Write a 2-5 page essay, describing what you learned in this course, what it means to you, and what action can be taken in response to Human Trafficking issues. I will attach some of the powerpoint fro

 Repeated  Over a period of time  Often facilitated by a loved one or caregiver  Multiple buyers/facilitators  Shatters trust 3 What is the problem with the “everyone is at risk” framework? Image from Aimee Ahnemann on Pinterest Victim risk factors:

Individual/identity - based vulnerabilities  Age  Sex  Poverty  History of abuse  Gender identity  Sexual orientation  Race/ethnicity  Undocumented citizenship status  Intellectual disability Mezzo level risk factors:

Weak social institutions What is a social institution ?  a group of people who have come together for a common purpose (part of social order that governs behavior & norms of individuals)  Economic systems  Political/governing systems  The criminal justice system  Healthcare systems  Education systems  Family systems Weak Family Institutions  Physical, verbal, sexual, or psychological abuse in the home  Parent or child substance abuse issues  Parental neglect or rejection  Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) in the home  Leads to runaway & homeless status, & vulnerability to a pimp/trafficker Weak Child Welfare Systems:

Juvenile justice & foster care involvement  Recruitment sites for traffickers through other girls  Uncommonly, cases have appeared where staff are traffickers  Disproportionate involvement of vulnerable youth  Often a reflection of a problematic home life Weak Education Systems  Drop out rates  Student mobility rates  Truancy  Low graduation rates  Non -accreditation  Fewer attachments to schools, increased truancy/exposure to pimps  For adults, negatively affects life changes, increasing economic vulnerability  Role of school funding/property tax and unequal opportunity in K -12 education in the U.S. Weak Economic Systems  Need to supplement low incomes  Lack of minimum wage as a living wage  Survival Sex  In international context, push and pull factors Lack of Social Safety Nets  to address such problems increases risk to already vulnerable populations…..  Lack minimum wage as a living wage  Inadequate access to substance abuse and mental illness -related healthcare  Lack of services to address intimate partner violence  Homelessness  Child abuse & child sexual abuse  Weaknesses within social services for trafficked/CSE people Recruitment  These individual and institutional risks leave people and groups vulnerable to recruitment  Also note that these risks intersect , increasing vulnerability with each layer of identity -based oppression and exposure to weak social institutions  Pimps  Buyers (Johns)  Friends/peers  Intimate partners  False front agencies  Business/farms or anywhere looking for cheap labor Social Services Role in Helping Victims  Ongoing case management needs  Effects criminal investigation  Trained experts in recognizing signs of HT & experts in trauma -informed care  Access to social services & resources can be pivotal for persons transitioning out of the commercial sex industry or labor trafficking situation  Social services help to address the myriad of trauma effects sex trafficked and exploited people are likely to experience (mental health, addiction, PTSD, resources)  Identification and offering of social services for those who want them is needed  Palm Beach County Victim Services (explore website) 13 Identification of victims  Survivors are not commonly identified by social service or healthcare providers  Yet research suggests survivors frequently access health and social services (and many have contact with law enforcement)  Service providers are interacting with trafficked/ CSE people without knowing it (TED talk by M.D.)  One of big reasons for not identifying victims is lack of public awareness & professional training Task force models across the country  Enhance Collaborative Model to Combat Human Trafficking Program  Developed by US Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Assistance & Office of Victims of Crime  Provides funding to joint applicants of social services and law enforcement to create task forces  Goals are identification, investigation and prosecution, and addressing victim needs  Human trafficking task force E -guide  Core functions: Identification, victim services, investigating cases  Ancillary services: Training, technical assistance, community awareness and education 15 Providing Victim Services  Crisis Intervention upon recovery  Short term crisis stabilization – mental health or substance abuse related  Medical needs  Long term residential programs focusing on mental health, substance dependence and/or trauma  Provide ongoing support and encouragement to victim  Connections to housing, employment, clothes, and other basic needs  Legal advocacy and helps collaborate with police 16 Providing Victim Services  Stabilizing victims helps cases  Victim advocates can provide support to victims so the trial process can be an empowering experience instead of causing them to feel re -victimized  Best practices for HT developed from best practice responses to sexual assault (trauma -informed care)  Social service presence increases chances of self - identification, recognize need for services and cooperative in investigation 17 Child Protective Services, Juvenile Justice & Foster Care  A disproportionate number of sex -trafficked youth come from problematic home lives, experiencing child physical or sexual abuse, as well as neglect, substance abuse, and witnessing IPV  This often leads to runaway and/or truancy behaviors, which then increases the likelihood of going into the JJS or foster care  If the family home is seen as unfit for the child, the child will be placed in foster care or a juvenile detention facility, which increases vulnerability to sex trafficking/CSE  These are recruitment sites for pimps  Alternatively, a child may run away from a problematic home life, and may be picked up by police for engaging in the commercial sex industry, either induced by a pimp or as survival sex,  Go into the JJS, and then may get placed through CPS in foster care, and become re -trafficked, or even recruit other girls for a pimp Juvenile Victims & Child Protection Services Response  Child Protective Investigative services in all 50 states  CPS leads on responding to victims of child sex trafficking  Renewal forum provides grading system on each state’s response  Florida Safe Harbor Act and other related statutes  Utilizes screening tool for all juvenile delinquents  Screening for trauma using a trauma inventory (e.g., the Traumatic Events Screening Inventory, the Child Welfare Trauma Screening Tool)  Such inventories could identify CSE, with the aim of getting the child proper trauma -informed, sex trafficking specific treatment  Challenges to Screening – youth may be reluctant to disclose sexual abuse and CSE that has not already been uncovered or disclosed to the JJS 19 Effects of Trauma & Victims’ Needs The emotional, physical, & psychological consequences of sex & labor trafficking are directly related to the aftercare needs of survivors Increased likelihood of:

 PTSD/ Complex PTSD  Anxiety  Depression  Suicidal Ideation  Dissociation  Substance abuse  Insomnia  Shortened Impulse Control  "Fight or Flight"  *Some of these overlap with PTSD Trauma - informed approach  Law enforcement follow a trauma -informed, victim centered approach to investigations  Tailor interview and investigative techniques to be sensitive to the trauma the victim has experienced  This is the difference between asking “ what is wrong with you ?” to “ what has happened to you ?”  “We need to presume the client we serve have a history of traumatic stress and exercise “universal precautions” by creating systems of care that are trauma -informed”  Provides services through a lens of understanding the biological, psychological & social effects of trauma on an individual 21 Principles of treating trauma  Build a relationship based on positive interactions, honesty and trust  Facilitate recovery, growth and resiliency through partnering and empowering victim  Want to minimize power imbalance  Collaborate with expanded community and social supports  Avoid re -traumatization by being mindful of triggers  Use a client centered and strength -based approach  Revisit assessment process over time  Service providers must also be self -aware:  Compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma, & burnout 22 Importance of Trauma Informed Care to Law Enforcement & First Responders  Frequently the first person a victim encounters outside of their trafficker  Victims may generalize this first experience to anyone who is willing to help them  May be coached to be mistrusting of law enforcement and social services 23 Trauma & Human Trafficking  Symptoms can range based on how the trafficker groomed and treated the victim during their captivity  Likely to see trauma bonding in victims of trafficking (makes it hard to convince a victim to leave)  May have been succumbed to a “grooming” process  Victims may be placed in position where they are completely dependent on their trafficker to meet needs  May be deliberately isolated from support, led to believe that nobody will accept or care about them  Anyone working with human trafficking survivors MUST understand trauma bonding throughout the legal process 24 Countering Trauma Bonds  Page 161 Busch book 25 Special Considerations  Individuals who have been victims of labor trafficking may also encounter trauma  May present with different symptomology or encounter different barriers  Know the services needed and available for victims, especially if they are immigrants  Be culturally aware of how someone’s beliefs may effect their recovery and support system  Cultural competency is crucial in social service work! 26 The Trap: the deadly sex trafficking cycle in American prisons (required video)  The Trap investigates how prisons and jails across the United States have become recruiting grounds for human traffickers, who are targeting incarcerated women and trafficking them out of correctional facilities and into pimp -controlled prostitution  Published on 6/29/18 by The Guardian  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnGjQKdJrPU (32 min.) 27 The End Next Steps:

 Read Chapter 5 & 6 in Busch - Armendariz (2018)  Explore PBCHT Task Force website  Watch the required videos  Complete Quiz 4 Next module  15. Understanding, disruption & interventions at macro level United States v. Ronald Evans  In 2007, Florida employer Ron Evans was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison on drug conspiracy, financial restructuring, and witness tampering charges, among others.  Jequita Evans was also sentenced to 20 years, & Ron Evans Jr. to 10 years  Operating in Florida and North Carolina, Ron Evans recruited homeless US citizens from shelters across the Southeast, including New Orleans, Tampa, and Miami, with promises of good jobs and housing.  At Palatka, Florida and Newton Grove, North Carolina area labor camps, the Evans deducted rent, food, crack cocaine and alcohol from workers' pay, holding them perpetually indebted in what the DOJ called “a form of servitude morally and legally reprehensible.”  The Palatka labor camp was surrounded by a chain link fence topped with barbed wire, with a No Trespassing sign.  The CIW and a Miami -based homeless outreach organization, Touching Miami with Love, began the investigation and reported the case to federal authorities in 2003.  In Florida, Ron Evans worked for grower Frank Johns. Johns was 2004 Chairman of the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association, the powerful lobbying arm of the Florida agricultural industry. As of 2017, he remained the chairman of the group's budget and finance committee. 29 30 Image from Google maps Sex Trafficking Indicators* The commonly reported sex -trafficking indicators include:  signs a person is being controlled;  presents with a lack of identification and/or official documents*;  signs a person does not have freedom of movement*;  signs of physical abuse*;  is accompanied by another person who will not allow the client to be alone with the social worker or speak on her or his own behalf;  presents with answers that appear scripted or rehearsed*;  does not appear to have the freedom to leave her or his employment*; &  presents as anxious, depressed and/or fearful  *These commonly reported indicators are problematic and not consistent with extant research. They often conflate labor and sex trafficking, assume international context, and are based on worst case atypical scenarios. They should be used with caution or not used. They are used in trainings across the U.S. Child/youth specific indicators for identification  Chronic runaway  Chronic truancy or absences  Untruthfulness about age  Possesses hotel room keys  Has a fake ID  Involved with a “boyfriend” who is much older (not school -age)  Dresses inappropriately for the season or does not seem to have control over their wardrobe and accessories,  Talks about sexual activities that exceed age -group norms,  Has extensive knowledge of the commercial sex industry,  Displays signs of physical abuse or substance abuse  Appears fearful, anxious, or depressed  If a service provider ever encounters a person engaging in prostitution under the age of 18, that child is – by law – a survivor/victim of sex trafficking These are better, but also note not all of these will be present Palm Beach County Human Trafficking Task Force  Mission : combat human trafficking through a collaborative, victim centered, trauma informed framework by:

 Identifying, rescuing, and restoring victims  Investigating and prosecuting trafficking crimes  Building awareness about trafficking in/around our community  The Task Force is includes several core partners: PB Sheriff’s Office, Catholic Charities Diocese of Palm Beach, the State Attorney’s Office, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, PBC Victim Services, Department of Children & Families, & Barry Un.

 Since its inception, many additional law enforcement and victim service provider partners have also joined  The Human Trafficking Coalition of the Palm Beaches along with Palm Beach County Victim Services provides trainings to PBC employees, local schools, community agencies, and law enforcement to raise awareness of HT Age  Debates, problems with prior research only examining DMST  Age of entry Sex  Female  Male  Non -binary/ genderqueer/ gender -nonconforming  Dynamics specific to these groups LGBTQ* Identities  Increased risk often due to non -accepting parents or school bullying  Leads to increased risk of runaway, truancy, homelessness  Susceptible to buyers & peer -facilitated entry into survival sex  Barriers to services Ark of Freedom Alliance – non -profit in Fort Lauderdale geared toward helping runaway & homeless males and LGBTQ youth who are at risk for sexual exploitation and human trafficking Race and Ethnicity  Disproportionate victimization in sex trafficking statistics  Disproportionate criminalization in juvenile prostitution (sex trafficking!) statistics  Black, Latino/a, & Native individuals in particular Undocumented Immigrants  Economic exploitation  Bait & switch tactics  Overlap with labor exploitation  Specific coercion related to deportation threats  Distrust/fear of justice system & criminalization Intellectual Disability  Risk of sexual abuse higher  More likely to have limited understandings of their right to decline sex or sexual exploitation  Difficulty in making decisions, easily manipulated compared to a person with an average IQ  Traffickers choose those with an intellectual disability purposefully, as they are less likely to be believed if they seek out assistance, including police Barriers to Leaving  Emotional barriers  Stigmatization  Physical, emotional, economic, abuse  Debt bondage  Cultural beliefs  Gaps in services  Feelings of low self -worth, shame  Love/intimate relationship w/ the trafficker/pimp  Nowhere to go  Fear of retaliation  Debt bondage  Addiction  Limited ESA  Lack of options  Barriers to accessing services  Criminalization