Massage & Bodywork

January/February 2013

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hiding in Plain sight situations, the victims may not speak English and the trafficker will confiscate their passports and any identification so it seems impossible to reach out for help. Victims may also be conditioned to believe no one cares about them, including the police. In fact, in many jurisdictions, it is still the victim who will be prosecuted if law enforcement intervenes. "If we're going to arrest the buyers, we're going to have people that … are very important … in one way or another," says Kaffie McCullough, director of Juvenile Justice Fund's "A Future, Not A Past" campaign. trafficker's web. The average age of entry into the commercial sex industry in this country is estimated to be 13 years old.4 These are girls and boys of all ethnicities, including those born in the United States. Victims are abused and manipulated in a number of ways over time, until their will to fight or escape is overcome. This gives the false impression that their lifestyles are acceptable to them, but that is largely not the case. There are several ways a victim can be made to stay. Force and Coercion. Vulnerable women and children may be sold by their families, kidnapped, imprisoned, beaten, starved, terrorized, raped, and induced into drug addiction until such a time as their compliance is achieved. Fraud and Deception. Victims may be tricked with false promises of protection from a violent home life, financial support, friendship, romance, marriage, or legitimate employment, and not realize their mistake until it is too late. Then shame, blackmail, and threats to the safety of the victim and the victim's loved ones are commonly used. International traffickers lure their victims far from home, and then tell them a large debt is owed for their transportation and ongoing living expenses. Because the trafficker keeps the books and sets the prices, the "debt" may actually increase, rather than decrease, over time. In these 76 massage & bodywork january/february 2013 Living Conditions. Isolation of victims, close supervision, and frequent movement across the country between operations are also tactics used to limit the opportunity to access help. An environment of instability and fear is created to further isolate the victims. With traffickers pulling in hundreds of dollars per day per victim, simple math indicates each individual under their control is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in earning potential over a few years. Nonetheless, proper nutrition and medical care are rarely provided, and these victims are often given only subsistence-level upkeep to get the maximum return from their bodies for minimal investment. Venereal disease is as prevalent as personal belongings are sparse. By using these multifaceted techniques to destroy victims' free will, physical restraint is effectively replaced by a real or perceived inability to escape. High-ranking causes of death among these populations include suicide, drug overdose, and murder at the hands of traffickers and buyers. The Buyers A Georgia study revealed 7,200 men per month in that state were knowingly or unknowingly paying for sex with a minor. These men were primarily suburban, upper-middle class, and Caucasian. "If we're going to arrest the buyers, we're going to have people that

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