Newly proposed legislation could decriminalize sex work in Illinois, but speakers during a Human Trafficking Prevention Month panel discussion in Wheaton say that’s not the way to help survivors who have been forced into the sex trade.
The proposed decriminalization would create “ripple effects” for survivors, starting with “the inability to accurately identify” them, panelist Blythe Struck, executive director of the nonprofit human trafficking recovery organization Naomi’s House, said during the event.
“There’s no way to differentiate between who is being trafficked and who is choosing to be engaged in sex work,” Struck said.
Defining human trafficking – it’s local
The lack of choice is a key factor in defining human trafficking, said Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, whose office has been recognized for working with trafficking survivors to get to the root of the problem.
“When an individual is using force or some other effort to coerce somebody to sell themselves for sex, that’s human trafficking,” Dart said. And while movies may make it seem as though this happens largely to immigrants from Eastern Europe or Southeast Asia, Dart said the opposite is true.
“The vast majority we get all the time are local people who are being trafficked by local people,” Dart said. “There’s lots of money in this on multiple levels. It is truly happening all around us — mostly on the internet.”
How common is human trafficking in DuPage, Cook, and Kane counties?
Statistics about the frequency of human trafficking are difficult to nail down, experts said. But suffice to say, it’s happening more than can be documented.
Naomi’s House recently launched an online outreach effort, using software to scrape internet sites for sex work ads and anonymously respond offering help. Rebecca Rivera, manager of community outreach, said each scrape typically finds about 1,000 ads for sex in the Wheaton 60187 zip code alone. Last year, Naomi’s House helped 253 people in DuPage, Cook, and Kane counties along their path to recovery from the trauma of trafficking, and leaders say the need is growing.
“This plague is everywhere,” Dart said. “There’s a tendency for people to act as if it’s happening elsewhere to other people, and it’s just not true.”
Panel calls for ‘entire community effort’
Nearly 100 advocates against trafficking gathered during last Friday’s event, which was sponsored by HOPE Fair Housing Center and Hanover Park Trustee Yasmeen Bankole, with former Illinois Lieutenant Governor Evelyn Sanguinetti as moderator.
Panelists advocated for the approach of local prostitution investigations, which aim to arrest not the person offering the sex acts, but the clients buying sex and the traffickers forcing victims to sell it.
DuPage County State’s Attorney Bob Berlin said his office fights human trafficking in three ways — through prevention, by protecting victims, and by prosecuting traffickers.
“We have to concentrate on helping and protecting survivors and protecting a vulnerable population that statistics have shown have a greater tendency to become victims of trafficking,” Berlin said. “It really does require an entire community effort.”
In her work at Naomi’s House, Struck said she’s learned there are “underlying vulnerabilities” that lead some people to be more likely to be forced to sell their bodies. These include trauma, childhood sexual abuse, a lack of stable housing, and a lack of supportive family.
“Traffickers can see these vulnerabilities vividly,” she said.
That’s why Naomi’s House offers outreach to help women leave the life of forced sex work, residential services to help them recover, and day programming to help them restart their lives.
“There’s really nothing we wouldn’t provide to help a woman reach her goals,” Struck said.
Education to decrease sex trafficking demand
While speakers at Friday’s event voiced concerns against decriminalizing sex work, advocates for the proposed legislation say it would improve sex workers’ safety by removing the threat of prosecution.
“It’s the wrong approach,” Berlin said. “It doesn’t work, and that’s not what we need.”
Instead, speakers encouraged those in attendance to help others learn the truth about what human trafficking is and to push for more state and federal funding for targeted trafficking investigations.
“What we know about sex trafficking is that it will not stop until the demand decreases,” Struck said. “Educating yourself is the first step in decreasing the demand.”
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