Sex trafficking is rising around the globe and in the United States, and children are increasingly being targeted. The U.S. government, state governments, and religious organizations are putting new energy and money into fighting trafficking with new strategies. That includes redefining who the victims are and facing moral ambiguities involved in the sex trade.
What’s new
• Amazing Grace: The Story of William Wilberforce tells the story of the man who led the campaign in the early 19th century to abolish Britain’s slave trade. Directed by Michael Apted, the film will premiere Feb. 23, 2007, the 200th anniversary of the vote to abolish the slave trade in Britain. Walden Media is one of the film’s production companies. Associated with the film is the Amazing Change campaign to abolish present-day slavery. Walden Media is partnering with the International Justice Mission, a human rights group, and other groups on the campaign. Contact publicist Anne Leininger at Grace Hill Media in Valley Village, Calif., 818-762-0000.
• On June 5, 2006, the U.S. State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons released its 2006 Trafficking in Persons Report, which estimates that 800,000 persons a year are forced into labor, including prostitution.
• On Jan. 10, 2006, President George W. Bush signed into law the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, which was unanimously approved by the House and Senate. It increases the amount of money and scope of programs begun with the first Trafficking Victims Protect Act in 2000.
• In May 2006, two U.S. judges ruled it is unconstitutional for the U.S. government to require non-governmental organizations to pledge that they oppose prostitution and sex trafficking to receive government funding to fight AIDS in other countries. Some NGOs argue that while they do not support sex trafficking, the declaration made it difficult for them to work effectively in countries where sex work is part of the culture. Read a May 19, 2006, article by the Guttmacher Institute about the issues behind the ruling.
• Faith groups, from conservative to liberal, are stepping up efforts to combat sex trafficking in the United States and abroad. Efforts range from local church ministries that reach out to prostitutes and strippers, to international strategies to rescue sex workers from forced prostitution. Evangelical Christian women are at the forefront of many of these efforts.
• Twenty-two states – nine in 2006 — have passed laws against sex trafficking. See the June 8, 2006, U.S. Policy Alert posted by the Polaris Project.
• Experts estimate that children now make up 20 percent of people forced into sex work internationally, in part because younger victims are less likely to be carrying disease.
• Most of the new effort to combat sex trafficking involves redefining who the victims are. The women and children working as prostitutes are now referred to as victims, where they once were called perpetrators whose availability corrupted their customers. Meanwhile, some people draw a distinction between people forced into prostitution and street prostitutes. And some organizations argue that sex work is a valid choice and that sex workers should be provided social services and protected from exploitation. Meanwhile, researchers and others experts say most prostitutes are sexual abuse victims who start prostitution young and become trapped into the lifestyle by poverty and drug and alcohol abuse.
• Efforts to end demand for prostitution have inspired debate over whether money should be spent providing services to women rather than trying to deter men from buying and organizing sexual services. Men arrested for seeking sexual services are attending government-funded “john schools,” which educate them about the dangers of prostitution and its repercussions on human lives and communities, Read a May 10, 2005, Village Voice article about debate over john schools.
• Efforts to reduce international sex trafficking are almost universally applauded. At the same time, some organizations question the sharp focus on sex trafficking instead of the wider problem of human trafficking.
Why it matters
Prostitution has always invited moral judgment of its workers, however they came to their situation. As sex trafficking has become more prevalent across international borders and as more children have become involved, more people are recognizing that prostitutes are often victims forced into the trade directly or through desperate circumstances over which they had little control. Their rescue and rehabilitation have become top priorities. Prostitution and slavery are addressed in Christian, Jewish and Muslim scriptures, and many people of faith feel it’s important to reach out to help them while reserving judgment.
Questions for reporters
What issues drive people into sex industry work? Why do impoverished women end up prostituting? How do drug addiction, battery and sexual abuse figure into it?
What motivates local crackdowns on prostitution, and what options exist for the prostitutes to help them leave the life?
What is it like to recover from a lifetime in prostitution?
What are the attitudes of religious people toward streetwalkers and other sex workers?
What religious-run programs exist to assist sex industry workers? What are religious groups doing on the local level to help sex workers get out?
If, as some say, sex industry work is a single-parent issue are there times congregations are helping without knowing it?
Jump to background
National sources
GOVERNMENT
• Ambassador John R. Miller, a former member of Congress from Washington state, is director of the U.S. State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons and senior adviser to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on human trafficking. Contact 202-312-9639.
• U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., authored anti-trafficking legislation that President Bush signed into law Jan. 10, 2006. Read a news release. Contact through Brad Dayspring, 202-225-3765.
ORGANIZATIONS
• Kevin Bales is president of Washington, D.C.-based Free the Slaves, the largest U.S. anti-slavery organization. Contact 202-638-1865, info@freetheslaves.net.
• Janice G. Raymond and Dorchen Leidholdt are co-executive directors of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women. Raymond is professor emerita of women’s studies and medical ethics at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. Leidholdt directs the Center for Battered Women’s Legal Services at Sanctuary for Families in New York City. Read Raymond’s article, “Sex Trafficking Is Not ‘Sex Work,’ ” published in the spring 2005 issue of Conscience. Contact info@catwinternational.org.
• Andrea Bertone directs the HumanTrafficking.org project, which is being implemented by the Academy for Educational Development in Washington, D.C., with funding from the U.S. State Department. She says that the controversial issue abroad is rescues and raids by religious organizations trying to save girls from prostitution. Contact 202-884-8916, director@humantrafficking.org.
• Susan Cohen is director of government affairs for the Guttmacher Institute. Read her commentary on the approach of the U.S. government and conservative Christians toward sex trafficking. Contact 202-296-4012, scohen@guttmacher.org.
• Melissa Farley, a clinical and research psychologist, directs the San Francisco-based Prostitution Research and Education project, which works to abolish prostitution and help prostitutes. She edited Prostitution, Trafficking and Traumatic Stress (Haworth Maltreatment and Trauma Press, 2004). Contact mfarley@prostitutionresearch.com.
• Marisa Ugarte is founder and executive director of the Bilateral Safety Corridor Coalition, an alliance of governments and agencies that combats slavery and human trafficking along the U.S.-Mexico border. Contact 619-336-0770, sdbscc@yahoo.com.
• Ann D. Jordan, who directs the anti-trafficking initiative at Washington, D.C.-based Global Rights, has spoken in favor of prevention over punishment. Contact 202-822-4600, media@globalrights.org.
• Mohamed Y. Mattar is executive director of the Protection Project, which researches and documents human trafficking around the world to influence public policy. It is based at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C. Contact 202-663-5894.
• Former U.S. Congresswoman Linda Smith is founder and director of Shared Hope International, which works to rescue and restore women and children in crisis. It is based in Vancouver, Wash. In 2001 Smith organized the War Against Trafficking Alliance, which works with government agencies and international organizations to fight trafficking. It is based in Arlington, Va., and can be contacted at 703-351- 8062. Contact Smith through Shared Hope media relations director Brooke Gambrell, 703-351-8062, brooke@sharedhope.org.
• Juhu Thukral directs the Sex Workers Project at the Urban Justice Center in New York, where she focuses on the legal concerns, safety and rights of sex workers. She says more coverage is needed of rights-based approaches – rather than moralistic or criminal justice approaches — to working with sex workers Contact 646-602-5617.
• Penelope Saunders is executive director and co-founder of Different Avenues in Washington, D.C., which works with people who are homeless or near-homeless and involved in the sex industry. Different Avenues advocates job training programs and health initiatives rather than crackdowns on johns and prostitutes. Contact 202-829-2103, differentavenues@yahoo.com.
• Katherine Chon and Derek Ellerman are the founders and co-executive directors of the Polaris Project, which fights sex trafficking and helps survivors. It is based in Washington, D.C., and Japan. Contact 202-547-7909, KChon@PolarisProject.org or DEllerman@PolarisProject.org.
INDIVIDUALS
• Moisés Naím is editor of Foreign Policy magazine and author of Illicit: How Smugglers, Traffickers, and Copycats are Hijacking the Global Economy (Doubleday). Contact 202-939-2233, mnaim@carnegieendowment.org.
RELIGIOUS
CHRISTIAN
• Lisa Thompson is U.S. coordinator of The Salvation Army’s Initiative Against Sexual Trafficking. The Salvation Army has extensive anti-trafficking efforts and its trafficking web site links to extensive resources. Contact 703-519-5896, Lisa_thompson@usn.salvationarmy.org.
• Barrett Duke is vice president for research and director of the Research Institute of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. He has spoken out on the need to crack down on traffickers and customers and says densely populated cities such as Houston, Phoenix and Sacramento need to be targeted for awareness. Read a Nov. 22, 2005, Baptist Press News article. Richard Land, president of the commission, also has addressed the issue of sex trafficking and was a supporter of the recent Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act. Read a Jan. 10, 2006, BPN article. Contact Duke or Land through Jill Martin, 615-782-8417, jmartin@erlc.com.
• Charu Newhouse Al-Sahli is program coordinator for trafficked children at Baltimore-based Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. Read about the trafficked children initiative. See a brochure designed for congregations. Contact 410-230-2758, trafficking@lirs.org.
• Tony Perkins is president of the Family Research Council, which promotes Judeo-Christian ethics and supports policies to eliminate hard-core pornography from the open market. Contact Amber Hildebrand, media director, 202-393-2100, adh@frc.org.
• Janice Shaw Crouse heads the anti-trafficking efforts for Concerned Women for America. CWA posts articles on sex trafficking. Contact through Stacey Holliday, sholliday@cwfa.org.
JEWISH
• Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, has praised President Bush and Congress for taking action against human trafficking. In 2000, the Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism passed a resolution urging all governments to protect trafficking victims, to work to prevent trafficking, and to prosecute organizations and people responsible. Contact through Alexis Rice, communications director, 202-387-2800 ext. 25, arice@rac.org.
• Vicki Polin is founder and executive director of The Awareness Center, a Jewish coalition against sexual abuse and assault, which posts information on prostitution and sex trafficking. Contact 443-857-5560, vickipolin@aol.com.
SURVIVORS
• Minorities & Survivors Improving Empowerment, based in Minneapolis, helps women, children and men victimized by sexual trafficking and prostitution. Contact info@endslavery.org.
• Anne Bissell, who lives in Southern California, is the author of the fictional Memoirs of a Sex Industry Survivor (Cleopatra International Publications, 2004) and the founder of Sex Industry Survivors Anonymous. She says childhood sexual abuse led her to work as a prostitute. Bissell can discuss minors in the sex industry, the link between sexual abuse and prostitution, sex trafficking, the sex industry and sexual abuse recovery. She also developed Operation Silver Braid, which shows the connections between childhood sexual abuse, porn, prostitution, and trafficking; Juliette Chandler is national program coordinator. Contact 888- 702 -7273 or Chandler’s cell, 805-258-3359.
• Norma Hotaling drew on her experiences as a survivor of homelessness, addiction and prostitution to found The SAGE Project – Standing Against Global Exploitation, a San Francisco-based nonprofit working to end commercial sexual exploitation. Contact nhsage@sbcglobal.net.
Background
• The U.S. Department of State posts links to U.S. laws on human trafficking. See a fact sheet and Q&A on the government’s current funding of anti-trafficking projects.
• President Bush signed the End Demand Act, H.R. 972, on Jan. 10, 2006. Read his statement.
• The U.S. State Department estimates international human trafficking at up to 800,000 people a year. Read the department’s 2006 Trafficking in Persons Report, which was released June 5, 2006. It includes statistics, information on different countries, best practices in fighting trafficking and more.
• Read the U.S. Department of Justice’s guide about trafficking.
ARTICLES
• Read a Dec. 15, 2005, Washington Post article about the new anti-prostitution focus on johns and pimps.
• Pope Benedict XVI has condemned human trafficking for sex. Read an Associated Press article posted Oct. 28, 2005, by Fox News.
• Read a June 20, 2005, Global Catholic News article about a congress held in the Vatican on prostitution.
• Read “Exploiting Body and Soul,” (registration required) from the September/October issue of Sojourners magazine.
• Read a National Review opinion column published Jan. 17, 2006, by the Jewish World Review.
• Read a column by a Polaris Project counselor published by the San Francisco-based U.S. Women Without Borders.
• See the web site for the Lifetime miniseries “Human Trafficking,” which debuted in October 2005. Read an article about the miniseries by Women’s eNews.
• Read a transcript from a Nov. 6, 2005, program about sex trafficking by MSNBC’s Rita Cosby Live & Direct.
• Read articles about sexual trafficking that were published Oct. 31, 2005, and Nov. 1, 2005, by the Minnesota Daily, a student-produced University of Minnesota newspaper.
Regional sources
STATE BY STATE
• Twenty-two states – nine in 2006 — have passed laws against sex trafficking. See the June 8, 2006, U.S. Policy Alert posted by the Polaris Project.
• See a list by the Prostitution Research and Education project of programs for helping people escape prostitution.
IN THE NORTHEAST
• Donna M. Hughes is a professor at the University of Rhode Island, where she holds the Eleanor M. and Oscar M. Carlson Endowed Chair in the women’s studies program. She has expertise in violence, slavery and sexual exploitation. She focuses on domestic sex trafficking in the U.S., anti-trafficking policy and prostitution and teaches courses on sex trafficking. Read her guide to identifying victims of trafficking. Contact 401-874-2757, dhughes@uri.edu.
• Elizabeth Hopper is associate director of Project REACH, a mobile crisis intervention team in Brookline, Mass., that helps human trafficking victims. Contact 617-232-1303 ext. 211, ProjectREACH@traumacenter.org.
• Judith Lewis Herman is a clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School in Cambridge, Mass., and has researched and published on the issues of sexual abuse, incest and prostitution. Contact 617-354-5564, herman.j@comcast.net.
• Gail Dines is a professor of sociology and women’s studies at Wheelock College in Boston and specializes in pornography, the media and violence. She is co-author of Pornography: The Production and Consumption of Inequality (Routledge, 1997). Contact 617-879-2336, gdines@wheelock.edu.
IN THE EAST
• Michelle J. Anderson is a law professor at Villanova University in Villanova, Pa., who specializes in rape law, child sexual abuse, law and sexuality, and feminist legal theory. She has written about prostitution and trauma in U.S. rape law. Contact 610-519-7078, anderson@law.villanova.edu.
• Michael Horowitz, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., is a leader in a coalition of anti-prostitution activists. Contact 202-974-2400, info@hudson.org.
• Chyng Sun is a professor of media studies at New York University and a filmmaker working on a documentary called Fantasies Matter: Pornography, Sexualities and Relationships. Read a column she wrote that was published Jan. 31, 2005, by CounterPunch. Contact cfs1@nyu.edu.
IN THE SOUTHEAST
• Linnea Smith is a psychiatrist in Chapel Hill, N.C., who has a web site against pornography and the exploitation of women and children. Contact lwsmith@mindspring.com.
• Margaret A. “Meg” Baldwin is executive director of Refuge House of Leon County Inc. in Tallahassee, Fla., which shelters and counsels domestic-violence victims. She has published and taught about prostitution and pornography. Contact 850-922-6062, info@refugehouse.com.
• Jutta Hansen is public relations coordinator for Catholic Social Services in Atlanta, which provides legal aid to victims of human trafficking. Contact 404-885-7238, jhansen@archatl.com.
IN THE SOUTH
• Marnie C. Ferree is a licensed marriage and family therapist who specializes in female sexual addiction and leads Bethesda Workshops, a full-time sexual recovery ministry at Woodmont Hills Church of Christ in Nashville, Tenn. She says women are the fastest-growing population of those struggling with pornography addiction. Contact 615-467-5610, mferree@bethesdaworkshops.org.
• Rus Ervin Funk is an activist against sexual violence and works as an educator/trainer for the Center for Women and Families in Louisville, Ky. He wrote Stopping Rape: A Challenge for Men (New Society Publishers, 1993) and has written about gay male porn actors. Contact rusfunk@cwfempower.org.
IN THE MIDWEST
• David S. Weissbrodt is Fredrikson and Byron Professor of Law at the University of Minnesota and serves on the board of the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery. Contact 612-625-5027, weiss001@umn.edu.
• Vednita Carter is executive director of Breaking Free, an Afro-centric nonprofit organization in St. Paul, Minn., that helps women leaving prostitution by providing support, housing and community awareness. Contact 651-645-6557, vcarter@breakingfree.net.
• Rebecca Whisnant is an assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Dayton in Dayton, Ohio, who specializes in ethical theory and feminist social theory and co-edited Not for Sale: Feminists Resisting Prostitution and Pornography (Spinifex Press, 2004). Contact Rebecca.Whisnant@notes.udayton.edu.
IN THE SOUTHWEST
• Margaret Purvis is chairwoman of Faces of Children, an ecumenical prayer ministry based in Midland, Texas, that works to stop child sex trafficking. Contact 432-684-7821, info@facesofchildren.net.
• Laura Zárate is executive director and co-founder of Arte Sana, a program in Austin, Texas, for survivors of sexual violence. She has written about U.S. prostitution and sexual trafficking of Mexican women and children. Contact artesanando@yahoo.com.
• Colin A. Ross is founder and president of the Colin A. Ross Institute for Psychological Trauma in Richardson, Texas, and has written about dissociation among women in prostitution. Contact 972-918-9588, rossinst@rossinst.com.
• Robert Jensen is an associate professor of journalism at the University of Texas at Austin specializing in media ethics, focusing on pornography, men’s use of it, and men’s sexual violence His books include, as co-author, Pornography: The Production and Consumption of Inequality (Routledge, 1997). He says a key issue is the mainstreaming of pornography. Read an article he wrote that was published Feb. 1, 2006, on OpEdNews.Com. Contact 512-471-1990, rjensen@uts.cc.utexas.edu.
• Carolyn Pool is executive director of New Friends New Life, a group of Christian women in Dallas who help women working in sexually oriented businesses create new lives for themselves and their children. Preston Road Church of Christ hosts weekly meals and Bible classes for the women’s children. Pool says most of the women were victims of childhood abuse, left home at an early age, got pregnant and then found the sex industry the easiest way to support themselves and their children. She says few organizations help sex workers because of the myth that the women want to be involved in the sex trade. Contact Pool at 214-965-0935, cpool@newfriendsnewlife.org.
IN THE WEST/NORTHWEST
• Rita Nakashima Brock is founding co-director of Faith Voices for the Common Good and is a visiting scholar at the Starr King School for the Ministry, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, Calif. Her books include, as co-author, Casting Stones: Prostitution and Liberation in Asia and the United States (Augsberg Fortress, 1996). She can speak about religious attitudes and policy issues such as decriminalization, which she favors. Contact 510-459-5123, rita@faithvoices.org.
• Wendy Freed, a psychiatrist in Seattle and an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry and behavioral science at the University of Washington, has researched and written about brothel prostitution in Cambodia. Contact 206-322-7766, freed@u.washington.edu.
• Joseph Parker is clinical director of the Lola Greene Baldwin Foundation in Portland, Ore., which works to help people escape, survive and recover from prostitution. Read a Nov. 3, 2003, article by The Oregonian about the foundation’s johns school. Read Parker’s article about prostitution. Contact 503-236-7244, contact@prostitutionrecovery.org.
• Jackson Katz, who lives in Los Angeles, is an educator on the issue of gender violence prevention and the author of The Macho Paradox: Why Some Men Hurt Women and How All Men Can Help (Sourcebooks Inc., 2006). Contact JacksonKatz@aol.com.
• Rahab’s Sisters is a group of women from Episcopal churches in Portland, Ore., who minister to women working in the sex industry. They gather three Fridays a month and provide a hot meal, hygiene products, coffee and conversation to women who are working on the streets or otherwise marginalized by drug addiction and/or prostitution. The Rev. Sara Fischer of Grace Memorial Episcopal Church says the volunteers see a huge need for coordinated services that minister to the whole person and provide quality human interaction. Contact Fischer, rector@stjohnsmilwaukie.org, or Chris Thurston, thurstoc@spiritone.com.
• The Rev. Ann Hayman, a Presbyterian minister, is director of the Mary Magdalene Project in Van Nuys, Calif., which helps women working as street prostitutes. The organization says most prostitutes were incest victims; read about the group’s research on prostitutes. Contact 818-708-7234, alhayman@sprynet.com.
• JC’s GirlsGirlsGirls is an evangelical ministry in Riverside, Calif., that was founded by a former stripper and reaches out to sex industry workers and strippers. Contact Heather Veitch, 951-522-4980, heather@jcsgirls.com.
