New penalties for John's who purchase sex with children

By LEVI PULKKINEN

SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF

Before he was locked up, Dominque Davon Booker had a thing for guys who liked to buy sex from children.

Those were the guys that paid his girls -- at least one as young as 13 -- and his girls passed the money along to him. He still lived with his mom, at least according to the court records, but those johns' cash and those girls' bodies paid his bills.

Flanked by former U.S. Rep. Linda Smith, the mother of one of those girls demanded that the men who would pay to have sex with children like her child face some measure of justice.

Wednesday's gathering in a First Avenue parking lot adjacent to a downtown Seattle strip club was part protest and part celebration, a recognition that new penalties for johns caught "buying time" with kids were set to go into effect the following day.

Passed by the Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Chris Gregoire in March, the new regulations are aimed at eliminating the "I thought she was 18" defense often offered by johns while dropping prison sentences on those caught by police.

The move comes as anti-human-trafficking activists continue to demand more resources for prostituted children -- only 80 beds exist at secure shelters nationwide, according to one expert's estimate -- and additional attention on the domestic sex trade.

Smith, a former Congresswoman from Vancouver and anti-sex-trafficking activist who advocated for the legislation, told a gaggle of reporters that the new penalties are a starting point. The test will come in seeing that they're enforced.

"This bill starts the process," said Smith, founder of Shared Hope International. "It simply cannot be tolerated to buy a child by the hour or by the act."

The legislation mandates significant increases in the penalties faced by those convicted of pimping children while preventing those accused of paying children for sex from simply claiming they thought the child was of age.

A crime that previously punished with a $550 fine and, at most, a jail sentence will soon carry a minimum 21 month prison term and a $5,000 fine. A john also gets to lose his car, due to new impoundment rules allowing police to seize a vehicle used in prostitution.

Pimps also face stiffer penalties for selling sex with a child. The minimum sentence under the new regime for promoting sexual abuse of a minor is nearly eight years, more than four times the previous penalty.

Other sections of the legislation require that child prostitutes not be criminally charged on their first arrest, and enable authorities to hold them as juveniles in need of services. There's also a mandate that the state Criminal Justice Training Commission create a model policy for law enforcement treatment of child prostitutes by December.

The change in law drew support from the Washington Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs and Smith's organization, Shared Hope International. Also signing on was the Seattle Police Guild, whose members along with their King County counterparts and county prosecutors recently brought to a close the first case charged under the state's new human trafficking law.

That conviction, against 19-year-old Deshawn Clark, carried a 17-year sentence in part because of the stiff penalty attached to the human trafficking statute. Clark's five co-defendants -- most also alleged to be members of a West Seattle gang, Westside Street Mobb -- fared slightly better, receiving single-digit sentences following guilty pleas.

Speaking after Clark's conviction, King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg said that, in his view, the sentences handed to pimps and others benefiting from child prostitution don't square with the harm done to prostituted girls and boys.

"We're talking about kids who were taken off the streets and made sex slaves," Satterberg said. "It's a very dark secret in our community that most people don't know about and don't want to know about. …

"The demand for this is high, and the supply is being created by young girls."

Speaking during a recent visit to Seattle, Mark Lagon, former ambassador-at-large to the United Nations and director of the office to monitor and combat trafficking in persons, said stiffer penalties are useful, if enforced.

"If you only think of the sellers and what's being sold, you're never going to get your arms around the demand," said Lagon, who served as executive director of the anti-trafficking organization the Polaris Project after leaving the UN post.

"It's time that we stop saying boys will be boys."

To succeed, though, communities need to create services that will help prostituted children leave those who've profited from the abuse, Lagon said. At present, he said, no more than 80 secure shelter beds exist for child prostitutes, far too few to offer help for the tens of thousands of prostituted boys and girls.

Smith said previously that the new Washington law clears the way for secure centers where the youths can be taken after they've been found prostituting. Doing so, she said, creates an opportunity to break the youths away from their pimps and make a fresh start.

Resources for prostituted children, like a pilot program currently in the works in Seattle, address the basic unfairness of arresting a child who is a victim of sex crimes, Smith said.

"In most states, they're arrested and the men who buy them walk," the former Congresswoman said Wednesday. "There are literally no safe places."

Laurie, mother of one of the girls pimped by Booker, said her daughter got some measure of safety recently when a Pierce County judge sentenced Booker to a 10-year prison term.

Her daughter disappeared with Booker at 13. Court records show he had the girls working streets and hotels in and around Seattle and Tacoma.

Booker beat the girls, threatened them. Laurie said her daughter is still crazy for him.

"She was brainwashed and trafficked by a pimp," she said. "She still thinks he's the best thing since sliced bread."

The girl is home now. Hopefully, her mother said, she'll stay there this time.

Supporters of the new laws say they can keep johns away from the girls. They'll raise the stakes, Smith and others said, if they're enforced.

Speaking in an interview earlier this month, Lagon said assistance for trafficked individuals is needed. So, he said, is better behavior from businesses tangentially involved in the sex trade -- specifically Craigslist and online services like it, which serve to connect child prostitutes with willing buyers.

Lagon said he takes heart in the unity shown on the issue by people of all political stripes.

"Even today in this time of nasty partisanship, there's still unity on battling what is essentially slavery," Lagon said, noting that he's seen radical feminists and Christian conservatives come together on the issue.

"We need to mobilize public outcry," he continued. "It's unconscionable, and it's not enough that there are laws on the books."

Levi Pulkkinen can be reached at 206-448-8348 or levipulkkinen@seattlepi.com. Follow Levi on Twitter at twitter.com/levipulk.

© 1998-2010 Seattle Post-Intelligencer

New Jersey pimped sentenced to 18 years for human trafficking

A pimp known as "Prince" received an 18-year prison sentence today for leading a Jersey City prostitution ring built on human trafficking, sex slavery and illegal drug use, New Jersey Attorney General Paula T. Dow said.

For more than two decades, police say, Allen Brown lured girls into the sex trades with a mix of narcotics and, at times, pure coercion. The houses of prostitution he established in Jersey City were "stables" of strung-out girls, often locked into rooms and stripped of keys, cell phones and all forms of identity.

Brown, who in April pleaded guilty to racketeering and extortion, ran his operation with scores of girls he had brought from Camden, Philadelphia, Atlantic City and other communities.

“Allen Brown exploited vulnerable young women, imprisoning them in a life of prostitution and narcotics addiction,” said Dow.

“Now it is his turn to face prison, where he will not be able to harm any more women.”

Original Article from NorthJersey.com

FBI and Birmingham Civil Rights Institute fighting human trafficking

BIRMINGHAM, AL (WBRC) - There are children in Birmingham right now who are being forced into prostitution and even sex slavery.

That's the message the FBI and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute are trying to spread during a 2-day conference on human trafficking that started Sunday.

"We realized there were a lot of myths around human trafficking, the biggest being that it really doesn't affect people in Birmingham and Alabama," said Patricia Cooper, a staff member at the BCRI.

FBI agents at the Institute Sunday said not only is human trafficking a problem in Birmingham and the state, it's one that is growing by the week.

"Agricultural regions are another area where labor trafficking is starting to raise its head," said FBI Special Agent Dana Gillis. "And you see a lot of trafficking in the sex industry in areas both rural and in the city."

Whether it's migrant workers in the country illegally or children forced to work as prostitutes, the FBI and Civil Rights Institute are trying to shine a light on the problem in the hope that more attention can get more action from the community.

"One of them is being aware and sensitive of the situation," Cooper said. "Does it seem right if someone seems as if they're being coerced, for young people if they're not living at home. Just those telltale signs and for us to at least be willing to inquire."

Here are some more warning signs that the FBI says could mean there is human trafficking going on in your neighborhood:

-If you see an unusually large number of people living in a single-family home

-If you see individuals who go from home to work and straight back with no signs of any kind of social life

-Frequent police activity at the home

Cooper says those could all be signs that it is time to answer both of these questions: "What does it look like and then what do we do about it?"

If you see signs that someone in your area could be running a human trafficking ring, the FBI wants to hear from you at (205)326-6166.

A new state law was signed 2 weeks ago that makes human trafficking a felony in Alabama.

Copyright 2010 WBRC. All rights reserved.

Human Trafficking in America: a different kind of “drug war”

By Sheryl Young

It’s something Americans associate with a few European or third world countries. But the U.S. State Department’s 2009 “Trafficking in Humans” Report documents problems in 175 nations.
Girls, women, children and even teen boys are being deceived, kidnapped, trapped and shipped everywhere from America to Africa.
And it could be happening at our neighborhood mini-market.

From California to New England, the problem is spreading within the United States. It’s becoming as uncontrollable as the drug war that has raged for decades, despite the government’s best efforts.

The estimated FBI numbers from sources as varied as ABC Primetime in 2006 to Christianity Today in 2010 show 100,000-300,000 teens and children under the age of 18 have been trafficked within the states per year.

It is harder to obtain statistics for adult victims, because of a finer line between “voluntary” and forced prostitution or sexual slavery.

In April 2010, the U.S. Attorney’s office brought sex trafficking charges against the Gambino family, notoriously reputed to be part of the elusive “mob” in America.

With the arrest of 14 people, the charges include trapping girls to sell for sex at high stakes poker games in the middle of busy Manhattan.

Engaging in human trafficking is a new low even for the mob, U.S. Attorney’s office representatives stated in a press conference covered by MSNBC.

Also in April, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement reported that human trafficking has become the biggest “invisible” crime in the state. Florida House Bill 633 and Senate Bill 966 are currently being proposed to help law enforcement push back against the sex slavery trade.
How can this happen in America?

The massive amounts of money to be made through human trafficking is a powerful aphrodisiac that has enticed more people, even women, to deal in such crimes. In the Gambino case, one of the people arrested was a woman known to be involved in luring the victims.

The process of obtaining victims for human trafficking:
For most teen girls and women, if they are not outright kidnapped, they’re being enticed by the possibility of modeling or acting jobs. The Hollywood dream of obtaining fame and fortune at a young age through television and movies has become an obsession.

When they get to their destination, they are thrown into vehicles or locked in back bedrooms and sold to countless customers for sex acts, sexual abuse, and to appear in pornographic movies against their will.

They may be starved, drugged, verbally abused to the point of having no self-esteem, and threatened with death if they attempt to escape.

For girls and boys who do run away from home, criminals recognize their vulnerability, hunger and brokenness and are able to entice them into prostitution and porn films with the promise of money. The victim may receive tiny payments to keep them involved.

For children, it often starts with simple nabbing from neighborhoods.

A U.S. Government grant helped reveal the child trafficking problem:
In 2008, an organization called Shared Hope International (SHI) applied for and received a government grant to study the suspected nationwide crisis of child trafficking between states. Their resulting survey revealed that many of the children were often being misidentified as delinquents, and punished for crimes when they were actually victims.

Since then, the FBI and agencies such as the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children & Families have started training personnel to recognize when a person is a human trafficking victim instead of a runaway or criminal themselves (HHS Fact Sheet here).

Original Article from theundergroundsite.com

Egypt "rife" with human trafficking according to UN

Cairo - A UN expert called on Wednesday for Egypt to take more action to combat human trafficking, laying out a list of social ills running from child labour to sexual exploitation.

Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, the UN special rapporteur on trafficking in persons, was speaking as she wrapped up a 10-day visit to the country and talks with government officials and representatives of civil society.

According to a statement, she "identified common forms of trafficking in persons in Egypt to include trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation of under-aged girls through 'seasonal/temporary' marriage, child labour, domestic servitude, other forms of sexual exploitation and prostitution".

"There is a growing trend of sexual and economic exploitation of young Egyptian girls by their families and brokers... These types of marriage sometimes provide a smokescreen for providing sexual services to foreign men."

Ngozi Ezeilo said there were "also indications that trafficking for forced marriages, forced labour, transplantation of human organs and body tissues may be much more than current estimates".

She also said that while Egypt has been described as a transit country, "it might also be a source and a destination".

Street children

"The incidence of internal trafficking is much higher than transnational trafficking and the prevalence of street children increases their vulnerability to child trafficking," she said.

Ngozi Ezeilo said the problem is not well-understood, and called on Egypt to "provide comprehensive training programmes to enhance knowledge and awareness of human trafficking" and to tackle "root causes of trafficking such as poverty, unemployment, education, gender discrimination".

A parliamentary source said Egypt should soon pass a law criminalising human trafficking.

In February, a law was adopted regulating organ transplants and was aimed primarily at combating trafficking.

Every year, hundreds of poor Egyptians sell their kidneys, the World Health Organisation has said, making the country a focal point for trafficking.

- SAPA

Original Article from News24.com

Child trafficking ring busted in Romania

The leaders of a child-trafficking operation that put hundreds of beggars on the streets of Britain were targeted in a series of raids today in a remote Romanian town where opulent mansions have sprung up since the country joined the European Union.

Roma children aged from 7 to 15 were bought or taken, possibly by force, from their parents in rural Romania and trained to beg and steal, making millions of pounds a year in Britain for their gangmasters at the height of the scam, police believe.

The alleged child-trafficking ring based in Tandarei, in southern Romania, was said to be responsible for sending at least 168 children to London, from where they would also travel to other towns and cities.

Gangmasters would take care of the children’s travel documents and accommodation in Britain, where they would often sleep in cramped conditions and be forced to hand over the money they obtained.

The dawn raids were part of a wider crackdown on traffickers active in Britain, Italy and Spain since Romania became a member of the EU in 2007.

Police who broke up a gang operating in Milan estimated that Romanian children were making €12,000 (£10,500) a month each on the streets and through the theft of credit cards and mobile phones.

“The network was recruiting children and forcing them to beg and commit petty thefts in Great Britain,” said a police official in Bucharest.

“They were taken from their families in Tandarei and they were forced into shoplifting and pickpocketing. We will have to see if the children were given willingly by their parents for the exchange of money or if they were taken by force.”

Some of the children are understood to be in care in Britain while others have been sent back to Romania. Police sources say that some families were prepared to give up their children for as little as €200 each.

After a year of planning at least 17 people were arrested after the raids on 33 homes in Tandarei by a small army of organised crime investigators, assisted by 26 Metropolitan Police officers and two observers from Interpol. The identities or roles of those held was not disclosed.

Firearms, jewellery, luxury cars and large sums of money were found at the homes of suspects, according to local media, which said that 320 Romanian officers were involved in the operation.

Tandarei, with its population of 12,000 people, 150km east of Bucharest, has undergone a seemingly miraculous economic boom in the past few years.

A town previously known for grim blocks of flats and traditional single-story stone buildings now has about 50 luxury homes and more and more BMWs and Audis are seen on the streets.

Asked last autumn about the newfound wealth of some residents, Vasile Sava, the mayor, said: “How can I know where they get the money from? Nobody is telling us how they made the money abroad, legally or illegally.”

Tandarei was identified as the home town of 15 children found living in three homes in Manchester last November who had been forced to carry out cashpoint distraction thefts.

Scotland Yard teamed up with Romanian police in a £1 million investigation funded by the EU to track down the criminals behind people-trafficking. They would not confirm if yesterday’s arrests were linked to the Manchester operation.

“Of course, it is not all Romanians who are here who are causing this problem,” said a British police spokesman. “The aim is to bring people to justice for human trafficking and exploitation of vulnerable members of the Roma community.

“We will be seeking to disrupt organised crime networks in any way, prosecuting key individuals here and in Romania.”

Original Article from TimesOnline.

Flight attendants being trained to identify trafficking

By Elizabeth Lee

Flight attendants at a large U.S. airline are training other flight attendants to recognize signs of human trafficking on international and domestic flights. The flight attendant leading the program says it's possible to catch traffickers in the act, saving the lives of women and children trapped in the net.

For a moment in time, strangers from around the world come together as travelers.

It's also a moment when American Airlines flight attendant Sandra Fiorini can save a life. "We had an 18-year-old boy and he had a brand new day-old baby, umbilical cord everything was still there, day-old baby. He's going on a six hour flight, no wife. He has two diapers stuck in his pockets and one bottle," she describes.

Fiorini sees scenrios like that on a regular basis when she is on one of her international flights. She says after 39 years on the job, it's not difficult to recognize a suspected case of human trafficking. "Most of us are parents. When you see an instance that's not right and a red flag is raised, especially when there is children involved, you're more in tune with what's happening," she said.

Fiorini had tried to report suspicious activity to the police but they never responded. Two years ago, it all changed when Fiorini met Deborah Sigmund, founder of the organization Innocents At Risk.

"It's enslavement. We're talking about modern day slavery," Sigmund said.

Innocents At Risk provided Fiorini with brochures detailing the signs of human trafficking. There's also a phone number to report a suspected case.

"Before you couldn't call anyone," Fiorini said. "The local authorities would not respond to you. So now when you do call this hotline number, someone does respond."

Law enforcement will be waiting at the gate if a flight attendant reports something suspicious. Innocents At Risk created a video showing why it's important for law enforcement to respond. The organization says women, girls and even boys are being sold into sexual slavery.

"This is happening everywhere in the world, every country in the world," Sigmund said. "And it's happening here in the United States. Its a multi-billion dollar industry."

Meanwhile, Fiorini educates flight attendants around the world, using brochures and bracelets that contain the human trafficking hotline number. "I show my brochure, I tell them what I'm doing, and then I ask them to put the hotline number in the cell phone," she said. "Please pass the brochure onto another flight attendent."

Fiorini and Innocents At Risk have also been mobilizing lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

"We are working with Congress, with Human Rights Commission, and I think that something will come out of that and I'm very optimistic," Sigmund said.

The hope is that brochures like these will eventually end up in the seat back pockets of all flights so passengers will notify the flight attendants if they spot something suspicious.

Fiorini hopes once passengers know what to look for, they won't turn the other way.

Original Article from Voice of America