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Photo Courtesy of Jaclyn Simpson Photography

Oftentimes, engaging in a conversation about the issue of human trafficking is not easy. Especially when statistics are usually best estimates based on educated aggregation of data, only so much can be communicated in a short amount of time, and this crime is one of the most hidden in society.

After our 2013 Freedom Forum in May, we received a very passionate inquiry of disbelief that housing and social services did not actually reduce the number of victims of sex trafficking. As we dialogued about the need to address the demand side of human trafficking, we realized that perhaps this was a greater question you may have as well. So here is Part 1 of 2 of our answer. Check back in next week for Part 2...

Since you asked about Chicago specifically, let us first point you to the cases that have broken in Chicago. Since the media has been covering the topic increasingly better over the years, it is not hard to do an internet search of Chicago cases - namely Operation Little Girl Lost which broke in August 2010 and resulted in the arrest of 9 gang members. A case like this is essential in looking at how we fight human trafficking, specifically sex trafficking, in Chicago. While we would love to focus efforts on just rescuing those enslaved, that approach is inefficient. You cannot separate the issue of supply (those enslaved) and the demand (johns and pimps). Most of the victims we see in Chicago have been emotionally manipulated and even if they are "rescued," they likely run away and go back to their pimp.

Is it likely that if we just focused on rescuing girls that pimps would just continue to recruit more victims? Yes. Keep in mind, however, these pimps are running a business and when you run a business, you don't wait for inventory to be low to restock; you make sure you're always stocked. Many times, they have colleagues or a "bottom bitch" constantly recruiting.

So we don't just focus on rescuing those enslaved. Catching, arresting and prosecuting johns and pimps go hand in hand with social services. Going after demand is the only way to actually reduce the number of victims and I'm really proud to work in a city, county and state that has done this well thus far.

To address a specific question you had about whether johns ask for trafficked girls - no, this does not happen. Part of the fantasy of purchasing sex is that these johns are paying for the guise that the victims want to be with them. This is part of the drive for demand - if johns knew that what they were paying for was actually against the victim's will, that would decrease the drive. So, instead, girls are forced to fake excitement and lie about their age if they are under 18. That's why our education includes talking to men specifically about what they are paying for if they purchase sex, go to a "gentleman's club," or watch porn. Educating men that they are actually paying to rape someone goes a long way.

by:  Laura Ng, Executive DIrector

Traffick Free hosts our annual Freedom Forum featuring a panel of experts in the area of housing and social services. Today, there are less than 600 beds in the entire United States and an estimated 16,000-25,000 victims of human trafficking in Chicagoland alone. You do the math. The need for housing and social services for survivors is significant. This Freedom Forum will showcase leaders in Chicago who specialize in meeting this need in the areas of homelessness and trafficking. 

A classical guitar performance by Jeff Ganim, light appetizers from Overflow Coffee Bar (1550 South State Street, Chicago, IL) and fair trade wine donated by Lemon Creek Winery (Berrien Springs, MI) will be served and a number of our partners (like WAR International - Naperville) will be involved at this event. $15 suggested donation to attend. Get your tickets by clicking REGISTER below!

Panelists include:

• The Director of The Salvation Army PROMISE Program
• Heather Morse, Residential Aid of the Chicago Dream Center
• Maura McCauley, Director of Homeless Prevention, Policy and Planning at the Department of Family and Support Services
• Yolanda Fields, Chief Program Officer at Breakthrough Urban Ministries

Sponsored by:

I volunteered at a Human Trafficking Awareness event this past weekend hosted by Buy Art Not People and Traffick Free. There was a great interactive art project called Skin Sells that really resonated with me. On a table there were a variety of popluar magazines. The instructions were to go through the magazines and cut out any pictures of skin. We were to cut out just the skin avoiding clothing, hair, jewelry, etc. These cut outs would then be used to create a collage from all the images.

It was surprisingly easy to find things to cut out. Even from magazines that were geared towards teenagers.

The purpose of the Sex Sells project was to create awareness of "the need for accountability in the way the body image is used so as not to promote exploitative attitudes that diminish the dignity of the human body. "

I couldn't agree more. Our culture objectifies women. It views sexuality as a tool to promote a particular brand and sell product. Simply taking my kids through the checkout line at the grocery store subjects them to all kinds of images on the covers of magazines that I prefer for them not to see. Images of women barely dressed or with only hands covering their breasts. This type of advertising demoralizes woman and creates a hyper sexual society. It contributes to an exploitative attitude towards women. An attitude where pimps see a young girl as a means to make money. Where he strips her of all dignity because the demand is there.

The moral standard for what is considered acceptable is sinking lower and lower. The FCC is currently under fire since it announced it is considering to allow network television and local radio stations to air the f-word, the s-word and to allow programs to show frontal female nudity, even during hours when children would very likely be watching and listening.

Rom 12:1-2a Therefore, I urge you,brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world.

The pattern of this world is that Skin Is In and Sex Sells. Unfortunately, the pattern of this world tells us that these 2 statement are true. But God calls us to a higher standard.

For information on contacting the FCC go here

by: Donna Gauthier, Traffick Free Volunteer & Blogger for One Small Voice

CHICAGO, IL (Apr 5, 2013) – The 3rd Annual 5k Run Against Traffick, to be held this year on Saturday, September 7, will give attendees a chance to participate in raising awareness for the injustice of human trafficking in Chicago.

According to the Illinois Rescue and Restore Coalition, upwards of 25,000 women and girls are victims of commercial sexual exploitation in Chicago every year. The average age of entry into this life is now estimated to be as young as 11 years old. Once drawn into the life, the average future life expectancy is just seven (7) years. Combining sex trafficking, labor trafficking and domestic servitude, an estimated 27 million people are enslaved around the world - more slaves than spanned the entire 400 years of the transatlantic slave trade.

Traffick Free is doing something about it. We are working in an environment where we can celebrate innovative legislation like the Illinois Safe Children Act that immediately recognizes all those found engaged in commercial sexual exploitation under the age of 18 as victims; progressive collaboration like the weekly Law Enforcement Working Group that engages prosecutors, officers, and social workers to ensure that all cases are victim-centered and not victim-driven; and continued increase of trauma-informed services across the Chicagoland area.

In order to support our current education and awareness initiatives, as well as Traffick Free’s long-term goals to run round-the-clock social services, we are asking hundreds of participants to go the distance, 3.1 miles to be exact. Their presence will help us fulfill our mission to provide the greater metropolitan area of Chicago with tools and sustainable programs to combat human trafficking and transform the lives of victims, perpetrators and communities.

Registration is now open for only $30.00 and includes a takeaway that participants can wear every day to remind themselves what they have accomplished and use as a conversation-starter to engage others in the issue. Goody bags will also include relevant material from several of our partner organizations. This is a family-friendly event from strollers to walkers! As an added bonus, those registering as a group will get the sixth registration free. All information, including the course map, can be seen at .

The 5k Run Against Traffick, born simply from the knowledge that we needed to engage a larger Chicago community, began in 2011 with only 500 participants. With the 5k almost doubling in size this year, and continuing to grow, we invite attendees to make this an annual event.

2012 was the most amazing year for my career that I've ever had.

Our wedding photography business (www.ChicShotStudio.com) blew up and we were doing tons of shoots all over the country and booking tons of shoots for the following year. The commercial & editorial side of our photography business (www.JeremiahStanley.com) was also doing very well and included my being selected as one of 100 photographers worldwide to attend an elite workshop in NY (Eddie Adams Workshop) where I was introduced to the worlds top photographers, editors, and art buyers. I had meetings with world renowned advertising agencies, JWT & R/GA, on Madison Ave and met with Reader's Digest, Maxim, National Geographic, and Esquire to name a few.

It was while I was sitting in a meeting on the 34th floor of the Hearst Tower overlooking all of Midtown Manhattan during the Esquire meeting that I thought to myself, "This is it. All the hard work, the long hours, the shoots, the designing, the editing, all of it was about to pay off. The commercial photography business that I had been dreaming of for years was about to happen."

What did happen was completely shocking to us and it changed our entire outlook on what we do. My wife and I were introduced through a friend to the world of sex trafficking and slavery. What we saw and read absolutely astounded us.

The more we researched, two things began to happen. The first thing was that we realized how dark and evil the world of slavery really is. Poverty, lack of sanitary water and food, AIDS, Cholera - all of those are massive world problems, but none of them seemed as utterly and absolutely evil as sex trafficking and slavery did to us. The second thing that happened was that we began to realize that not only did the average person not really know that this was happening around the world, but also that there are very few people documenting it. There are a lot of really great organizations out there, like Traffick Free, doing some really amazing work, but there's very few photographers out there trying to communicate to the world what sex trafficking and slavery actually looks like. We knew then that we had to do something.

Personally, we felt that God has given us some amazing gifts and talents, and we need to do more with them than just make money. We need to leverage what's been given to us to fight for those who are unable to fight for themselves. Imagine a world in which everyone used their skills and gifts to leverage and fight for those who cannot fight back? I realize it sounds ridiculous and maybe it is, but there would be much less slavery in the world if that happened. The only way to find out if it could happen is to begin taking the first steps yourself.

We decided to launch a portrait project to begin documenting all the different types of slavery in the world and to show exactly what it looks like. We brainstormed and researched for weeks and weeks about where we should go, what we should do, and how we would get there. We eventually decided to begin to tackle the issue of sex trafficking because it's the most lucrative type of slavery, the most exploitative, and the hardest to believe. Although we could have worked in just about any country in the world, including the U.S., (because sex slavery exists in every one of them) we decided on Greece because it's the "gateway" into Europe for slavery traffickers. Literally 90% of all trafficking victims entering Europe, enter through Greece.

Last week we kicked off our fundraising efforts through a crowd-funding site called USA Projects and we're almost 1/3 of the way to our goal of $15,000 which will allow our team to work in Greece for the month of July 2013. We've partnered with a few organizations that have teams already on the ground in Athens and Thessaloniki where we'll be doing the bulk of our work. We'll be using the images we make to launch future slavery projects when we get back and they'll be using the images to help market and fund-raise for their respective organizations.

We need all the help we can muster to get this project in front of individuals, companies, groups, and social justice teams. Please click this link, or watch the video below and share it within your network of friends and contacts to begin taking steps toward ending modern-day slavery.

 

Thank you so very much for your help and support!

Jeremiah Stanley

Illustration by Matthew Sargent

As a fiction writer by trade, writing about human trafficking has been a constant over the last year as many of the scenes and chapters I've been writing in my novel depict many facets of human trafficking. I've been writing about the ways victims are drawn into the life and how they may or may not be eventually transformed into survivors (a process of my character formation).

Reflecting back on the origin of the X-Men series in the sixties, creators like Kevin Smith often make the analogy of the stories as narratives about homosexual individuals – a group long on the outside of society. Hence, the X-Men are about accepting people as they are despite what they may look like, even if they are furry, have wings or translucent skin. They fight to protect each other and to give back to the global community.

Reading X-Men comics today, however, I've been seeing it through a new lens. Sadly, the Xavier Institute of Gifted Youngsters (or "Jean Grey Institute") doesn't exist in Chicago in terms of the trafficking survivor population. In Chicago, you can find emergency domestic-abuse shelters, homeless shelters, even animal shelters but you won't find one specifically for trafficking victims. When police rescue victims out of human trafficking there is not an agency in Chicago set up specifically for emergency situations that can house them for even a night so that they can be afforded a mere twenty-four hours of reprieve before it's time to organize their lives. Rather, those rescued are placed in a hotel, a location where they are often purchased for sex and may be abused, and the mad scramble to aid them begins from there.

As one of the directors at Traffick Free it is my passion to see a safe house for trafficking victims in Chicago. Will it be the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters? A safe place where they may not only find a bed and a shower but the support and social services to transform themselves from being a trafficking victim into a trafficking survivor? Maybe, and I pray that it would be the case for all who will walk through those future doors. For some it may only be a one-night visit, a meal and a shower. Regardless of how long they would stay, there's no such place for them at this point.

Again, reading Wolverine and the X-Men I see all the different students from so many walks of life. There's Evan, who's told he'll grow up to be a super villain one day and is determined to be the greatest hero instead. There's Glob, who doesn't plan for the future at all. There are the teachers who risk their lives to protect the students from those outside of the school who would see the students fail and even worse, corrupt them to the dark side. The Xavier Institute is about protecting the future of the students and offering them training to survive in a world that may as well never know they existed or have feelings. And such a place is what Traffick Free will build. We aren't in this alone. We have partners like Dreamcatcher Foundation and the Chicago Police Department to help build on this dream. The boys and girls, men and women that will pass through our doors will have arrived there through hellish circumstances. I can't say to what extent we'll be able to host them, there's so many details to address, but like the School of Gifted Youngsters we want to give them every chance to live a survivor's life.

Ending on a notion isn't good enough though. We haven't arrived at the future because we are still building in the present. If you want to see that future we dream of, you can help us. If you have time, we have volunteer opportunities. If you are feeling generous, it's going to take Tony Stark bucks to build and run such a facility. And for me, any money that goes to Traffick Free I think of as philanthropic vigilantism. Serving with Traffick Free I think of as vigilante activism. No costumes or masks are required – only a heart for justice. So if you've ever had that vigilantism itch and want to join us you may have noticed where to sign up for our list serve or our amazing new donate button. Click one or both and let's show those who are trafficked in Chicago that they are gifted youngsters.

by:  Brooke Hennen - Convention Outreach Director
Contact Brooke (e-mail is on the About Us page) if you'd like to be a part of the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo

Stock image found using the search term "pimp," as in "pimp my bike,"
further glorifying the "pimp n ho" culture.

A local radio morning show conducted a crank call to a bar pretending to be someone looking for employment on the premiss that they knew a current employee there from their days together as prostitutes. Listening to this show, I was thoroughly disgusted at how they were using prostitution as a point of humor that lasted for several minutes. When I remarked how I felt about the broadcast, a colleague of mine (at a part-time job outside of Traffick Free), she stated how she thought it was hilarious - and I knew she was not alone. I am sure several listeners felt the same way she did, probably hundreds of listeners.

As I think about the presentations I have given over the last week to teenagers, staring these young audience members in the face as I told them the average age of entry into the life of sex trafficking was their own age (11-13), I could do nothing but cringe at how this radio station made such lewd humor out of such a dire situation. While I am sure they had no idea the harm they were actually doing, it reminded me how so many people really are living in blissful ignorance. It is these reminders that keep our primary focus of awareness and education going.

On Sunday, out in the southwest suburbs of Chicago, I spoke to teenagers whose only reference to human trafficking was the movie Taken. While situations involving large criminal networks, foreign lands, and kidnapping most certainly occur, these teenagers were completely oblivious to the fact that their peers have fallen victim to human trafficking in their backyard without ever traveling outside the state, without ever having been kidnapped, and without a largely networked mob controlling them.

Last week, I spoke to teenagers at an alternative high school in Chicago and as I asked them to picture a little sister or anyone else they might know around 12 years old, it turned out that the one girl who knew the most about human trafficking was just 12-years old herself. She told me how she had a classmate, about 16 years old, who went missing and her body turned up and was discovered that she had been sold from one pimp to another, and controlled with drugs. She then went on to ask why there were girls she knew who worked for "this guy" (I helped her define him as a pimp) and he lets them leave but they don't. We went on to discuss the false perception of choice... For these teenagers, it was not so much presenting human trafficking as a new concept, rather, it was redefining what they knew as johns, pimps, and victimization.

Attendees at Traffick Free events always ask what they can do to combat human trafficking. Based on crude humor like the one displayed on the local Chicago morning radio show, it still begins with man number one and changing your own speech, changing the way you view prostitution and all the terminology associated with it not as a victimless crime and a profession of choice - but that it is everything that promotes exploitation, victimization, and a need for us to continue to do what we do.

by:  Laura Ng, Executive Director of Traffick Free

Thanks to organizations like Traffick Free, the problem of the commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) is fairly widely known. I was encouraged in 2010 when the Illinois Legislature, prompted by the tireless work of Anita Alvarez, then Illinois States Attorney, passed the Illinois Safe Children Act (ISCA). While many states had attempted to address CSEC through legislation, Illinois was the first state to pass a law that completely immunized those under the age of 18 from prosecution for prostitution-related activities. Many scholarly articles had addressed the conceptual clarity of this rule – that someone who could not legally consent to an activity, surely cannot consent to the same act for money. However, no attempt had been made to evaluate the law as applied, or to identify potential gaps in the statute as written. I wrote the my Note for the Vanderbilt Law Review to try and address this need.

Ultimately, my analysis shows that while the ISCA is the most comprehensive and statutorily coherent law on the books concerning CSEC, it still has several major gaps where innocent victims may fail to be identified, treated, and protected. Functionally, the law designates children involved in prostitution to be “abused” under the Juvenile Code, creating a presumption of neglect that allows investigating police officers to take the child into protective custody. Then, the child may be placed in the care of the Department of Child and Family Services, where they are eligible for further protective custody, treatment, or release back to their families.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that many children who should benefit from the protection of the ISCA may continue to be abused. First, misidentification of victims of sexual exploitation by both law enforcement and state child-welfare agencies is common. Because of the significant discretion given to law enforcement officers in contacting social services, common use of fake identification by victims, and generally difficult task of finding these children often hidden away by their abusers, many victims will not be identified and protected by the ISCA. In addition, there is anecdotal evidence that police officers may continue to use “masking charges” (charges such as theft, drug-related charges, or curfew violations) to ensure that the child is criminally charged, ignoring the context of their sexual exploitation. The Note suggests further empirical research on the identification stage of an investigation and the creation of “red flag” checklists and procedures for first responders.

Further, the law as written fails to consider other common CSEC or child labor trafficking scenarios when defining an abused child. Specifically, the law would not cover children: (1) where the child is a domestic minor, living with his or her parents and being prostituted by a third-party peer or “boyfriend”; (2) where a foreign-born minor is sent to the United States by his or her parents and forced to pay off a smuggling debt through long hours at “regular” employers; and (3) where a foreign-born minor orphan is smuggled into the country and forced to live and work for a family in forced servitude. The Note recommends that the law be amended in specific ways to address this gap.

Finally, there is a critical gap in the law for those that are identified by police or social service agencies as abused or exploited but who return quickly to their abusers due to a lack of protective-detention options. With the limited options available to exploited children—namely, return to parents or guardians, temporary protective care, or foster home placement—there is a serious risk that they will continue to be exploited. The Note suggests a period of protective custody, rather than the immediate return to guardians, foster homes, or other unprotected custody. However, this option is severely limited by the lack of safe housing options for child victims of sexual exploitation. Increased cooperation between DCFS and private social welfare organizations could easily fill this gap.

The ISCA is a significant and historic step forward in the protection of child victims of commercial sexual exploitation. Nonetheless, legislators, police, social service actors, and advocates in Illinois must realize that the job is not yet finished. Prioritizing identification, protection, and restoration will recognize the dignity of all these young lives and will not leave the most invisible behind to suffer. Addressing all child victims of commercial sexual exploitation is a delicate task—but where young lives hang in the balance, the full force of the state must not be made to wound, but instead to heal.

10th Annual Valentine's Day Family Violence Distinguished Lecture
with Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart

I went to the lecture with Sheriff Tom Dart yesterday at DePaul Law School downtown. It was incredible! The event was sold out & the room was packed. He talked about trends they've seen with traffickers, including the Schiller Park case, among many others. The brutality of getting beaten by the wooden handle of a plunger if one of the 6 Thai women (who spoke very little English) did not meet their 5 tricks per day quota is just nauseating. Their captors threatened to kill their families at home if they tried to escape. At the time of the arrest at the beginning of the February, the police had nowhere for the women to go and had to put them up in a hotel.

I almost started crying because that was 1 of a number of times that Sheriff Dart expressed that there was nowhere for law enforcement to send victims to keep them safe and feel secure. Traffick Free is in the process of putting together a plan to get 30-day emergency housing up and running in the next 1.5-2 years. Why can't that be today? I would love to skip all the funding steps and red tape to actually get to helping people. Even if we ended human trafficking today, there is nowhere for survivors to go! 100 beds available in the entire country to trafficking victims is a joke. Are we really serious about ending modern day slavery? How can we be if we are not advocating for survivors and providing housing and services for them? The need for housing just continues to remind me and spur me on that this is such a HUGE need in our city. And not just housing, but housing without a long list of restrictions. Human trafficking has no regard for age, gender, ethnicity, sexual preference, socioeconomic background, country or neighborhood. If we add restrictions like drug addiction (which is often a method of control) or mental illness, a result of abuse, we may not be able to help anyone and all our work would be for nothing.

So if you live in another city and want to end human trafficking, housing is a large piece of the puzzle to getting there. Partner with as many anti-human trafficking organizations in your area as you can and rally support! You'll be working with these organizations when your housing is up and running because they will be calling you when they get a lead or have a survivor that needs a safe place of shelter and support.

If you live in Chicago & want to partner with us in starting our emergency housing, you can donate to Traffick Free here. We are a non-profit organization (& 100% volunteer run), so it's tax deductible. Thank you so much for your support, we literally could not do it without you!

by:  Sarah Amidon
Traffick Free Communications Director

Chicago Council on Global Affairs :: THE FIGHT AGAINST HUMAN TRAFFICKING
January 21, 2013

Attending this event was a life highlight for me. Not necessarily because of the words spoken by the panelists, but because I got to see (and hug!) a woman I have respected and admired for 4 years now. I'm not really a person who, at any given moment can rattle off a few people I'm dying to meet, but I can say that I've never been so honored to meet another human being than I was to meet Somaly Mam. I read Somaly's book, the Road of Lost Innocence, in my search for information after first hearing about the devastating crime of Human Trafficking. I was deeply touched by her story and her passion for rescuing girls experiencing a fate similar to hers. She is one of the bravest women I've ever heard of. After her successful escape from captivity, she dedicated her life’s work to saving victims, building shelters and programs for healing, and empowering survivors to become agents of change. She is the perfect example of someone doing what they can with what they have, despite how little, because something isn't right in the world. It's very simple to her: women and girls are suffering greatly and something must be done. There's no question or hesitation, she just acts the only way she knows how. Her smile, her beauty, her bubbly nature, and her positive outlook are what shine the brightest. Nothing about her suggests even a glimpse of the devastation she's experienced. During the discussion she said one of the girls she rescued asked her how she could believe in God, and she replied that it wasn't God who placed her in those dark places, it was God who rescued her and gave her the gift of life. What perspective! Hearing her speak also convicted me because I possess more resources than she did when she started this fight against human trafficking, yet she has managed to assist over 7,000 victims to date.

This event as a whole was especially powerful because it displayed a sense of teamwork on the issue of Human Trafficking. I loved what Scott Portman, Director of International Programs for Heartland Alliance International, said something to the effect of human trafficking being one of the few issues that crosses political boundaries. This is an issue almost every American, every human can agree on, regardless of political affiliation or agenda. Slowly but surely an alliance is forming and a glimpse of this partnership was seen in the conversation between Somaly of Cambodia, Susan Bissell of Canada, and Scott Portman of the United States. Their conversation offered a beacon of hope amidst a very dark issue.

If you haven't read Somaly's book, I highly recommend it! It will change you. It will also be our next Traffick Free Book Club book.
You can purchase her book and learn more about her here.

by:  Betsy Drach (pictured right, Somaly Mam center)
Graphic Designer & Traffick Free Volunteer