FAQs about Sex Trafficking
What is sex trafficking?
Sex trafficking is defined by the U.S. Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000:
"Sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such an act has not attained 18 years of age; or the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery. A victim need not be physically transported from one location to another in order for the crime to fall within these definitions."
Sex trafficking rings often have "recruiters" that seek out potential victims through a variety of means. Victims might be promised employment as a waitress or maid, or offered a contract as a model or actress. Recruiters also pose as love interests, either kidnapping girls on dates or convincing her to participate in a prostitution ring out of love for him. Recruiters also travel to small, rural villages and promise parents that their child will be given a job and the opportunity for an education. The girls, enticed under false pretenses, unknowingly enter into a life of sexual slavery.
Does trafficking exist in Macon, GA?
The circumstances of the women in Macon's brothels is consistent with those seen in previous cases of sex trafficking in Asian massage parlors in the United States. As such, an investigation into sex tarfficking is warranted. Trafficking is pervasive in Atlanta's Asian Massage Parlor's (AMP's), in New York's AMP's, in San Francisco's AMP's, and in Los Angeles's AMP's. It could be that Macon is home to the most humane massage parlors in the nation. But the odds are against it.
Why does sex trafficking exist?
Demand, demand, demand. Demand of cheap sex fuels the rise of the sex trafficking industry. Unlike many other commodities, human beings can be used over and over again by many different customers (johns), thus making the trafficking of human beings a very lucrative business. Lowering the demand of sexual services from trafficked women and children is imperative to ending the sex trafficking industry.
What is the average age of sex trafficking victims?
The average age of victims when they are first pulled into a trafficking situation ranges from 11-14. The actual ages of boys, girls, and women who are currently being trafficked can range from 9 to mid-40s.
Why don't the victims of sex trafficking leave?
Trafficked women are controlled in every way. Most traffickers both threaten trafficking victims and their families, and teach these women to fear the police--something not difficult to accomplish given police corruption in many Southeast Asian nations. Some trafficking victims are even unaware that debt slavery is against the law. The chains on these women and children are not physical chains, and they do not have to be. The trafficker's greatest weapon is fear. These women are terrified to speak out against their captors. "I was afraid because I was in another country," sex-trafficking survivor Kika Cerpa explains: "I didn’t speak English, I didn’t know the law, I didn’t want to be deported, I didn’t want people to tell my parents."
How much money does the sex trafficking industry make annually?
The trafficking industry makes around 3.2 billion dollars annually from the buying, selling, and exploitation of human beings. We believe that ranking violent crime in a hierarchy is counter-productive and inhumane: all violent crimes and all human rights violations should be taken seriously by law enforcement and citizens alike.
Why don't we just arrest the johns?
Good question. Technically, anyone seeking the services of a prostitute is supposed to be arrested. Law enforcement officers across the country frequently overlook these criminals and instead arrest the women who are being prostituted or trafficked. Demand cannot be cut off if johns have no fear of retribution. It is important to put pressure on local and federal law enforcement officers to arrest every person who is caught soliciting the services of a prostituted woman.
Why don't the police spend their time on "real" crimes, like robbery or rape, and leave massage spas alone?
Sex trafficking is robbery and rape of the worst kind, and it deserves the attention given to the worst crimes.
What do you look for to identify victims of trafficking?
Here are some questions you can ask to help you identify sex trafficking:
1. Do the prostituted women have little or no knowledge of
English?
2. Do they have passports, or were their passports taken
from them until their debt is discharged? (It doesn’t matter
if they say that they lost it.)
3. Do they offer sexual services only on site, thus reducing
their chances of escaping?
4. Are they unable to travel without enforcers/guards?
5. Are they unable to be a part of the community– are they
never seen except in the massage parlors?
6. Is it a 24-hour parlor or spa? Beds onsite? An area of the
spa you can’t see?
7. Do they move from parlor to parlor, never setting roots in
one place?
What happens if we shut down the massage parlors in Macon?
Even if Macon cracks down on every single AMP in Georgia, they will move down the road, as they already have, to Warner Robbins, GA or to Jessup, GA, just as they moved here when Clayton County cracked down on them. This is a local problem. This is a state-wide problem. This is a national problem. And this is an international problem. It is destroying the lives of millions of young women and their families. Thinking that we can rid Macon of massage parlors and, in so doing end our involvement in the fight against human trafficking, is like thinking that we can save our own house from a forest fire that is burning throughout Georgia and much of the world. We're going to need more fire-fighters. And that's where you can help.
What can I do to help combat trafficking?
Get informed and tell a friend! Be a volunteer, donate time or money. Be in this for the long haul. The only way to fight human trafficking of any kind is with a patient, determined, coordinated, and sustained effort – one that links Maconites to the national and international movement to fight human trafficking.