Complete Your CE Test Online - Click Here Asian networks ● ● Often run by an older Asian female in Asian massage parlors (AMP). ● ● Women are between the ages of 18 and 55. ● ● Classified ads in Asian newspapers, Internet classifieds, phone directories and word of mouth are methods used to attract customers. ● ● Women who are sexually exploited in the Asian massage parlors earn $60 per hour plus tips – which they must give to the manager. ● ● Victims must see an average of five to 15 men a day. ● ● The Johns are often middle- to upper-class working professionals, Asian men in private networks, and some foreign businessmen. ● ● Victims are often moved by Korean “taxi.” Latino networks ● ● Often run by Latino male controllers, who are known as “padres” or fathers. ● ● Victims are predominantly Mexican, Central and South American adult women and some minors. ● ● Advertising methods include fake business cards distributed person- to-person, or word-of-mouth. ● ● The victims can earn $30 for 15-minute sex acts from an average of 20-35 men per day, with the money taken by the manager. ● ● The Johns are often from closed networks catering to Latino males. ● ● The victims are transported via cargo vans and commercial buses. Foreign-born victims may not understand the language, culture or laws of the United States, so victims are threatened by the traffickers that if they speak out or try to escape, they will be taken by other traffickers, arrested and deported. Victims have said that even though they wanted to escape, they were afraid the next trafficker or the police could be more brutal. With their current trafficker at least they knew what to expect. Traffickers tend to move victims, often suddenly without warning, and working and boarding locations are secret. Victims will not be able to establish connections or build trust with someone who might help them if they are moved frequently. They will not have enough time to become familiar with their environment or find avenues to escape or find help from law enforcement or social service agencies. If victims have documents, traffickers confiscate them to keep them from leaving. They are taught to avoid or lie to authorities to avoid physical punishment, and many victims avoid law enforcement law in the U.S. because they suffered from corruption by officials in their home country. The passage of TVPA resulted in the U.S. government certifying 131 minors and 1,248 adults from 77 different countries who were rescued and received assistance (Polaris Project, Human Trafficking Statistics, 2009). Immigrant communities may provide conditions that lead to smuggling and human trafficking because victims can be easily concealed within the greater immigrant communities unnoticed. Large immigrant communities become a pull factor for trafficking because potential victims may gravitate there. Large undocumented immigrant groups of Hispanic, Asian, African-Americans and Caucasian trafficking victims are found in established immigration communities across the U.S. Estimates of domestic victims Domestic trafficking involves U.S. citizens who are trafficked for purposes of labor or sex and includes paying subminimum wage, overtime violations, being forced to work “off the clock,” break violations, worker’s compensation violations, paycheck disputes, illegal deductions, or retaliation. These are handled by the Department of Labor, the Employee Rights Center, and other labor advocate organizations. Abuses turns into human trafficking when victims are forbidden to leave or quit their job. In many top 10 states, labor trafficking victims are American-born. A New York Times series on domestic labor tracking involved traveling magazine crews. In this form of trafficking, youths are forced to sell magazines across different states. The article focused on a young man who was part of a crew of 20 who took the job so he could see the United States during a six-month period. He worked in 10 states from 10 to 14 hours a day, six days a week and spent the night in cheap hotels with three other workers – one always sleeping on the floor. The crew earned $10 a day or less, but the money was never given to him and instead put “on the books.” The young man reported seeing others beaten by the manager or his workers and believed he would end up dead. He convinced his manager to let him go because of the many warrants he had received for selling subscriptions illegally across five states. The young man was taken 1,000 miles from home and dropped off with $17 (Urbina, 2007). Reporters for the Times series interviewed 50 other crew members, who told of debt bonding, violence, drug abuse and physical consequences for not making daily quotas or for too many warrants from the police. The crewmembers earned $15 per week because traffickers deducted the expense of their room and board. Managers often supplied drugs, and drug abuse was frequent among the crews. They reported starting work at 7 a.m. and usually worked until 10 p.m. In 1999, the National Consumers League Child Labor Coalition reported that approximately 30,000 youths were involved in these crews. Since the creation of the Human Trafficking Reporting System, more than 1,200 victims have been reported; 63 percent of those were U.S. citizens trafficked into the sex trade and 4 percent were labor trafficking victims. (Trafficking in Persons Report, 2009). It is difficult to estimate the number of U.S. citizens who are victims of labor trafficking, but they are older, while victims of sex trafficking are usually younger. Children involved in sex trafficking are referred to as “domestic minor sex trafficking” (DMST), and in 2009, it was estimated that 100,000 U.S. children were trafficked into the sex trade. The Department of Justice Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention estimated that 38,600 of the 1.7 million runaway/throwaway children were at risk of sexual exploitation or endangerment (2006). These youths often trade sex for money, food, drugs, or a place to stay, and are easy targets for commercial sexual exploitation known as “survival sex.” Other routes to commercial child exploitation include: ● ● Being recruited for pornography. ● ● Being sold on the Internet on Craigslist. ● ● Working in massage parlors. ● ● Recruitment or exploitation through modeling. ● ● Stripping or exotic dancing. ● ● Dancing auditions. ● ● Prostitution on the streets, in truck stops, adult bookstores, “cat houses” (prostitution houses) and conventions. ● ● Escort services, private parties and conventions. U.S. adults who are victims of sex trafficking are often arrested and charged with prostitution, loitering or solicitation. Law enforcement may spend little time determining whether these adults are victims of force, fraud or coercion from traffickers, and the victims usually will not tell them (Schauer and Wheaton, 2006). The Polaris Project (2010) includes the following details on domestic sex trafficking networks: ● ● Victims are U.S. citizens, adults and minors, including some Native Americans; the average age of recruitment is 12-17 years of age. ● ● Johns include men of all backgrounds. ● ● Victims are advertised through online sex ads, Internet classifieds, local newspapers, phone directories, word-of-mouth, and text messaging. ● ● Victims have a nightly quota of $200-$1,000 and must service an average of 7 to 15 men per day, with all money taken by the pimps/ traffickers. ● ● They are transported by individual cars or commercial transportation lines. National investigations of human trafficking include Operation Precious Cargo and Operation Cross Country I, II, III and IV. Operation Precious Cargo began in 2005 in Harrisburg, Pa., and resulted in identifying 151 victims of prostitution. At least 45 were prostituted as children, with the youngest just 12 years old. Of the 18 traffickers indicted in the Precious Cargo case, 16 were arrested and pleaded guilty, receiving sentences of up to 25 years in prison. Two traffickers were found guilty at trial and receive 35 and 45 years in prison. In addition to the 18 traffickers indicted in the Precious Massage.EliteCME.com Page 23