sextraffickinginthecity
Sex (Trafficking) in the City
Yasmeen Ziada, Hannah Derwey, Stephen Pai, and Emir Hrustanbegovic
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This post highlighting the boycott of Ivanka Trump’s sex trafficking summit is an example of the citizenship in leadership as “it recognizes that the common purpose of the group must incorporate a sense of concern for the rights and welfare of all those who might be affected by the group’s efforts” (Higher Education Research Institute,1996). Although the intentions for the summit are to fight human-trafficking and bring awareness to the issue, advocates such as hotline Polaris and the leader of Freedom Network USA “recognize that effective democracy involves individual responsibility as well as individual rights,” as they are refusing to tolerate or associate with an administration that’s actively “endangering immigrants” and scrutinizing “T visas, which provide temporary legal status for immigrants who can prove they were trafficked while in the United States” (thelilynews, 2020). Although the administration and these advocate groups seemingly share a common purpose, many prominent organizations recognize that they cannot support a political agenda which does not fight to protect the rights of all groups of people affected by the human-trafficking issue.
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This is an example of citizenship. We found this picture on the Multnomah County website (here is the link). They are working to create a community that welcomes and supports survivors of sex trafficking. Citizenship tries to create change through service and care, that is what this is doing.
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As we have mentioned previously in this blog, The Cupcake Girls is a wonderful organization that seeks to offer support to survivors of sex trafficking. This Instagram post highlights one of the ways through which the group offers support: collaboration with other organizations. Currently, The Cupcake Girls have 134 local partners that offer services to survivors including, but not limited to, childcare, pedicures, and in this case, yoga classes!
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Here is a thread from twitter where a woman shared a scenario where she felt unsafe and urges other people (especially women) to be aware of their surroundings and raise awareness around sex trafficking. The seven C to relate this tweet to is Common Purpose. This is because the woman is urging people to work toward being more aware and conscious of surroundings. in common purpose it is someone working with others to set aims/values. By sharing this online, she is helping others who view her content, aware of this situation. A message we would hope one could take away from this post is, “sex traffickers will leave notes to distract you & keep you from getting inside your car immediately.”
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Here is a recent article we found. Please take a moment to read through it.
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In this TED Talk, Cassandra Diamond opens up about her first experience with sex trafficking. She is here to share her story, although it is traumatizing. To Diamond, it is worth telling if it means one more girl has a chance at freedom.
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@gradutionrates is a student blog that highlights the disproportionate graduation rates among Latinos and white students attending Portland State University. One of the organizations that were shared on the page, Latino Network, strives to “create a thriving, respected, and engaged Latino community” through training youth and adults in civic engagement and advocacy in order to build coalitions with other communities and lead change.
One stakeholder in the issue, the Director of all 5 cultural resource centers at PSU, attributes the low graduation rate among Latinos to the fact that “there is too much pressure and expectations on their roles as men and head of the household” and that “there are not enough people that look like them in the public eye.” She suggests that “what teachers are teaching in the classroom needs to change and teach them more about things that will help them in the real world.” Additionally, she advocates for the Latino community to be provided with more educational and professional tools in order for them to empowered and informed in society.
Overall this blog was very informative and gives a lot of insight into the issues regarding the educational system failing the Latino community. I also learned a lot about how we as a community can get involved and make a change to ensure that everyone from all races has equal opportunities.
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Academic Perspectives Surrounding Sex Trafficking
As we have contended before, sex trafficking is a significant issue that we need to address. According to Kenny, Helpingstine, Long, Perez, and Harrington (2019), American people recognize that sex trafficking is an issue, but don’t realize how close-to-home it is. In the United States, nearly 250,000 children (and an estimated 1.9 million worldwide) are at risk of being sexually exploited—when involving children, because they cannot consent, it’s categorized as sex trafficking—and that number is said to “grossly underestimate the true prevalence rate” (Connell, Jennings, Barbieri & Gonzalez, 2015, p. 351). Human trafficking does not only affect children, but it also affects women. However, according to Connell, Jennings, Barbieri, and Gonzalez, in their 2015 article, there are no estimations for the rates of which women, above the age of eighteen, are sexually trafficked and exploited. Both articles we researched have concluded that sex trafficking in the United States is a problem that needs to be addressed and that the way we are working to resolve it needs to be altered.
The first article we read focused heavily on women who are trafficked. As we mentioned above, there are no statistics, even estimates, to display the trafficking of women who are above the age of eighteen. That needs to change. A few of the reasons for this, according to the article, included harmful stigmas, a lack of recognition of those who are being trafficked, and insufficient services. These three reasons all have a root cause, and those are the harmful underlying assumptions people have centered around women who do sex work. The harmful stigmas include the notion that women who stay involved in sex work, once they’re reached adulthood, are choosing to do so at their own will. This leads people to assume trafficked women are prostitutes, and with those assumptions, the survivors* are treated as offenders. With this brand slapped onto women who are survivors of sex trafficking, they don’t feel safe when seeking a way out. Therefore, it perpetuates the cycles of—sexual—abuse women face (Connell, Jennings, Barbieri & Gonzalez, 2015).
Even if a woman were to seek out services, such as domestic violence shelters or community treatment centers, the service providers often misidentify the type of abuse women have suffered; therefore, those women are not given the proper treatment (Connell, Jennings, Barbieri & Gonzalez, 2015).
In the view of Connell, Jennings, Barbieri, and Gonzalez (2015) believe that “it would be premature to recommend domestic legislation without more knowledge supported by empirical evidence and exploration of the problem” (p. 357), the authors argue that to curb sex trafficking and accurately identify victims, it begins with law enforcement initiatives, especially regarding police. Since police officers are often the first-responders—and are the ones to arrest women they assume are prostitutes—, if they can identify the signs of sex trafficking and not turn the victim into the offender, things may change.
The second article we read, by Kenny, Helpingstine, Long, Perez, and Harrington (2019), addressed children in sex trafficking, more so than women. In the previous article, authors advocated for increased law enforcement tactics; however, this piece wants to improve the knowledge of the professionals who work with survivors of trafficking (ex. therapists, caseworkers, psychologists), so they can better care for those in need. Knowledge improvement is recognizing the factors that put children at risk and the traumas the emerge from being sexually trafficked and exploited. Some of the risks include: children who have “suffered abuse and neglect (especially sexual abuse)” (p.419); children who are homeless or in foster care; and children who are poor or are impoverished. The long-term traumas survivors face after being exploited include: “emotional and cognitive setbacks, such as self-esteem issues, affective disorders, and suicidality” (p. 419); high mortality rates; and “damaging mental health outcomes, including depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, or the combination of all three” (p. 419).
What we can gather from these two articles is that sex trafficking is an underresearched, underrepresented, and under-understood phenomenon that needs more law enforcement initiatives as well as more educated and informed professionals who work with survivors. We would like to also argue that it takes a group effort. The stigma that women and children who are trafficked face need to change and that begins with you. Please be part of the initiative to stop shaming people who do sex work, you never know what’s happening behind the scenes.
With that, our group leaves you this to ponder: “a teen entering life on the streets may be contacted by a potential trafficker within 48 h to 3 days” (Kenny, Helpingstine, Long, Perez & Harrington, 2019). How does that make you feel?
Resources:
Connell, N., Jennings, W., Barbieri, N., & Reingle Gonzalez, J. (2015). Arrest as a way out: Understanding the needs of women sex trafficking victims identified by law enforcement. Journal of Crime and Justice, 38(3), 351-360. https://doi.org/10.1080/0735648X.2015.1007614.
Kenny, M., Helpingstine, C., Long, H., Perez, L., & Harrington, M. (2019). Increasing child serving professionals' awareness and understanding of the commercial S=sexual exploitation of children. Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 28(4), 417-434. https://doi.org/10.1080/10538712.2018.1563264.
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The student blog, “Health 4 Homeless,” touches upon how homelessness impacts everyone in a community. An essential stakeholder with regards to homelessness is the community, in general. Business owners are those among who are greatly affected, as well as people walking around at night in downtown, causing concern for safety and a proposition as being dangerous walking around alone at night.
The blog also mentions how there was an Idaho man who was curious about how taxpayers of Oregon and the city of Portland are okay with the homelessness, implying that they should “clean it up.” The homelessness population went down 10% from 2013, but the issue is far from being resolved. What we got from this blog is that the main stakeholders, as mentioned multiple times, are the people of the community who are taxpayers and who enjoy downtown, as well as the business owners who are being affected by customers not wanting to stop by due to the homeless.
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Transcript of interview with Alyssa Tolva. Alyssa is the Events and Community Engagement Manager with The Cupcake Girls, a local nonprofit that works to educate people about sex trafficking.
Disclaimer: This organization is non-political, non-religious, and nonprofit. Alyssa refrained from any comments that were in any way political.
Here is the transcript:
People highlighted in discussion: Yasmeen Ziada, Hannah Derwey, and Alyssa Tolva.
Ziada: Based on our research so far, we know that The Cupcake Girls offer support to survivors of sex trafficking through confidential support, case management, and after-care. Can you tell us more about what that looks like?
Tolva: Yeah. So, um, the main thing that we do is, um, when we have our first meeting with our class, we sit down and we simply just asked what do you need? What do you want from us? And then that way it kind of sets intentions for them to be able to see, you know, we really do care and want to know what they want, what they need, how they need it. Because a lot of times they're not being asked that, especially if they are being sex trafficked. Most of the time, they're being told what to do. So we want to find out their needs. It could look as something simple of, "I just need simple hygiene products to be able to get ready for the day," all the way to, "I need legal help," or, "I need, you know, medical," or etc. So what we do is we go into the community, and we find community partners who want to offer their services for either free or pro bono. Most of our partners are pro bono partners, which is really cool because we can just be like, "Ugh, thank you. It's free. Umm, and it ranges from everything. You know, our partners stem from whatever our clients are asking for. So it could be a yoga studio because they want to do work out, childcare if they can't afford childcare for their kids. Could be legal assistance, immigration assistance, dental work--we have somebody who does free gel manicures for a client, so I mean really anything. And, like, yeah. We have currently over 134 partners here in Portland and surrounding area, so it's just a wide, just, brim of everything.
The after-care side of it. So a lot of organizations that deal with sex trafficking survivors are, you know, that, "I'm gonna come in here, and I'm going to take you out of it, and I'm going to set you free," and they literally do that. They're like, "great, you're out of it, have a great life". And the issue is that the stats are shown that they will go back at least 8 times before they officially are okay to leave and that's just because a lot of times, it's, you know, mental abuse. It's what they know. It's what they can do. If they have any type of, you know, record for being arrested, that makes it harder to survive. And so it's just kind of redundant to be like on your merry way and not be able to finish. So for us, we want to continue that service, so we don't have a time length that they can be clients. They can come, they can go. They might get service, leave, and come back a year or ten years later. It doesn't matter, but the fact is that we want to be able to say we are here no matter what you're going through no matter what your time length is and even if you have been a survivor for 60 years and you are, like, set and gold and now all of a sudden you need something, we're still here for you. It doesn't matter. Yeah, does that kind of answer that?
Ziada: Yes, it does. Another question just came up for me. It's not written down or anything, but how long have The Cupcake Girls been established?
Tolva: Eight years. Well, nine years in March is our birthday. So let's just say 9 cuz it's close to me. Right? Yeah. So yeah, we've been around for nine years. Um, started in Las Vegas and six months after that started here in Portland. So it's kind of a whirlwind, but you yeah, yeah. And I know it's kind of cool and you know, it's funny cuz we have been in here in Portland for 9 years, but I feel like the last two years is really where we're starting to get recognition and people are more likely "I know the cupcake girls," instead of, like, "who?".
Derwey: What policies do you think are, like, the least helpful in combating sex trafficking.Respondent: Um, yeah. So I just have to put a stipulation out that we're legally a non-political, non-religious, nonprofit. So I cannot answer anything that talks about politics, policies, litigation, any of that. Yeah, so I'm sorry about that.
Yasmeen: No worries! Thank you for telling us. Next question: On top of offering support to survivors, you offer support to survivors of sex trafficking in Portland, and we know that last month was sex trafficking awareness month and you partnered with a bunch of local businesses. Which was amazing. We were wondering what are some other ways you raise awareness of sex trafficking in Portland. And then what are the positive impacts that come from awareness?
Tolva: Um, lots of different ways. So that was that was a big one that we did, and that was kind of, you know, "how can we really get the community involved and spread the word as quickly as possible?". So that was a really cool program. We were super excited about it. And, you know, what's really cool seeing all these like big-name places putting our name on their social media because, just like, how many more people know about it now?We go to different events. It could be a college fair. It could be like tonight; we're going to go to the mystery box show and table in there. Could be a coffee house. So we have a lot of tabling opportunities. We will have resource cards that talk about who we are and, oh gosh I think maybe like, 30 of the resources we offer we have over three hundred and seventy resources here in Portland as well. We will have brochures on what sex trafficking is, we'll be there to talk to people, the opportunity to be face-to-face with people, and have them ask questions and have us answer. We also go into local businesses, and we do presentations for them, especially within the medical field. We like to go all kind of like the lunch hour have that meeting presentation because there is a lot of--Excuse me. I have asthma, so I choke a lot but whatever. It's my life.So we'll go, and we'll help educate them on the different ways our clients have experienced trauma within medical um, especially sex trafficking survivors. So we can kind of coach them on, you know, how not to do that, but also signs of trafficking so they can hopefully, you know, say like, "hey, if you don't here's an organization that might be able to help you." We go do presentations all the time, not just within the medical field. We're going to go to a classroom at Lewis and Clark next week, we go into people's homes when they throw fundraisers, and we talk about it. So there is a lot of different ways that we like to kind of explain it. I think the biggest thing of raising awareness is a lot of people have a misconstrued idea of what trafficking looks like. Have we seen the movie Taken with Liam Nelson? Are you guys too young? I'm older than I look. That's what most people think of trafficking. It's not that I mean it can't be that, but here in Portland primarily it's people who are in the community. It could be a classmate, your barista. It could be a friend or family member. What we like to say is that it's like chains on the brain. So a lot of times, they either do not understand they're being trafficked because of all of these misconstrued ideas of what trafficking is. They are being abused to the point where they think that it's just normal and okay. They are being told you know, "I have your kids. So what are you going to do? I have your ID and Social Security or immigration cards. You can't leave me; you won't have those. Um, to all the way of you know, your parents are super conservative, and I have all of this stuff to tell them if you leave me so."-- it's just it's so in-depth, and it's not going to be that easy for them. Sometimes they don't even know they can ask for help and unfortunately being a sex trafficking and sex work, although it ties in together are very very very different.A lot of times people are going to say like, oh, well, they don't need help they chose to do this. Sometimes they didn't choose to do it. Sometimes they do which is great all power to them. But that's the biggest part of it is that they just sometimes don't. And also, for us, there's a multitude of different types of pimps. So if you have a pimp, you're being trafficked, that's just flat-out plain-out. If you're not in control of their money if you're being coerced into this, you're being trafficked, but a lot of times, they're a Romeo. So it's like a boyfriend or girlfriend that are coming in, and they're saying, "Oh, I love you, you love me, and if you love me, you're going to do this," etcetera. And so they care, and they're just helping out. So it's it's very confusing sometimes, and it's not always men, I also want to throw that out there. For us, currently, 58% of our clients has said that their trafficker identifies as female, so it's not just a male problem. I was at a Junior League event recently, and they were like, you know, "men stand up men. You're the problem. But we stood up and said actually, it's an all person problem because our clients have experienced it by 58%". Everybody in the room kind of just sat there and stared at us, and we're like mhmm. Like, don't just throw it on one gender. You know? Do your stats. And that's the truth for us. And Romeo is the most popular type of pimp within our clients as well.
Derwey: How do you think the stigma is around sex work harm sex trafficking victims?
Tolva: How do I answer that without being political? If you're in sex work, you're being trafficked, and nobody is going to choose to be a sex worker, and for us also part on are educating of sex trafficking is we want to educate on sex worker, and a lot of people do choose to do it because they want to and it's also sometimes it's survival work. It's what they can do, and it's what's going to pay the bills. And so I think the stigma of people just literally thinking nobody would absolutely want to sell their body or do something for that puts the idea of that every single sex worker is going to be trafficked and it's unfortunate that happens, and so that's part of what we do as well. Wanting to separate and educate cuz we also support sex workers. Did I answer that? Okay. It's a fine line for us, so I have to be careful.
Ziada: What motivated you to join this organization? Respondent: I left a career of 18 years corporate, and I was so sick of it. Umm, so I wanted to find an organization that not only supported some type of minority or people that are being stigmatized. But I was looking for an organization that dealt really primarily with the other women or young girls. And so, you know, I was looking at like Girls Inc., which is amazing. But I found this organization, and I just got really intrigued because I know that Portland has a huge sex trafficking issue. That's just it's out there, it's open. If you don't know that, then you just your eyes aren't there. But also sex work. I have a ton of sex worker friends if you're in Portland, you know that there are a ton of strip clubs and it's just--it's all over and to find an organization that was like "Hey, we're not religious, we're not political, we're really really just here for that human being experiencing whatever they're experiencing, and we're not going to tell them what they're experiencing even if they're being trafficked." We don't tell them they're being trafficked. We let them come to that conclusion after working with us for some time and reading our pamphlets and hearing us talk. But I was just so intrigued because the majority of organizations that I came into that dealt with trafficking was usually religious out of a church. They don't support sex workers, you know, they have their own ideas, may have their own judgments and so to hear an organization say, you know, we're non-judgmental, we have no agenda, we simply want to give resources for as free as possible to them. We don't put a cap on it; we're all gender. It was just like: Oh my god. Tell me more.The more that I learned about this organization, I was like I have to be a part of it and it just it worked out to the point where we didn't have a spot for me at the time that I was interviewing, and we simply worked a spot in and it was just perfect and beautiful, and I loved it was just like thank you. I think--I think the issue is that there is so much stigma within this world and to find an organization that wants to literally educate people on how not to have that is amazing.
Ziada: Next question is, what satisfactions or dissatisfactions come from doing this work?
Tolva: Satisfaction is being able to educate people. Being able to see the impact on our clients' lives, you know, hearing their stories here and their quotes. You know, letting us know how we're actually helping them has been amazing. Having them in our office space, being able to see them weekly, whether be at our counseling or other support groups, and able to just see the growth that they have is really cool. And being able to support sex workers in a way that most sex workers are not supported within our community. I think it's huge. Dissatisfaction? I mean definitely seeing -- So another thing that happened at the Junior League, we had a commissioner stand up, and they were like, you know, we have helped 63 people in this year who were being trafficked, and we were like, "you are a government entity. You have so much money literally being thrown at you. You don't even have to work for it, and you've helped 63 when we have literally helped over 450 clients every year? And our budget is a hundred thousand. Like and we are working our butts off to get that money". So that's, I mean, that is a dissatisfaction. That we have to work so hard to get this but yet we are able to help so many more people, and then another entity that doesn't have to work for the money is not helping. Dissatisfaction: seeing- nope, I can't say that. SO many internal thoughts. Dissatisfaction- seeing the stigma, being in the community part of my job is to do those tabling events. As I was telling you, to go find our community partners, and then have people just kind of look at you and just unsure of why you're helping this community. And we have some really cruel things said sometimes. You know? And it's very very sad. Sometimes we're able to change the tide with a conversation, and again that educating, you know standpoint. But a lot of people have very very set ideas of our clients in the end. They just do not understand why and I think it's really sad. I think it's also a dissatisfaction when people put out you, know, like news articles, or even social media when they don't fully understand what we do. But they put out an opinion about what we do. It is for us, we look at that like how many possible clients saw that and don't want to come to us just because this one person didn't want to take the time to ask a question? So those are definitely dissatisfactions. Also, the fact that we have to do it fucking sucks you know? Sorry I cuss a lot.
Ziada: The next question is, what do you think are the most important things people should know about sex trafficking, and how can they easily get involved?
Tolva: Yeah, I think understanding what trafficking actually is. So do the time. Do the googling, do the studying, whatever you need to do, but I think really understanding the different types of trafficking because yeah, there are the ones that you know, get stuck in dog cages for 6 months--we had a client who experienced that--but there are also people who, again, are just in the community. I could be trafficked, and you might not even know, and I could be sitting here talking about it, you know, so I think really understanding the different types of trafficking, understanding the different types of pimps, I think is huge because it's also something that allows you to see the world in a little bit of a different light. Being able to kind of look at something and go, "I don't think that that looks like a very safe situation that actually looks like what just learned so I might try to talk to that person later when their private," understanding not to swoop in and try to have that savior complex of like, "I do see something that scares me; I'm going to go talk to them. But doing it in front of somebody who might be there traffic her," which again is that also helps understanding that women are traffickers as well. So it's not just like I'm going to wait till they're in the ladies' room because their trafficker I might be in there and that's going to put a very unsafe scenario for them. Understanding the signs can help but unfortunately, the signs you know that you see on like the Polaris website which, not a fan of Polaris, but you know, they have signs of what to look for it, and it's like yeah, okay that might work for somebody who's like in severe trafficking who is that--you know--with the gorilla pimp who is coming in and doing all this force and abuse. Yeah, that's a little bit more easy to pinpoint, but there's so many other types. And so I think definitely taking your time. Education. Taking a class even can help or doing what you're doing, coming to an organization that deals with that, and doing your studies. I think is huge. Also, Volunteer! We have three staff members here in Portland with over currently active 89 clients. Yeah, so we are volunteer ran here, and we would not be able to do what we do without volunteers. And we only ask for five hours a month. So for our organization, that would be the best way to get involved. Also, donating. Monthly donators is huge. We'll never turn down help. Ever ever ever. Unless you come in and say I want to save the girls we're like, no, you can't be here. Other ways to help get involved--look at your community and see what other organizations are helping. You know, again, do your research.But you know, it's just go to search of what you can do to help. Obviously, with the understanding that you're not coming in to have that, you know, savior complex, that's I'm going to help save the world. So you just come and help the people. That's all you need to do.
Ziada: Last question. To you, what are the most effective ways of getting rid of sex trafficking as best as possible, in Portland.
Tolva: Ways to eliminate sex trafficking- definitely working on the stigma. I think it's huge. Making sure people fully understand what it is and how we how we affect and how we control it. There's a lot of the political side that I can't talk about, but I'm sure you can do your research and kind of figure out where I'm going with that. But I think the biggest thing is just having compassion for the survivors and understanding like you know, even if they chose to be in their situation, they're not choosing it. You know, they're being coerced into it. And so just having that compassionate side and just looking at them and then you know as a human being asking how you can help, how you can learn. What you're doing is great today.A lot of people say victims, and we here at The Cupcake Girls don't call them victims at all because that puts a sense of, you know, "oh you poor thing," and a lot of them don't look at that. A lot of them are like, "this is my life. It's what's happening," or you know, "I'm okay right now". So we want to say survivor because you are surviving this. You are getting through this, or you have gone through this one way or another. We're here to help you get that way. And so I really hate seeing the victimization of clients and those who aren't even our clients.
Thank you's all around. END OF TRANSCRIPT.
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Stakeholders and Leaders
Communities that have the largest stake in the issue of sex-trafficking are service providers, government officials, policymakers, law enforcement, researchers, funders, survivors, community groups, and non-governmental organizations (Hounmenou, 2018). Although there is much more funding given for government agencies, oftentimes they are understaffed, or there are policies in place preventing law enforcement from providing proper care to survivors of sex-trafficking. There has been a significant amount of research showing the difficulties survivors experience when interacting with law enforcement, their service provider, as well as when attempting to register for certification as a “victim” of trafficking (Dickey, 2011). There are a number of bills currently pending in Congress to address the problem of sex trafficking, and various states throughout the country are enacting legislation to better protect children and teenagers from this cycle of violence and abuse. However, significant obstacles remain to effectively combat the sex trafficking of minors and young adults in the United States. There is little reliable and comprehensive data regarding the scope and nature of the sex trafficking of minors. Although there has been a dramatic shift in the way victims of sex trafficking are perceived in the United States, there is still a great deal of work to be done to reframe the issue as one of abuse and exploitation of children rather than one of teenage prostitution. There are also many “failures of justice and social service systems which end up contributing to the continued victimization of already vulnerable youth and create numerous missed opportunities to identify victims of trafficking and offer them a safe way out” (Parsons et al., 2014). The failures of these government institutions make escaping sex trafficking extremely difficult for many survivors and also put more pressure on non-profit organizations.
References
Dickey, N. (2011). More than "Modern Day Slavery": Stakeholder Perspectives and Policy on Human Trafficking in Florida (Master Thesis, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina). Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4267&context=etd.
Honmenou, C. (2018). Engaging Anti-Human Trafficking Stakeholders in the Research Process. Journal of Human Trafficking. DOI: 10.1080/23322705.2018.1512284.
Parsons, C., Cray, A., Saar, M. S., & Vafa, Y. (2014). 3 Key Challenges in Combating the Sex Trafficking of Minors in the United States. Americanprogress.org. Retrieved from https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/lgbtq-rights/reports/2014/04/08/87293/3-key-challenges-in-combating-the-sex-trafficking-of-minors-in-the-united-states/.
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This student blog, depressed and educated, seeks to raise awareness of depressive mental health problems that students face. The blog uses the American Psychiatric Association to define depression as an illness that affects a person's entire way of life--education, passions, relationships, and more--; it is a critical issue and, sadly, is very common. Based on the research of this group, around 1,100 university students commit suicide each year, and 36.4% of students struggle with depression. Depression is widespread and can come to be in a multitude of ways.
With depression being so widespread, this blog notes that a great way of addressing it stems from open dialogue. There are harmful stigmas that surround mental health and illness, which bars people from getting the treatment they need. We need to create communities where conversations about depression are normalized, so those suffering from depression and other illnesses feel safe enough to access necessary support.
Depression has been around since as early as 200 BC. Today, people and organizations are doing more to understand and address this illness than before, but we still need more. Thank you for sharing this blog, @depressedpdxstudents.
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This music video was created to raise awareness of sex trafficking that is happening today. The storyline depicts the experiences of people who are trafficked.
Warning: this is very triggering, watch at your discretion.
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Allison Frost’s Think Out Loud Podcast entitled, “Child Trafficking Report,” focuses on the issue of Sex Trafficking in Portland through the lenses of different people in the community. She first interviews Elisia Lopez, an advocate for the Sexual Assault Resource Center. Elisia is a survivor of sex trafficking who was abused, raped, and impregnated as a young teen by an extremely dangerous pimp; her mom sold her to this dangerous man. Elisia describes the tactics traffickers use to manipulate and coerce vulnerable teenagers into trusting them and eventually forcing them into having non-consensual sex with buyers. Frost also speaks with Gwynne Skinner, a Law Professor at Willamette University, who studies the effects of homeless youth in Portland and Washington, and how it correlates to sex trafficking in Portland. Finally, Frost interviews a Portland police officer who is an anti-sex trafficking advocate. The officer brings to light difficulties officers face when trying to ensure the safety of those who are trafficked due to the lack of laws protecting them. A particularly grim story was the one where said officer attempted to save a young girl from an abusive pimp, but when he could no longer reach her, he assumed the pimp had her killed.
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This piece, "Analysis: Despite reputation, no proof Portland is a hub for child sex trafficking," written by Nikole Hannah-Jones, is a direct refute to the argument that Portland is an "epicenter for child prostitution" or a "hotbed of sex trafficking." Jones' case lies in that we don't have the exact statistics that Portland is the second most trafficked city in the United States, despite widespread claims. To support her argument, Jones utilizes reports from FBI stings, and how operations vary throughout different states, leading to possible contrasting results. She further pressed that those sting operations were not put in place to rank cities by the prevalence of trafficking, which is a valid point. Jones also discussed the public's dramatization of the found statistics to raise awareness and money to support organizations and to put sex trafficking on Portland's political agenda and how it is a flawed method. Overall, Jones' argument is understandable; however, the case she presents belittles what's truly important; that sex problem is a significant problem, and if we don't do anything to end it now, we are allowing a flawed system to perpetuate.
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It’s challenging to find opinions that oppose our view on human trafficking. The traffickers do not want any attention, and buyers rarely speak out; however, I managed to come across this news article. This woman was trafficked in four different motels in the Portland area. She claimed that management ignored human trafficking activity in their motels. “So far, 36 cases have been filed in 21 federal courts around the country. A motion to consolidate them, so they are dealt with by a single judge in Columbus, Ohio, is pending.” The awareness has spread to National Hotel & Lodging Association, which launched a campaign to fight against human trafficking called “No Room for Trafficking.” People can understand that most hotels, motels, or inns owners do not know what is going on in their business. It is frustrating that human trafficking is still an issue, and hotels have been the invisible hand that helped human traffickers’ business to grow. To stop the oldest profession is hard, but this proved that we are on our way to the solution to this problem. Now, with this awareness spread among National Hotel & Lodging Association hopefully, it will help hotels identify traffickers before more victims fall into their trap.
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One of the articles that we chose for our social issue is from oregonlive.com. This article discusses a back and forth dialogue, in 2011, between former Portland Mayor Sam Adams and Nikole Hannah-Jones concerning sex trafficking in Portland, Oregon. Adams, who released reports of high sex trafficking incidents in Portland, and Jones, who challenged that by saying that those numbers are unsound. She reported, "little data, nationally or locally, support such a reputation."
To further Jones' argument, FBI agent, Beth Anne Steele, says there is no reason to believe that the issue of sex trafficking is better or worse in Portland than it is or would be anywhere else. While the Portland Police Bureau reported "an average of five cases of sex trafficking each week and at least two of these victims are juveniles," Hannah-Jones said that number was called unreliable by the supervisor for Portland's sex crimes unit. Adams' office has said that number to be accurate, according to a veteran officer on PPB sex crimes unit. Roy Kaufmann (Adams spokesman) declined to reveal the identity of that officer's name until checking and making sure it was okay with PPB. Our argument is that despite the numbers and "how high" they are, Portland is still a city with sex trafficking, and we need to address it.
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