Red X Podcast: Ending Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery Lance Olive

Host Nicole Bernard talks with Dr. Tasha Levert of Broomtree Counseling about the role of pornography in the world of human trafficking.

The Red X Podcast presents a special panel episode to explore the effect of the Coronavirus Pandemic on human trafficking and the anti-trafficking community. Guests include Leanne McCallum from the Greater New Orleans Human Trafficking Task Force, Melissa Rueschhoff  who worked in Hawaii's AG office as an analyst/special prosecutor in the ICAC unit (currently working with policy and is the legislative attorney for a state representative in Hawaii), and Nick Lembo coordinator for the Just Men Arizona/Epik Project and Shared Hope International board member.
This panel discussion focuses on how the Covid-19 pandemic and social isolation is impacting service providers, vulnerable populations, and demand.  Melissa says that anti-trafficking groups in HI have all had to shift from face to face conversations to online communication for their main service providers.
Mentoring and education programs have gone online; instead of meeting in person or in groups discussions and check-ins have moved to online platforms to serve clients. Leanne also says that phones and online platforms are replacing client meetings. She says that social distancing has affected how clients are able to get to appointments and services.  And, unfortunately some clients are not able to get housing at all. In order to protect victims from virus they’ve had to limit the number of clients they allow into shelters. One shelter in NOLA has had to make the difficult decision of only allowing victims under the age of 21 to be able to be housed in their shelter.
 
But what about demand? Nick explains that the EPIK Project was already working through online and phone platforms. A group of men cyberpatrol communities. In other words, they post decoy ads that men respond to and a cyberpatroler then interacts with that potential buyer and tries to educated them on the reality of what they are attempting to engage in. They have worked with law enforcement and survivors on the best ways to approach these men. Patrols typically employ 4-5 men. Information collected on these intercepted transactions are then reported to law enforcement. Nick says that a week prior to recording, buyers were still active in spite of growing national concerns about social distancing and spread of the virus.Nick was most interested in ads in Seattle, Washington the state in which was hard hit by the pandemic. He asked the men if they were concerned and they were not concerned about spread of virus. As Nick explains, “addictions don’t take holidays”. And although calls may have been down by about 10-15%, people who are home and have a lot of idle time are responding to decoy ads to purchase sex. Buyers are already taking risks and it seems that the threat of viral spread is not a deterrent.
Melissa has been in contact with Homeland Security. Her contact there also affirms that buyers and traffickers are still active and that law enforcement agents are still combatting them. However, they are expecting are a lot more children being at risk of child pornography and being lured from online sources now that children are home from school and on the internet. The longevity of social distancing measures gives perpetrators a chance to build a rapport with the victims through online communications—a main way of luring someone into trafficking. Victims often they believe they are in a relationship with the perpetrator. Law enforcement is also going online to intercept and combat these transactions.
Leanne says that isolation can lead to a variety of crimes. There’s an entire spectrum of abuse and violence that we may see because of the pandemic. Where there’s a lack of opportunity, people may turn to the gray economy. There will be employers who want to take advantage of people’s economic vulnerability. Demand is not just about commercial sex, it’s also about labor. We still need people to produce medical supplies, food, and other essential items. It’s possible some will use

Dr. Karen Lambie joins Lance and Nicole to talk about the foster care system and how it crosses paths with the trafficking of children.
Lance and Nicole welcome Sonya Edwards, a volunteer for Shield North Carolinaand foster mother. Sonya and Nicole interview Dr. Karen Lambie, a Shared HopeAmbassador on the link between foster care and human trafficking.
As the nation becomes more aware of human trafficking, it seems that the public’s reaction is to cling to tightly to their children in parks and stores. Media stories circulate about a mothers and young children followed in large businesses such as Costco or Ikea and the assumption is that kidnappers are lurking, ready to grab a toddler at the first instance that the mother looks away. But according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, less than 1% of missing children are from non-family abductions;and although those abductors have only nefarious intent, even that 1% is not comprised of all human trafficking. However, of the 23, 500 runaways reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, one in seven were trafficked.
Traffickers are typically looking for vulnerable youth to prey on. Children without homes or family. Kids who have already experienced neglect and abuse so that they can be more easily manipulated. Given those facts, it should come as no surprise that, according to the National Foster Youth Institute, 60% of trafficking victims have had the foster care system in their history. In 2018, there were more than 400,000 children in foster care.
In 2014, the US passed the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act, which requires each state’s plan for foster care and adoption assistance to develop policies and procedures for children within their care who might be trafficking victims. The Family First Prevention Actalso seeks to improve the quality of foster care by giving state agencies the option of using funds on prevention care for foster candidates to keep children placed with their families.
Although there are national and state efforts to improve the foster care system, more attention must be focused on preventing trafficking within the system. Foster children often run away from their placements, however it was until the past decade that states started passing legislation that mandated missing children from foster care be reported. Not all foster families or social workers are given adequate training on identifying the signs of human trafficking and in many states, there is a lack of resources for children who have been identified as trafficking victims.
Given the realities, to effectively address the exploitation of children, we must take a hard look at one of our country’s most burdened but overlooked social services: the foster system.
Dr. Karen Lambie has a PhD in educational psychology. There is a complex relationship between foster care and commercial sexual exploitation of children. As a foster parent, Karen learned about this connection as a foster mother. Karen had a young girl in her home who had become pregnant through her stepfather trafficking her for drug money. In her case, she was trafficked by a family member (familial sex trafficking) before she entered foster care. There are some foster parents that will actually traffic their foster children. Sonya had a child in her home who was trafficked by uncle in Texas. She was originally from Honduras and then sold to another ring in Tennessee.
Karen says that 60-80% of our trafficked children are in foster care or have been in foster care prior to. In considering children in general who are at-risk, adverse childhood events (ACE’s) must also be considered. ACE’s could be suicide of a family member, domestic violence, drug dependency, etc. These ACEs make children more vulnerable; ACE’s are often what puts children at risk of trafficking.
Foster children often want to run away in the foster care system. Running away puts t

Nicole Bernard of Shield NC and Erin Wallin report on their progress in Washington DC as they meet with influencers to help develop legislation and executive orders to help fight human trafficking and facilitate better restitution for survivors (i.e. victims).

Guest Leanne McCallum of the Greater New Orleans Human Trafficking Task Force. Zydeco. Christmas Tree. Sugar Bowl. Gators.

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