Human Rights Coalition Corner- Human Trafficking Abolitionists

Lauren Novak

Undergraduate/Political Science and Psychology 

Imagine that for the third time this week, you have been hit by your stepfather. You’re pretty used to this by now seeing as you are 15 years old and it’s been happening since you were eight. As you go back up to your room after being told that you’re useless, all you can think about is how thankful you are that he was too tired to rape you today. When you get to your room, you have a text message from him. He’s telling you how much he loves you and how he wants you to pleasure him. Sometimes it feels like he’s the only person in the world that cares about you. 

When you sneak out to his house that night, you realize that he didn’t want you tonight, instead he wants you to service one of his friends. You tell him that you thought you were supposed to only be for him, you ask why he said that you were his girl if he wants you to sleep with his friends. He tells you, in that sweet voice that you just can’t get enough of, that’s he’s sorry and he loves you, but he needs you to do this for him tonight because he’s really broke right now. He even promises you can have a little of the money. You try to refuse, but then he tells you that he doesn’t know if you two can still be together if you won’t do this little favor for him. 

According to the definition of human trafficking, which is the modern term for a slave, a human trafficking victim can be any person that is induced by force, fraud, or coercion to commit a commercial sex act or any person under the age 18 that commits a commercial sex act. The narrative above is a story that the facility, MISSSEY has heard versions of time and time again. MISSSEY stands for Motivating, Inspiring, Supporting & Serving Sexually Exploited Youth. This non-profit aftercare center facility serves youth that were former sex slaves or victims of other forms of sexual exploitation of Alameda County, California.  
 
This past summer I was enrolled in two week intensive course through the Not For Sale Campaign, where I got to meet Nola, the executive director of MISSEY. Nola spent a lot of time explaining to me and my fellow classmates the common myth that many people hold with them, that prostitutes are there by choice. In the cases that Nola has treated, it is very clear that these children did not choose this life. Here’s how it happens:  
 
Targeted children are those that already have low self esteem and are desperate for love and attention. It is easy to build trust with these children by providing compliments, small gifts (a blunt and a happy meal are common), promises of a better life and someone, the pimp, to take care of them. To a child who is either abused or ignored at home, these things all sound really good. Once initial trust is built, sometimes the child is drugged, often with Ecstasy so that the pimp can learn the child’s past history, their hopes and dreams so that it can be used against them. Also, when the child starts acting up, the trafficker uses his knowledge of the child to build “custom threats.” For example, what sounds scarier? “If you don’t have sex with me I’m going to kick your ass!” or “If you don’t have sex with me I’m going to go over to your Aunties house on 5th and Broadway and find your favorite little cousin and beat the shit out of her!” Now that’s powerful. When the girl does finally have sex with the pimp, he makes it believe that it’s the best he’s ever had, he tells her that her body is the best thing she has going for her and she has to be crazy to not be using her body to make money because she’s so damn good at it. So at this point, the pimp has the girl under his control and he will rent her out to several men a night.

You may be asking, how does this happen in America? It is true that in this country there are plenty of alternatives to prostitution and there are also many services out there to assist those that have become a part of the industry. However, these services are completely useless if people don’t know that they even exist, and this is very true in the case of children. The children that are coerced into prostitution are often naive to the services provided making them irrelevant. The most vulnerable population in the U.S. is a child with a broken family or no family at all, a history of abuse, and without knowledge of services available to them. 

Usually, these cases are uncovered because the girl is arrested for prostitution. However, as stated earlier, according to the TVPA (Trafficking Victims Protection Act) a child which is any person under 18 years of age cannot legally consent to a commercial sexual act. Therefore, the sex was performed by force and by definition is trafficking. So even though there are laws protecting these children, in our country, children are arrested for prostitution. Nola has asked many people such as lawyers, judges and district attorneys how this happens, but they are all just as confused by it as she is. 

If you want to know more specifics of these trafficking cases, check out one of Not For Sale’s projects: www.slaverymap.org. The purpose of slaverymap is to let others know what is happening and collecting data on the extent of slavery in the U.S.. Because they are not “public cases,” (many of them haven’t been featured in the news, they are only from the files of the MISSSEY) they do not have a lot of detail and they do not include names of the victims or the pimp in order to protect their identities. If you want to see some of the cases of the children MISSSEY has helped, go on www.slaverymap.org and look in the Bay area (directly East of San Francisco) and read about them.

It sounds unbelievable, doesn’t it? It’s more common than you think. MISSSEY has been operating for about two years and they have served over 200 children that have had these similar experiences. This is happening in our country! So what can we do about this? Be aware, and be an active citizen. Don’t turn away from a child who may look like they are in trouble or think that someone else will take care of it. If you think that this is wrong, then take responsibility.