From Boyz II Men by Jamie Lynn Johnson

My role at CAASE is to put together a Parent Toolkit to help parents discuss issues surrounding sexual exploitation with their sons. As I research and write I can’t help but think of my own family dynamics. I come from a very small family (eleven members including all cousins, their spouses, and their children) comprised mostly of women. My family is middle to upper class, well educated and currently raising adolescent boys. When writing about positive role-modeling and communicating interpersonal expectations, I often imagine my family members having meaningful conversations with their sons about healthy interactions with girls and boys. I smile when thinking about the possibility of how these boys will grow to be wonderful men who are self-aware of themselves as well as their perception and treatment of women. This, however, is not as I had imagined it to be.

Like many of you, I visited my family over the holidays—unfortunately, I was less than pleased at what I overheard during our time together. Jokes were blithely tossed around by a husband joking with his children about the “girlfriend” he had on the side while a dad enjoyed a disparaging laugh with his son over the absurd image of adult women sitting on Santa’s lap. The young boys, in the same manner as their older counterparts, consistently made references to girls in sexual terms while utilizing language which objectified their bodies. This was happening in a family where I believed everyone to be culturally aware, gender sensitive and, dare, I say, progressive! How was it that demeaning behavior like this was taking place in such a family?

Like it or not, our culture is saturated with denigrating messages about women, violent images of sex and polarizing gender roles. If you’re a parent, it can be very easy to lose sight of what it means to responsibly raise young boys with healthy perceptions of women and girls in such a sexualized climate.

Knowing that our language and behavior towards one another shapes the socio-cultural environment we live in, here a few tips from the Parent Toolkit that I’d like to share when understanding the influence we have on young men in our society:

1. Model responsible behavior. Your interaction with women, the way you expose yourselves to media, and even some of the behaviors you think are secret—are, in reality, being recorded on your son’s mental camcorders. Know that your sons are always watching and are probably catching on to more than you are giving them credit for. For this reason you must always model responsibility and self-control!

2. Love your partner. You're two of the most important people in the world to your son. When sons see one parent yell at, belittle, taunt, or insult the other parent, they may feel torn, hurt, angry, scared, and uncertain about their future. When asked, "Who helps you the most in your parenting?" the most popular answer by far is, "My partner." Nurture that relationship. Also, consider how your marriage looks to your children. Whether you’re seeking to be a cycle-breaker in your family, or you want to faithfully capitalize on the example your parents set for you, it’s important to purposefully set a positive example. Ask your children what qualities they’re looking for in a future mate. Often, their answers will reflect something about your marriage.

3. Shape their identity. A boy's search for self starts with his father and other influential male role models. Influential men can model good character traits like integrity, honesty, courage, restraint, fairness, foresight, and citizenship and teach respectful behaviors such as listening, trust, tolerance, politeness, and understanding limits. By observing these values in action your son can begin to use them in his own life and relationships with women.

The Dallas Response to Streets or Services by CAASE Intern

Fighting crime in an economic climate in which many states cannot afford to house their current prisoners can be challenging. As a result, many law enforcement agencies are seeking help from outside organizations to help reduce not only the number of people being sentenced to prison but also the number of those being arrested. One example of this growing trend can be found in Dallas, Texas.

Indeed, although Texas is the home of the largest prison system in the United States, the Dallas Police Department has pioneered a new response to prostitution offers people an alternative to prison. Rather than arresting and incarcerating people who are involved in the sex trade industry, Dallas police have developed the Prostitution Diversion Initiative (PDI). The PDI addresses the problem of prostitution through a new lens in which prostituted people are viewed as victims rather than criminals. By taking this perspective, the Dallas police officers are able to identify and address the needs of the people they encounter during prostitution sweeps and offer services that can ultimately help them to leave prostitution.

Developed in 2007, the PDI is a collaboration of law enforcement agencies, mental health and substance abuse agencies, medical practitioners, faith-based service providers, and other supportive services. Once a month, social service providers set up tables and chairs in vacant lots near truck stops where prostitution activity is believed to be heavy, and they are surrounded by four command trucks and a mobile health clinic. Police officers then sweep the area and individuals who are believed to be in prostitution are assessed by social service providers and offered STD testing and other medical health services in the mobile health clinic before setting foot into one of the mobile courtrooms. Individuals without felony warrants and who demonstrate a desire to leave prostitution are offered an opportunity to enter a rehabilitation program rather than prison. Once they complete the program, they receive help with services such as education, housing and childcare.

Even with this new innovative program, not everyone picked up by the police will qualify for services, and of those who do, only about half will opt to receive help. However, preliminary results are good. Ninety percent of those who had completed the initial recovery phase had not returned to prostitution (based on data published for the first year of operations). Compared to the 80% recidivism rate estimated for people who have been arrested and incarcerated for prostitution, the PDI appears to hold promising results for helping people to escape the sex trade industry.

In light of the promising results of the PDI, an unsettling question is raised: what happens when we begin to rely on the criminal justice system as a primary funding source for addressing social problems? Given the ever-tightening budget constraints of social service organizations, it seems likely that the day will soon come when people will be more likely to gain access to support services for help with issues such as housing, mental health, and substance abuse through their involvement with the criminal justice system than through their own desire to get help. Rather than putting law enforcement agencies in the role as gatekeepers to social services, wouldn’t it be far more cost-effective for state governments to redirect some of the money that now goes into funding law enforcement agencies’ collaboration with social service providers directly into the hands of the organizations that provide the services?

Such is the dream of End Demand, Illinois (EDI). The End Demand, Illinois campaign was launched in 2009 to transform the way Illinois responds to prostitution: by prioritizing the arrests of “johns” and offering relevant social services to prostituted people. While on the surface this may sound similar to the goals of the PDI, one major difference exists between the two. Whereas the PDI makes engagement with the criminal justice system a requirement for services, EDI seeks to ensure that services are made available to all survivors of prostitution, regardless of whether or not they have been identified as such by the criminal justice system. Though still in its infancy, End Demand, Illinois is already building a great deal of momentum that will hopefully spread beyond the borders of the state and into the rest of the country.

In Response to the Death of Shaniya Davis by Grace Yi

The death of 5-year old Shaniya Davis has most recently called to attention the heinous acts surrounding the issue of child prostitution and sex trafficking in public media. Her mother, Antoinette Nicole Davis, accused of selling her daughter into prostitution, faces numerous charges, including human trafficking, child abuse, felony and prostitution.  

While this may be one of the rarer instances that the public has heard of abuse and sexual exploitation of a child this young, many of us working to prevent and end prostitution and trafficking know how prevalent and widespread these acts of violence have and continue to affect young women and children. 

Such is the case with Dalencia, a former prostituted child from Texas whom Dick Gordon, of American Public Radio, (http://thestory.org/archive/the_story_907_Delencia.mp3/view) covered in his interview on the subject of teen prostitution. There are an estimated 300,000 children lured and coerced into prostitution each year, with a large number of them having experienced violent, abusive backgrounds. When understanding the enormity of such perpetration, we must then consider the implications of those girls and children being forced into a life of isolation, trauma, and shame. How then do we intervene? At what age and in what form? 

Public assistance and resources, alongside political will and community support, are in essence, necessary forms of intervention that will produce change in the way that permanently combats this cycle of exploitation. The focus, as CAASE and supporters see it, then, relies heavily on the prosecution and conviction of those consuming and selling sex, which ultimately hurts and destroys the lives of these young, innocent children.

CAASE | Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitations

VISION

CAASE is committed to building a global community free from sexual exploitation. We know that all forms of sexual exploitation, including sexual assault and the commercial sex trade, are detrimental to a healthy society and undermine the dignity of all people.

MISSION

CAASE believes it is possible to stop sexual exploitation by directly addressing the culture, institutions, and individuals that perpetrate, profit from, or tacitly support sexually exploitive acts against people. To accomplish our mission, CAASE: seeks legal repercussions on behalf of survivors against perpetrators of sexual harm; advocates for policies and legislation that hold sexual exploiters accountable; creates and implements prevention initiatives, including the provision of safe spaces for survivors to give testimony about their experiences; and develops resources that empower individuals and communities to stand with victims of sexual harm and take powerful actions against sexual exploiters.