National Human Trafficking Prevention Month

January is National Human Trafficking Prevention Month. This is an opportunity to educate more people about the realities of human trafficking, how damaging it is, and what we can all do to help prevent it. Prevention is a fundamental part of what we do at CAASE, and we work to prevent human trafficking by educating young men about the negative effects it has on those who are trafficked and society as a whole.

While women in prostitution are stigmatized, the men responsible for perpetuating the sex trade – the men who sell sex (pimps) and the men who buy sex (johns) – not only evade the stigma attached to the women they exploit, but our society glamorizes these men. More and more young men are saturated with this distortion to the point where many have come to accept it as reality. A CAASE study of 113 men who bought sex found that the average age at which the men first bought sex was a mere 21. Even more revealing, 11% of respondents admitted that the first time they bought sex was between the ages of 10 and 15-years-old. We realized that if boys as young as 4^th graders were purchasing sex, there is a clear absence of education among young men regarding prostitution and sexual exploitation.

Young men are key to ending sex trafficking and the modern day slavery it imposes on millions of women worldwide. CAASE has created and implemented the first curriculum in the country that is specifically designed to educate young men about the harms of the sex trade. Our goal is to educate these young men about the damages of the sex trade and in doing so, create a generation of men dedicated to ending this daily exploitation.

CAASE’s curriculum, “Empowering Young Men to End Sexual Exploitation” has reached more than 1,000 students since its inception in March of 2010. Our instructor visits classrooms in Chicagoland to bring this multiple-session course directly to students. The interactive classes invite young men to examine the constructs of masculinity that have been presented to them by our culture, juxtaposed with the harsh realities of the sex trade. This topic is rarely, if ever, brought up with high school students otherwise, and initial surveys of students show that our work is making a real impact. By challenging the distortions promoted by popular culture, we enable students to resist the sex trade and join the fight to end it.

You can take action today. Do you have connections to a high school that might be interested in the curriculum? Visit http://caase.org/prevention today to learn how to bring the curriculum to your school.

Bolingbrook Man Charged with Sex Trafficking

Yesterday, an ex-convict, McKenzie "Casino" Carson, was arrested on federal charges that he forced a 17-year old girl into the sex trade and prostituted her since January 2010. Carson allegedly had a group of women that he trafficked, advertised them on the internet, and kept nearly all of the portions the women were paid. According to the Chicago Tribune, "The 17-year-old girl who authorities say Carson forced into prostitution was introduced to him a year ago after confiding to an acquaintance that she was having financial problems, according to the complaint." After they met, Carson allegedly raped her, and when she told him her age, he simply replied "that don't matter." He allegedly then began to use categorical violence to keep her and the other women he trafficked in the sex trade.

It is good to hear that this pimp has been arrested and will be prosecuted for his terrible crimes. But shouldn't we also be arresting and prosecuting the johns, the men who bought sex from this 17-year-old girl? Prostitution would not be profitable without the demand from these purchasers. Johns are instrumental in fueling pimps to continue exploiting women, and yet johns are rarely prosecuted or convicted. Unless we address and eliminate the demand, we will never be able to successfully eliminate sex trafficking. To learn more about what demand is and how you can help stop the exploitation of women, visit End Demand Illinois.

This arrest should also help to shatter the myth that prostitution and sex trafficking are not happening in your own neighborhood. Think prostitution and sex trafficking couldn't happen in your area? Think again. Bolingbrook is a fairly affluent community, listed at #43 in Money Magazine's "America's Top 100 Places to Live."  If sex trafficking is happening here, it is happening in your community, too.

Don't be discouraged. Instead, be motivated! To find out more about how you can help stop sex trafficking and bring an end to sexual exploitation visit CAASE or End Demand Illinois today

Backpage.com Connected to Murders in Detroit

Last week, the Detroit Free Press and CNN revealed the staggering earnings of websites like Backpage.com that are fueling prostitution and sex trafficking. In the story, it’s estimated that Backpage.com sold about $24 million in escort ads in the past year. These ads were linked by police to the recent murders of prostituted women in Detroit.

Four women's bodies were found in the trunks of cars after they had apparently been solicited via the internet and murdered. These women had been advertised on Backpage.com and other websites as "escorts." Backpage is, by its own admission, a “middle man” helping to facilitate the sale of sex through its ads. There's more in a video from CNN at the end of this post.

You might ask: What’s the difference between escort services and street level prostitution? Isn’t being an escort something glamorous, more akin to Pretty Woman than to life on the street? The gruesome details of this story and so many others involving prostituted women reveal just how much violence and risk prostituted people endure, whether they are sold on the street or on the internet.

Local research here in Chicago by Jody Raphael found that the safety of women in prostitution is threatened at similar levels in both indoor and outdoor venues. No matter whether the women were escorts, worked in strip clubs or hotels or on the street, they experienced violence at the hands of customers and their pimps. Most prostituted people are forced to turn over some or all of their money to a pimp, and it’s often that pimp who places the ads with Backpage.com and other websites. When someone else is profiting from the sale of another’s body for sex, it is trafficking.

People who buy sex—those who surf through these ads and decide where to buy and with whom—are the ones driving the trade. If we want to end the violence of the sex trade, we have to start by stopping people who create demand. We applaud efforts to shut down Backpage.com’s escort ads and support local law enforcement initiatives that hold pimps, johns and traffickers accountable for the harm they cause.
To learn more about our End Demand Illinois campaign, visit www.enddemandillinois.org

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Responding to "The Misunderstood Sex Offender"

If you pick up a copy of today’s Chicago Reader and flip to page 6, you’ll see a letter from our executive director, Rachel Durchslag, in response to the story “The misunderstood sex offender.” While we thought the story tackled some important issues, it missed the mark by failing to inform readers about the larger scope of the problem: most rapists are never arrested, charged or convicted. Did you catch the article in the Reader? What did you think? 

CAASE's attorneys work with survivors of sexual assault every day. Many of these survivors were raped by acquaintances, and few of them ever see their attacker held accountable until they reach out to us. Learn more about our legal services here. 

Here’s our response to the Reader article:

Dear Editor,

Readers of “The misunderstood sex offender” (Dec. 8, 2011, by Sam Worley) might conclude that Illinois is over-punishing sex offenders when, in reality, the overwhelming majority of perpetrators of sexual assault are never held accountable for their crimes. Within the realm of sexual violence, the men featured in Worley’s article represent a tiny minority of sex offenders; the men he featured were actually convicted. It’s estimated that fewer than 11 percent of rapists in Illinois are ever arrested, let alone charged or convicted of their crimes. Current law enforcement practices and the laws pertaining to sex offenders are clearly ineffective, and we must begin by demanding that perpetrators be arrested and charged. Reforming our response to sexual assault should never center on the needs of the offender, as Worley suggests, but instead on creating justice for crime victims.  

Rachel Durchslag

Executive Director
Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation

A Rape Survivor Tells Her Story and Thanks CAASE's Attorneys

As CAASE wraps up 2011, we are reflecting on all that we've accomplished this year. Recently, we heard from a client about just how much CAASE's legal services really meant to her:

After Jessica’s ex-boyfriend sexually assaulted her, all she wanted was for him to stay away. Night after night, she couldn’t sleep, worrying about her own safety. “I wanted to create a barrier between him and myself. I wanted to be empowered.”

Through the Sexual Assault Justice Project, CAASE’s attorneys work with local rape crisis centers to ensure that survivors have access to free legal counsel through our office. At the YWCA, Jessica worked with an advocate who helped her navigate the criminal justice system. In the end, Jessica decided against filing a police report.  “I was not, at the time, emotionally able to press charges,” she said. Her advocate recommended that Jessica contact CAASE.

After talking to CAASE’s  Legal Director Kaethe Morris Hoffer, Jessica felt a huge sense of relief. “She was so professional, confidential and supportive,” Jessica said. “It was the first thing that made me feel like I had options.”

Kaethe wrote a letter to Jessica’s attacker, and he ended up calling the CAASE office. “Apparently he was apologetic and ashamed,” Jessica said. “He very much heard the tone of the letter and was afraid of the consequences, and I have not heard from him since.”

As a teacher who’s paying her way through grad school, Jessica wasn’t prepared for the additional costs that came after she was assaulted. Therapy and medication weren’t things she had budgeted for, so she was grateful that CAASE’s legal services were completely free, regardless of her income. “I was eating ramen noodles,” she said. “It would not have been feasible for me to pay for a lawyer.”

After raving about Kaethe’s professionalism, Jessica adds, “I would not have gotten through without this. Once the letter was sent, well, I’ve been slept through the night ever since.”

Learn more about our legal services here, or make an onlinedonation to support CAASE’s work here.

Chicago Pimp Convicted of Trafficking Girls as Young as 12

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In the News: Sex Trafficking of Girls in Illinois, Wisconsin, Tennessee

Two stories in the news this week shed light on the disturbing realities of sex trafficking in our city, and we wanted to share.A man in Milwaukee, Wisconsin has been charged with sex trafficking of children. According to a news article:

Sean Patrick recruited, sheltered, and turned prostitutes by force. He sent them to Chicago using bus transportation or drove them himself in a 1992 gold Chevrolet conversion van. The van reportedly was inscribed with the words “ho hauler” on the quarter front panel. These girls were property to him. Allegedly, if one of the young women missed the bus, he would choke them, stomp on them, and make them stand naked next to his “ho hauler.” Patrick paid the court $10,000 from the trafficking operation and gave up his van. He plead guilty to all charges and could face life in prison.

Another story broke about a couple from Tennessee has been charged with the sex trafficking of an underage girl they met on Facebook. Jessica Lidy and Jarrod Sanford were arrested after a 15-year-old girl told gas station employees in Lincoln that she was being held against her will in their truck. Lidy and Sanford had transported the teenage girl into Illinois to be prostituted. The couple claims that they brought her with them on trips to Illinois where Lidy engaged in the acts of prostitution alone. The U.S. Department of Justice has charged the couple with transportation of a minor to engage in prostitution.


Though media attention and circumstances differ, these stories share several elements. People are taking advantage of underage girls’ vulnerability. The most disturbing aspect of both stories is that men in our state are ready and willing to pay for girls. The reason Sean Patrick, Jessica Lidy, and Jarrod Sanford transported the girls they held captive to Illinois is because of the consistent demand for prostitution. As long as there are men willing to pay money in our city, these crimes will never end.

We applaud these efforts by law enforcement to go after pimps and traffickers. While these pimps are undoubtedly guilty of exploiting young women, the men who bought sex from these girls are fueling the never-ending cycle. No surprisingly, these news reports do not address the johns (men who buy sex). The first step in terminating this vicious cycle and ending demand in our city is simply awareness.

To continue your awareness of sex trafficking in Chicago, sign up for our action alerts here.

-This post was written by Allyson Matvey, a CAASE intern.

Photo by sciondriver.