Last week I met a woman here in Chicago who was hand-cuffed to a bed from ages 15 to 17, where she was raped and beaten daily. When her pimp finally put her on the street, she fled. Today she advocates on behalf of human-trafficking victims and does outreach work with The Dreamcatcher Foundation. She is one of tens of thousands of girls forced into sexual slavery here in Chicago.
Hearing from her, as well as a panel of experts in the field of human-trafficking in Chicago, rattled me. I'm shocked at what's going on here in Chicago - right under our noses. The panel, organized by Traffick Free, included: a policy advisor from the cook county state's attorney's office (Jennifer Greene), Detective Alan Krok from the CPD (who by the way is the ONLY CHICAGO DETECTIVE ASSIGNED TO COVER HUMAN TRAFFICKING), the program manager from the Salvation Army's STOP-IT (Erin Knowles Wirsing), and the founder of the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation (Rachel Durchslag).
The biggest kicker: we wouldn't have such a rampant supply of sex slaves and forced prostitutes if we didn't provide the demand.
In a nutshell, here is the legal definition and topline of what's happening in Chicago right under our noses. (Taken directly from EndDemandIllinois.org):
Prostitution and trafficking in Illinois:
The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, defines "sex trafficking" (iv) as "the recruitment, harboring, transportation, providing, or obtaining of a person for a commercial sex act," and defines severe forms of trafficking in persons as "sex trafficking" which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or the person induced to perform such an act has not attained 18 years of age. (v) Illinois is a source, transit, and destination state for transnational trafficking as well as the internal trafficking of U.S. citizens and foreign nationals. Chicago's central geographic location, regionally divided and often insular ethnic communities, transportation infrastructure, and the O'Hare International Airport make the city an ideal location for traffickers to bring victims into Illinois and transport them to other cities and states. Labor and sex trafficking cases have also been reported in suburban communities and rural areas throughout Illinois. Due to the covert nature of the crime and high levels of underreporting, the total number of trafficking victims in Illinois is difficult to determine.
173 calls from Illinois were made to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center in 2008. Illinois generated the fifth highest number of calls, preceded only by New York and the border states of Texas, California and Florida. (vi) While trafficking may be prevalent in other industries as well, trafficking within the sex industry is pervasive and inherent. Recent interviews conducted in Chicago with young women and girls who were under the control of pimps and traffickers confirm the link between sex trafficking and prostitution. Those interviewed were recruited into prostitution through fraud and deception and were then maintained through force, fraud, coercion, manipulation and economic exploitation. Pimps transported one-third to other cities and states for the purposes of selling sex (vii). The men to whom these women and girls are sold to perpetuate and perpetrate abuse, thereby maintaining these victims in an everlasting cycle of harm (viii). Traffickers and pimps target girls who have experienced high rates of child sexual abuse. Recent interviews with five ex-pimps in Chicago document their practices of recruiting girls as young as 14 from among the needy, and controlling them by retaining all their earnings (ix). Often times they target women and girls from impoverished communities who have little or no options to escape poverty.
Many of these pimps "supplied" women and girls to strip clubs and escort services for the purposes of selling sex. (x) Recent interviews conducted with Chicago men who buy sex confirmed that the vast majority do so in indoor venues such as bars, strip clubs, escort agencies, massage parlors and brothels. Many men also sought women on the street and on-line. Seventy-five percent of these interviewees said they had observed women in prostitution with pimps. (xi) One survey confirmed that half of women at escort services and forty percent of those on the street gave a cut of their earnings to someone else. Three-fourths of those stated that they would face harm if they did not do so. (xii)
The interviews with ex-pimps indicate that most worked for highly organized businesses and supplied girls to escort services and strip clubs, and divided up revenue. Most of these pimps also admitted that the women and girls did not keep any of the money they made .(xiii)
Collectively, the various Chicago surveys of women and girls in prostitution and men who buy sex indicate that the sex trade industry is a very lucrative and abusive enterprise, often controlled by third parties who operate out of legitimate, regulated businesses. The pimps, traffickers, profiteers and their customer base act largely above the law.
iv Section 103(9)
v Section 103(8), paragraph (a)
vi "Human Trafficking in Illinois," (fact sheet, Polaris Project, March, 2009)
vii Jody Raphael and Jessica Ashley, "Domestic Sex Trafficking of Chicago Women and Girls," (report, DePaul University & Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority, May 2008).
viii Jody Raphael and Deborah L. Shapiro, "Sisters Speak Out: The Lives and Needs of Prostituted Women in Chicago," (report, Center for Impact Research, Chicago 2002).
ix Jody Raphael, "Interviews with Five Ex-Pimps in Chicago," (report, DePaul University, April 2009). NOTE: it is the researchers aim to expand this research.
x Jody Raphael and Jessica Ashley, "Domestic Sex Trafficking of Chicago Women and Girls," (report, DePaul University & Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority, May 2008).
xi Rachel Durchslag and Samir Goswami, "Deconstructing the Demand for Prostitution: Preliminary Insights from Interviews with Chicago Men who Purchase Sex," (report, Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation, Chicago 2008).
xii Jody Raphael and Deborah L. Shapiro, "Sisters Speak Out: The Lives and Needs of Prostituted Women in Chicago," (report, Center for Impact Research, Chicago 2002).
xiii Jody Raphael and Brenda Myers-Powell, "Interviews with five ex-pimps in Chicago," (reportDePaul University, April 2009).
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