[Senate Hearing 111-587]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 111-587
IN OUR OWN BACKYARD: CHILD PROSTITUTION AND SEX TRAFFICKING IN THE
UNITED STATES
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
SUBCOMMITTEE ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE LAW
of the
COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
FEBRUARY 24, 2010
__________
Serial No. J-111-74
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on the Judiciary
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COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY
PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont, Chairman
HERB KOHL, Wisconsin JEFF SESSIONS, Alabama
DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California ORRIN G. HATCH, Utah
RUSSELL D. FEINGOLD, Wisconsin CHARLES E. GRASSLEY, Iowa
CHARLES E. SCHUMER, New York JON KYL, Arizona
RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois LINDSEY GRAHAM, South Carolina
BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, Maryland JOHN CORNYN, Texas
SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, Rhode Island TOM COBURN, Oklahoma
AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota
EDWARD E. KAUFMAN, Delaware
ARLEN SPECTER, Pennsylvania
AL FRANKEN, Minnesota
Bruce A. Cohen, Chief Counsel and Staff Director
Matt Miner, Republican Chief Counsel
Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law
RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois, Chairman
RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois TOM COBURN, Oklahoma
RUSSELL D. FEINGOLD, Wisconsin LINDSEY GRAHAM, South Carolina
BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, Maryland JOHN CORNYN, Texas
EDWARD E. KAUFMAN, Delaware
ARLEN SPECTER, Pennsylvania
Joseph Zogby, Chief Counsel
Brooke Bacak, Republican Chief Counsel
C O N T E N T S
----------
STATEMENTS OF COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Page
Coburn, Hon. Tom, a U.S. Senator from the State of Oklahoma,
prepared statement............................................. 60
Durbin, Hon. Richard J., a U.S. Senator from the State of
Illinois....................................................... 1
prepared statement........................................... 61
Feingold, Hon. Russell D., a U.S. Senator from the State of
Wisconsin, prepared statement.................................. 64
Franken, Hon. Al, a U.S. Senator from the State of Minnesota..... 3
Leahy, Hon. Patrick J., a U.S. Senator from the State of Vermont,
prepared statement............................................. 68
WITNESSES
Alvarez, Anita, State's Attorney, Cook County, Chicago, Illinois. 11
CdeBaca, Luis, Ambassador-at-Large, Office to Monitor and Combat
Trafficking in Persons, U.S. Department of State, Washington,
DC............................................................. 6
Lloyd, Rachel, Executive Director and Founder, Girls Educational
& Mentoring Services, New York, New York....................... 14
Phillips, Beth, U.S. Attorney, Western District of Missouri,
Kansas City, Missouri.......................................... 9
Shaquana, Youth Outreach Worker and Trafficking Survivor, New
York, New York................................................. 18
Wyden, Hon. Ron, a U.S. Senator from the State of Oregon......... 3
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Responses of Anita Alvarez to questions submitted by Senator
Coburn......................................................... 32
Responses of Beth Phillips to questions submitted by Senator
Coburn......................................................... 36
SUBMISSIONS FOR THE RECORD
Allen, Ernie, President & CEO, national Center for Missing &
Exploited Children, Alexandria, Virginia, statement............ 41
Alvarez, Anita, State's Attorney, Cook County, Chicago, Illinois,
statement...................................................... 45
Brownback, Hon. Sam, A U.S. Senator from the State of Kansas,
prepared statement............................................. 50
CdeBaca, Luis, Ambassador-at-Large, Office to Monitor and Combat
Trafficking in Persons, U.S. Department of State, Washington,
DC, statement.................................................. 52
Johnson, Lynne, Advocacy Director, Chicago Alliance Against
Sexual Exploitation, statement................................. 66
Lloyd, Rachel, Executive Director and Founder, Girls Educational
& Mentoring Services, New York, New York, statement............ 70
Phillips, Beth, U.S. Attorney, Western District of Missouri,
Kansas City, Missouri, statement............................... 74
Shaquana, Youth Outreach Worker and Trafficking Survivor, New
York, New York, statement...................................... 81
Smith, Linda, Founder and President, Shared Hope International,
Vancouver, Washington, statement............................... 82
IN OUR OWN BACKYARD: CHILD PROSTITUTION AND SEX TRAFFICKING IN THE
UNITED STATES
----------
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2010
U.S. Senate,
Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law,
Committee on the Judiciary,
Washington, DC.
The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:06 a.m., in
room SD-226, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Richard J.
Durbin, Chairman of the Subcommittee, presiding.
Present: Senators Durbin and Franken.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. RICHARD J. DURBIN, A U.S. SENATOR
FROM THE STATE OF ILLINOIS
Chairman Durbin. Welcome. I apologize for being a few
minutes late this morning. This hearing of the Human Rights and
the Law Subcommittee will come to order.
Our hearing is entitled ``In Our Own Backyard: Child
Prostitution and Sex Trafficking in the United States.'' The
sexual exploitation of our children is a criminal problem; it
is a social problem; it is a human rights problem.
President Obama has called human trafficking ``a debasement
of our common humanity.'' President Bush said, ``The trade in
human beings for any purpose must not be allowed to thrive in
our time.''
Congress has worked on a bipartisan basis to combat human
trafficking, both in the United States and in foreign lands.
During the past decade, we have passed four major anti-
trafficking laws with strong bipartisan support to advance our
strategy known as the ``3 P'' approach: punishing traffickers,
protecting victims, preventing trafficking crimes.
But despite the efforts of Congress and the executive
branch, the scourge of human trafficking continues to plague
our Nation and our world. There is no more heartbreaking part
of this problem than the sexual exploitation of children.
Recently I saw a powerful documentary, along with Senator
Wyden--it was actually at the home of Senator Boxer who invited
us over. It was a documentary entitled ``Playground,'' and it
was directed by a visionary filmmaker named Libby Spears, who
is with us today. Libby, raise your hand so people will know
that you are here and will come to appreciate the work that you
have done.
I would like to show, if I can, a short, 4-minute excerpt
from this documentary which had such a profound impact on
Senator Wyden and myself.
[Videotape showed.]
Chairman Durbin. Libby Spears, thank you. I know when we
met you said that you had started your research on this issue
looking overseas at the international trafficking, and somebody
said you ought to look at home. And I am glad you did and
opened our eyes to this, and thank you for your inspiration
that led to this hearing today, and I hope it leads to new laws
that will protect these children and deal with them in the
right, humane way.
This documentary opened the eyes of Senator Wyden and
myself and many others--Senator Boxer. It is estimated that
over 100,000 American children became sex-trafficking victims
last year and every year. Studies indicate the average age of
entry into prostitution is 13. Many child-trafficking victims
are chronic runaways who are fleeing sexual and physical abuse
in their homes.
Americans tend to think of forced prostitution as the
plight of women from other countries locked up in brothels.
That is indeed a problem. But equally scandalous is the
violence involving America's teenage girls.
This documentary forces us to confront this reality and
raises another challenge that we will discuss with our
witnesses at today's hearing: the need to treat sexually
exploited children as victims and survivors, not as criminals.
In many States, child-trafficking victims are often arrested
rather than assisted. These victims are badly in need of basic
services like medical care, housing, and counseling, and a jail
cell isn't the answer. We must change the way our criminal
justice system treats the victims.
Congress has tried to help. When we passed the Trafficking
Victims Protection Act 10 years ago, we said that all children
who were involved in commercial sex crimes are victims and
should be treated accordingly, entitled to protection,
services, and restitution.
But at the State and local level, child sex-trafficking
victims are still in many places treated and considered
criminals. Nearly every State in the Nation allows children of
any age to be prosecuted for prostitution--even though children
are too young to consent to sex with adults. By charging
children with crimes, we compound the harm.
My friend and former colleague--and I note that Senator
Franken is here, but my friend and former colleague, the late
Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota, was a great champion in
the fight against human trafficking. He pointed out in a Senate
floor speech in the year 2000, 10 years ago, and I quote: ``The
bitter, bitter, bitter irony, colleagues, is that quite often
the victims are the ones who are punished, and these mobsters
and criminals who are involved in the trafficking of these
women and girls with this blatant exploitation get away with
literally murder.''
We have created a legal dichotomy in America in which the
Federal Government views prostituted children as victims, yet
most States treat them as criminals. If State laws treated
child prostitution more like human trafficking, then State
social service agencies could play a more important role.
Now, the State of New York has been a leader in rising to
this challenge. They recently passed a ``safe harbor'' law.
Under the law, trafficking victims are given services, not
sentences. Safe harbor laws recognize that the sexual
exploitation of children is a child welfare issue. One of our
witnesses today, Rachel Lloyd, played an important role in
advocating the passage of that New York law, and I am glad that
she is joining us.
Congress should build on New York's work and do the best we
can to encourage that on a statewide basis across our Nation. I
have spoken to my Ranking Member, Senator Tom Coburn, who is
interested in pursuing legislation to accomplish that goal.
State and local governments will have to play the lead role
in changing the way we look at child sex trafficking, because
they are on the front line, but I believe that we can help them
by taking additional steps here on Capitol Hill.
I have two colleagues who are here today I would like to
recognize. First, on our panel here, Senator Franken, would you
like to make an opening statement?
STATEMENT OF HON. AL FRANKEN, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF
MINNESOTA
Senator Franken. Well, I just want to say that Paul
Wellstone was a leader on this issue, and this is something
that Minnesota has had its eye on and has been addressing. And
it is just a bigger problem than most Americans would ever
imagine, and I want to thank you, Senator Wyden, for taking
leadership on this, and thank you, Mr. Chairman, for calling
this hearing.
Chairman Durbin. Thank you.
Senator Wyden and I, as I noted, learned about this--we had
known about it, but learned about it through the Libby Spears
documentary together, and he came back and introduced
legislation on the issue, and I am glad you are here today,
Senator Wyden. The floor is yours.
STATEMENT OF HON. RON WYDEN, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF
OREGON
Senator Wyden. Mr. Chairman, thank you, and filibusters are
popular around here, but you will not get one from me today. I
think that we have got a terrific panel of witnesses. If I can
make my prepared remarks a part of the record, maybe I could
just highlight some of the concerns.
Chairman Durbin. Without objection.
Senator Wyden. First, my thanks to you. Again and again,
Mr. Chairman, you and Senator Franken are standing up for
people who do not have power and do not have clout. The people
that we are talking about today, these youngsters, young women,
for example, what they have been subject to, in my view, is
slavery, pure and simple. And they do not have any power. They
do not have any clout. They do not have any political action
committees. They do not have people who lobby, you know, for
them naturally unless Libby Spears and some of these great
people we have got here today can come forward.
So what you and Senator Franken are doing is using this as
a bully pulpit to, in effect, say to our country that on our
watch we are not going to tolerate this kind of moral blot. We
are not going to tolerate sacrificing so many of our young
people, particularly to these pimps.
Now, you highlighted a couple of the key facts, Mr.
Chairman--the question of 100,000 children that are trafficked.
I want to make the point about how much money is involved in
this.
We saw in Libby's terrific documentary this instance of a
person flying in from around the world, coming just to take
advantage of one youngster. We learned that a pimp can make
$200,000 a year trafficking just one victim. And, of course,
the pimps traffic multiple victims at a time. So there is a
huge upside, an economic bonanza for these pimps in sex
trafficking. It is a multi-billion-dollar business with very
little downside. The pimps have all the power. Once the girls
are under their control, it is very hard for them to escape.
And pimps essentially use violence to control and traumatize
young girls. Often they move them from one city to another.
One of the reasons that I got involved in this early, Mr.
Chairman, is we found that up and down Interstate 5, which is
our main transportation artery in Oregon, essentially there are
a lot of dark areas that pimps can hide out in these kinds of
areas, move the young women from city to city. And that part of
Oregon, I-5, which has really been a magnet, unfortunately, for
this kind of activity, is not alone. There are other parts of
the country that face much the same thing, and once these young
girls get involved with the pimps, the law enforcement people
tell us it is almost impossible to break the grip that the
pimps have on the young women, and breaking that grip is
absolutely key so that, in effect, you can get to the young
women the help through a kind of comprehensive, what is in
effect a multidisciplinary approach that involves social
services, help with law enforcement folks, and really have a
full-court press in the community to reduce sex trafficking.
One of the principal concerns that we learned is that we
desperately need shelters to give the trafficking victims a
place that is safe from the pimps. This is where they can get
counseling and services. And without shelters for the victims,
the law enforcement authorities cannot begin to get the victims
to feel comfortable enough, to feel safe enough to come forward
to get the kind of testimony that builds the case, busts the
pimps, and gets them behind bars where they belong.
Now, in the whole country right now, there are only about
70 shelter beds for sex-trafficking victims. Only 70 across our
50 States. So the pimps are just playing the odds.
I mentioned the big money that is involved, the $200,000
for one victim. The pimps know that as a result of not having
shelter beds, the victims are going to be cut loose and be
unprotected pretty quickly after they have been arrested. So
they know the chance of their being prosecuted for taking
advantage of these girls is quite low.
So we have got to turn this around. Senator Cornyn and I
introduced S. 2925, the Trafficking Deterrence and Victims
Support Act. We now have bipartisan support for these efforts.
Senator Franken and you both noted, correctly, along with the
inspiration that Paul Wellstone gave us years ago, and through
this we are going to be able to set up a number of block grant
programs to test out the very best approaches that are being
used in our country. These would be awarded on a competitive
basis to State and local government entities that have
developed models which we know, once put in place, could be
copied elsewhere.
Grantees would be required to create shelters where the
trafficking victims would be safe from the pimps. You would get
services as part of this program, mental and physical health
care, treatment for substance abuse and sexual abuse, and you
would also provide the victims with the food, clothing, and
other necessities. And here in the States from these young
girls, we have learned that is absolutely essential. They have
not had these kind of lifeline services, so the pimps play to
the fact that they will give them money for food and shelter,
and that is part of the dependency that is created by the
pimps.
One last point, Mr. Chairman, because I know you want to go
to the witness, is S. 2925 will address another major issue
that is part of this spiral of problems that the young people
face, and that is, runaway children. One-third of runaway
children are lured into prostitution within 48 hours of leaving
home. And the information that we picked up, the data indicates
that kids who have run away multiple times are at the greatest
risk of being drawn into prostitution.
So we need to have more information and more help to those
individuals, and access to that individual is going to allow
law enforcement authorities to see the patterns of runaway
youngsters so they could help the kids that are at great risk.
Finally, Mr. Chairman, let me note that we have got
Ambassador Luis CdeBaca of the State Department. It is high
time that the State Department increases the visibility and the
priority of this effort, and under Ambassador CdeBaca and
Secretary Clinton, we are seeing that effort. They have really
stepped up and, like you are doing this morning, have made this
a priority for them. They are using their bully pulpit.
Ambassador CdeBaca is out around the world.
And on this international point, which you noted in your
opening remarks, what we have picked up is that if you make a
difference with an aggressive approach in our country, it will
help trying to deal with the international aspect of this
problem. But, unfortunately, without the domestic component
that we are advocating in this bipartisan legislation, the
international effort does not reach its full potential in terms
of delivering results against child prostitution.
So we have got some terrific witnesses. Libby Spears
delivered a real wake-up call for our country. You are going to
be hearing from a number of groups--the Polaris Project, Shared
Hope, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
And I think we all understand this is a chance for us on our
watch to make a difference, deliver a knock-out punch to these
pimps. And I look forward to working with you and colleagues on
both sides of the aisle to get that done.
[The prepared statement of Senator Wyden appears as a
submission for the record.]
Chairman Durbin. Thanks, Senator Wyden. We are going to not
only consider your legislation and others, but try to engage
more of our colleagues in this effort, and your leadership is
invaluable. Thanks for being with us today.
I would like to ask, if they would, the first panel of
witnesses to come take their seats, and we will proceed to
swear them in. Before that, without objection, I would enter
into the record a statement by the Chairman of the Senate
Judiciary Committee, Senator Patrick Leahy, and also statements
from Senator Feingold and Senator Brownback. Without objection.
[The statements appears as a submission for the record.]
Chairman Durbin. Well, the first thing we do in this
Subcommittee is to swear in the witnesses, so if you all would
please rise and raise your right hand. Do you affirm that the
testimony you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth, so help you God?
Ambassador CdeBaca. I do.
Ms. Phillips. I do.
Ms. Alvarez. I do.
Ms. Lloyd. I do.
Shaquana I do.
Chairman Durbin. Let the record reflect that all the
witnesses answered in the affirmative.
Our first witness has been at least indirectly introduced.
He is Ambassador Luis CdeBaca, serves as senior adviser for the
Secretary of State and directs the State Department Office to
Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. The Ambassador
chairs the Senior Policy Operating Group, an interagency
working group coordinating the Obama administration's efforts
to fight trafficking not only abroad but here in the United
States. The Ambassador was previously a prosecutor in the
Justice Department where he worked on the largest human-
trafficking prosecution in our Nation's history. He received
the John Marshall Award, the Department's highest litigation
honor, and the Freedom Network's Paul and Sheila Wellstone
Award. He served as counsel on the House Judiciary Committee,
graduated from the University of Michigan Law School and Iowa
State University.
Mr. Ambassador, proceed.
STATEMENT OF LUIS CDEBACA, AMBASSADOR-AT-LARGE, OFFICE TO
MONITOR AND COMBAT TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF
STATE, WASHINGTON, DC
Ambassador CdeBaca. Good morning. Thank you, Senator
Durbin. I would like to thank all the members of the Committee
for convening this critical briefing. I have a more fulsome
version of these remarks which I would ask to be included in
the record.
Chairman Durbin. Without objection.
Ambassador CdeBaca. As President Obama's Ambassador- at-
Large to Combat Human Trafficking, I spend a lot of time not
only observing the situation in the world and trying to work
with our international partners, but really thinking with our
partners across the agencies and in the State and local
governments as to how we can best coordinate these efforts in
the fight against contemporary forms of slavery. And I think
that one of the things that we see is that while great strides
have been made in the last decade, there remain a lot of things
that we need to do at home and abroad in this movement.
As we fight against commercial sexual exploitation, we are
lucky to have such able hands as the folks at the Justice
Department and HHS and others and a host of committed actors in
State and local governments because, sadly, we find children
enslaved not just in commercial sex--the topic at hand today--
but also in agricultural work, factories, and private homes.
And, sadly, one of the things that we see in those cases, often
looked at as labor-trafficking cases, is ongoing and continual
sexual abuse of those children as well.
We recognize that a comprehensive child protection approach
addresses all vulnerabilities and all forms of suffering, and
we look to address the whole child rather than the commonly
held definitions of ``deserving victims'' that so often come
into this.
And so when we look at that, we look at how we can get past
the notion of someone who deserves to be treated a particular
way or this or that. We have to step back, I think, for a
moment and be very clear that it does not matter whether the
victim once consented to do this. It does not matter if the
victim returned to the trafficker after he or she had been
freed. It does not matter whether the enslavement was through
chains of mental dependency or psychological manipulation as
opposed to being physically locked up. And it does not matter
if their trafficker was at times nice to them or gave them
presents or if they veered between feelings of love and fear--
so often what we see in issues of child prostitution.
Historically, countries have confronted the issue with a
lot of judgment and less compassion. The consequences,
unfortunately, are borne by the most vulnerable: the person who
is locked up for prostitution or immigration offenses, without
even a cursory inquiry as to whether or not they were abused
the woman whose suffering is compounded by the refusal of her
government to accept her back or to be seen as a person with an
identity independent from the man in her family, who may reject
her, or worse, as having been tainted by what she went through;
and, as well, boys stigmatized by society's refusal to
acknowledge that they too could be victims of sex trafficking.
They often suffer in silence and are overlooked in this debate.
As we build a counter-trafficking community in police
forces and NGO's around the world, we can definitely say that
trafficking victims, especially children in prostitution, may
not all be saints, may not understand that they are victims,
may consider our help to be unwanted interference, and may even
be in love with those who abuse them. But that does not make
them any less deserving of a compassionate response. Indeed, I
think that these tendencies require more, not less, commitment
and engagement on our parts.
As President Obama has repeatedly emphasized about our
general approach to the promotion of human rights, our ability
to help other governments combat trafficking is only as strong
as the example that we set and provide through the strength of
our domestic response. We can only lead if we are honest about
our challenges as well as our accomplishments. And on that note
we have submitted to the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the
Child our periodic reports on the implementation of the two
Optional Protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the
Child: the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child
prostitution, and child pornography; and the Optional Protocol
on the involvement of children in armed conflict. These reports
are an ambitious undertaking and do exactly what we say needs
to be done, which is to go to all of the relevant Federal
actors, all of the relevant State and local actors, and to get
critical input from nongovernmental organizations about how the
United States is doing. And we present that to the world not
just in the U.N. context, but in other multilateral agencies--
the United Nations, the G-8, the OSCE.
Next week, we will be giving--we are working with the
Organization for American States to develop a regional plan of
action on trafficking, which will include actions to assist and
protect children.
I would like to briefly summarize what we have learned
through those efforts, the notion of the technology that the
offenders use, but also how the Internet can be used to
identify and apprehend traffickers and other predators; the
notion of the interplay between previous physical or sexual
abuse that the victim may have suffered and the trafficking in
which we find them.
But in addition to sexual exploitation, many girls and boys
are also forced to steal, beg, or sell drugs on the streets so
that their interactions with police are not necessarily being
seen as a rescue but, rather, dealing with the crime problem
that that child might present, and how we need to look past
those things and protect those children.
I would be remiss if I did not mention how critical the
nongovernmental organizations, the partnerships are in this,
not only because they often fill the gap in taking care of the
victims, but also because they serve as the conscience of the
community and often are more than willing to point out to us
what we can do to improve. And I think that that is something
that we should welcome as we go forward.
As Secretary Clinton has stressed, our credibility and
leadership on this issue is going to be strengthened by
undertaking an honest self-assessment and ranking ourselves in
the annual Trafficking Report. I agree with Secretary Clinton
that the United States, when measured against the minimum
standards that Congress set forth 10 years ago in the TVPA, has
a very positive story to tell of engagement, innovation, and
accomplishment here at home. And we are working with our
interagency colleagues to carry out that collaborative
assessment of efforts across the U.S., including the ever-
increasing efforts of our State and local partners.
In closing, we have to remember for whom we work. When I
was a prosecutor, a girl told me how scared and alone she felt
when they would bring the clients in to her. With interagency
partners and NGO's, we got her to safety and we punished the
man who had done that to her. And your leadership and
commitment ensures that the United States can say to children
like her around the world that we will not turn a blind eye to
that abuse.
Thank you, Senator.
[The prepared statement of Ambassador CdeBaca appears as a
submission for the record.]
Chairman Durbin. Thank you, Ambassador CdeBaca.
Our next witness is Beth Phillips. She is the U.S. Attorney
for the Western District of Missouri in Kansas City. She is the
Justice Department's representative at this hearing, and thank
you for being here. She has been a prosecutor at both the local
level and Federal level. She served in the Computer Crimes and
Child Exploitation Unit of the office she now heads. She has
served on the Board of Directors of the Metropolitan
Organization to Counter Sexual Assault and also the Board of
Directors of the Child Protection Center, which provides crisis
intervention to sexually abused children. Ms. Phillips earned
bachelor's and master's degrees at the great University of
Chicago in my home State of Illinois, and she has a J.D. from
the University of Missouri.
Thank you for being here. We look forward to your
testimony.
STATEMENT OF BETH PHILLIPS, U.S. ATTORNEY, WESTERN DISTRICT OF
MISSOURI, KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI
Ms. Phillips. Good morning, Chairman, and I want to thank
you and Ranking Member Coburn and members of this Committee for
holding this hearing today. As you may know, I was sworn in as
U.S. Attorney on December 31, 2009, and previously, as
Assistant United States Attorney, I was the Project Safe
Childhood Coordinator for our district. It is an honor to
appear before the Committee today to discuss the efforts of the
Department of Justice to combat domestic prostitution of
children--that is, the commercial sexual exploitation of
American children by American citizens.
Children who are victimized through prostitution come from
all socioeconomic backgrounds and all races. It is not
necessarily poverty that makes these children vulnerable.
Runaways, throwaways, children who are chronically truant, or
who suffer physical or sexual abuse in the home--these are the
types of children who are targeted by pimps. The pimps purport
to offer these children the love and attention that they never
had but, rather, instead manipulate them and force them into
prostitution.
Unlike international sex traffickers, who incur the risk
and expense of moving children illicitly across international
borders, American pimps can recruit children at almost no
monetary cost, knowing that they can easily replace one child
with another. They have little fear of getting arrested and
prosecuted because of their confidence in their ability to keep
the victims from cooperating with law enforcement.
As one example in my own district, the Western District of
Missouri, we prosecuted Don Elbert II, a street pimp to three
sisters--a 15-year-old and two 13-year-old twins. The defendant
forced the girls to work as prostitutes every night and took
all the money they earned in exchange for providing them with
food, clothing, and housing. The girls were afraid to leave the
defendant because he frequently became violent and threatened
them. For example, on one occasion he put his hands around the
neck of one twin and said, ``I will kill all of you.''
After Elbert's arrest, all three girls were hospitalized
and were treated for post-traumatic stress disorder and
sexually transmitted diseases. They were given tests which
indicated that they had very low levels of intellectual
functioning.
In 2003, the FBI and the Department of Justice's Child
Exploitation and Obscenity Section, and the National Center for
Missing and Exploited Children launched the Innocent Lost
Initiative to focus on the rescue and recovery of domestic
victims of child prostitution.
The heart of the initiative is the establishment of local
task forces that bring together State and Federal law
enforcement agencies, prosecutors, and social service providers
to establish and employ a multi-faceted, victim- centered
strategy designed to identify the child victims, provide them
the services they need, and to prosecute the offenders. By the
end of last year, 34 task forces and working groups had been
established throughout the United States. According to the FBI,
in the last 6 years the Innocence Lost Initiative has resulted
in the identification of almost 900 child victims of
prostitution, some of whom were identified as missing by the
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The
initiative has led to 510 convictions in State and Federal
courts and resulted in the seizure of over $3 million of real
property, vehicles, and monetary assets.
Over 1,500 local, State, and Federal law enforcement
officers representing 112 separate agencies have participated
in these ongoing enforcement efforts. The Department believes
the only way to successfully make defendants account for their
crimes is through this type of concerted group effort.
A successful prosecution often turns on the testimony of
children who have suffered severe forms of physical and
psychological abuse at the hands of their pimps, who may lack a
supportive family structure, and who may have become addicted
to drugs. These children may feel ashamed and distrustful or
even feel as though nothing wrong has occurred. Quite often
they feel as though they are in love with their abusers and do
not want to testify against them. It takes a great deal of time
for law enforcement officers, prosecutors, and victim witness
advocates to overcome these barriers and gain the victim's
trust and cooperation.
For example, one case involving conspiracy to commit sex
training of children in Anchorage, Alaska, required daily
commitment from the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office victim
witness specialist and coordinators over 3 years, from the
beginning of the investigation until completion of the trial in
2008. This included five victim witness professionals who were
flown into Alaska for the months surrounding the trial, not to
mention the many agents and three prosecutors who worked on the
trial itself.
Compounding the difficulty is a dearth of secured housing
and specialized services for the young victims. Without secured
housing, it is difficult for law enforcement officers to
maintain the steady contact with the victims necessary to build
a rapport and build trust. While general resources might be
available at the State level, there are very little resources
that are capable of addressing the full range of trauma
experienced by these children.
In summary, the Department of Justice is committed to
continuing its multi-pronged attack against the victimization
of American children. From a training and grantmaking
perspective, we continue to assist local communities in
understanding and responding to this issue. From a law
enforcement perspective, our efforts are focused on building
capacity through the establishment and training of task forces
to successfully apprehend and prosecute offenders who make
money off the backs of children.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of this Committee, for
your time and attention to this important issue.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Phillips appears as a
submission for the record.]
Chairman Durbin. Thanks, Ms. Phillips.
Our next witness is Anita Alvarez, who is the State's
Attorney in Cook County, Illinois, which, of course, is the
home county of the city of Chicago. She is leading the second
largest prosecutor's office in America. She was elected to this
position in 2008, a stunning victory in the primary, to the
surprise of many. She became the first woman and first Hispanic
elected as Cook County State's Attorney. She previously served
in the office for 22 years as a prosecutor and supervisor. She
has handled all kinds of cases ranging from homicide to child
sexual exploitation. She has been named Person of the Year by
Chicago Lawyer Magazine and State's Attorney of the Year by the
Illinois State Crime Commission. She graduated from Loyola
University in Chicago and Chicago Kent College of Law, and she
is also a Mom.
Ms. Alvarez, thank you for joining us. Please proceed with
your testimony. Make sure your microphone is on there.
STATEMENT OF ANITA ALVAREZ, STATE'S ATTORNEY, COOK COUNTY,
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
Ms. Alvarez. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the
Committee. Thank you for inviting me here to discuss this very
important issue.
As you know, human trafficking is an increasing problem in
the United States, and the sex trade is one of the most
lucrative areas of the whole trafficking industry. Over the
years, criminal enterprises have made a fortune in my county
and in States across the Nation exploiting women and children
and destroying lives and communities in the process.
Last year the Illinois Criminal Justice Information
Authority funded a study of young women involved in the sex
trade in the Chicago area. Seventy-three percent of the
participants surveyed reported that they had started in the sex
trade before the age of 18. Almost one-third of those surveyed
stated that the reason they started in the sex trade was
because they owed the individual who had recruited them because
of the provision of food, clothing, or gifts.
One survey respondent related that she turned to
prostitution as a freshman in high school and that she would
turn tricks after school because her mother was addicted to
drugs and she needed the money to buy food and clothing. In a
prostitution case that my office handled recently, one juvenile
related that she did not wish to pursue criminal charges
against her pimp because, and I quote, ``He gets me a Subway
sandwich whenever I want one.''
It is clear that when vulnerable young women are equating
the trade of sex for a deli sandwich, we all must realize the
agonizing human toll that this problem is taking on our young
generation and potentially generations to come. These juveniles
are engaging in ``survival sex''--exchanging sex for food,
clothing, or a safe place to sleep.
Cases such as these also demonstrate the challenges that we
face on the local level in prosecuting juvenile prostitution
and sex crimes.
First and foremost--from the perspective of the criminal
offender--the economic gain of child prostitution or
trafficking greatly outweighs the risks. There is very low
overhead in terms of cost for offenders, and the crime is
rarely detected because it is difficult for law enforcement to
identify minors engaged in juvenile prostitution or
trafficking.
Another challenge that law enforcement faces in prosecuting
these cases is that most children will not self-identify or
cooperate with police and they identify with their pimp or
purveyor as someone who they can rely on or sometimes even
love. They are typically young girls from troubled backgrounds
who have been sexually victimized, have low self-esteem, and
essentially a total lack of options in their lives--all of
which makes this crime a potential ``perfect storm'' for street
gangs or other organized crime entities.
As a career prosecutor who has tried countless gang-related
homicides that have occurred on the streets of the city of
Chicago, I understand fully the nature and scope and influence
of street gangs. They are increasingly sophisticated and profit
oriented, and human trafficking fits well into their criminal
enterprise. In addition to being able to intimidate the victim
and her family, the gang members can also control the victim
through sex and drugs.
An extremely disturbing example of this occurred in the
State of Illinois in an investigation that originated out of
Ottawa, Illinois, in the LaSalle County area. The LaSalle
County State's Attorney tried and convicted four people in 2008
on criminal drug conspiracy charges in connection with a gang-
controlled heroin and crack cocaine distribution ring that was
operating between Chicago and the LaSalle-Peru area in our
State.
My office assisted in the investigation and helped to
prepare the conspiracy indictment as well as the search warrant
executed at a Chicago home where the drugs were being cooked,
cut, and prepared for distribution. In that particular case,
the gang leaders were using 17- and 18-year-old girls to ``body
pack'' the narcotics for smuggling from Chicago to LaSalle
County. And in the course of their involvement, the girls
became addicted to the heroin and were videotaped having sex
with gang leaders. In a particularly disturbing and chilling
video seized in this investigation, one of the gang leaders is
shown removing a bag of heroin from the vagina of one of the
teenaged victims.
When it comes to prosecuting child prostitution, my office,
in practice, does not charge juveniles who are arrested on
prostitution-related offenses. We understand this child is not
a criminal but, rather, a victim who needs support, services,
and a safe future. All too often, making them safe has proved
to be particularly challenging because, in the past, the
traditional prosecution of juvenile sex trafficking was
reactive and far too dependent upon victim testimony.
As a career prosecutor and a newly elected State's
Attorney, it has occurred to me that the traditional approach
we have taken with juvenile prostitution has simply not been
effective on many levels. We are not convicting the organized
groups of individuals who are perpetuating this industry. Even
more importantly, we are not able to effectively offer the
services that these young women need to help them, keep them
safe, and empower them to leave the sex trade once and for all.
It seems to me that the premise of removing one child from the
situation only to have another step in and fill her place is
not a good one.
With this in mind, I created an Organized Crime/Human
Trafficking initiative last July as part of the Special
Prosecutions Bureau within my office. Along with our law
enforcement partners, both State and Federal, my human-
trafficking prosecutors have been conducting long-term,
proactive investigations into these organized crime targets.
Suffice to say, this covert work is proving fruitful, even
though at this point I could not discuss the investigations
with you.
Additionally, I have taken advantage of the size of my
office--the second largest in the Nation--and developed new
methods for collection and centralization of intelligence
regarding human-trafficking offenders. Given the daily
interaction between local law enforcement and those forced to
work in the sex trade, crucial leads arise on a recurring basis
within the various parts of my office, including misdemeanor
cases, domestic violence, auto theft, sex crimes, felony
review, cold-case murder--all of these different areas. In many
cases, the defendants or victims in simple sexual assault or
domestic violence cases possess key information concerning
human trafficking. Under my Human Trafficking initiative, we
are now working to develop and funnel this intelligence to a
dedicated team of prosecutors, allowing us to ``connect the
dots'' and focus our resources in the right direction.
As part of this coordinated approach against human
trafficking, my prosecutors have also continued to work with
the Chicago Police Department and other agencies to reorganize
the regional task force. We are working to specifically train
officers working vice to identify and investigate human
trafficking--especially those operations involving the
exploitation of children. With the assistance of the Chicago
Police Department, these ongoing efforts will not only view
prostituted children as victims, rather than criminal
defendants, but also hold accountable the individuals and
groups truly responsible for these horrific crimes.
Equally as important, my human-trafficking team is building
direct coalitions with social service providers and other
NGO's, thus enabling such groups to assist police during HT
takedowns and share their investigative leads with law
enforcement. With due regard for client confidentiality and
consent, we are fostering the lines of communication necessary
for social service providers to share their information with
us, not just about human traffickers, but also concerning
potentially corrupt public officials who protect them and their
operations.
Since the formation of this initiative, the networking plan
has cast a wide net, including simple things, such as attending
breakfast meetings, to participation in more formal events,
such as the launch of the ``End Demand Campaign of the Chicago
Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation.'' We also took part in
the human-trafficking summit in San Francisco, and through our
initiative, my office has been able to share our expertise and
our NGO connections with Federal agencies, including the
Department of Homeland Security, ICE, and the U.S. Attorney's
Office.
In one recent case, we helped to provide information that
was instrumental in having a human-trafficking offender
detained pending trial in a Federal case and further helped
agents connect victims with temporary housing and social
services.
I doubt anyone here would be surprised to hear that our
greatest setback to date has not been a lack of vision or
resolve but rather a lack of funding. And I believe that the
funding is important not just for State and local prosecutors
but for all the social service providers as well, because we
all work together and it is essential that they have the
funding as well as us to make sure that we do everything
possible to attack this horrific crime.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Alvarez appears as a
submission for the record.]
Chairman Durbin. Thank you, State's Attorney Alvarez.
Our next witness is Rachel Lloyd, who is the executive
director and founder of GEMS, which stands for Girls Education
and Mentoring Services. It is based in New York. GEMS was
started in 1998 and is the Nation's largest organization
offering direct services to domestic victims of child sex
trafficking. Ms. Lloyd is a nationally recognized expert on
this issue. She was named as one of the 50 Women Who Change the
World by Ms. Magazine. Ms. Lloyd is the subject of a critically
acclaimed Showtime documentary. She received a bachelor's
degree from Marymount Manhattan College and a master's degree
from the City College of New York. As a survivor of commercial
sexual exploitation herself, Ms. Lloyd has a profoundly
personal understanding of this issue.
Thank you for being with us today, and please proceed with
your testimony.
STATEMENT OF RACHEL LLOYD, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND FOUNDER,
GIRLS EDUCATIONAL & MENTORING SERVICES, NEW YORK, NEW YORK
Ms. Lloyd. Thank you. Thank you, Senator Durbin, Senator
Franken. Thank you for inviting me here to testify.
``In Our Own Backyard'' is a very fitting title for this
hearing, and I think the predominant response over the last few
years has been ``Not in my backyard'' to this issue. We have
had a tough time getting people to recognize that this is
really happening, and you quoted some stats earlier, 100,000
youth, 300,000 youth potentially at risk for sexual
exploitation in this country. So we know when we are faced with
the reality at this point that this is not something that is
only happening in other countries to other people's children,
but it is happening here.
While the Trafficking Victims Protection Act was passed in
2000 and reauthorized three times since, it is only really
recently that there has been a concerted effort to view and
treat American girls as trafficking victims. As a Nation, we
have graded and rated other countries on how they address
trafficking within their borders and yet have effectively
ignored the sale of our own children within our own borders. We
have created a dichotomy of acceptable and unacceptable
victims, wherein Katya from the Ukraine will be seen as a real
victim and provided with services and support, but Keshia from
the Bronx will be seen as a ``willing participant,'' someone
who is out there because she ``likes it'' and who is
criminalized and thrown in detention or jail. We have turned a
blind eye to the millions of adult men in this country who
create the demand because they believe they have the right to
purchase another human being. We have allowed popular culture
to glorify and glamorize the commercial sex industry and
particularly pimp culture. Our policies and economic choices
have left huge numbers of children at risk for many things,
including commercial sexual exploitation, simply because of the
zip code they live in. And we have allowed the juvenile and
criminal justice systems to treat victims of heinous violence
and abuse as criminals, while the adult men who have bought and
sold them go free. We have sent 12-, 13-, 14-year-old girls to
juvenile detention facilities and ignored the fact that these
children are not often even old enough to legally consent to
sex and are, in fact, statutory rape victims.
Today's hearing signifies how far we have come in beginning
to address this issue and that there is real change afoot. The
attention of the Federal Government is critical in addressing
this issue, and the presence of representatives from law
enforcement, the Department of Justice, and the State
Department's Trafficking in Persons Office demonstrates
significant progress in the recognition of what is happening to
children in our own backyard. Slowly we are beginning to use
the appropriate language, recognizing that calling children who
are victims of rape, sexual assault, and violence prostitutes
is neither helpful nor accurate. Using the terminology ``child
prostitution'' or ``child prostitute'' conjures up stereotypes
and misconceptions about who these children and how we should
treat them. One of the most important things for the domestic
violence movement to do was naming what was happening and
giving it an accurate name. It was violence and it was
happening in a domestic situation. It is critical that we
accurately label this crime against children as commercial
sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking. In doing so, we
can begin to make the shift from treating these youth as
criminals, and instead treating them as victims, which they
rightfully deserve.
As you mentioned, in 2008, New York State became the first
State in the Nation to pass legislation that addressed the
criminalization of children who were sexually exploited and
trafficked. I would be remiss if I did not note that this
victory was due in large part to the efforts, courage, and
voices of the girls and young women at GEMS who journeyed up to
Albany year after year, who testified before State and city
legislators, who spoke to the press, who participated in
awareness-raising events--sharing their stories with the hope
of changing the system for their peers. New York's Safe Harbor
for Exploited Youth Act converts charges of prostitution for
children under 16 to a Person In Need of Supervision case,
thereby shifting the focus from a juvenile justice issue into a
child welfare issue. The Safe Harbor Act also mandates the
creation of a safe house for victims and training for law
enforcement and service providers who come into contact with
trafficked and exploited children. While the law does not go
into effect until April 1, 2010, this year, the shift in New
York's systemic and institutional response is already
happening. Across the country, several States are trying to
follow suit and pass their own version of the Safe Harbor Act.
It is my hope that in 10 years we will look back and think it
was ludicrous that we ever prosecuted children for an act of
prostitution.
Yet despite gains made in awareness and advocacy, in law
enforcement prosecuting cases of traffickers and service
providers recognizing a need for treatment, we still have a
really long way to go. Children across the country are still
being treated as criminals. In the last few months alone, GEMS
has been contacted by organizations and individuals for
technical assistance and training in cities and States across
the Nation including San Diego, Tennessee, Hawaii, Miami,
Tampa, Indiana, Oakland, Portland, Ohio, Connecticut, and
Philadelphia. All of these places are witnessing the sale of
children in their own communities, and yet few have any
resources to address this issue. Currently there are less than
50 beds in the entire country for victims of sexual
exploitation and trafficking and approximately a dozen
specialized service providers. Many States do not have any
specialized services at all, and those of us who are directly
serving victims do so with a scarcity of resources and support.
Monies allocated in the TVPRA for services for domestic victims
have yet to be appropriated.
We recognize at this point that incarcerating children for
their victimization is not only unjust, it just does not work.
Services work, support works. Love works. When girls are
afforded the opportunity to be safe and valued and cared for,
they are able to thrive and flourish. Victims of commercial
sexual exploitation have myriad needs and require comprehensive
services. They need to be in an environment where they are
supported, not judged, cared for, not shamed. They need a
variety of shelter and housing options, including crisis
shelter, therapeutic foster homes, residential treatment, and
long-term independent and transitional living programs. They
need individual, group, and family counseling and mental health
treatment to address the intense trauma that they have
experienced in the commercial sex industry and frequently prior
to their recruitment. They need medical treatment that is
sensitive and comprehensive, addressing not only their sexual
health, but their physical trauma from repeated violence and
their overall wellness, including lack of proper nutrition,
pregnancy, parenting issues. They need education, both formal
and informal, to help them return to school and to learn
critical life skills which they have been deprived of during
their exploitation. They need job readiness skills, employment
training, and viable employment opportunities to help them
achieve economic independence. They need the opportunity to
develop their skills and talents, to have fun as young people,
to create healthy relationships with their peers, and to be
supported in a strengths-based environment. They also
critically need to see other girls, young women, and adult
women who have experienced and overcome the same challenges so
that they can be empowered to make the transition from victim
to survivor, from survivor to leader. All of these services
require resources which are currently limited.
Commercially sexually exploited and trafficked youth have
not been high on anyone's agenda or priority list. While
commercial sexual exploitation can and does happen to any
child, this issue disproportionately affects low-income
children, children of color, children who have been in the
child welfare system, children who have been in the juvenile
justice system, children who do not have a voice in public
policy, children who are frequently ignored. Traffickers and
exploiters know exactly who to target, who will be featured on
the news, who will be seen as a ``real'' victim. Issues of
race, class, and prior victimization have ensured that these
children are frequently invisible in our National dialog, yet
it is incumbent upon us to make sure that all victims, all
children and youth are treated with equity and compassion and
afforded the resources that they need and deserve to heal.
As a survivor-led organization, GEMS believes that
survivors need to be at the forefront of this movement and has
been committed for over a decade to ensuring that the voices
and experiences of survivors are integral in the development
and implementation of programs and policies designed to serve
them. Today, you have an opportunity to hear from Shaquana, a
young woman, college student, outreach worker, activist, and
leader who I am incredibly proud and honored to get to work
with every single day. While Shaquana is an extraordinary young
woman, she is not unique in her experiences, nor in her
intelligence, resilience and courage. Every single day at GEMS,
we serve extraordinary girls and young women who are growing,
learning, and, most importantly, healing in the community of
love and support we have created and who are in turn supporting
and empowering their peers, advocating for change, raising
public awareness and demonstrating leadership on this issue. If
teenage girls and young women who have experienced heinous
violence and exploitation are able to take action and be change
agents in fighting against commercial sexual exploitation and
domestic trafficking, it begs the question: What are our local,
State, and Federal legislators and representatives doing? I
challenge you today to join our young women in ending the sale
and exploitation of children in our country.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Lloyd appears as a
submission for the record.]
Chairman Durbin. Thank you, Ms. Lloyd. You have given a bit
of an introduction to our next witness here, but I want to say
a few extra words.
Shaquana works with Rachel Lloyd at GEMS and is herself a
child sex-trafficking survivor. For privacy purposes, we are
not using her last name. She escaped sexual exploitation and
has an amazing story to tell. She graduated valedictorian of
her class at Brownsville Academy High School in Brooklyn, New
York, in 2008. She is attending college at the Borough of
Manhattan Community College. She has made presentations before
the New York State Legislature and the Toronto International
Film Festival.
Shaquana, thank you for being here today and having the
courage to share your story with us, and the floor is yours.
Make sure you push the button that says ``Talk'' so we can all
hear you. Thank you.
STATEMENT OF SHAQUANA, YOUTH OUTREACH WORKER AND TRAFFICKING
SURVIVOR, NEW YORK, NEW YORK
Shaquana Thank you. My name is Shaquana, and I am a
survivor of commercial sexual exploitation and domestic
trafficking. I was getting ready to graduate from the eighth
grade when I met a man in my neighborhood. I shared everything
about myself with him. He seemed like a complete gentleman. Yet
at only 14 years old, I was being manipulated and physically
abused to sell my body for this man who was a pimp. I did not
have anyone in my life that I could have been completely honest
with about what I was doing without them judging me. I was
afraid and often felt like everything I was experiencing was
all my fault. I was living in this big world, but I felt so
small and alone. I cried myself to sleep many nights because I
was very unhappy with my life but had no idea how to escape.
At only 14, I got arrested and sent to a juvenile detention
facility. Jail just made me feel even worse. I was made to feel
embarrassed and ashamed for everything that I had experienced.
I never received counseling and was left to figure things out
on my own. It was there, though, that I learned of GEMS through
the outreach team which was for girls that had been through the
same things I had been through.
When I finally got out of jail after several months, I was
mandated to GEMS. It seemed like all my family and even the
judge thought jail was what I needed as if I were the criminal.
My own family thought that I would never amount to anything,
and it was almost like they stopped caring about me. I started
going to GEMS and created a new family for myself. It was like
for the first time in life people understood me and did not
think that I was crazy.
It took me a while to fully leave the life behind me, but
there was that constant hope for me at times when I did not
have it for myself from GEMS. I did not get out of the life
until I was 16 years old. I still cannot remember what actually
happened, but I was beaten and nearly killed by a man who had
bought me. I woke up in a hospital in New Jersey with my entire
face broken and fractured, and I needed months of
reconstructive surgery. At that point I just felt really lucky
to be alive.
I started participating in GEMS again, which helped me to
deal with the trauma that had happened to me. I attended all
the groups and especially youth leadership, where I learned
about what it meant to be commercially sexually exploited. It
was through GEMS that I learned that even though so much had
happened to me as a young girl it did not mean I would have to
spend the rest of my life crying. I could be a survivor, which
meant going back to school, graduating, having real friends,
and first dates. When I went back to school, I struggled a lot,
but because I had the support of GEMS, that helped me to begin
believing in myself, too.
In 2008, I graduated from high school as the valedictorian.
That was one of the most happiest days of my life because it
was a testimony to how much I had overcome. Now I am in
college. Being in school means a lot to me because at one time
I did not think I would ever make it.
At GEMS I now help run our education initiative program. As
we all know, education is very important, and a lot of our
girls, after getting into the life, are forced to have to stop
going to school. Our educational initiative was designed to
help our girls go back to school and assist them with whatever
they need help with. Having this program at GEMS is very
important because at one time I felt like I would never be able
to do anything productive with my life. But I know now that I
can. It is important that our members see me as an example and
know that if I can do, they can, too.
Today I also work at GEMS as an outreach worker. I travel
to juvenile detention facilities, group homes, and schools to
educate girls on the issue of commercial sexual exploitation
and trafficking. This is very important to me because a lot of
the times girls have no idea what really goes on, and if I can
reach them before an exploiter ever does, they will know the
truth of what that life really offers. I let them know that if
they have been a victim of trafficking, there is a place where
they can get help and will not be judged.
As I travel to juvenile detention facilities, I see the
same victimization by the staff is still happening to the
girls, and it is important that I am there to let them know
that what happens is not their fault. I was a part of helping
get the Safe Harbor Act passed so that girls will no longer be
sent to jail for having been commercially sexually exploited.
Girls will now be recognized as victims and will receive
services. Most importantly, though, I think the Safe Harbor Act
will help people see who the real perpetrators are.
I would like to thank you for listening to my testimony of
what I have been through as a survivor of commercial sexual
exploitation and hope that you are able to see how young women
that have been commercially sexually exploited need support,
not jail, and that will help them begin rebuilding the type of
lives that we all deserve.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Shaquana appears as a submission
for the record.]
Chairman Durbin. Shaquana, thank you, and I mean it from my
heart that you have come here today to tell the story because
it really puts a face on the issue. And as you are serving as
an outreach worker and you are in contact with young girls who
are in ``the life,'' as you call it, what are they looking for
to leave? What does it take to get them to leave that life?
Shaquana I think what they have to begin to understand, you
know, is they start to see that there is a safe place and it is
something totally different that they probably never had in
their life, and it takes them time. And they need people that
are going be patient with them and understand them and see the
things that they went through and help them to understand that
they are not a bad person, that it is not their fault, and to
begin offering them, you know, that you can go back to school
and that you can start your life entirely over and that what
happened to you in the past does not mean that this has to be
how the rest of your life is going to be.
Chairman Durbin. So are they afraid of the pimps, if they
leave that the pimps will come after them?
Shaquana A lot of times girls are scared that even if they
testify against them, they might get hurt for doing that. A lot
of times the girls, you know, they are just scared or they love
them and they do not want to do it. You know, at the time they
are not ready for that.
Chairman Durbin. And what do you do? What do you offer to
them? What do you say to them to try to convince them that it
is worth the risk?
Shaquana I think they begin--they have to understand what
happened to them is wrong and that it was not their fault. A
lot of times girls feel like it was their choice. And you have
to show them that, you know, you were manipulated, you know,
that this person does not care about you, and that this is what
they are using you for.
Chairman Durbin. So you were put in jail, and you say in
your testimony that you were mandated to the GEMS program,
which I assume means that when you left jail, you had to go to
this GEMS program.
Shaquana Yes.
Chairman Durbin. The jail experience was awful, just
terrible, as you have described it, but it did result in your
connecting up with this GEMS program.
Shaquana I mean, what actually happened was through the
outreach program coming there, they were able to--that is how I
met up with them. I was able to find a case manager. They set
me up with that, and, you know, they told me that I could go
home to this program; or if I would have never found out about
GEMS, then I was going to go upstate. So it was through like my
own luckiness, I guess.
Chairman Durbin. So, Ms. Lloyd, your GEMS program, how many
young people like Shaquana are a part of it each year? Have you
been in existence for a few years now?
Ms. Lloyd. We have been serving girls and young women for
over 12 years now. Last year, we served 275, 280 girls and
young women who were all victims of commercial sexual
exploitation.
Chairman Durbin. I was trying to get Shaquana to give us a
little bit of an idea, a picture of the kind of mind-set that
the victim brings to a place like GEMS. And I know that self-
esteem is a big issue here. Obviously, it is. You went through
a long litany and list of things these young people need. What
would you say is the one thing that really does make a
difference in terms of their deciding to turn their lives
around and turn into a success like Shaquana?
Ms. Lloyd. Honestly, I think it comes down--and this is a
hard thing to legislate, but I think it comes down to real,
genuine relationships and support. I think we have a phenomenal
staff. I think the fact that we are a survivor-led
organization, we have young women who are survivors who are a
part of the organization. We have women who are not survivors
who are part of the organization who are incredible allies.
Those relationships, I think, begin to--you have to help
somebody replace what they have experienced. You cannot just
take away this sense of kind of support, love, dependence upon
the trafficker or the pimp without helping replace it with
something. And so you need the wrap-around services, but you
need to have real relationships in that service, too.
Chairman Durbin. Ms. Alvarez, in our area of the world, in
Cook County, if a young lady like Shaquana finally comes out of
the life and is now looking for some place to go to get herself
back together--and as Shaquana said, her family was not very
understanding of this at all. She is lucky she found GEMS. What
happens to a young woman in Cook County who might go through
the same experience? Where can she go?
Ms. Alvarez. You know, there are a lot of service providers
that we work with on a daily basis. There is a group called
Promise that is about to open in Oak Park, Illinois, which you
know just borders the city, a residential home for young women
in this situation called Annie's House. So we have been working
very hard with them and organizations like that to help make
sure that they are provided the services.
Sometimes what we have seen, because we divert those cases
out of the system, is that even by doing that sometimes, these
young girls are not getting the services that they need.
Recently we had a case where the parents begged us to charge
her so she would get services, and sometimes we have seen that
where they have actually had to go in in order to receive the
services that they need.
So it is an ongoing effort and case-by-case determination,
but, you know, I think we are all in need of more services.
Particularly, I am aware of the work that GEMS does, and it is
awesome. And we do have groups, you know, such as that in
Chicago. Promise is one.
Chairman Durbin. So give me a comparison of the population
in need of services and the services available, the beds
available.
Ms. Alvarez. I think the population in need is much higher
than the services available. I think that, you know, again,
this is kind of--it has been silent. It is happening right
under our noses. And I think sometimes we do not want to accept
that, but it is there. And so the numbers are probably higher
than we imagine of young girls out there that need these
services.
Chairman Durbin. Most of the social service agencies in our
State, and I will bet in many other States, are really up
against it now because----
Ms. Alvarez. Absolutely. Absolutely.
Chairman Durbin [continuing]. State and local budgets have
been cut dramatically, so at a time when we probably did not
have enough services to start with, we may see those services
threatened by these budget cutbacks.
Ms. Alvarez. Absolutely, and you are aware of what is
happening in Illinois, and we have cut back on so many of the
funding for social service agencies. So it is really a dire
time.
Chairman Durbin. Ms. Phillips, with all the experience you
have had in this area here, I hate to use the word ``profile,''
but can you profile the likely victims? Can you pick out the
most likely characteristics you are going to find if you look
at the population of victims?
Ms. Phillips. Unfortunately, we have found that the victims
come from a wide variety of different backgrounds, different
socioeconomic backgrounds, different races. It is difficult to
profile and, therefore, I think, difficult to sometimes
prevent. But what we have found most frequently is that they
are children who have suffered some type of difficulty. Either
they are runaways, they are throwaways, they suffer some type
of physical, sexual abuse. There is something missing that the
pimp can target and thereby manipulate and gain control over
the victim.
Chairman Durbin. Tell me, what is the usual contact point
between the pimp and the victim? Is there a circumstance or a
place or an environment where this is most likely to occur?
Ms. Phillips. Unfortunately, in our experience that also
runs the gamut. It may be a casual acquaintance. It may be
someone that they have known for a long time. It may be someone
that they recently met. It may be someone that they have
recently encountered through conversations on the Internet,
utilizing the Internet or social networking sites. That is a
very difficult profile to develop also.
Chairman Durbin. Ambassador CdeBaca, a question was raised
earlier about whether the United States is grading the world on
this issue and willing to let the world grade us, and I know
that that is one of the things that you are looking into at
this point in time. Can you tell me how you are going to
approach that and how you would grade the United States'
efforts when it comes to human trafficking?
Ambassador CdeBaca. Well, I am certainly not a
disinterested party, having been on the front lines of this
here in the United States. But I think one of the things that
we are working on right now is work through the Senior Policy
Operating Group, which is kind of the Assistant Secretary level
effort across Government, to really pin down how best to gather
the information to go into the ranking. In the TIP report each
year, there has been an assessment of the United States, a
narrative about the United States, but what we have not done is
we have not applied the 11 minimum standards that you and the
rest of the Congress gave to us to analyze the countries of the
world.
And so the notion, as Secretary Clinton announced last
June, that we would rank ourselves by those standards so that
there is this equality out there, and we are not the only
country that does not get ranked, there is some tension in
that, obviously, the United States ranking itself as opposed to
having an outside entity do it. But it is something that we
definitely want to work through, and so we are working with our
agency counterparts. We are going to be reaching out to the
States and locals and then also, importantly, to the
nongovernmental community. It is just critical that civil
society be involved.
Chairman Durbin. Thank you. Some of you who follow track
are aware of the Drake relays. You are about to witness the
first annual Illinois-Minnesota Senate relay. We have a roll
call vote going on on the floor. Senator Franken just voted and
came back. Now I am going to go vote and then return, and he
gets to go vote, and so you can time us on this. But thank you,
Senator Franken, for your cooperation, and I am going to sprint
out.
Ambassador CdeBaca. And, Senator Durbin, as an Iowan, I
would like to thank you for the Drake relay reference.
[Laughter.]
Senator Franken. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Hurry up. I
caught everything like that, so I got back fast, and I am glad
I did. But I did miss some of the questioning of the Chairman.
Thank you all for being here on this heart-rending and very
important topic. Rachel Lloyd, you said--I wrote down some of
it--that we turn a blind eye to adult males who provide a
market, and I am not sure if it was Anita Alvarez or Ambassador
CdeBaca who said that most prostitutes start in the sex trade
as a child.
So I think we should understand that adult males who are
patronizing prostitutes are continuing this exploitation of
children. Is that fair to say? Everyone, right? So I think that
we should understand the seriousness of an adult male
patronizing a prostitute. And I think we should understand that
that adult male should be the person who is prosecuted. OK? I
feel very strongly about that. I feel that the victims are the
children and the women who are adult children who are the
result of this exploitation, and that the adult males who
frequent prostitutes are the ones who should be in prison. And
maybe that will slow down this market and dry up this market.
Only 70 beds, that is what I heard from Senator Wyden. That
is remarkable. That is unbelievable. In this entire country, 70
beds. Rachel?
Ms. Lloyd. It is actually less than 50 at this point.
Senator Franken. Less than 50 beds.
Ms. Lloyd. It is, like, 47 or 48 beds, specialized for
victims of commercial sexual exploitation and domestic
trafficking.
Senator Franken. I was just in Rochester, Minnesota, where
there is a home for victims of domestic violence, 11 beds. They
are 98 percent full. They have to send women from Rochester to
somewhere else. These are women who may have jobs, have
children. But this is unbelievable that there are less than 50
beds. So let us talk about what we do to treat these young
girls.
Ms. Alvarez, I know that you have a program in Chicago, a
comprehensive program. Can you describe it a little bit? I know
we do one in Ramsey County that is very good.
Ms. Alvarez. I think what we need to do as prosecutors from
the law enforcement perspective is handle these cases
differently, because the traditional way of trying to get at
the pimp has been to just try to convince the victim--the
victim, the young lady--to testify, which does not always work,
obviously, for a variety of reasons. So what we are trying to
do now is----
Senator Franken. By the way, I was not talking about the
pimp. I was talking about the john in terms of where I was--
because Ms. Lloyd said that we turn a blind eye to adult males
who provide a market. And I think that we cannot escape that,
that we have to look at the men who patronize prostitutes and
understand--what percentage of prostitutes were involved as
child prostitutes? Do we know that?
Ms. Lloyd. Studies range. Some places say as high as 70 to
80 percent. We do know that 70 to 90 percent of adult women in
the commercial sex industry were victims of child abuse, child
sexual abuse, prior to their entry, regardless of what age they
entered. So we are talking about a population----
Senator Franken. So I think adult males in this country
should be aware of what they are doing. I think law enforcement
should be aware of what they are doing. They are exploiting
children. They are continuing the exploitation, the sexual
exploitation of children, and how serious this is. And I
understand getting at the pimp is a big part of prosecuting
this and a big part of ending this cycle.
Ms. Alvarez. It is attacking the enterprise. The criminal
enterprise is what it is. And so I think we have to change the
way we look at these cases and the way we attack them. And, you
know, they are victim based but not--I believe they should not
be victim built. The ability to get at this criminal enterprise
should not be just solely based on the victim. We have to look
at it as we look at a financial crimes case, as an organized
crime case, and build it that way in order to attack the
enterprise.
That short clip we saw in the film, he said, you know, it
is a business, it is all about money. And it is. It is all
about money.
So from a law enforcement perspective, I think we have to
attack these cases differently, and on the social service end,
they need more funding in order to provide. You know, to hear
the number of beds that are available for these victims is
outrageous here in our country. So I think it is a matter of,
you know, more funding for all of our social service providers
that we deal with.
Ambassador CdeBaca. And, Senator, I think one of the things
that is so important about the Trafficking Victims Protection
reauthorization of 2008 is that it hopefully is going to give
us some of the tools to do exactly what you are suggesting. The
numbers have never been disaggregated as far as the FBI's
Uniform Crime Report, so we never were really able to say how
many of the 60,000-plus prostitution arrests in the United
States were for customers as opposed to the women who were
involved. We could make a rough estimation because it breaks it
down by men and women. The United States arrests usually
around--actually convicts somewhere around 22,000 to 26,000 men
every year for the crime of solicitation of prostitution. We
lead the world on that.
But as the President pointed out in his speech in Tokyo,
our anti-trafficking efforts really need to look at the
cultural side. We have to work toward a world, as he said,
where a girl is valued for her contribution and her mind, not
for her body. And so we are going to be speaking out on that on
the international level, but at the same time, I think once we
are able to finally look at that and say in a particular county
or in a particular city here is what your statistics are, you
are arresting 80 percent women and only 20 percent of the
johns, that will then enable the policymakers to say, you know
what, we need to rebalance this and not just look at it as
something where you go out and scoop up all the women on the
street and say that you are doing something about this
particular issue.
Senator Franken. The johns have to be arrested at that
point. I mean, what happens if someone has been discovered to
have gone to a prostitute?
Ambassador CdeBaca. Well, I would certainly defer to the
State's attorney. From my experience as a DA's investigator
actually doing some undercover work in this field, you have to
go out and make the transaction. The law----
Senator Franken. It has to happen at the point of the
transaction. It cannot happen afterwards.
Ambassador CdeBaca. The point of transaction is actually
where you have the crime. It is the notion of the solicitation.
And so a lot of the enforcement in this field is not that
police will observe someone with someone who looks like a
prostitute and then draw that conclusion. That is not really
something you can based a reasonable doubt determination on.
Rather, it is often policewomen who are posing----
Senator Franken. Undercover.
Ambassador CdeBaca. Undercover.
Senator Franken. Let us go to preventing this. I was just
in Duluth, Minnesota, where Lutheran Social Service is
providing outreach to children, teens usually, who are
homeless. And I think early in the testimony--it might have
been Senator Wyden, said many of these victims are runaways,
and a large percentage of children who find themselves on the
street are runaways.
To what extent could we help these kids before they become
victims by doing social services and outreach and providing
beds to homeless kids and runaway kids? Anybody?
Ms. Lloyd. Given, again, the high correlation between child
sexual abuse and future recruitment into the commercial sex
industry, we are doing a lousy job on addressing child sexual
abuse. And many of the children that we see have come into
contact with multiple social services, multiple times before
the age of 12, 13, 14 years old, whether it is because of
domestic violence in the home or because they ran away, whether
there was sexual abuse, et cetera. And yet those systems are
failing those children. Over 70 percent of the young people
that we serve have been in the child welfare system at some
point. Foster homes and group homes are a prime place of
recruitment. So our child welfare system, we really need to
address what is happening to children in our child welfare
system, too.
So shoring up those kinds of resources and institutions
prior to kind of kids hitting 12, 13, 14, when they become so
vulnerable for traffickers, is critical in terms of addressing
this issue. And there is a lot more that we could be doing.
Ms. Alvarez. I think public awareness is key, and that is
something that you can help with, the Government can help with,
is public awareness and making people aware that, yes, this
does happen, and it does not just happen in another country. It
is happening here in our country. And that is key. You know,
funding for social service agencies and for law enforcement,
but also public awareness and making sure that people are aware
and that they could help provide for these kids.
Ambassador CdeBaca. I think also one of the things that we
have seen--and I am drawing on some of the cases that I
prosecuted--is the notion of we have a child protective
system--and not just in the United States; I see this in other
countries around the world. But especially in the United
States, we have a child protection system that has this
fostering and the group home type of model which works for most
kids. It is the thing that applies kind of across the board.
But one of the things that we see, whether it is a U.S. citizen
child or whether it is a foreign victim, is that the
trafficking victim often needs more. The things that happen to
a child in prostitution are so grave that it is not necessarily
something that a good-hearted person who has got a couple of
foster kids in their house can really even fathom as to what
that child needs.
And so if our response then ends up being let us take this
child and then put them into that system, that system is not
designed for that child. And I think that that is one of the
things where we see with GEMS, where we see with a number of
the other folks who are really wrestling with this, is how do
you provide that overlay to the child protective system.
Also, we end up having mixed populations. One of the things
that I have seen in some of my cases was that you would have
adult women and girl children who clung to each other for
safety while they had the pimp who was abusing them, and then
our response typically with the child protective services is to
say, OK, everybody under 18, you go this way, everybody over
18, you go this other way. And what we have done at that point
is we have torn the very thing that allowed them to survive
apart.
So I think that notion of how do we look at the whole
victim and then how do we try to make our systems address
that--and, again, this is something that we are trying to have
that conversation around the world so that countries look at
what is best for the child, what is best for the trafficking
victim, rather than how have we always done it.
Senator Franken. Rachel and Shaquana, I wanted you to speak
to this part, which is the most effective way to treat victims.
Ms. Lloyd. Well, I think specialized services are critical,
but to go to the Ambassador's point, I think training for first
responders, child welfare workers, law enforcement, emergency
room nurses, et cetera, is critical. People are coming into
contact with this population all the time. They either do not
know how to recognize it, or they recognize it and they are
incredibly judgmental and stigmatize young people. They do not
know how to have the conversation. If they do, they do not know
where to refer.
We do a lot of training, both local and nationally, and we
have found that when folks are trained and feel equipped, they
can have the conversation. If you were working in a runaway and
homeless youth center and you do not ask how a young person has
been surviving for the last 3 months at the age of 15 on the
street, they have had to exchange something in exchange for
something. But those questions are not even being asked. They
are not even mandatory on a lot of intake forms in child
welfare, et cetera.
There are some really simple things that we can do in terms
of training and technical assistance with some of these larger
institutions that could really shore up that support. In terms
of--and so recognizing that specialized services will never be
able to serve everybody, but there is a real need for those
specific services where young people can be around other young
people who have had those same experiences. They can see
adults, young women, role models who, when you are in the life,
you do not see anyone else who has successfully come out of the
life. Anybody who is an older woman is struggling at that
point, or people die or people go to jail. So to be able to see
young women, adult women who are going to college and working
and walk in the front door----
Senator Franken. They have come through the other side.
Ms. Lloyd. That is so critical, and we know that. We know
that that works in substance abuse. We know that that works in
domestic violence treatment and rape crisis treatment. Having
people who have experienced the same things makes people feel
comfortable. And girls need comprehensive, long-term services.
The vast majority of the girls we work with do not have a
really strong family structure. There may be some family
members that we can help support, but they are going to need
services for a really long time. And so kind of rescuing kids
and taking them out of the situation and--I mean, you have to
be able to kind of provide long-term, strengths-based youth
development services up until young adulthood so that they can
make a transition in their early 20's into kind of being
independent.
Senator Franken. Shaquana, I saw you do a lot of nodding
while Rachel was speaking. Can you speak to this?
Shaquana. One of the things that I would like to say is
especially as I am an outreach worker and I go to juvenile
detention facilities--you know, just maybe 2 weeks ago, I
witnessed a staff member say something that was really rude to
a girl that, you know, they know what they are there for and
they expose their business in it, helps the girls to continue
to feel worse about themselves as if there is something wrong
with them. And it can make it hard for them to understand what
it is that I am talking about, and it is important that I be
there, like I was saying before, to help them understand that
they do not have the right to say that to you, that you do not
deserve to be here in the first place, and that, you know,
there is a place where you can come and get services and that
you do not need to be detained to learn some lesson, you know?
And I think even with myself it has been extremely
important that even as I went back to school, even though I was
not in the life, I had to still learn what it meant to be in a
healthy relationship and live with my family and how to deal
with certain things that I had never dealt with before. I had
to learn what it meant to be a kid and that, you know, I have
people in my life to help me, and I have to, you know, ask for
their help and know that they are going to be there for me.
Senator Franken. And you became valedictorian of your
class.
Shaquana. Yes.
Senator Franken. I just want to underline that, what an
unbelievable achievement that is. GEMS must be doing something
right, and you must have something to teach everybody. So thank
you, Ms. Lloyd and Shaquana, just unbelievable, what a great
thing. And now you are going to college, right?
Shaquana. Yes.
Senator Franken. That is pretty cool.
Ms. Phillips. Senator, if I may interject, I think that
Shaquana and Ms. Lloyd bring up excellent points, and another
critical component is identifying the potential victims as
early as possible so that these services that they have
described can begin delivery at the earliest possible point.
I think it is important, as Ms. Lloyd indicated, that we
educate law enforcement officers, social service providers,
anyone who may potentially come in contact with these victims,
to ask the right questions so that the victims may be
identified through the series of questions. I think that the
task force model is critical in terms of identifying the
various entities and agencies that may come in contact with
potential victims and training them so that they can identify
the victims at the earliest point possible.
Senator Franken. I want to go back to something that I
started with, which is, to what extent is stigmatizing--because
Ms. Lloyd talked about giving a pass to the johns and we also
talked about public awareness. To what extent is it crucial to
stigmatize the people, the men who patronize prostitutes and
get everyone to understand that what they are doing is
continuing the exploitation of children?
Ms. Lloyd. I think that right now what is happening is
victims are being stigmatized. The agency that Ms. Alvarez just
mentioned was Case out in Chicago, they did a fantastic study
on demand and interviewed 200, 300 men who had bought sex at
some point in their lives, and most of these men--A, a large
percentage of these men said that they knew that women--they
believed that women probably had been sexually abused, that
they probably were on drugs, they probably did have a pimp.
They did not really care.
What they did care about, though, was being embarrassed in
front of their families, in front of their work colleagues,
having a fine, having their car taken away. If they were
shamed----
Senator Franken. But if that happened to the johns----
Ms. Lloyd. Yes, they----
Senator Franken.--might the demand go down and may we save
some of our children?
Ms. Lloyd. Yes, and right now they have talked about--the
panel has talked about kind of this low risk, low investment,
high return, high yield for traffickers. The demand is there. I
mean, if we are talking about potentially 100,000 children in
this country who have been sexually exploited, how many men are
buying them?
Senator Franken. I am sorry, Ms. Lloyd. I need to go vote,
Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Durbin. Thank you. Thank you, Senator Franken.
Senator Franken. Thank you.
Chairman Durbin. Thank you all, and I apologize for this,
but it happens from time to time. We had two roll call votes
underway.
Shaquana, I would like to go back to you, if I could, and
ask a question or two about your role, your relationship with
the police when you were involved in this and you were
arrested. Did you feel at any point along the way with the
police or with the prosecutor's office that there was an effort
or an outreach to avoid your being charged with a crime?
Shaquana. No. Like I said, if it wasn't for me actually
finding the outreach team and, you know, them asking me is this
what has happened to me and that this is a place that you can
go to, I would have been sent upstate to serve maybe 6 months
in jail. I mean, I even remember, as I was telling you before
about how I had been injured, I was in New Jersey, and I had to
come back to New York. And I remember coming in contact with
police and begging them to take me to the hospital and call my
mother. You know, at the time I was only 16 years old, and I
was extremely beaten up, and they wanted to do nothing. I had
to beg them.
Chairman Durbin. In terms of support from family and
friends, did you have any at that point?
Shaquana. No. There were times, you know, where I would be
living at home, and if someone got mad at me, or whatever, they
were calling me out of my name, and it made me feel extremely
uncomfortable, living in my home with people that were supposed
to be my family.
Chairman Durbin. Can I ask, Ms. Lloyd, when I hear about
the women who are--young women who are victimized here, there
are some parallels to the victims of domestic violence, too.
Ms. Lloyd. Yes.
Chairman Durbin. Is there a way to coordinate the services?
Because I am afraid, as Ms. Alvarez has said, we have few
services to start with, and with budget cutbacks, even fewer.
Are there ways to coordinate efforts here with other agencies
that are involved in domestic violence to help these victims?
Ms. Lloyd. Yes, I definitely think that the domestic
violence and sexual assault movements need to embrace this
issue. The young people that we serve are indeed victims of
domestic violence and sexual violence.
In terms of kind of specialized services, it has been our
experience in New York, particularly--and I have heard this
from many services providers--while we will not tell somebody
when they are calling--and this is for older girls because
obviously underage girls cannot go to a domestic violence
shelter. But for our older girls, if they call a domestic
violence shelter, we advise them that sharing your trafficking
situation may not be wise in terms of you getting a bed.
Chairman Durbin. Why? Tell me----
Ms. Lloyd. Because they will be refusing housing generally.
They will generally be refused shelter if they say that their
abuser was a pimp, a trafficker, because many domestic violence
shelters feel like that is a different type of victim, not a
real victim, or they are worried about the trafficker coming to
their shelter, et cetera, and they do not see it as kind of
their issue.
So, I mean, we have seen a lot of girls turned down because
they have been honest about their situation, and you are right.
I mean, the parallels to domestic violence, the psychological
manipulation, kind of the attempts to leave and go back and
leave and go back, are very similar.
So, I mean, there is much, I think, we could share with the
domestic violence movement, but they have to really embrace
this issue. And there is a difference in terms of kind of the
systems that are set up. There are not domestic violence
shelters for 15-year-olds. That is a child welfare issue.
Chairman Durbin. How many years did it take you to get the
Safe Harbor bill through the New York Legislature?
Ms. Lloyd. Four and a half long years.
Chairman Durbin. Congratulations.
Ms. Lloyd. Painful years.
Chairman Durbin. Ms. Alvarez, have you taken a look at this
New York law? Are you familiar with it?
Ms. Alvarez. I am familiar with it, and actually we have
been looking and we have contacted with Polaris, and we are
going to--we are in the drafting stages of something for
Illinois.
Chairman Durbin. Good.
Ms. Alvarez. We are not there yet, but it is something that
we are taking a great look at.
Chairman Durbin. Well, perhaps we can ask our State
Attorney General to take a look at it, too. It would be good if
we could join efforts on that, and I would be glad to help in
that regard.
Ms. Phillips, you did some work in the computer Internet
area, too, which is obviously part of this exploitation. Is
there more that we can or should do? Do you feel that the
technology is moving faster than our surveillance?
Ms. Phillips. Well, unfortunately, it is always a challenge
to keep a step ahead of the criminals, and especially in the
computer crimes area where the technology moves at just a
breakneck speed.
I can say that through the development of the regional
computer forensic laboratories and a greater focus on the
amount of information that is out there through computer
forensics, we have been able to better address the problem and
pursue a more significant number of child exploitation cases
that are investigated through the use of computers or the
Internet.
Chairman Durbin. Ambassador, Beth Phillips noted in her
testimony that the Justice Department is currently funding
research into the prevalence of commercial sexual exploitation
of children in our country, and the findings are due in early
2011. Do you believe this ongoing DOJ research will help
address the concerns of the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the
Child?
Ambassador CdeBaca. I think it will, Senator. I think that
one of the things that as we look to see how best we can
respond to our treaty obligations and how best we can respond
to our obligations under the Palermo Protocol to not just
prosecute and protect but also to prevent trafficking, the
research side becomes critically important.
So through this Senior Policy Operating Group, the
interagency process, one of our subcommittees is the Research
Subcommittee, and we are working very closely with the National
Institutes of Justice to try to do that kind of research both
here and overseas as well.
Chairman Durbin. Well, I thank you all on this panel, and
for your patience as Senator Franken and I moved back and
forth, and especially for coming here today.
We have received a number of written statements in
conjunction with today's hearing, and with unanimous consent, I
will place them in the record. They include statements from the
Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation and Shared Hope
International.
[The statements appears as a submission for the record.]
Chairman Durbin. If there are no further comments from our
panel, I am going to bring this hearing to a close, again
thanking Ms. Spears, for your inspiration, being a catalyst for
our coming together today, and for action that will follow up.
This hearing record will remain open for a week for
additional materials from other members of the Committee and
interested individuals and organizations. Written questions may
be sent to members of the panel. I hope you can try to address
them in a timely way if they come to you.
The last time our Subcommittee met, we addressed the
question of how well our Nation is implementing our human
rights treaties. The subject of today's hearing, child sex
trafficking, implicates the Optional Protocol on the Sale of
Children, Child Prostitution, and Child Pornography. Changing
the way our Government treats victims and survivors of child
sex trafficking will help us comply with this treaty
obligation.
Shaquana reminded us that treaties need to be more than
just abstract legal documents. They protect America's children
from the horrific forms of abuse and exploitation which have
been described here today. As we lead the fight for human
rights around the world and against human trafficking, we have
a legal and moral obligation to protect our own children right
here in America.
This hearing is adjourned. Thank you very much.
[Whereupon, at 10:46 a.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]
[Questions and answers and submissions for the record
follow.]
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