RedEye Covers Sexual Assault in Chicago

Yesterday, RedEye ran a cover story about our community’s response to sexual assault. The reporter touched on issues victims face when they come forward to report to local law enforcement. Every day, our attorneys at the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Assault are working with survivors who are seeking to hold perpetrators of rape accountable. Our legal program—the Sexual Assault Justice Project—offers free legal representation to sexual assault survivors as they navigate the criminal justice system or seek remedies against perpetrators in the civil court. We wanted to weigh in about a few things:  

Most rapes are not reported, and it takes a lot of courage to come forward and report a rape. The giant numeral 3 on the RedEye cover—the number of sexual assaults reported in Chicago on any given day—does not reflect the true reality of sexual assault in Chicago. Only between 16% and 19% of sexual assaults are ever reported to police. The reporter seems intent upon pointing out that some cases don’t move forward because victims “don’t want to be reminded” of the crime, and “a victim decides not to participate in the investigation.” What she doesn’t mention are the specific, horrifying things that often happen to survivors who do come forward.

The truth is that our culture does not believe rape victims, and our criminal justice system too often reflects that—not just here in Chicago but throughout the country. Survivors who do come forward are often doubted, ignored and re-traumatized. (Just read this recent article in The Daily Beast to learn how social media contributes to the problem.) The reporter seems intent on framing these barriers as being all about the victim. Instead, we’d like to talk more about how the system should be reformed. According to Kaethe Morris Hoffer, CAASE’s legal director, “Most of our clients desperately want to support the investigation and prosecution of rape. The flaw is not with survivors’ willingness to cooperate, but with the system’s ability to believe survivors and stop rape.” 

This is about public safety and holding those who commit rape accountable. The reporter leaves out that side of the story—the perpetrators who are getting away with rape. Local law enforcement is making strides in creating a better response to sexual assault—training prosecutors and police about the realities of trauma so they can better work with survivors. But there is much more to be done.

CAASE strongly supports transparency in data. Using data to tell a story is a hot topic in journalism right now and rightly so. The map in RedEye shows that sexual assault is being reported in every corner of our city. Better data collection and transparency are important tools for advocates who are working to identify systemic issues facing survivors of sexual assault. CAASE participates in a sexual assault task force with allies mentioned in the story, and we are thrilled to see a rallying of support from local leaders like Alderman Scott Waguespack.

To learn more about CAASE’s legal work, please visit our website or make a donation here.

Chicagoland Police Used FBI Sex Trafficking Sting to Arrest Adult Women

Yesterday we told you that the FBI conducted a sting to arrest 150 pimps nationwide and rescue more than 100 children from sex trafficking. Today, we have some very bad news.

Two of the children were from Illinois, and one pimp was arrested in our state. Apparently, law enforcement in several cities also used this as an opportunity to arrest and charge adult women in Illinois with prostitution. Locally, Daily Herald reports that at least 14 local women (some as young as 21) in Naperville, Aurora, Elgin, Arlington Heights and Elk Grove were charged with prostitution as part of the sting. There was no mention from the FBI or Daily Herald about any johns (buyers) being arrested.

The FBI’s main message yesterday to the media was clear: children AND adults are being exploited in the sex trade. In a press release, Ron Hosko, assistant director of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division said: “This operation serves as a reminder that these abhorrent crimes can happen anywhere and that the FBI remains committed to stopping this cycle of victimization and holding the criminals who profit from this exploitation accountable.”


It is abhorrent that police used this sting as a reason to arrest women in prostitution.  Research shows that the majority of women in prostitution were recruited as minors, so it’s likely that is the case for some of these women. The difference between being treated as a “child victim” and a criminal appears to be merely a difference of three or four years of age. If the intention of the FBI was to take down pimps and traffickers and stop exploitation, why did Chicagoland police feel empowered to arrest prostituted adults? Did local police even screen these adults for human trafficking?

Update 8/2/2013:  In a quick scan of arrest info released by law enforcement in three cities, 98 of the 138 arrests were of prostituted people. In Las Vegas, media reported that 41 people in prostitution were arrested there.

We must demand more from law enforcement. Over and over again, we see police blotters where women are arrested and johns and pimps go unmentioned. This is another glaring example of police using an easy, ingrained, and highly ineffective practice: arresting and re-arresting people in prostitution. People who buy sex in the suburbs will take great comfort in the fact that these women were arrested and that buyers were ignored. It sends a message to buyers that they are safe, immune from prosecution, and can continue doing what they do—buying sex in our community and creating the demand for more people in prostitution.

During the FBI press conference, Hosko said, “We do care, and our goal is to get these young girls into some form of treatment and help them reshape their lives and reclaim their innocence to the extent they can.” CAASE advocates that services and support should extend to anyone who has been exploited in the sex trade, including adults. It’s time for police to stop punishing the wrong people, start addressing demand, and recognize that sex traffickers also target and exploit adults.

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FBI Sting and the Local Issue of Sex Trafficking

Today the FBI announced that more than 150 arrests had been made in stings targeting the sex trafficking of children throughout the United States. Two of the victims were from Chicagoland. We are so glad to see how much media attention is being paid to this today. Sadly there are many, many more minors and adults being exploited in the sex trade in Illinois.

Just this weekend, the Chicago Sun-Times ran an op-ed from Aldermen Bob Fioretti and Toni Foulkes proposing a zero-tolerance policy for sex trafficking in our city. CAASE has been partnering with Fioretti and Foulkes to address the City of Chicago’s response to sex trafficking. They recently called a City Council hearing on human trafficking, during which they heard more about local law enforcement efforts:

Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez testified that her office has brought more than 77 charges against local sex traffickers. These are local people who have been forcing local women and girls into the sex trade. Over and over, investigations are showing that most people in Chicago’s sex trade are not there by choice, but because someone has forced or coerced them into it. That, by definition, is sex trafficking.

  

By federal definition, all minors in the sex trade are victims of trafficking. That is also the case in Illinois (though it's not so in every state). There are many people in our community who are willing to buy sex from minors, and this demand causes the sex trade to thrive. Aldermen Fioretti and Foulkes understand the intrinsic connection. They wrote:

Maybe you think that prostitution can’t be stopped. The truth is that the people who are fueling all of this harm are going unpunished in our city. In 2011, there were only 41 charges made against pimps, buyers or traffickers in Chicago, in comparison to the more than 2,300 prostitution-related charges. The message to buyers needs to be clear: We won’t tolerate your behavior in our city.

We applaud Aldermen Fioretti and Foulkes for their leadership on this important issue and look forward to working with them to realize their vision of zero-tolerance for sex trafficking. 

Our End Demand Illinois campaign is working to transform our state's response to prostitution and sex trafficking. We passed the Illinois Safe Children Act in 2010, which makes all minors in our state immune from prosecution for prostitution. To learn more about our campaign, visit www.enddemandillinois.org

Sara Elizabeth Dill is Racing for CAASE

Sara Elizabeth Dill is a founding partner in the Chicago and Miami offices of the Law Offices of Sara Elizabeth Dill. Her practice focuses on immigration and criminal defense domestically and internationally. Sara also has an extensive pro bono practice, representing victims of human trafficking and domestic violence, as well as successfully litigating asylum cases for refugees from Rwanda, Sudan, Haiti, and Colombia. Sara has joined the Race for CAASE team and will be running the Chicago Half Marathon in September. She took a few moments to chat with us about her work in the anti-trafficking movement and to talk about why she’s Racing for CAASE.

CAASE: How have you seen the movement to end human trafficking evolving in the past few years, and when did you first hear about CAASE’s work?

Sara Elizabeth Dill: I have to say that human trafficking efforts have grown exponentially over the last decade. It must have been maybe two years ago and that there was another group I was working with and they were talking about CAASE. Any time you hear about an organization that is dealing with human trafficking on a local level, you have to take note. We hear so much about international trafficking, and when I learned that CAASE is doing something locally, I had to get involved.

CAASE: Why do you believe that ending the demand for prostitution so crucial?

SED: I think ending demand is the only way that we are effectively going to put a stop to human trafficking. We can dismantle the trafficking rings, increase penalties to the traffickers, and all of that is amazing. But unless we really teach our boys and men and tell them, “This isn’t appropriate. This isn’t accepted by society,” and enforce it with harsh penalties, it won’t end. We need to educate them about who these women are. That’s the only way that we will be able to put a stop to the demand for these women, which will then take away the profit and the traffickers, and it will eliminate it. I think the programs that CAASE is doing are fantastic. We’ve seen in other countries the benefits of when they started arresting the johns and putting very stiff criminal penalties on demand, and the trafficking of women decreased exponentially—to the point where it’s almost nonexistent.

CAASE: What made you want to support CAASE and join the Race for CAASE Team? Have you run a half marathon before?

SEDill: I have. I’ve run half marathons and I’ve run full marathons. I wanted to get another race in this year, and when I saw on twitter that you guys were sponsoring a team for this I thought “That’s perfect!”

CAASE: You’re really active on Twitter, and your practice has a great blog. We saw the other day that you were training in this heat.

SEDill: Yes, you have to keep training! The way I see it - any pain or struggle I feel while running is nothing compared to what victims of human trafficking endure.

Many thanks to Sara for being interviewed and for joining the Race for CAASE team. If you’d like to support Sara’s fundraising efforts, please visit her profile here and make a donation!

This interview was written/condensed by CAASE's Communications Intern, Clara Pluton.

AP calls Sex Trafficking of a Child a "Career"

Myths about prostitution run deep in our culture. Some people believe it’s a victimless crime, or that all women in prostitution have chosen to be there. Often, the media contributes to these myths by using derogatory and shaming language. We thought, however, that it was now obvious to all that any children in prostitution should be considered victims of crime, and that adults are exploiting them in a heinous way. Apparently, the Associated Press isn’t there yet. Yesterday, reporter Ramit Plushnick-Masti filed a story about Houston’s program to “rehabilitate”people in prostitution. Here’s the intro paragraph:

Tricia Chambers began her life heavily dependent on heroin and methadone. From there, she was peddled into child pornography, and by 9 she had a full-fledged career in prostitution, alongside her mother.

A nine-year-old girl who is being sex trafficked by her mother does not have a career. Instead, adults are sexual exploiting and assaulting her. Men were buying sex from a 9-year-old girl. Nothing about that says “work” or “career” or job.

This is a giant failure by the Associated Press and Plushnick-Masti to recognize that Tricia Chambers is a survivor of childhood sexual assault. Instead, they continue to stigmatize her and others who are in a program trying to exit prostitution, by calling them “hookers” and “streetwalkers.” This is incredibly offensive and harmful, and reinforces the cultural norm that people in prostitution are to blame, when many are actually crime victims.

All of this is made even more painful because the story that Plushnick-Masti is covering needs to be told. She writes about the shift in law enforcement's response to prostitution, and the recognition that minors in the sex trade are crime victims. It's terrible that the language she chose to use doesn't reflect the story she's telling.

We need to take action. Tweet @RamitMastiAP and @AP and tell them they got it wrong. A child in prostitution is a victim of a heinous crime. They must do better in deepening reporters’ understanding of these issues and work to not re-victimize survivors of sexual assault and trafficking. The must edit this story and show that they will do more to educate reporters about the realities of sex trafficking. 

Here are some sample tweets:

Tell @AP and @RamitMastiAP a 9-year-old cannot have a “career” in prostitution. Language matters! Pls RT http://ow.ly/mrqLh

.@AP @RamitMastiAP call sex trafficking of children what it is—exploitation by adults, not a 9-year-old’s career. http://ow.ly/mrqLh

You can also write on the Associated Press’s Texas Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/AssociatedPressTexas?fref=ts  

Reflections on Roadkill, an Experiential Play about Sex Trafficking

Rachel Durchslag, CAASE’s founder and executive director, attended the production of "Roadkill" at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. The experiential play tells the story of a young woman trafficked in Chicago. Here are some of Rachel’s thoughts about the play. 

There is a nervous energy as we board the bus outside of the Chicago Shakespeare Theater.  Approximately 20 people have signed up for an experiential theatrical performance that will take them away from Navy Pier and into a Chicago neighborhood for a play that deals with an issue many have yet to learn about—sex trafficking.

We drive west on Chicago Avenue out of downtown toward Wicker Park. Eventually the bus slows downs and picks up two actors playing a young girl and a woman only a few years older.  The girl tells the passengers she is from Nigeria and is moving to Chicago for a better life.  The woman who is her travel companion is her “auntie” whom she will live with and who will help her go to school and find work.  The young actor is wide-eyed and consistently comments on all the wonderful things she is viewing on the ride.  Her excitement and joyousness are infectious and soon everyone on the bus is smiling and laughing with her.  For a moment, they forget that they have purchased tickets to a play where they are going to watch the fate of this young girl as she becomes a victim of sex trafficking.

Trafficking thrives by being a hidden phenomenon.  As long as victims remain behind closed doors, away from the eyes of law enforcement, traffickers can continue to exploit them for their own economic benefit.  This is the brilliance of “Roadkill”- it brings the audience into the hidden space of an apartment where trafficked victims are held against their will.  Because audience members are surrounded by the play, the subject comes alive in an even more impactful way.  We see Mary as she experiences rape in front of us.  We feel her captivity as we sit with her in the room that is both where she sleeps and where she endures countless sexual assaults.  We long for her freedom as she lies in her bed looking up at a ceiling where johns’ faces are projected and quotes from johns’ boards are read.

“Roadkill” highlights the role of demand by showing faces of johns and bringing their real quotes into the story.  It shows how trafficked victims can become traffickers.  And it clearly demonstrates that sex trafficking can look different from an outside perspective.  This play serves as a tribute to the power of theater to connect theater-goers deeply with social justice issues.

Learn more about Roadkill on the British Council's website.

Illinois Man Buys Sex on Honeymoon

Photo by Jeremy Keith

 Maybe you’ve seen the story today. A man from Illinois was busted after allegedly soliciting sex while he was on his honeymoon in Orlando. It’s a nightmare scenario—a newly married man betraying his wife while on vacation together. Of course it’s getting a lot of attention. It’s dramatic and terrible.

And yet. Within the world of men who buy sex, it’s seen as entirely normal. When CAASE interviewed men who buy sex in Chicago, we found that men who buy sex do have wives and girlfriends, and they know that buying sex can cause harm to their relationships. In that study:

• 62% of men interviewed said they had a regular sex partner (girlfriend or wife).
• 75% of men interviewed thought that harm is done to a marriage if a man buys sex, even if his wife doesn’t know about it.

We don’t know what motivated this particular man to buy sex, but it’s time to have more honest conversations about the realities of demand. That's why CAASE is talking to young men sooner about these issues, and raising awareness about the role of demand in perpetuating the sex trade.

Why do you think demand is usually ignored, but this story is getting so much attention?