Eyes were opened Monday to the real and growing problem of human trafficking in Indiana.
Many people are unaware of the extent of the problem, nor that most sex trafficking victims in the U.S. are American children.
So said Tamara Weaver, Indiana deputy attorney general, as she shared facts about human trafficking with an Indiana State University audience.
”It’s literally the people down the street. It’s family members. It’s friends. It’s relatives,” she said of the people who are using their children as currency to exchange for drugs, sex or payment of rent or other debts.
Those adults might also abuse the children such that they run away and ultimately end up trafficked for sex, or selling their own bodies for food to eat or a place to sleep.
”Almost all of the cases in Indiana of sex trafficking are of U.S. citizens. Eighty-three percent of sex trafficking cases nationally, are minors, are U.S. citizens,” Weaver said of the public misconception that trafficking occurs only to immigrants or other non-U.S. citizens who work service-industry jobs.
Sharing that message with an ISU student audience is part of the awareness campaign that Attorney General Greg Zoeller’s office hopes will help end human trafficking for both the sex trade and the labor trade, Weaver said.
”I wasn’t aware that it was a problem in Indiana,” said criminology major Sarah Trembcsynski of New Harmony. “Where I’m from is a pretty small town, but I’m sure in larger cities it’s probably more of a problem.”
Before Monday, she said, she had not realized that American teens are more likely to be trafficked in Indiana than are foreign-born people.
”I think there needs to be more focus on education domestically, because a lot of people do think it’s just foreign people pulled into this,” Trembcsynski said. “They don’t give consideration that it can happen to anybody, whether they are from here or not.”
Weaver said that human trafficking is a growing problem, and Americans are among the most frequent purchasers of human trafficking services, whether that is through the sex trade or the labor market for cheap employees.
One of the strategies in Indiana to combat human trafficking is a “Indiana's Not Buying It” campaign, recognizing that desiring to purchase individuals for sex or cheap labor is human trafficking. And it does not matter whether the person being bought and sold is aware of or agrees to the transaction.
”A major initiative is to address demand,” Weaver said. “If we don’t address demand, we will never stop trafficking.”
ISU criminology instructor Traves Behem said that Monday’s presentation by Weaver was eye-opening, and was something different that the students may not get in the classroom.
”She has expertise that she can bring to this subject, and has dealt with these cases,” Behem said. “I think that brings a little bit more legitimacy to the subject and topic. So hopefully when they go out in their careers, whether that’s as police officers or counselors or wherever they’re working, they may actually pay attention to this a little bit more and actually see that this really does happen in Small Town USA. Unfortunately it’s going on everywhere. It’s not just an international thing. It’s here.”
Weaver said that many trafficked people have lived vulnerable lives before being victimized. Studies show that about 57 percent of boys and girls recruited into commercial sex had been sexually abused as children. About 90 percent had been physically abused. About 40 percent had been kicked, hit, beaten, raped or threatened with a weapon by a household member.
Many victims also are extremely embarrassed about what is happening to them, or may not see themselves as a victim, so they are not likely to report their situation. That is why public education is important so that suspected cases can be reported to authorities trained to intervene.