Student Group Tackles Sex Trafficking

Sex trafficking has been found in 90 U.S. cities and all 50 states, according to a report released by an Institute of Politics (IOP) sex trafficking policy group yesterday.

Most Americans “do not know what sex trafficking is, or if they do, they think it is a problem that occurs in other countries,” oblivious to the large-scale exploitation and abuse of both foreign and native women that takes place all around them, according to the report.

Loui Itoh ’07, co-chair of the policy group and also a Crimson editorial editor, explained how the group came together this time last year with “students who had been somewhat aware of the issue” of sex trafficking and “wanted to advocate a small step towards solving it.”

For the past year, the policy group has been working on the report, “The Hidden Industry: Addressing Sex Trafficking in America,” which recommends ways to address the growing problem of sex trafficking in the U.S.

The Department of Health and Human Services Rescue and Restore Campaign defines sex trafficking as “a modern-day form of slavery in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion,” including such forms of exploitation as “prostitution, pornography, stripping, live-sex shows, mail-order brides, military prostitution, and sex tourism.”

The report first outlines the status of sex trafficking in the country today, citing the U.S. Department of Justice’s own estimate that “293,000 American youth are currently at risk of becoming victims of commercial sexual exploitation,” as well as discussing the 14,500 to 17,500 foreigners who are trafficked into the U.S. for the sex trade each year. Of these foreigners, 80 percent are women and 50 percent are minors.

The report then proposes a concerted national attempt to address the issue, with “nationwide implementation of statewide task forces” to help combat many of the difficulties with anti-trafficking efforts.

The main responsibilities of these task forces would be to improve victim identification by law enforcement officials and the general public, increase the number of prosecutions for sex trafficking by ensuring victims would testify and by coordinating state and federal prosecution efforts, and increasing public awareness about sex trafficking, Itoh said.

These task forces would also work for the rehabilitation of victims of trafficking, including creating more safe houses specifically targeted towards trafficking victims and helping them get T-visas after they have been rescued, Itoh said. If someone is proven to be a victim of sex-trafficking, he or she is eligible for a T-visa that would allow him or her to stay in the country, she added.

Itoh mentioned the need for more access to bilingual attorneys who understood the T-visa process, citing the 37 T-visas that were awarded last year out of the 631 applied for.

“So a lot of people are eligible for them, but a lot of people aren’t getting them,” Itoh said.

State Senator Mark C. Montigny, who attended the event, answered questions and spoke about the issues involved in sex trafficking both on a national and international level, an issue he said he felt strongly about.

“This is one of the most significant law enforcement issues facing this country and the world today,” he said. “It is something we can make a difference on.”

He emphasized the lack of awareness of the problem among the general public.

“People are genuinely horrified when high-profile cases are reported but completely unaware [of the problem] before,” Montigny said. “For any group that wants to change the status quo, you cannot do it without people tuned in and an active media....We need the law enforcement community talking to the public about the dangers of this being allowed to continue.”

Itoh said they were eager for more students to get involved in the issue.

“What we would love is to get people from every single state to write a letter to their state representatives or state senators, to go back to their states and raise awareness, write op-eds for their local papers,” Itoh said. “We want it to be on everyone’s radar screen, we want politicians to care about it, we want voters to care about it, and we want government to pass legislation about it.”

—Staff writer Alexandra C. Bell can be reached at acbell@fas.harvard.edu.