay soon was being sold to dozens of men a day. She would meet these sex buyers in motel rooms near a freeway, or even sometimes in the back of the barbershop.

“’One day I was like, I can’t do this no more. I was in pain. I had sex with almost 40 guys in one day, and I was so tired, and I said, ‘I can’t do this no more.’

“Her trafficker didn’t care. He made sure she knew leaving was not an option.

“He went into the other room, came back with a gun, and he was like: ‘If you go somewhere, we’ll see.'”

Do I have to explain what he meant?

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So, how can you prevent someone you care for from becoming the victim of sex trafficking?  One of the best ways is to be involved in their lives.  Know where your kids are going and with whom.  Be nosey.  They will probably protest that it’s none of your business or that they can take care of themselves.  Remember what you were like at that age?  They are probably not any smarter than you were.

Some people these days think they have to raise their kids to believe it’s a fairy tale world where every day is a holiday and their lives are magical.  Well, I can’t blame them for that but, when they are old enough to go out without Mom and Dad, they need to know the truth; there really are monsters out there.

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Do you suspect someone is involved in, or a victim of, sex-trafficking?  Are you a victim?

The National Human Trafficking Resource Center (1-888-373-7888) is manned 24 hours a day, every day.  They are there to assist victims and provide information for those who are at risk.  You can also text them at “BeFree” (233733), or chat at humantraffickinghotline.org.

Don’t be shy.

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I’m not saying I would be as violent as Rambo if someone I loved was taken by sex traffickers.  I’m not saying I would shoot them or cut off their limbs with a machete…but I’m not saying I wouldn’t either.

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