What Did You Think of "Saved on the Strip"?

I watched Hookers, Saved on the Strip on Discovery Channel last night. It’s a new reality TV show about Annie Lobert, a survivor of prostitution (above). I wanted to weigh in about my reaction to the show and hear what you all have to say about it.

First of all, I want to acknowledge that the show perpetuates a lot of stereotypes about women in prostitution. It’s set in Las Vegas, and the B-roll used to tell Annie’s story includes many shots of women wearing fishnet stockings and looking generally happy and glamorous. This made me cringe—the vast majority of women in prostitution in the U.S. are having sex to survive, and they certainly aren’t wearing six-inch heels. Real women in prostitution live in our own community—from Naperville to Elmhurst to Chicago—not just in “sin city.”

However, I think the show tackles a lot of issues that women right here in Chicago are facing as they try to exit prostitution. She touches on issues pertaining to violence, pimps, the legal system and more. I think it’s very brave of Annie and the other survivors on the show to tell their stories. They’re educating the public about the harms of prostitution and trying to help other women. Here are a couple things that stood out to me as being as being informative and pertinent to Chicago:

From what I could tell, Annie was a minor when she was recruited into prostitution. She was lured into it by someone she knew. This is really, really sad and also a very common experience for women in prostitution. Until recently in Illinois, girls could be charged with prostitution even though they were minors, and adults were paying to have sex with them. Our End Demand Illinois campaign advocated for a law that ends this practice: The Illinois Safe Children Act is changing the way law enforcement in our state treat survivors of domestic sex trafficking. Instead of being treated like criminals, youth survivors of prostitution are seen as being worthy of service and treatment.

Annie is also showing how the arrest and re-arrest of women in prostitution makes it incredibly difficult for women to leave the sex trade. This practice ignores the cause of this problem—the people who are buying sex and creating a demand for prostitution. Regina, a survivor on the show, was working to have her criminal record sealed so that she could apply for a job outside of the sex trade. She found this process incredibly difficult and wondered aloud if returning to stripping wouldn’t just be easier on her. This was a really sad moment in the show. Our culture’s stigmatization and legal treatment of women in prostitution is so harmful and cyclical. The End Demand Illinois campaign seeks to stop this cycle by shifting law enforcement’s attention to the cause of the problem—the men who are buying sex—and to stop the arrest and re-arrest of women.

To learn more about how to end the demand for prostitution, visit CAASE's resource page.

Sex Trafficking Revealed in Little Village

Many Americans believe that sex trafficking happens primarily in other countries, but human trafficking is a problem right here at home in Chicago. Just this week, a woman was arrested for trafficking young girls in a brothel in the Little Village/Pilsen neighborhood. The Chicago Tribune reports here:

Rubicela Montero forced the underage girls and other victims into prostitution and threatened them or their families with death if they quit, authorities said.

We are thrilled to see that our advocacy efforts are creating change. The Cook County State's Attorney's Office and the Chicago Police Department uncovered these victims of human trafficking. They treated the girls who were being exploited as worthy of support, not arrest - and to direct resources toward the investigation, charging, and prosecution of those who profit from commercial sexual exploitation. This is a major shift in the way survivors of sex trafficking are treated.

How can you get involved?

Learn more about the issue. Visit our resources page to read more about human trafficking.

Share with your friends. Send the link to this story to five of your friends to raise awareness about the issues in Chicago.

Join the End Demand Illinois campaign. Help us hold people accountable when they buy sex and contribute to sex trafficking in our community : www.enddemandillinois.org

A few more facts about sex trafficking:

• Research indicates that most victims of sex trafficking within the United States are women and children, particularly girls under the age of 18

• It is just as likely that a trafficking victim could come from your own neighborhood and be a local teenage girl.
  
  
• Sadly, Americans tend to refer to U.S. trafficking victims as anything but victims. They are referred to as criminals, prostitutes, child prostitutes, runaways, addicts, or juvenile delinquents. Traffickers are often referred to only as pimps

Thank you for your support!

Looking Beyond the Story of Madame Rose

Rose Laws, a "madam" who prostituted women on the Gold Coast and was then imprisoned, is profiled by ABC7 this week about her "business" selling women's bodies to wealthy men in our community. In the interview, she reveals many disturbing facts about prostitution in Chicago and names some names. Most importantly, her story subtly reveals the rampant violence and indignity experienced by women in prostitution:

• Laws says that professional football players hurt some of her "girls" by holding their heads under water in a hot tub. Violence is rampant in prostitution-the average life expectancy for a woman in prostitution is seven years after she enters the trade.
  
  
• She also describes sending her "youngest girls" to service men--the connection between child sex trafficking and "high-end" prostitution is strong and clear. As long as there is a demand for young bodies, children will be trafficked. We must ask why we would implicitly allow men in our community to buy children for sex.
  
  
• Laws estimates her women sold their bodies to as many as 5,000 men in Chicago. There is indeed a huge demand for prostitution in Chicagoland, and it feeds on more than 25,000 women and children who are prostituted in our city on any given day. There are very few consequences for men who are caught buying sex, while women in prostitution are often arrested and re-arrested.

I am genuinely interested in the reasons why Laws entered the sex trade. For the majority of women who do, it is out of desperation, not choice.

What can you do to help women in Chicago who would like to leave the sex trade? Join the End Demand Illinois campaign to fight the demand for the sex trade in Chicago. Respond to the media using our toolkit with common myths and misconceptions, and hold the media responsible when they get it wrong or only tell one side of the story.

Visit www.enddemandillinois.org to learn more.

Security Screenings and Survivors of Sexual Harm

There’s lots of chatter today about TSA security screenings and pat-downs at the airports on this busy travel day. Our legal director, Kaethe Morris Hoffer, was on WBEZ this morning talking about how the issue affects survivors of sexual harm. She states that the screenings could be traumatic to survivors. Listen to what she had to say, and leave a comment!

Kaethe and CAASE offer low- or no-cost legal representation to survivors of sexual harm. To learn more about our efforts, visit http://www.caase.org/work_legal.aspx.

Have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving.

National Day of Action!

Tomorrow, November 17, is the National Day of Action to urge Congress to pass the Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking and Victims Support Act. This legislation provides victims of human trafficking with access to needed services and shelter. This day of action is organized by the National Coalition to End Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking, and one of the organizations in the coalition, Polaris Project, is a partner with CAASE in our End Demand Illinois advocacy campaign, which seeks to transform Illinois' response to prostitution and sex trafficking.

To make sure this crucial legislation passes, please commit to take action!

Visit Polaris Project to learn more about how you can help to fight human trafficking.

Photo by Mike Bitzenhofer

Child Sex Trafficking in Chicago

The news yesterday about FBI raids that arrested hundreds across the country in child sex trafficking stings was very disturbing. Three children were rescued in Chicago alone. Sadly, the news that children are victimized in the sex trade in the United States is not a revelation, it’s reality.

If you get a chance today, buy an issue of StreetWise. It includes the story of Jessica (not her real name), who was kidnapped in Chicago and prostituted in the suburbs for three years. She was held against her will, clearly a victim of trafficking right here in our own back yard.

And until recently in Illinois, children who were arrested for prostitution could be charged criminally. Our End Demand, Illinois campaign helped to stop this practice in Illinois by advocating for the passage of the Safe Children Act, which took effect in August of this year.

The sex trade is fueled by the most vulnerable in our society, and children are often victims. Here are some startling facts from research CAASE has compiled into fact sheets:

• A University of Pennsylvania study from 2001 estimates that close to 300,000 children nationwide are at risk of falling victim to some sort of sexual exploitation. Outreach workers concur, saying that of the 1 million to 1.5 million runaway children in the country, about a third have some brush with prostitution.
• The overwhelming majority of runaway, homeless, abused, and at-risk children are approached by pimps and drug dealers within 48 hours of landing on the streets.
• Sixty percent of children exploited in prostitution are first recruited by peers.
• The U.S. Department of Justice states that the average age of entry into prostitution is 12-14 years old.

We should all be disgusted, but what can we do next? You can raise awareness and take action. Until the demand for prostitution ends, there will always be people willing to supply children for the sex trade. Visit www.enddemandillinois.org and get involved with the local campaign . Read our guide to concrete ways you can help fight the sex trade here.

Photo by Manuel Faisco.

Rachel Durchslag featured on What's Your Calling?

Rachel has been featured in the PBS mini series What's Your Calling?. She discusses how she became interested in sex trafficking and exploitation and what inspired her to advocate against it.
Check it out at the link below!
http://www.whatsyourcalling.org/campaign/how-much-of-ourselves-do-we-give-up-to-help-others/?ref=nf/

And as always, to find out more about how to end sex trafficking and exploitation visit: caase.org