Prostitution & Trafficking
"Trafficking in persons shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring of persons, by means of threat or force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power, or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation." (Europol, 2005)
Who is Involved?
Negative behaviors include, "Failure in school, poor interpersonal skills and strained relationships, and/or involvement in risky activities such as crim and drug use may provide a context where trading sex is a normative, viable solution for meeting one's needs" (Wilson & Widom, 2010)
"Childhood emotional abuse has been thought to reduce the coping skills and self-confidence that girls need to effectively deal with the high-risk situations they encounter as they try to escape their abusive situations, thus increasing their dependence on survival strategies such as trading sex for a place to stay, for clothing, or for protection" (Stoltz et al, 2007).
Who is involved in prostitution? The answer is men, women, and children from all over the world.
Victims of Prostitution and Trafficking are persons trapped in a cycle of debasement, created and perpetuated by socioeconomic factors. Many do come from other countries, but a significant amount are born right here in the U.S..
"While current stereotypes often depict the victims of human traficking as innocent young girls who are seduced or kidnapped from their home countries and forced into the sex industry (Bruckert & Parent, 2002), it is not just young (foreign) girls who are trafficked." (Florida University Center for Advancement of Human Rights, 2003)
It is not just foreign women and children who are exploited. In many cases, men and boys can fall victim to sex trafficking, too.
Anyone who is vulnerable to Manipulation can be a victim of Prostitution and Sex Trafficking
How Do They Get There?
Typical adverse behaviors brought on by abuse: Running Away from Home, Problems at School, Juvenile Crime, and Drug Use.
"Running away increases the odds of prostitution entry during early adolescence by more than 40 percent."(McClanahan, Mclelland, Abram, and Teplin, 1999)
"We ran to get away...We were thrown out, thrown away. We've been on the street since we were 12, 13, 14,"
(Interview, Survival Sex in King County, 1993).
"The primary picture emerging from... data of entrance into prostitution is one of juveniles running away from impossible situations at home, who are solicited for prostitution" (Wilson & Widom, 2010)
So we now know that anyone can become a prostitute or fall victim to sex trafficking, and that youth are among the most vulnerable, but what makes them so vulnerable? Here are some factors that are common among adolescent prostitutes.
Abuse within the family system, including sexual, physical, and emotional abuse, is the main factor involved with the path to prostitution.
"Predictors of lifetime involvement in prostitution... individuals who have experienced childhood sexual abuse, childhood physical abuse, parental drug problems and substance use/abuse, being a teenage run-away and resulting homelessness, and economic mean," (Roe-Sepowitz, 2012).
"Seventy percent of the subjects felt that (childhood) sexual abuse affected their decision to become a prostitute," (Silbert & Pines, 1983).
"We've all been molested. Over and over, and raped. We were all molested and sexually abused as children," (Interview, Survival Sex in King County, 1993).
"Regardless of sex, age, immigration status, or citizenship, certain commonalities exist among victims of trafficking (for both sex and labor), such as their vulnerability to force, fraud, or coercion. Traffickers prey on those with few economic opportunities and those struggling to meet basic needs." (Protection Project, 2002; U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, 2014)
The largest At-Risk Population includes adolescents and young adults.
"Minors...are among the most vulnerable populations." (U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, 2014)
"In 1999, 1,682,900 youth had a period of time in which they could be charactarized as a runaway or throwaway youth; 71 percent of these youth were considered at risk for prostitution." (Estes & Weiner, 2001)
"During 2003, 1,400 youth were arrested for prostitution and commercialized vice...14% were younger than age 15." (U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, 2014)
Pimps & Johns: Demand creates Supply and in a country where men want to buy sex, prostitution is "inevitable."
"The sex industry entrepreneur "turns out" a woman or girl by eradicating her identity, erasing her sense of self, especially any belief that she is entitled to dignity and bodily integrity." (Leidholt, 2003)
"There is an economic motive to hiding the violence in prostitution and trafficking. Although other types of gender based violence such as incest, rape and wife beating are similarly hidden and their prevalence denied, they are not sources of mass revenue. Prostitution is sexual violence that results in massive economic profit for some of its perpetrators." (Farley, 2006)
Men who buy into sex workers are regular husbands and fathers, typical employees, with no special characteristic indicative of criminal activity.
Research suggests "two pathways specific to sexually abused girls and prostitution: (a) sexual abuse may increase the probability of participation in illegal activities...(and) are more likely to have social skill problems, drift into survival sex work, and become increasingly delinquent; and (b) sexual abuse leads a girl to runaway from her offender and her unsafe home," and becomes involved in prostitution to support herself" (Roe-Sepowitz, 2012).
"78 % of girls reported being school age at the time of first involvement in prostitution, but only 19% reported attending school." (Silbert & Pines, 1982).
Abuse affects mental development, leading to adverse behavior.
"Childhood abuse and neglect may result in a cascading of negative affects across multiple domains of the developing child's phsycological and social functioning...physiological changes in response to stress appear to have adverse impact on neurological development, altering systems related to stress response, affect regulation, memory, social and emotional development, and cognition (De Bellis, 2001; Glasser, 2000)
