AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION - UNSEEN VICTIMS OF SEX TRAFFICKING - MEN AND BOYS Homeless men were often boys who were trafficked.
EXCERPT: Boys and men who have trafficked present with issues that are similar to many victims of complex trauma; poverty, sexual abuse, violence or living in a home where substance abuse takes place. Behaviors can include drug use, running away, depression, anxiety, and Opposition behavior disorders.
COVENANT HOUSE works in the United States, Canada, and CENTRAL AMERICA.
Their focus is on youth, often HOMELESS YOUTH, who are especially targeted. I know from research that HOMELESS YOUTH are often YOUTH who were in FOSTER CARE.
EXCERPT: Why do human traffickers target kids facing homelessness? Because these young people present a low-risk business proposition and are relatively easy to lure from the streets with promises of love, protection, food, and financial security. Because of their vulnerability, children and teens with no place to call home and no one to care for them make easy prey for traffickers. ... As one of our case workers says, "Trafficking is more than selling sex. Trafficking is young people being physically and sexually assaulted. Trafficking is torture. It means victims being kept up for days. It means forced starvation. Recovery for victims is long and complicated, and takes the efforts of a lot of good people."
I've been to Hollywood Boulevard area a few times. It's a tourist trap. Many of the runaway teens, teens who often ran because they were being abused at home, are picked up as prostitutes in that area. There's a high rate of disease including AIDS.
I saw a girl with a huge dufflebag sitting on the sidewalk, just off the bus, and a woman talking to her, asking her what kind of work she could do. Because this woman was not dressed as a professional, not wearing any badge or ID, I wondered if she was a procurer.
If you're a teen runaway reading this and someone approaches you offering help, ask for the person's business card. Do not go with them. Go to the location on the card another time. See if other young people are going in and out. Talk to them and find out what the place is about. Is it real? What does it look like from the outside? Does it have signage? Windows? Lights?
Try to arrive with some money. A youth hostel is the least expensive option. Try to stay at such a place at least a month and apply for jobs. Fast food work is often easy to obtain. Get out of the Hollywood area if possible. This doesn't mean you'll be safe. But you will be out of an area where there's a lot of procurement, prostitution, pimps. It's not just tourists. Locals pick up kids too.
Options for being safer at night include staying up all night in a fast food restaurant or waiting room at a hospital. Unfortunately thousands are homeless on the streets in California and shelter waiting lists are long. So really I want to discourage anyone without at least $20,000 from moving here without a job and housing lined up.
POLARIS IS TRYING TO UNDERSTAND AND DISRUPT SEX TRAFFICKING NETWORKS.
Here are some myths: That it's always a violent crime. (Though I tend to think what happens to the enslaved person is a violence.) That all human trafficking involves commercial sex. (It can be other forms of slave labor.) THAT TRAFFICKERS TARGET VICTIMS THEY DON'T KNOW. (In other words the trafficer does know the person intended to be enslaved.)
TO GET HELP, REPORT A TIP ABOUT A POTENTIAL CASE OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING, FIND SERVICE REFERRALS FOR VICTIMS OF TRAFFICKING, OR REQUEST TRAINING OR TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE link here.
THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL HUMAN TRAFFICKING HOTLINE
888-373-7888
Or TEXT "BeFree" (233733) via live chat or email.
Services are available toll free 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
QUESTION FOR MISSY
Hi Missy,
My 20 year old daughter has a long distance boyfriend, 23, Lance, now in the military. She's a waitress for a chain restaurant that features skinny young women in very tight short shorts over hosiery, a bra that makes as much as possible of her teeny assets, and a t-shirt over that. She's a pretty girl. She works really hard and is making hundreds in tips, very good. I was talking to her about putting some of this money in an account for her future, after all she's been lucky to have only been out of work and on unemployment a short while due to Covid-19, plus all that government money to supplement, but who knows.
She surprised me by saying in an off-handed way that "Rick" puts a hundred dollars a month or so into her bank account electronically. Rick?
She said that the last time her boyfriend Lance texted while she was out shopping with her girlfriend, he sent her a couple hundred and told her to buy herself something special. So, she says, she is not hurting.
I don't like it. My daughter ditched her college plans to be a high-earning waitress but she's using her sex appeal and putting up with rowdy bunches of men to get those tips. She is putting up with sexual harassment by customers.
Looks don't last.
I don't like that her Lance is sending her money when they are not engaged and she has no ring on her finger. I'm mostly upset about this Sugar Daddy, Rick. He was or is one of the customers. She says she's keeping it platonic.
I say, if it's platonic he would not be playing Sugar Daddy and to close up that bank account and stop letting him fantasize that he has her.
Your opinion is?
Beverly in Los Angeles
ANSWER FROM MISSY
Hi Beverly,
Lance is treating her like a Mistress or Wife. Due to his service he probably can't go out shopping to buy her a personal gift, a wooing gift, which would be preferable, as would be sending flowers, love letters and "I'm Thinking of You" cards. My guess is that he is more serious about her than she may be about him. After all, when a woman is seriously interested in only one man, she tells other men, such as the Sugar Daddy, that she has a boyfriend. She may even claim to have a boyfriend when she does not to end the fantasies of someone she does not want to lead on that she is available.
I agree that the Sugar Daddy is probably at least having a fantasy about having her, even as she sees it she's platonic friends with him.
So many ifs, buts, howevers though.
We don't know if the Sugar Daddy is a rich octogenarian who laughs his way to the bank as he sends a number of women money electronically every month, thinking "if only I were younger" or a studly young man with a thing for only her. Maybe he's a hard working man of her generation who sees his monetary contribution to her welfare a preamble and is waiting to ask her to marry him when he's made his first million. We don't know if this money sent comes from someone who barely misses it or is shirking his responsibilities to pay child support. We know nothing.
So talk to your daughter and ask her what all she knows about the Sugar Daddy. She should know his full name, his address, his relationship status - is he married, divorced, a player? After all, he knows her name, where she works, and her personal banking. He may know her car and plate info and where she lives. He may have followed her. He may have paid a PI.
Tell her platonic friendships are platonic from both sides. Has she actually communicated to him that she is only interested in friendship and has a boyfriend? To be honest, she should.
If she did, would the money stop coming in? My guess is yes.
If she just closed the bank account without talking to him and explaining she can no longer accept his money, would he be disappointed or even angry.? My guess is yes.
Let's face it that she gave him the wiring information to her bank account. If she did not that would be invasive of him. That also communicated something to him. Such as that she is impoverished, is not making enough money to be independent and self support, or that she is interested in him, that they have a relationship. If this same person came into the restaurant once a month, sat at her table, had a coffee and left her a hundred dollar tip, I would think that flirty and excessive but not the same as having her bank information.
Yes, I agree that looks don't last and should not be dependent upon for life, that education and a career are important too. Yet, she is so young, and pretty, and hardworking, and she needs to negotiate life on her own terms and discover her own values. So explain why you're worried but also express that you know it's her life.
Missy
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In the United States call 407-300-8971
Started by a couple in Florida, now with international reach, BIKERS AGAINST TRAFFICKING began operating in 2016. EVERY THIRTY SECONDS SOMEONE BECOMES A NEW VICTIM OF TRAFFICKING.
EXCERPT: We help extricate those stuck in the life, we provide counseling - help- resources and are in the process of raising money to provide housing for those who have survived. We also have a specialized part of BAT that works behind the scenes to eliminate the demand side.
Modern day slavery, or human trafficking exists whenever people are bought and sold for forced labor, organs, forced marriage, and commercial sex.
Missy here : Note that the definition of slavery is not only about sex trafficking. My understanding is that many of the people who pick our crops are enslaved. In some places, a person might be forced to have surgery to remove one or more of their organs to be sold, and forced marriage is part of some cultures...
I like that the stereotype of bikers is totally busted by these people.
Please understand that slaves are moved around and sold at big gatherings such as biker meet ups. Bikers Against Trafficking people are a presence at meets. That's terrific!
I first heard about the situation in Canada on YouTube videos - a couple hours in which Richard Syrette featured Shae Invidiata, who started this nonprofit at the age of 18, when she was first exposed to the realities of prostitution in Hawaii. Based in Ontario, this is the premier nonprofit working to end sex trafficking in Canada but understand - trafficked Canadians are moved out of Canada. Many years into this quest Shae spoke of the terrible reality and frankly and brought tears to my eyes. It's because of these interviews that I knew that I had to make MISTRESS MANIFESTO BLOGSPOT part of the solution by making my readers aware.
I listened to these YouTube videos of the Interview with Shae that Richard did TWICE. Be prepared to have your heart break. In this interview we learn that there are (at least) 37 million people - the population of Canada - working as slaves in this world. And the traffickers make more than the profits of Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon combined! In Canada, you might assume that the people trafficked are all women, but they are 80 percent women and girls. There are South East Asians and Europeans trafficked but 87% of the slaves are Canadians.
Why have criminals decided to use other human's bodies instead of running drugs or selling illegal arms? Because it is more lucrative. A BODY CAN BE REUSED so a Trafficked girl or woman will have sex 15-20 times a day, every day. On ONE such slave, a trafficker makes $250,000-$300,00 a year. On a stable of 10 to 20 slaves - well, you do the math. Who is this criminal? Often it is a 18-22 year old.
A thirteen year old girl can be the victim of a man, 18- 30 years old usually - who starts out pretending to be her boyfriend, wooing her and grooming her. A Big Lie is that he has a job for her in the city, away from rural poverty.
On the first date he will ask questions to be sure she can be victimized, questions about her family. He will make a girl feel loved and special. She will sleep with him. Then he'll ask her to sleep with a friend of his too. Or he may tell her that she has to pay him back for all that money he spent on her. He may film her having sex and threaten to show friends, parents, the world. He will get her on alcohol or drugs to further control her.
BUT THE TRAFFICKED GIRL MAY STILL BE LIVING AT HOME!
There are 50,000 MISSING CHILDREN IN CANADA. 800,000 IN THE UNITED STATES.
Shae Invidiata states that if a body isn't found in a week or so, she feels sure, after working at this cause for 17 years, that the missing person is being trafficked.
Missy here: Many women have only one or two lovers in their entire lives and these are men who love them. Imagine what it is to have more men violating your body in one day than a woman might have lovers she chooses in her entire lifetime.
1-855-850-4640
1-833-900-1010
canadianhumantraffickinghotline.ca
The Forget Me Not flower icons used this month are from Public domain pictures.net
