Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/97768
massage is legal; human trafficking is not What We're Dealing With orldwide, human trafficking is said to have more than 20 million victims at any one time,1 with its scope covering everything from forced labor in the wheat fields of Kansas to the enslavement of a 12-year-old in the commercial sex industry in California. Human trafficking is the second largest criminal industry in the world (second only to drug trafficking), and the fastest growing, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services.2 In our profession, it is sex trafficking, under the guise of massage, with which our name is most often associated. W Signs of Human Trafficking According to the Polaris Project, one of the leading organizations in the fight against human trafficking, "Women found in brothels disguised as massage businesses typically live on-site where they are confined and coerced into providing commercial sex to 6–10 men a day, seven days a week." The group estimates there are more than 5,000 of these fake massage businesses nationwide.1 Here are some telltale signs of illicit activity: 84 massage & bodywork • ll-male clientele A arrive late into the night. • indows and W doors are barred. • omen "working" W there have long fingernails, and may not wear appropriate attire. • nterior doors are I locked so people must be given access into back rooms. • ecurity cameras S monitor area activity. • indows are W blacked out. Note 1. olaris Project, accessed P December 2012, www.polarisproject.org. january/february 2013 The Polaris Project, one of the leading organizations in the fight against human trafficking, reports that sex trafficking often happens in massage parlors disguised as legitimate massage businesses. "[These parlors] operate as commercial-front brothels claiming to offer legitimate services such as massage, acupuncture, and other therapeutic, health, and spa services," the group says. And while these illegal massage parlors may actually offer nonsexual services like massage, "they are distinguishable from other legitimate massage businesses in that they provide commercial sex to customers as well."3 A Polaris Project fact sheet claims that these brothels conceal the commercial sex operation by registering and attempting to behave like legitimate businesses. "Unlike other informal underground brothels, these brothels create a veil of legitimacy by interfacing with, and operating within, normal government and regulatory infrastructures."4 As a result, sex trafficking, which involves the enslavement of a woman or child to provide commercial sex, is difficult to talk about, not only because of its despicable nature and its apparent ability to hide in plain sight, but because it's difficult to understand how trafficking differs from other layers of illicit activity going on in illegal businesses claiming to perform massage. Wasn't the conversation difficult enough when we were dealing with the difference between massage therapy businesses and the "massage parlor" across town where women choose to prostitute themselves using massage as their front? Now we must add to the confusion by having yet another criminal activity—sex trafficking—operating under the guise of massage. Which illegal business is offering sexual services from women who are of age and working by choice, and which is harboring and enslaving women and children as victims of sex trafficking? Our words only entangle us further. Why do regulations exist that address the legal protocol for "massage parlors" when they are—whether by offering illicit services or unlicensed massage— inherently illegal establishments to begin with? It's a regulatory catch-22. "Historically, massage parlors have been linked to prostitution, but investigations have proven that many [people] are trafficked and forced into working in these establishments," says Roger Patrizio, director of the Colorado Institute of Massage Therapy in Colorado Springs and founder of Touching the