Juveniles & Domestic Sex Trafficking

Domestic Sex Trafficking & Juvenile Justice According to the Office of Juvenile Justice of Delinquency Prevention, exposure to multiple traumas such as interpersonal violence, sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, and neglect are all common factors shared by those engaged in prostitution. Many believe youth willingly choose a life on the streets; however, previous traumas make youth susceptible to being emotionally manipulated into a lifestyle that benefits the economic gain of traffickers and pimps. Averaging at $32 billion annually, this form of exploitation has risen to nearly the second highest source of global revenue. Questions proliferate about the definition of sex trafficking and how a mental health professional should best assist an individual with this identification. Therefore, the purpose of my poster will be to increase awareness of domestic sex trafficking through an introduction on the nature and definition of sex trafficking, how it differs in context, symptoms and treatment from PTSD and further implications for mental health counselors as it pertains to youth within Alabama. Domestic Sex Trafficking: Terminology & Predisposing Factors It wasn't until 2000 that the term 'trafficking in persons' was agreed upon to define the injustice of trafficking people for economic gain. Sex trafficking is a worldwide epidemic of human rights that impinges on countless lives, violating human dignity and inevitably affecting their quality of life. Sex trafficking is only one form of human trafficking. The Palermo Protocol (2008) defines ‘trafficking in persons’ as: The recruitment, transportation, transfer or receipt of persons, by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving of receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person. Some understand ‘trafficked’ as transporting an individual from one location to another although travel is not required to be identified as a victim of sex trafficking. Other terms used to label this act are ‘sexual exploitation’, ‘commercial sexual exploitation’, ‘domestic minor sex trafficking’, ‘forced prostitution’, and ‘forced sexual slavery’. Sex trafficking has been widely recognized overseas; however, as of June of 2010 the United States has been included in the Trafficking in Persons Report. Stateside, it is better understood as forced prostitution or any other sexually exploitive activities (e.g., child pornography, lap dancing, stripping, pornography, etc.) that involve an element of control or manipulation. The Trafficking Victims Protection Act (2000) sought to alter the language to commercial sexual exploitation from juvenile prostitution to elucidate the crime in manipulating a child into prostitution; likewise, pimps are now known as traffickers. Traffickers, pimps, and brothel owners are rapacious to increase their supply of girls as the demand for sex increases. Unlike a drug, people can be sold over and over again so pimps have the opportunity to use their ‘supply’ repeatedly until the girls contract HIV or multiple sexually transmitted diseases. At this point they throw them out and seek new, uninfected supply. It’s likely the same people who trade drugs and guns are realizing the immense profit of trafficking people due to the financial gain through multiple uses of one product.

Many are in disbelief over the number of those in slavery today, wondering how this could be possible. In the past slavery was out in the open; a person purchased people for servitude and it was legal. In previous centuries, people were purchased for what would be today’s equivalent of $40,000 per person, but today children are purchased for $30-$100. Slavery is a booming business and the number of slaves is increasing. People get rich by using slaves. And when they’ve finished with they slaves, they just throw these people away. This is the new slavery, which focuses on big profits and cheap lives. It is not about owning people in the traditional sense of the old slavery, but about controlling people. People become disposable tools for making money. (Kevin Bales, Disposable People, pg. 4) Contextual Factors Nationally, it’s estimated that about 10 to 15 percent of “street” children (293,000) are at risk for sexual exploitation (Estes, and Weiner, 2001). These street children are described as “needy youth” or “runaways.” Recruiters and pimps linger around local hangouts to deceive children through affection and gifts. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (2002) report 50 to 90 percent of girls engaged in prostitution are controlled by traffickers or pimps. Pimps scout bus stations, arcades, and malls, focusing on girls who appear to be runaways without money or job skills. Pimps, or their recruiters, befriend the children by showing them affection and buying them meals, clothes, jewelry, or video games in exchange for sex. (Department of Justice, 2007) As previously stated traffickers or pimps visit local hangouts looking for youth who appear to be ‘throwaway’, ‘street,’ or runaway youth. Factors working against them include: youth, being female, poverty, having a history of sexual abuse or other forms of abuse, a limited education, a lack of work opportunities, a lack of family support, having a mental health condition, and the rate of crime in the neighborhood. As these youth are running the streets, traffickers give them the attention and kind of lifestyle choices they desire by providing drugs, alcohol and possessions in exchange for sex for profit. The sex industry is advertised through all means of media- electronic and print media. Magazines, newspapers, sex guides, the Yellow Pages, television, and mobile advertising on billboards on trucks and informally on business cards. Another avenue to market these women and children is the Internet. These sellers teach children how to have sadistic sex by viewing child pornography. Pornography then becomes a gateway for prostitution and the cycle exacerbates from there. Exotic dancing, stripping, “modeling” studios, and escort services are other highways of sexual exploitation. As a mental health worker in Alabama, the most likely place that you will encounter a child who has been trafficked is in a juvenile detention facility since Alabama is one of the five states that still detains runaway youth. It has not been seen as a severe problem in Alabama compared to states with larger cities with metro areas like New York, Georgia, Florida, the states of New England, California, or Washington. However locations in Alabama closer to

the Atlanta area and Florida might encounter these victims before other, more rural areas of Alabama. An example follows National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, 2002): FBI agents raided a house in Atlanta, finding eight [international] girls, aged 15-16, being held in prison-like conditions. The brothel turns our to be only one in a network which operated in 16 states. At the conclusion of a 2-year investigation, the FBI estimated that up to 1,000 women had been rotated through brothels in 16 states, with some brothels grossing over $1.5 million in 28 months. According to FBI agents, the women were trafficked between cities every week to ten days. In August of 1999, 6 out of 13 people who were indicted in the case were arrested. The others remain at large. In a most unfortunate circumstance (Reid, 2010), youth are criminalized with prostitution charges instead of being seen as victims. In areas with a low prevalence of sex trafficking, such as Alabama, secure housing is not available so the municipalities would have to house youth at a local detention facility until further arrangements could be solidified. A point of advocacy for counselors is to train juvenile detention facilities to assess children for possible involvement in human trafficking before pressing prostitution charges. Once a child is considered a criminal, they no longer have access to the same caliber of services as a child who is considered a victim. The sex industry exists heavily in the metro areas, but it’s been increasingly found in rural areas. Families or other groups, such as the Mafia, create rings to create opportunities to service buyers in other states and countries. The following is an incident of trafficking in the U.S. (National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, 2002), In August of 1999 FBI uncovered an interstate trafficking ring based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The ring was organized by members of the Evan family and had operated for 17 years. Young teenage [American] girls were forced into prostitution and controlled with repeated rapes, beatings and death threats. The girls were trafficked to other states (AL, AK, AZ, CO, GA, IA, IL, KS, KY, MO, NC, NV, NM, OH, OK, SD, TN, TX, WA, WS, WV) to maintain variety for the buyers. Fifteen men were arrested and received sentences ranging from two to forty-five years in federal prison. There are several predisposing factors to being a victim of sex trafficking. Beginning with the home-- exposure to multiple traumas such as witnessing partner violence, sexual abuse, physical abuse, physical neglect, emotional abuse, and emotional neglect are factors detailed in the child’s psychosocial history according to a study by Office of Juvenile Justice Delinquency and Prevention and The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. From this research study (National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, 2002), almost every child interviewed (i.e., 15) had a history of at least two types of trauma within the home (i.e. physical abuse, sexual abuse) before they decided to live on the streets. When trauma begins at home, it compromises their ability to trust, attach, and feel safe. Often parents who neglect and abuse their children have trauma histories of their own with unresolved symptoms that leave them ill-equipped to provide effective parenting

(Cook, 2003). Perhaps without knowing it the (Cook, 2003) “child-caregiver relationship become[s] a source of trauma, and/or it can be greatly impacted by another type of traumatic exposure.” However, most parents see the child’s acting out (conduct problems, relational aggression, prostituting their body) as choice-driven and separate from the childcaregiver relationship. Exposure to multiple traumas over a long-period of time that are either initially perpetrated by caregivers, and/or are sustained by caregivers, negatively affect children’s psychological and neurological development. The effect of this type of longstanding trauma is called ‘Complex Trauma.’ Cook (2003) articulates the developmental effects of complex trauma in the following: Complex trauma outcomes are most likely to develop and persist if an infant or child is exposed to danger that is unpredictable and uncontrollable because the child’s body must allocate resources that are normally dedicated to growth and development instead of survival. The greatest source of danger, unpredictability, and uncontrollability for an infant or young child is the absence of a caregiver who reliably and responsively protects and nurtures the child. The caregiver’s ability to help regulate bodily and behavioral responses experiences on ‘coregulation’ that contribute to the acquisition of self-regulatory capacities. Lack of sustaining regulation with primary caregiver puts the child at risk for inadequate development of the capacity to regulate physical and emotional states. The child-caregiver relationship and cognitive development of the child can buffer the effects of trauma. Specifically, in literature on sexual abuse, Finkelhor and Kendall-Tackett’s assertion is supported because (1997) the child’s social support system and the child’s mother are vital to keep the effects of trauma at bay. By failing to provide this support previous to and following the exploitation, it will moderate the child’s immediate behavioral and emotional response and future development. Although many believe youth willingly choose prostitution, clinicians should assess the youth’s trauma history and impacts of trauma before blaming the youth entirely. Adams discovered that (2010), “Studies from a number of psychological journals report that between 75 to 93 percent of youth entering the juvenile justice system annually are estimated to have experienced some degree of traumatic victimization.” If these percentages are correct at least one in four youth have a trauma history. Another study, (Kaufman & Widom, 1999) shows that 5 to 80 percent of youth who run away report abuse in the home. An unstable or unsafe home environment predisposes youth to become “throwaway” youth. Often (Cook, 2003) emotional neglect and physical abuse are potent factors in creating undesirable or ungovernable behavior. The parents acquiesce too long and thereby relinquish the integrity of their position to enforce rules as the parental figure and inadvertently exacerbate the impact of previous trauma. Chronic neglect and abuse, coupled with internalizing or externalizing problems, leaves the child at-risk to become a runaway or a juvenile delinquent. Alienation from family (e.g. strained childcaregiver relationship, abuse and neglect at home, inadequate contingency plan) creates a devastating deficit in social skills for children and adolescents, teaching them to (Cook, 2003) ignore their trauma by failing to acknowledge it at home. They discover other ways

to survive apart from language and healthy communicative coping skills and thereby become difficult children. Once they are on the streets, prostitution becomes the only way to “make it” and pimps are quick to prey on these youth as sit-in caretakers to meet their needs. The pimp assesses the youth to ascertain their needs and then seeks to exploit the youth by meeting those needs and exercising control through manipulation or coercion. [Note: Not all children and adolescents who are sexually exploited are female, but the percentages fall heavily toward females.] Differential Diagnosis, Evidenced-Based Practice, & Treatment As a result of repeated sexual exploitation many of these children and young adults are diagnosable for PTSD. Trauma refers to (Briere & Scott, 2006) “an event that causes recognizable fear and distress.” Various types of events can be labeled as traumatizing: natural disasters, the death of a loved one, a car accident, a vicarious exposure to trauma, assault, rape, or terrorist attacks. The symptoms displayed after the trauma are considered post-traumatic symptoms, however, post-traumatic stress disorder refers to a single event of trauma. As researchers have studied those with exposure to chronic trauma they realized a diagnosis for PTSD falls short of the severity of the effects of prolonged trauma. Victims of sex trafficking are traumatized multiple times with preexisting trauma within the home, and therefore, call for a differential diagnosis and treatment. The interpersonal nature of sex trafficking (i.e., Cook, 2003, trauma experienced within the context of the care giving system), the intensity of the trauma, and the ongoing duration produces symptom complexity that exponentially surpasses symptoms that would warrant a diagnosis for PTSD. (See Appendix for domains of impairment and proposed criteria for diagnosis). A study was conducted to investigate the correlations between trauma exposure and symptom complexity. Peleprat qualitatively assessed patients for complex trauma in courtinvolved youth. She found that (2009) “by far, sexual abuse was significantly related to the most number of individual symptoms confirming previous research that sexual abuse is highly linked to later mental health problems.” Although individuals are usually preadolescence or in adolescence when coerced into sex trafficking, neglect and/or abuse at home has already predisposed the youth by failing to provide secure attachments which impair their judgment of trustworthy people and then they succumb to a trafficker. Peleprat’s research portrays the symptom complexity that is subsequent to trauma, especially sexual abuse. The following list (Peleprat, 2009) portrays the relationships that had a statistically significant relationship between the nature of trauma correlating symptoms of PTSD, and Complex PTSD among court-involved youth: •

Physical Abuse o Affect Regulation (Complex PTSD) o Nobody Can Understand (Complex PTSD)

•

Emotional Abuse o Self-Destructive behaviors (Complex PTSD)

•

Sexual Abuse o Intrusive Memories (PTSD)

o o o o o o o o o o o o

Sleep Problems (PTSD) Irritability (PTSD) Hyper vigilance (PTSD) Affect Regulation (Complex PTSD) Modulation of Anger (Complex PTSD) Self-destructive Behaviors (Complex PTSD) Suicidal Preoccupation (Complex PTSD) Modulating Sexual Involvement (Complex PTSD) Dissociation/Depersonalization (Complex PTSD) Permanent Damage (Complex PTSD) Inability to Trust (Complex PTSD) Loss of Previously Sustaining Beliefs (Complex PTSD)

•

Exposure to Community Violence o Risk-taking Behavior (Complex PTSD) o Minimizing (Complex PTSD) o Victimization Others (Complex PTSD)

•

Exposure to Intimate Partner Violence o Restricted Affect (PTSD)

•

Other Trauma o Self-destructive Behavior (Complex PTSD) o Permanent Damage (Complex PTSD)

This data shows that the relationships between trauma and symptoms are not due to chance and are statistically significant. Additionally, (Peleprat, 2009) detected that sexual abuse and meets the criteria for both PTSD (X=4.749, p