AEquitas Podcasts

AEquitas

This is the home of podcasts from AEquitas, a nonprofit advancing justice for victims of sexual violence, domestic violence, stalking, exploitation, and trafficking. Just Champions, hosted by CEO Jennifer Long, features prosecutors offering insight and strategies for achieving justice in even the most complex cases. The Traffick Report, hosted in Season 1 by Miiko Anderson, analyzes challenges in human trafficking responses and elevates evidence-based strategies through survivors, prosecutors, law enforcement, and their multidisciplinary partners.

  1. 6d ago

    Fair Labor Units and Labor Trafficking

    The Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office is trying to redefine the front lines of Labor Trafficking. Lou Longhitano sits down with Heather Rowe to explore how Fair Labor Units and non-traditional law enforcement partners including: inspectors, licensing, and regulatory investigators often have more access and experience to identify cases of forced labor than traditional law enforcement. For More Information: AEquitas resource, “Leveraging Attorney General Offices' Varied Roles in Combating Labor Trafficking”  AEquitas webinar, “State-Level Responses to Labor Trafficking” Massachusetts OAG’s RESULT (Recognize and Evaluate Signs to Uncover Labor Trafficking) a web-based tool to help identify victims of forced labor: https://www.mass.gov/info-details/result-recognize-and-evaluate-signs-to-uncover-labor-trafficking https://www.epi.org/publication/fighting-workplace-abuses-criminal-prosecutions-of-wage-theft-and-other-employer-crimes-against-workers/  This podcast discusses the violent crime of human trafficking and related crimes of sexual violence, domestic violence, and stalking. If you need support, please call: The National Domestic Violence Hotline, RAINN, and The Human Trafficking Hotline. If you'd like more info about AEquitas visit: https://aequitasresource.org or email us at: info@aequitasresource.org. Follow AEquitas on Instagram @aequitas_resource This Season of The Traffick Report is funded by a generous grant from the Howard G. Buffett Foundation. The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in this podcast do not necessarily reflect the views of the Howard G. Buffett Foundation.

    Fair Labor Units and Labor Trafficking
  2. Oct 20

    Domestic Servitude and the J-1 Visa Program

    Domestic servitude is one of the least visible forms of labor trafficking, often hidden behind the doors of private homes. Jane Anderson is joined by survivor leader Patty Bennett, who shares her experience of being trafficked through the J-1 visa program and the warning signs that went unrecognized, even during encounters with law enforcement. Together, they explore how traffickers exert control without physical violence, the challenges of identifying victims in isolated settings, and how practitioners can better recognize and respond to trafficking occurring within the home. For More Information: Patty’s book: Trauma Resilient Leadership®: How Lived Experience is Reshaping Responsibility, Power and the Way we Lead at Work can be found here: https://a.co/d/00IGygVG Patty’s website:  https://www.pattybennettcoaching.com Website, “Exchange Visitor Visa” Article, “‘I’d Never Let My Sister Do It’: Exploitation within the U.S. Au Pair Program” Report, “Foreign students recruited as au pairs face abuse in U.S.” AEquitas resource, “Leveraging Attorney General Offices' Varied Roles in Combating Labor Trafficking”  AEquitas webinar, “State-Level Responses to Labor Trafficking” This podcast discusses the violent crime of human trafficking and related crimes of sexual violence, domestic violence, and stalking. If you need support, please call: The National Domestic Violence Hotline, RAINN, and The Human Trafficking Hotline. If you'd like more info about AEquitas visit: https://aequitasresource.org or email us at: info@aequitasresource.org. Follow AEquitas on Instagram @aequitas_resource This Season of The Traffick Report is funded by a generous grant from the Howard G. Buffett Foundation. The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in this podcast do not necessarily reflect the views of the Howard G. Buffett Foundation.

    Domestic Servitude and the J-1 Visa Program
  3. Oct 13

    Forced Criminality: Forced Labor in Illicit Businesses

    Forced criminality occurs when traffickers use force, fraud, or coercion to compel victims to work for the trafficker’s profit, but the work they are doing is itself illegal. This makes it even harder for victims to escape or report their exploitation, because they too may be prosecuted. Lou Longhitano sits down with FBI Supervisory Special Agent Ashley Kizler to examine the case of US v. Tracie Dickey and the investigative strategies that uncovered the trafficking behind the criminal conduct. Together, they explore victim identification, victim-centered investigation, and how prosecutors and investigators can support victims and hold traffickers accountable. For More Information: Agriculture’s Growing Problem: Labor Trafficking in the Illicit Cannabis Industry https://assets.aequitasresource.org/documents/Agricultures-Growing-Problem.pdf The Victor Rax Case: Forced-Criminality-Through-the-Lens-of-the-Victor-Rax-Case.pdf Victor Rax presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGaNf-gnS4w  Tracie Dickey - DOJ Press release: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndil/pr/woman-sentenced-12-years-federal-prison-coercing-members-church-ministry-forced-labor This podcast discusses the violent crime of human trafficking and related crimes of sexual violence, domestic violence, and stalking. If you need support, please call: The National Domestic Violence Hotline, RAINN, and The Human Trafficking Hotline. If you'd like more info about AEquitas visit: https://aequitasresource.org or email us at: info@aequitasresource.org. Follow AEquitas on Instagram @aequitas_resource This Season of The Traffick Report is funded by a generous grant from the Howard G. Buffett Foundation. The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in this podcast do not necessarily reflect the views of the Howard G. Buffett Foundation.

    Forced Criminality: Forced Labor in Illicit Businesses
  4. Oct 6

    The H-2A Visa Program and Labor Trafficking

    The H-2A visa program provides an important source of seasonal agricultural labor, but traffickers can exploit its structure to recruit and control vulnerable workers. Jane Anderson sits down with Georgia Bureau of Investigation prosecutor Diane McLeod to explore how seemingly legitimate labor practices can cross the line into trafficking. Using the landmark “Onion Case,” they examine the indicators that helped uncover the exploitation, the investigative partnerships and financial evidence that strengthened the case, and the strategies behind one of the country’s largest labor trafficking prosecutions. For More Information: AEquitas resource, “Leveraging Attorney General Offices' Varied Roles in Combating Labor Trafficking”  AEquitas webinar, “State-Level Responses to Labor Trafficking” Article, “Workers fight for and deliver justice: Traffickers sentenced to federal prison in landmark case” Article, “A human-trafficking case exposed farmworker abuses. The government is promising change” Website, “H-2A Temporary Agricultural Workers” Press Release about the Los Villatoros case: “Mexican National Pleads Guilty to Racketeering Conspiracy Involving the Forced Labor of Mexican Workers” This podcast discusses the violent crime of human trafficking and related crimes of sexual violence, domestic violence, and stalking. If you need support, please call: The National Domestic Violence Hotline, RAINN, and The Human Trafficking Hotline. If you'd like more info about AEquitas visit: https://aequitasresource.org or email us at: info@aequitasresource.org. Follow AEquitas on Instagram @aequitas_resource This Season of The Traffick Report is funded by a generous grant from the Howard G. Buffett Foundation. The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in this podcast do not necessarily reflect the views of the Howard G. Buffett Foundation.

    The H-2A Visa Program and Labor Trafficking
  5. Sep 29

    Recognizing Labor Trafficking Involving Victims with Disabilities

    People with physical, intellectual, and developmental disabilities face unique risks for labor trafficking, yet these cases often go unidentified. Lou Longhitano is joined by former DOJ prosecutor Lindsey Roberson to examine the case of US v. Bobby Edwards and the challenges of recognizing exploitation disguised as care, employment, or opportunity. Together, they discuss victim-centered investigations, working with survivors with disabilities, and how prosecutors can distinguish legitimate support from criminal exploitation. Lindsey Roberson is a seasoned trial attorney, having prosecuted many of the first human trafficking cases in the state of North Carolina.She had a hand in strengthening that state’s human trafficking laws.She went on to prosecute both sex and labor trafficking cases across the US on behalf of the US Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.And she serves as an adjunct professor of law at UNC Wilmington. For More Information: Summary about the Kozminski case: https://traffickinginstitute.org/on-this-day-in-history-united-states-v-kozminski/  The Edwards indictment: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/10/12/white-restaurant-manager-enslaved-black-man-for-years-federal-prosecutors-say/ About the guilty plea: https://www.npr.org/2018/06/07/617911813/s-c-man-pleads-guilty-to-enslaving-mentally-disabled-man On the sentencing: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/11/07/white-restaurant-owner-admitted-enslaving-black-man-years-he-got-years-prison/ On the sentencing: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/08/us/bobby-paul-edwards-conway.html About the outcome of the 4th Cir. opinion on liquidating the restitution damages: https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/03/us/south-carolina-man-forced-work-restitution-doubled-trnd  This podcast discusses the violent crime of human trafficking and related crimes of sexual violence, domestic violence, and stalking. If you need support, please call: The National Domestic Violence Hotline, RAINN, and The Human Trafficking Hotline. If you'd like more info about AEquitas visit: https://aequitasresource.org or email us at: info@aequitasresource.org. Follow AEquitas on Instagram @aequitas_resource This Season of The Traffick Report is funded by a generous grant from the Howard G. Buffett Foundation. The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in this podcast do not necessarily reflect the views of the Howard G. Buffett Foundation.

    Recognizing Labor Trafficking Involving Victims with Disabilities
  6. Sep 22

    The Unaccompanied Minor Sponsorship Program and Labor Trafficking

    The Unaccompanied Minor Sponsorship Program is intended to place children with safe sponsors while they await immigration proceedings - but vulnerabilities in the system can be exploited by traffickers. Jane Anderson sits down with immigration attorney Emma Buckthal, who represented victims in a labor trafficking case in Dunkirk, New York, where a trafficker exploited the sponsorship process to gain access to vulnerable workers. Their conversation explores how the trafficker used coercion and abuse - including the sexual abuse of a minor - to exploit workers, and how a multidisciplinary response ultimately helped protect victims and hold the trafficker accountable. For More Information: AEquitas resource, “Leveraging Attorney General Offices' Varied Roles in Combating Labor Trafficking”  AEquitas webinar, “State-Level Responses to Labor Trafficking” Press Release, “Dunkirk man going to prison for 30 years for labor trafficking and kidnapping” Office of Refugee Resettlement website This podcast discusses the violent crime of human trafficking and related crimes of sexual violence, domestic violence, and stalking. If you need support, please call: The National Domestic Violence Hotline, RAINN, and The Human Trafficking Hotline. If you'd like more info about AEquitas visit: https://aequitasresource.org or email us at: info@aequitasresource.org. Follow AEquitas on Instagram @aequitas_resource This Season of The Traffick Report is funded by a generous grant from the Howard G. Buffett Foundation. The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in this podcast do not necessarily reflect the views of the Howard G. Buffett Foundation.

    The Unaccompanied Minor Sponsorship Program and Labor Trafficking
  7. May 18

    Consent, Capacity to Consent, and Coercion: Prosecutorial Insights from I May Destroy You

    AEquitas Senior Attorney Advisor Jon Kurland examines I May Destroy You, Michaela Cole’s unflinching portrayal of alcohol-facilitated sexual assault, involuntary intoxication, and rape. Drawing on Jon’s decades of prosecutorial experience, they break down how the law defines consent and how intoxication—voluntary or involuntary—impacts consent.   They explore the investigative challenges presented by memory gaps, how prosecutors handle cases where the victim may have only partial recall of the assault, how prosecutors work with or prepare to cross-examine toxicologists and other experts, and the importance of explaining victim behavior to fact-finders without reinforcing harmful stereotypes. The conversation also highlights how sexual assault against male victims is minimized or misunderstood, and what prosecutors can do to ensure all victims receive a trauma-informed and just response. We discuss what I May Destroy You gets right about disclosure, offender behavior, and the communication of consent—and what practitioners can learn from it to strengthen investigations, improve courtroom practice, and advance justice for all sexual violence survivors. For more information: Where to watch the HBO Limited Series I May Destroy You is available here.Prosecuting Alcohol Facilitated Sexual Assault, authored by the late Teresa P. Scalzo, Esq. (1969-2016), was one of the first comprehensive publications to offer strategies in these complex cases; this expert resource remains relevant today. Visit AEquitasResource.org to access The ABCs of BAC: Toxicology for Prosecutors and Investigators and the expert publication “Stop it: Now”: Charging Considerations in the Prosecution of Rape Following a Revocation of Consent. Senior Attorney Advisor, Jonathan Kurland’s bio can be found here.This podcast discusses the violent crimes of sexual violence, domestic violence, stalking, and human trafficking. If you need support, please call: The National Domestic Violence Hotline, RAINN, and The National Trafficking Hotline If you'd like more info about AEquitas visit: https://aequitasresource.org/ or email us at: info@aequitasresource.org. Follow AEquitas on Instagram @aequitas_resource

    Consent, Capacity to Consent, and Coercion: Prosecutorial Insights from I May Destroy You
  8. May 11

    Understanding Stalking Through an Examination of the Netflix Series You: A Prosecutor’s Approach

    Assistant State Attorney and Intimate Partner Violence Specialist Kristina Mills joins to examine the Netflix series You and its portrayal of stalking behaviors, including surveillance, life invasion, intimidation, and interference. Using the first episode as a case study, they highlight why stalking behaviors are often minimized or dismissed as “romantic gestures”. Through You’s depiction of Joe’s method of victim selection, incessant victim blaming, creepy invasion of Beck’s privacy, and methodically orchestrated “surprise” appearances, audiences begin to understand the danger and distress stalkers pose to their victims.      Kristina breaks down strategies prosecutors use to identify lethality indicators in victim reports, and explains to factfinders how stalkers abuse positive behaviors like listening and offering support or assistance to obtain information about the victims, which they then use to control or surveil them.  She also shares practical strategies for building stalking cases: reconstructing timelines, spotting intent in digital evidence, documenting repeated conduct, and using motions in limine and other-acts evidence to show a pattern of control. This conversation shines a light on the realities of stalking—and the legal tools available to hold offenders accountable and keep victims safe. For more information: The Netfix series You served as a case study in stalking behaviors for this episode.Assistant State Attorney and Intimate Partner Violence Specialist Kristina Mills’ bio is available at Linkedin. Please visit AEquitasResource.org to find on-demand trainings, articles, amicus briefs, and request expert assistance including AEquitas’ Prosecutor’s’ Guide to Stalking.Expert Resources on Stalking, including a Discussion Guide for the entire You series are available at Stalking Prevention and Awareness Center (SPARC), a project of AEquitas. This podcast discusses the violent crimes of sexual violence, domestic violence, stalking, and human trafficking. If you need support, please call: The National Domestic Violence Hotline, RAINN, and The National Trafficking Hotline If you'd like more info about AEquitas visit: https://aequitasresource.org/ or email us at: info@aequitasresource.org. Follow AEquitas on Instagram @aequitas_resource

    Understanding Stalking Through an Examination of the Netflix Series You: A Prosecutor’s Approach

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About

This is the home of podcasts from AEquitas, a nonprofit advancing justice for victims of sexual violence, domestic violence, stalking, exploitation, and trafficking. Just Champions, hosted by CEO Jennifer Long, features prosecutors offering insight and strategies for achieving justice in even the most complex cases. The Traffick Report, hosted in Season 1 by Miiko Anderson, analyzes challenges in human trafficking responses and elevates evidence-based strategies through survivors, prosecutors, law enforcement, and their multidisciplinary partners.

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