Written by: Katie Linn | Previous Executive Director of Exploit No More

​When working to end domestic child sex trafficking, it can often feel overwhelming in determining where to focus efforts and how to make the greatest impact. While there is a crucial need for services in all areas to end trafficking and in helping survivors on their road to recovery, one of the greatest needs is in addressing the demand for sex. As is true in any basic economic situation, the demand for a service or a product creates the need for a greater supply. If the demand for sex from sexually exploited children and prostitutes was eliminated, the traffickers would be out of a job and victims would not be exploited in this way.

One of the ways that states, as well as some other countries, have found effective in addressing demand is through what is known in the United States as ‘john school’, an educational intervention program for clients,  known as ‘johns’, of prostitutes and sexually exploited children. These one day programs are typically for the men, and sometimes women, who have been arrested for soliciting a sexual service or for a similar offense. First time offenders are offered the option to either go to court or to attend the program and a smaller fine, which helps to fund the program and support local organizations working with victims and survivors of trafficking.

During this one day session, the focus of the discussions are often on the health dangers of purchasing sex, the violence associated with prostitution, the experience and the harms of prostitution, and the effects on families and communities. There are often a number of people to present, including law enforcement, medical professionals, and leaders within the community who work to fight trafficking and exploitation. In many cases, there will also be a survivor of trafficking or a former prostitute to testify about their own experience. For many men, they had not previously recognized the women’s victimization, believing that she was working out of her own free will. The survivor’s testimony is aimed at giving a realistic picture of the injustice that johns sometimes unknowingly support.

After the first john school was begun in San Francisco in 1995, the concept quickly spread throughout the United States and into other countries such as Canada and the United Kingdom. There has been some debate on how successful the diversion program has been and on how to best track success rates. From the data that has been collected, it is obvious that the programs have been able to greatly reduce the recidivism rate, with most cities hosting the program reporting that less than 2% of the men who took the course were re-arrested.

As demand is perhaps the largest area of this issue to tackle, programs such as john schools provide a solid starting point in attempting to prevent recidivism among men who solicit sex. While women make up the majority in the efforts to end sex trafficking, it is crucial for more men to step into leadership positions and take a stand against trafficking.

Exploit No More has been greatly encouraged in 2015 as we have seen a number of men take a particular interest in helping survivors of trafficking and in making a difference in addressing demand. From a men’s group donating food and personal items for victims and survivors to those who are stepping up to begin a men’s roundtable aimed at addressing demand, there are many ways men can be involved in this fight.
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If you are interested in learning more about ways to get involved in addressing demand, please email contact@exploitnomore.org or call 414-384-6100.

One of the most frequent questions that people have after learning about sex trafficking worldwide and locally is “What can I do?”.  For those who are not actively involved on the ‘front lines’ in justice and aftercare, there can often feel as if small efforts may be inadequate in the fight. However, raising awareness within our communities, fighting for survivor-centered advocacy, and raising funds to support organizations providing aftercare are deeply important actions that anyone can take in order to fight trafficking.
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There have been many people who have become passionate about ending trafficking that began with the same question. Upon some thought and soul searching, they realized that they can use their gifts and talents in order to make a different right where they are. Two teenagers in particular stand out in their efforts to raise awareness of the issue and to help financially support organizations.

The Rescue Run
In June 2015, a recent high school graduate, Hannah Redders, put upon herself the challenge to run across the state of Wisconsin in order to raise awareness about sex trafficking within our state and to raise funds for Exploit No More’s aftercare residential program. As she ran for 10 days from Superior to Milwaukee, Hannah had the support of family and friends who joined her for sections of her trek, running at least 20 miles per day. In addition to those who physically supported and encouraged her along the way, financial sponsorships and donations poured in, raising nearly $20,000 in order to provide aftercare for Wisconsin’s trafficking survivors.
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Loose Change to Loosen Chains
In 2003, a twelve year old boy named Zach Hunter first learned about modern day slavery around the world. Through his anger about the issue and his passion to help, he started Loose Change to Loosen Chains. While raising awareness and sharing stories of people who were entrapped in slavery, he collected any loose change that people had in their pockets, purses, or wallets to donate to abolitionist organizations such as Free the Slaves and International Justice Mission. His method of raising awareness and collecting change in little yellow cups spread, with students all throughout the country raising money to help end slavery.

Today, more than a decade later, Zach still speaks and writes about slavery, having written books including Be the Change: Your Guide to Freeing Slaves and Changing the World, Generation Change: Roll up your Sleeves and Change the World, and Lose your Cool: Discovering a Passion that Changes You and the World.

Even just the smallest steps can make a large difference in your community to fight trafficking. While knowledge about trafficking is become more wide-spread, there are still many people who do not know that sex trafficking happens within their own neighborhood. Just by having a simple conversation, by throwing a party where you share about the issue, or by hosting a movie showing or a book club, a great deal of effort is being put forth in assisting in the fight.

Written by: Katie Linn | Previous Executive Director of Exploit No More

Ashley was just 14 years old when she met him.  At the time she thought that he cared about and loved her. She had opened up and told him things that she rarely spoke to other people – about how her mother didn’t understand her and how her father had abandoned them years earlier. He bought her gifts and told her she was beautiful. She fell in love, but when he promised that he could fulfill her dreams and she left her life behind to be with him, everything changed.
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Unfortunately, a story like Ashley’s is all too common for girls who fall victim to sex trafficking.

Loverboy syndrome is one of the most common tactics that pimps use in recruiting and grooming their victims. A pimp knows that once a girl is emotionally involved, she will do whatever she can to keep his affection. As a trafficker works to secure his victim, there are three main phases of recruitment that he will take before he is certain that she will not leave – the scouting, manipulating, and trapping phases.

The Scouting Phase
The process of recruitment into sex trafficking begins with the initial contact and bonding between the trafficker and the victim. Traffickers are experts at recognizing vulnerabilities in young girls, then using those vulnerabilities to connect with, manipulate, and exploit the girl. While traffickers are able to use many vulnerabilities to connect with a child, they often look for girls who have low self esteem, are isolated from friends and family, have a history of sexual abuse, are homeless or in the foster care system, come from a fatherless or broken home, or those who have conflicts with their parents or guardians.  Once the girl’s vulnerabilities are identified, the trafficker works to fill the role that is missing, such as a father-figure, a boyfriend, or a caregiver.

The Manipulating Phase
As the victim begins to trust and become closer to the trafficker, he continues to bond with her through false love and affection. Also known as the ‘honeymoon’ phase, he will shower her with expensive gifts and compliments, they will engage in physical intimacy, and he will promise her the opportunity for a better life. The more that the trafficker provides for the girl and as she grows to trust him, she moves further away from her family or care-givers. Soon, she finds that she is dependent on her trafficker for her physical and emotional needs and desires.

The Trapping Phase
Once the trafficker knows that his victim is completely dependent on him, he will manipulate her into prostitution. Typically, he tells her that he has financial difficulties and asks her to help earn money for them to live on, encouraging her to sleep with his ‘friend’ in order to make some extra cash. While the girl does not want to have sex in exchange for money, she will often do so in order to make her ‘boyfriend’ happy, convinced that he loves her and wants what is best for her.
Through this process of recruitment and in the grooming through abuse that begins after, the trafficker and the victim begin to go through the process of trauma bonding, which is a strong emotional bond between two people, one of which harasses, beats, threats, abuses, or intimidates the other. A similar form a Stockholm Syndrome, it is the trauma bond that makes it so difficult for victims to leave their traffickers and causes the victims to return to them even after they have escaped the life of being trafficked.
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While pimp-controlled trafficking is the most commonly identified and most well-known type of trafficking, it is just one of many types of sex trafficking that youth can be victims of. In the next few days, we will continue to look at other forms of sex trafficking, some of which have similar aspects as pimp-controlled, while others have very different factors that contribute to the exploitation.

Written by: Katie Linn | Previous Executive Director at Exploit No More

As more information is known about sex trafficking in the United States, the connection between trafficking and street gangs is impossible to ignore. Operating in similar ways to pimps working individually in trafficking, gangs work together as a group to recruit, groom, abuse, and set up ‘dates’ for their victims.
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Throughout the past few years, sex trafficking has become a regular and popular activity for gangs. While street gang’s main activities in the past were focused on drugs, many gangs have shifted their focus to trafficking, as it is viewed as a lower-risk and more profitable activity. Rather than being seen or caught with narcotics, it does not seem as suspicious to be seen with a woman or a girl, of whom they can sell repeated times.

Many of the girls that are recruited by gangs are looking for a family, for acceptance, or for status among what is truly a male-dominated community. The members may appear at first to accept the girls or women into their gang, however they begin to exploit the females right away. As part of their initiation, many girls are required to perform sex acts to some or all of the gang members, getting them accustomed to the abuse that will only continue and increase.

Each male gang member has his own particular role in regards to trafficking. Some of the members are responsible for the recruitment of new girls, while some are responsible for the grooming, which may include abuse and rape. Yet, others will be responsible for setting up online profiles and securing ‘dates’ for the girls while others are in charge of the finances.

Recruitment among gangs is quite traditional, as they use many of the same tactics that a pimp working individually may use. One gang member may form a special attachment to a girl, luring her in with the false hope of a romantic relationship, while in other cases the gang as a whole may promise security in the form of shelter, food, and clothing. Gangs also use gatherings known as ‘skip parties’, in which a girl already involved in the gang will encourage her other friends to skip school or work to attend a ‘party’ where drugs and alcohol are freely given. However, in exchange for the drugs, it is expected that the girl will offer sex to the men. If she refuses, she is often beaten and raped while being filmed, which is used as blackmail.

Once the gang has recruited and has begun to groom their victims, many choose to tattoo or brand their victims in order tons how their power and ownership over her. While a tattoo is often given in a regular tattoo parlor or by one of the traffickers, branding is completed by using a coat hanger that has been exposed to extreme heat or cold and pressed against the skin to create a permanent scar. The tattoos or brands may be the trafficker or gang’s name, a specific symbol that indicates the trafficker or gang, or an image or word that is associated with the sex trade. In some cases, that tattoo or brand may also be in the form of a dollar sign or a barcode.
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While there are a number of overlaps between gang and pimp controlled sex trafficking, there are a few key differences between the two. With street gangs, women are rarely a part of a gang without some form of exploitation – whether it be sex trafficking specifically or another form of exploitation.