Where does trafficking occur?
- Street Exploitation (Tracks or strolls)
- Brothels
- Escort Services
- Truck Stops & Convenience Stores
- On-Line Exploitation Websites (Bedpage, Ashley Madison, Onenightstand.com. Cityxguide, Adultsearch.com, Escortads.com, Adult Friend Finder, Doulike.com. Bedpage.com, Seeking.com, Classifiedads.com, Thehiddenpages.com, Skip the Games)
- Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, TicToc, WeChat, Tumblr, Instagram)
- Hotels & Motels
- Exotic Dancing/Strip Clubs
- Phone Sex Lines
- Private Parties
- Gang and Organized Crime-Based Exploitation
- Familial Pimping (parent, step-parent, sibling, cousin)
- Pornography
- Massage Parlors (The massage parlor business-often with a legal front hiding illegal trade-is growing. The number of parlors in 2011 were 4,197. In 2013, the number increased to 4,790
Sex Traffickers Can Be...
•U.S. citizens or foreign nationals
•Males or Females
•Adults or Minors
•Organized crime members or street gangs
•Family members, partners, acquaintances, strangers, etc.
•Diverse social, economic and ethnic backgrounds
Sex Trafficking looks like...
Traffickers/Pimps use physical, emotional, and psychological abuse to coerce children and young women into a life of sex trafficking. Traffickers are master manipulators using tactics that create a trauma bond between the victim and the trafficker.
Strip Clubs
Victims of sex trafficking are frequently recruited to work in strip clubs across the United States. Women, men, and minors may be recruited to work in strip clubs as hostesses, servers or dancers, but then are required to provide commercial sex to customers.
Strip clubs are designed to provide the space and environment in which buyers may purchase commercial sex. Victims of sex trafficking in strip clubs must adhere to extensive, pre-determined schedules and are frequently moved between multiple clubs. Commercial sex sometimes takes place in the bathroom, VIP, or lap dance rooms, or offsite in hotels or buyer’s homes.
Traffickers in strip clubs may be the business owners, shift leaders, fake massage business managers, brothel managers or independent traffickers. Often clubs and bars involved in sex trafficking offer commercial sex through escort services, massage parlors or brothels that are connected to the bar or located nearby. Strip club owners generally consider women to be independent contractors or employees of the escort manager/driving network, not the club, and often require the women to pay a house fee to the club for the space to perform.
A study of exotic dancers found that 100% had been physically assaulted in the clubs where they were employed, with a prevalence ranging from 3-15 times over the course of their involvement in exotic dancing. Violence included physical assault, attempted vaginal penetration, attempted rape,and rape .
(Credit: National Human Trafficking Hotline, More Precious Than Rubies)
The Facts
.png/:/rs=w:370,cg:true,m)
Did you know...
There are those who mistakenly believe that legalizing prostitution will actually reduce crime and provide women the rights, and freedom and protection they need to safely work in prostitution. The reality is, in places where prostitution is legal, there is an exponential increase in the exploitation and trafficking of women. In a study of prostitution and trafficking in 150 countries, it was concluded that on average, countries with legalized prostitution had greater inflows of human trafficking. Nevada has the highest rates of illegal sex trade in the country, adjusted for population. It is 63% higher than the nest highest state of New York and double that of Florida. This dismantles the myth that full decriminalization will decrease unregulated prostitution or sex trafficking. Wherever prostitution is legal, the demand for commercial sex skyrockets, which provides a great incentive to pimps and sex traffickers to push more women into the marketplace to sell.
-Harmony Dust Grillo
Damascus Road Project, Inc
1528 Oregon Street Oshkosh, WI 54902 (On SIte) P.O. Box 275 Oshkosh, WI 54903 (Mailing Address)