WARNING: The material in this article is explicit and disturbing, and may be inappropriate for some readers.
What is Sex Trafficking?
Human trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery that affects both Americans and foreigners. Women and children are most at risk. Texas has become a hub for the international crime because of its interstate highways, bus stations, airports, shopping malls, large number of sexually oriented businesses, as well as its shared border with Mexico.
According to Texas-based advocacy group Children At Risk, it is estimated that one out of every three kids on the street is lured into sex trafficking within the first 48 hours away from home, indicating that at a minimum, 2,000 youth, age 10-16, are at risk of being trafficked in or from Dallas/Fort Worth each year.
The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 defines sex trafficking as “the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act” (“commercial” meaning, the giving or receiving of anything of value — i.e. money, drugs, shelter, food, clothes, etc. — to any person in exchange for a sex act). The law further defines severe forms of sex trafficking as “a commercial sex act induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such acts has not attained 18 years of age.” In other words, by our human trafficking laws, any child found in a commercial sex act has been “trafficked” by definition.
There are many cases of homeless youth in our city engaging in “survival sex” to secure food, housing, transportation, and other items just to survive on the streets. In the absence of a trafficker/pimp selling the youth, the perpetrator paying for the sex act with food, a bed, or a ride becomes by definition “the trafficker” and the situation is defined as “sex trafficking.” Most importantly, the child is defined as a “victim” of domestic minor sex trafficking.
Despite the connotations of the word, trafficking does not require proof of physical movement of the person. Thus, a person can be a victim of sex trafficking without ever leaving his/her home. Trafficking is a crime of exploitation.
Minor sex trafficking is a burgeoning criminal enterprise in America. Gangs are turning to prostituting minors as a less risky source of revenue than drug trafficking or other crimes. Traffickers of foreign victims into the U.S. are finding local, American children easier to recruit and sell without the difficulties of crossing borders. Local communities are being adversely affected with the loss of hundreds of thousands of children to this victimization.
Source: Taken from the Shared Hope International report on Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking.
“Is this not the fast which I choose, to loosen the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and break every yoke? Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into the house, when you see the naked, to cover him; and not to hide yourself from the needs of your own flesh and blood?” Isaiah 58: 6-7
Darla’s Story
Darla’s mother was addicted to drugs. She never knew her father. She was removed from her mother’s home when she was very young and was shuffled from one foster home to another. A relative of one of Darla’s foster families began sexually abusing her, convincing her she had used up all of the foster families in the system, and threatening that if she told anyone, she’d wind up on the streets. Darla turned to drugs and alcohol to numb the pain of yet another year of sexual abuse, and finally ran away at the age of 14.
Within 72 hours of running away, a pimp approached Darla and the usual process of “grooming” began. He promised her a stable life and things she’d never known before: that he’d care for her, that he would provide the things she’d never had — safety, security, nice things of her own. And then the nightmare began. Darla was beaten regularly, locked in a closet with no food or water for days, and raped repeatedly; all common tactics of physical and psychological “warfare” that results in complete submission. When the pimp turned Darla out onto the streets to begin “work,” she was too afraid to run away. If she wasn’t where she was supposed to be when he came back, she knew he would find her and kill her. He’d said so many times.
Over time, other girls were added to “the family,” and Darla became responsible for showing them the ropes. She would sometimes have to participate in their “punishment” if they defied the rules or disrespected “Daddy.”
This went on for ten years.
One night while working, Darla was brutally raped, beaten and stabbed. She lost four teeth in the attack. At the hospital, her pimp decided it would be too expensive to get her back in shape for business. After all, he had younger girls that made more money than she did. And that’s how Darla got out of the “business” — her pimp abandoned her in the hospital after she failed to bring home her quota.
Darla made it on her own for a while, making a living out of a hotel room where she lived. When she got pregnant, she decided she couldn’t continue the life she’d been living. That’s when Darla came to New Friends New Life for help. She says it took six months before she’d really trust anybody there and kept waiting for the “strings attached” part to kick in. Darla finally realized it wasn’t a trick, that there weren’t any strings attached except things like going to counseling, meeting with the other women on Wednesday nights, meeting with her Advocate, and being responsible with the money she received for living expenses. But those were strings that brought freedom instead of bondage.
Today, Darla has a beautiful 2-year-old daughter, has gotten her GED and has been certified as a nurse assistant. And, she’s proud of herself. In the fall, she’d like to enroll in college to pursue her nursing degree. Darla has realized that her past does not have to dictate her future, and that circumstances beyond her control led her down a path she would not have chosen for herself. And, last spring, Darla trusted Jesus with her life. It came to her one day that he loved her, accepted her, forgave her and had provided for her — all because of her experience through the ministry of New Friends New Life. These were women who loved and served Jesus, and who in turn had loved and served her. She saw him through his people, and now she is one of them.
There is Hope
There are many local organizations committed to fighting the crisis of sexual exploitation. For more information on human trafficking and ways to get involved, visit:
New Friends New Life
newfriendsnewlife.org
Traffick911
traffick911.org
Mosaic Family Services, Inc.
mosaicservices.org
The Letot Center
dallascouty.org
And, watch for ways IBC will be addressing the sex trafficking crisis in future issues of Chatter.
