Sanford, Florida- Tina Kadolph dreamed up Palate as a café with a mission. All the baristas are volunteers, and all profits — even tips — go to fight human trafficking and help survivors.
Read MoreThe Salvation Army’s Flight to End Trafficking (SAFE-T) program in the Grand Island area has received a $5,000 grant from the Grand Island Community Foundation. The SAFE-T program was established in 2015 to help survivors of all forms of trafficking build their lives in a way that is empowering and meaningful to them.
Read MorePalm Beach County, FL- Roger DeHart is lacing up his sneakers once again, embarking on another long-distance walk to raise awareness of human trafficking. This walk will be around 650 miles and will take about a month and a half to complete.
Read More
P.S.A. from the USIAHT:
Investigators in Williamsburg, VA. are asking for the public’s help locating a man wanted in a sex trafficking case. Evan Anthony Cole, 29 is described as being 6’2” and 190 pounds. He has unique tattoos on his face, neck and hands. Anyone with information on where Cole is should contact Investigator Nichols at 757-220-6238 or call the Peninsula Crime Line at 1-888 LOCK-U-UP.
Three men were arrested on Tuesday for sex trafficking after an undercover operation in Weber County, Utah. Protecting the youth is of upmost priority for them and they will continue to conduct these type of operations to help combat the growing trend of exploiting juveniles and the vulnerable population.
Read More
According to a tweet from FBI Louisville, the department has seen an increase in sexual exploitation and sextortion cases involving children ages 10-17. Authorities state the problem has become a nationwide issue.
Read More
West Des Moines Iowa- Break the Cycle 200 hosted dozens of runners and bikers this weekend to bring awareness to human trafficking.
Read More
Oregon locals are utilizing a collaborative effort between local agencies and community partners called the Lane County Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children Multidisciplinary Team. The team aims to support, educate and provide survivor-centered approaches. The joint effort allows the community to offer victims and survivors various ways to find resources or a support system.
Read More
The signing of HB-851 by Gov. DeSantis of Florida comes on the heels of 85 people arrested in “Operation Trade Secrets” — a months-long human trafficking sting in the Tampa area. The new law includes the creation of a database of people convicted of soliciting prostitution, and placing new requirements on the operation of massage parlors, strip clubs and hotels.
Read More
The three women giving the massages rarely left the building. They worked nearly 12-hour days and slept on the same beds their customers used during the day. They stored their food and few belongings on plastic shelves in the back of the business. The office suite didn’t have a kitchen, so the women propped open the rear door each morning to cook breakfast.
Read More
The American Hotel & Lodging Association vowed Wednesday to fight widespread sex trafficking on its properties, in part by training every employee on warning signs for the crime and how to respond.
Read More
Texas ranked first in the nation for the number of criminal cases that wound their way through federal courts last year. Of those 74 cases, 68 involved sex trafficking and six involved labor trafficking. Texas also ranked first for the number of new criminal human trafficking cases in 2018 with 19 initiated cases.
Read More
The Super Bowl is known to be one of the largest human trafficking magnets to the United States. The U.S. Attorney General Ashley Moody announced a partnership with Uber. More than 100,000 drivers will be given anti-human trafficking training sessions ahead of the Super Bowl.
Read More
Kevin joins Amy to speak on his important work rescuing children from sex trafficking and how he made the transition from an MLB front office to his new role.
Read More
“The United States is the number one consumer of sex worldwide. So we are driving the demand as a society. These are American kids, American born, 50% to 60% of them coming out of the foster care industry” says Geoff Rogers, co-founder of the United States Institute Against Human Trafficking.
Read More
Robert King, the leader of a Danbury, CT. targeted vulnerable young men suffering from addiction and mental illness was sentenced Wednesday to only four and a half years in prison. King testified against co-defendant Bruce Bemer in exchange for a sentence of 20 years in prison, suspended after he served four and a half years, and 35 years of probation.
Read More
The Colorado Springs Police Department announced a man faces charges for solicitation of a child for prostitution.
Read More
Junction City, OR to hold third annual Human Trafficking Prevention Summit this Saturday. Many experts on human trafficking including the FBI, will work alongside Chief Bob Morris with Junction City police to raise awareness to the worldwide issue.
Read More
San Diego, CA- A new high-tech tool to combat sex trafficking was unveiled at the San Diego County Administration Center in Kearny Mesa Monday. The tool is a 37-foot long mobile command trailer that can be used to find and rescue victims. It holds all kinds of equipment needed during a rescue operation, including drones, electronic gear, and safety equipment.
Read More
& Shapiro, D.L. 2002), sex trafficking is the second most lucrative criminal enterprise in the United States.
The average age of entry into the life of trafficking is 12-14 years of age, and recruitment of these young girls and boys often happens through social media and online grooming tactics.
Virginia Beach, VA. Police did not release many details but said, “This is a joint effort between Homeland Security Investigations and the Virginia Beach Police Department to identify, stop and deter Human Trafficking in our area and to identify potential victims.”
Read More
This law will require any new CDL applicant to undergo industry-specific training to spot human trafficking. The group Truckers Against Trafficking will work with truck driver training schools and trade colleges to facilitate the training.
Read More
“Sexually exploiting children is pure evil, and our Office will continue to bring the full weight of our prosecutorial powers to ensure that offenders are brought to justice,” said Charlie Peeler, the U.S. Attorney. “To the victims of child exploitation: we support you and we will continue to target, arrest and prosecute those who have hurt you.
Read More
Frontline tells the unimaginable stories of young women coerced into prostitution – and follows one police unit that’s committed to rooting it out. They showed how a sixteen year old girl from Phoenix, AR. was lured into being a victim of sex trafficking.
Read More
There is a significant need for human trafficking (HT) training within pharmacy school curriculum and emergency departments (ED), according to researcher Macy England, 2020 PharmD Candidate, Belmont University College of Pharmacy.
Read More
Human trafficking is happening in the Peoria area, but it’s rarely reported because the signs are often overlooked. Statistics accurately depicting the prevalence of human trafficking are hard to come by, said Sefried. It’s under reported.
Read More
After the Mets hosted the Colorado Rockies in New York City on Saturday at Citi Field, the announced 29,077 fans were treated to a performance from hip-hop legend and Grammy winner. Lauryn Hill to lend her support for Strike Out Slavery. Both Canó and Deidre Pujols, who was in Queens on Saturday, are fans of Hill.
Read More
‘Fox Report’ takes and exclusive look inside a Florida home helping boys who were exploited by human traffickers.
Read More
It’s been an incredible process to work with these young kids, to really learn firsthand the differences between how boys are trafficked compared to girls,” Rogers said. “Because they’ve really– they’ve never seen a program like this before. Every child and the experiences that they’ve had is very, very different, especially when it comes to the boys.”
Read More
Alison Franklin said traffickers prey people who have been abused. As she got older she was kidnapped by gang members in Houston. “My real trafficker pretended to rescue me from them. What I didn’t know is they actually worked together to enslave American women and children in trafficking,” Franklin said.
Read More
The primary factor driving sex trafficking on Long Island is the opioid epidemic that claimed nearly 3,700 lives in Nassau and Suffolk from 2010 to 2018. Traffickers use drug dependency to force victims into sex work, experts say.
Read More
BOYS ARE INVISIBLE VICTIMS IN SEX TRAFFICKING:
Last month, the U.S. Institute Against Human Trafficking’s safe home for underage male victims of human trafficking – one of the first boys safe home in the country – admitted a new resident. He’s 10 years old!
Opinion By Geoff Rogers | Fox News
“I really believe that it’s time for us to stop talking about it and do something,” Stillman said.
Stillman says human trafficking is often happening right under our noses.
“Human trafficking—the commercial sexual exploitation of American children and women, via the Internet, strip clubs, escort services, or street prostitution—is on its way to becoming one of the worst crimes in the U.S.,” said prosecutor Krishna Patel.
Read More
These are very under-reported crimes. Most victims don’t self identify, so I really think that the cases that we do see are just the tip of the iceberg. The average age for boys to be trafficked is around 11 or 12. For girls, it’s 12 or 13, says Sheboygan, WI. Detective Tamara Remington.
Read More
Most of the public sees this horrific crime as one that happens elsewhere—far away from their backyards, but the shocking reality is that human trafficking is pervasive across the United States and the next victim could be right next door.
Read More
For the past five years, the ASU Office of Sex Trafficking Intervention Research has conducted the Youth Experiences Survey, or YES, to gather data about human exploitation among homeless and runaway young adults ages 18 to 25.
Read More
“We cannot turn a blind eye to human trafficking. My bill is a commonsense solution to hold countries accountable. Understanding where this money comes from and where it’s going gives countries the ability to crack down on these crimes.
Read More
Her mission: to abolish slavery everywhere forever, and one of the ways she is doing that is by encouraging people to stop watching porn. She believes pornography is fueling human trafficking, and she believes people should do their part to help stop it.
Read More
The U.S. Institute Against Human Trafficking is partnering with Florida’s Pasco County Commission on Human Trafficking and Pasco County Public Transportation to train more than 100 PCPT employees to identify and report human trafficking.
“In many ways, we view bus drivers as those on the front lines to combat human trafficking as they engage with thousands of people a day,” said Geoff Rogers, CEO and co-founder of the U.S. Institute Against Human Trafficking.
Like so many other teenagers, Kat had been fighting with her parents. Frustrated, the teenager became determined to leave her home in Maricopa, Arizona, and head to nearby Phoenix. All she needed was a ride. What happens next is not uncommon.
Read More
Child pornography arrests have nearly doubled in Utah over the last five years – mirroring a national trend – as investigators at local, state and federal agencies deploy sophisticated tactics to catch more criminals.
Read More
As part of the operation, law enforcement teams engaged with more than 15 potential human trafficking victims and gathered intelligence on potential traffickers.
Read More
[Perpetrators] engage in social engineering and make people think they are consenting participants to their own exploitation, when all the while they are pulling strings like a puppet master, says Kimberly Mehlman-Orozco, author of a book on sex trafficking
Read More
“Their staff continues to serve the shelter with compassion, dedication, and professionalism,” Rommal declared. “Whether rescuing victims from human trafficking situations, providing victim services to those in need, or supporting community outreach efforts across the metropolitan area.
Read More
“You’re going to have tens of thousands of extra people in your city,” Fernandez Rundle said. “My office wants to make sure we’re ready. Our concern is that a lot of predators will bring other dancers and their victims that work in strip clubs. We have seen that with other major destinations.”
Read More
Members of the task force will work collectively to improve upon the detection, investigation, prosecution, and victim assistance efforts in human trafficking matters throughout the Tampa Bay area.
Read More
“Human trafficking—the commercial sexual exploitation of American children and women, via the Internet, strip clubs, escort services, or street prostitution—On average, a child might be raped by 6,000 men during a five-year period of servitude. This evil is on its way to becoming one of the worst crimes in the U.S.,” said prosecutor Krishna Patel.
Read More
ccording to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, “human trafficking” is the second largest criminal industry in the world (just behind drug trafficking) and continues to be the fastest growing. More than 30 million people are enslaved worldwide, roughly half of whom are children.
Read More
Hospitals across Delaware are joining forces in a unique, new initiative to combat human trafficking. Medical professionals in the First State have adopted a set of guidelines to help better identify victims and provide a safe space for those seeking help.
Read More
Corporal Alan Wilkett said boys rarely admit or identify themselves as human trafficking victims. He said that’s often discovered by law enforcement after they’re picked up for other crimes.
“So it may be shoplifting or a drug charge or it could be a trespass,” Wilkett said.
Stacey Spencer the original founder of a non-profit organization named Teen Tyme Productions & the “Just Teens” television show which is a news-informational-educational show dedicated to empowering youth by showcasing their talents and providing forums on issues that are important to them.
Read More
Corporal Alan Wilkett heads the human trafficking division of the Pasco County, FL. Sheriff’s Office.
Wilkett said boys rarely admit or identify themselves as human trafficking victims.
Corporal Alan Wilkett heads the human trafficking division of the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office.
“They have fed on our community for years because” of destitution, Clack said. “It’s because of economic conditions.”
Read More
Survivor-run groups that combat human trafficking need more support from the US Government so they can operate on a level playing field with larger agencies, an advisory council said last week.
Read More
rafficking survivors who spoke to news.com.au in Louisville on the eve of this year’s derby revealed they had collectively been buried in the ground by a trafficker, “raped up to 30 times a night”, locked in a box, thrown out of cars, viciously beaten and repeatedly threatened with murder.
Read More
But those men shared one commonality with the stereotypical trafficking victim, according to Krishna Patel, former deputy chief of the National Security and Major Crimes Unit in the District of Connecticut. Vulnerability is at the root of it,” Patel explained.
Read More
The Arizona Senate approved a resolution this week calling for a systemic effort to prevent exposure to porn that’s increasingly accessible to younger kids online.
Read More
They are near pizza shops, coffee shops and schools — massage parlors that are offering more than just a massage. Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey says they are in the business of selling sex.
Read More
Four arrests were made this weekend in connection with a Louisville Metro Police investigation into human trafficking during the Kentucky Derby Festival, but none of them were “women.”
Read More
The posters are required to be placed in or near bathrooms in hotels, airports, train and bus stations, urgent care centers, emergency rooms, strip clubs, women’s health centers, abortion facilities, family planning clinics, truck stops, roadside rest areas and more.
Read More
It’s a problem LMPD keeps their eye on all year long but especially during the Kentucky Derby. After an uncover sting, police found a number of men looking to buy sex from underage girls. See video…
Read More
“I’ve always felt that my career in music, it just had to have something to do with human rights and meeting concrete human needs as much as I could,” Kayla Green, the festival organizer said.
Read More
Christopher Gray Stevenson 27-year-old and 28-year-old Amanda Lynn Starr of Graham, N.C. both held a person against their will and forced them to engage in prostitution. Both are wanted on charges of kidnapping, forced sexual servitude, and promoting prostitution for profit.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office Special Victims Unit at 336-570-6777…
The “runaways.”
The “throwaways.”
That’s who the sex traffickers prey upon. It’s these children their customers seek out. It’s these children who suffer the physical and emotional pain that, if they survive, will follow them throughout their lives.
Congressman Matt Gaetz pointed out there are an estimated 9,000 illicit massage parlors in the U.S.–more than Starbucks’ 8,222 locations. In 2018, Florida had 376 cases of human trafficking reported to the national hotline. Only California (760) and Texas (455) had more.
Read More
Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force in D.C. have announced an arrest has been made in reference to Transportation for Illegal Sexual Activity and Racketeering offenses involving juveniles.
Read More
“Children are being targeted and sold for sex in America every day.”—John Ryan, National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Children, young girls—some as young as 9 years old—are being bought and sold for sex in America. The average age for a young woman being sold for sex is now 13 years old. Holly Austin Smith was abducted when she was 14 years old, raped, and then forced to prostitute herself. Her pimp, when brought to trial, was only made to serve a year in prison.
Read More
Lee County, FL. Health is working with Christy’s Cause to educate medical professionals on the signs of human trafficking victims. It all started when an ER nurse noticed an increased number of human trafficking victims.
Read More
In the absence of strong regulation and enforcement, advocates say, sex-trafficking networks have increasingly turned to massage and related fields as a front for illicit businesses that operate in plain sight out of storefronts.
Read More
One former porn actress testified, “Women are lured in, coerced and forced to do sex acts they never agreed to do… [and given] drugs and alcohol to help get [them] through hardcore scenes…The porn industry is modern-day slavery.”
Read More
“We’ve seen human trafficking victims here in our own community,” said Craig Police Department Sgt. Cory Wagner at a Craig City Council meeting Tuesday, April 23. “The most common type of trafficker is a family member.” Human trafficking — the use of force, fraud, or coercion to lure victims into enslaved labor or commercial sexual exploitation.
Read More
“Backwards,” she said. “We have to change it to where men are bearing the brunt of the penalty for buying and selling human beings. They are walking away without being held legally, financially accountable for the harm to individuals and the community.”
Read More
A Kansas woman claimed on Facebook that she felt an encounter with a stranger was an attempt to lure her daughter into the world of sex trafficking, according to Fox6News Now.
Read More
Human traffickers are likely to prey on vulnerable young women and children at this year’s Kentucky Derby, state and local officials warned on Monday, and urged spectators to be alert to people with matching tattoos or branding marks.
Read More
Kim Smith said parents need to monitor their children’s online activity and social media accounts until they are able to handle it appropriately. Things like knowing who children are interacting with online, adjusting children’s account settings to private and meeting children’s online friends in real life are measures which can prepare and inform children of the potential dangers.
Read More
Experts say one out of every nine Middle Georgia ninth graders admits they know someone who has been sold for sex. Traffick Jam quickly grew. Dr. Tammy Crutchfield with Mercer University said since its inception in 2015, students have educated over 3,000 Middle Georgia high schoolers.
Read More
Detectives said Warren agreed to meet the girl in the vicinity of a local high school and was arrested by the street crimes unit. Warren is in the Lane County Jail and faces a charge of first-degree online sexual corruption of a child.
Read More
Juveniles accounted for 428 of the overall 744 confirmed victims of human trafficking reported in Louisiana in 2018. Forty-two of those victims were age 12 or younger. Forty-two victims identified in 2018 were age 12 or younger, down from 72 victims reported in 2017. The reported ages for all victims ranged from 5 months to 65 years old.
Read More
The Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City has became more than a transit hub – it became a site of prayer and activism that connected the Stations of the Cross to the plight of sex trafficking victims.
Read More
In St. Paul, Minnesota (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Schools where trafficking survivors teach men who buy illegal sex to “feel my pain” are growing and succeeding as a way to cut U.S. demand experts say. In a typical “john school”, police, therapists, lawyers and survivors tell first-time offenders about the health and legal risks of buying sex and the impact on women who sell their bodies – which many believe is key to ending sex trafficking.
Read MoreFormer television personality and current conservative media mogul, Glenn Beck is partnering with a luxury resort in Utah to raise funds to fight child sex trafficking
Read MoreData shows that Hillsborough County has one of the highest occurrences of human trafficking in the nation, and one county commisioner is trying to shine light on an industry that’s thrived in the shadows. Commissioner Kimberly Overman wants to train Hillsborough County Parks Department’s summer camp staffers on how to spot the tell-tale signs of abuse. and what to do if they suspect something is wrong.
Read MoreThe City of Sacramento is teaming up with the Sacramento Police Department and Community Against Sexual Harm (CASH) to create an ordinance aimed at cracking down on illicit massage parlors.
“The people who are going to these businesses are going to buy sex,” Sacramento Police Lt. Cindy Stinson told ABC10 News. “We do not know what the scope of the problem is. I would say it’s huge and there’s just no real way to determine that.”
Michelle is a sex trafficking survivor. She says it was a milestone when she started sharing her experiences. “For a long time, due to the fear of being discriminated against and preconceived notions of what it is to be trafficked, I was really too afraid to step out and tell people,” says Michelle, who’s originally from Milwaukee.
Read More
A Bay Area nonprofit is helping law enforcement officers look beyond a simple traffic stop or domestic violence call to spot the signs of human trafficking.
Officers don’t have to be in a special trafficking unit to learn what to look for to spot a potential victim using a new, free online certification program through U.S. Institute Against Human Trafficking. It covers human trafficking in the forms of labor, sex, cyber, forced marriage and servitude. It was created to be accessible for all law enforcement officers.
Read More
I have spent the past four years teaching medical students at my school how to identify victims of human trafficking. Human trafficking is a complex problem, and change is always incremental. However, the true reward is when someone tells me that they identified a human trafficking victim at the hospital as a result of my lecture.
Read More
The most recent case of human trafficking that I have been involved in, and they are many, is that of Angelica, a 15-year-old girl sold by her mother to her employer. This boss is a rough, crude man, the owner of several mini-buses, from which he earns a lot of money that enables him to buy children for sexual abuse.The most recent case of human trafficking that I have been involved in, and they are many, is that of Angelica, a 15-year-old girl sold by her mother to her employer. This boss is a rough, crude man, the owner of several mini-buses, from which he earns a lot of money that enables him to buy children for sexual abuse.
Read More
Their goal was to educate and bring awareness on the epidemic and the unknown factors that contribute to the widespread crime.
Read More
“What we are seeing overall is an evident drop in demand… a number of these operators are struggling to continue operating their services,” says Rob Spectre, CEO of Childsafe.AI. “There is also a significant influx of scam advertising.”
Read More
A Georgia group is helping survivors of human trafficking turn the pain of their past into symbols of triumph, with a little assistance from tattoo artists. The work they’re doing covers up and alters tattoos, signs and scars inflicted upon survivors, using them to create works of art.
Read More
Bringing a halt to human trafficking needs help from the public, which must learn to “see the unseen,” an anti-trafficking advocate recently told church members here. Civilian training is the first step, said Rebecca McDonald, founder and president of Women at Risk, International (WAR), a Michigan-based non-profit organization that works to provide protection to those at risk, for the event.
Read More
At Wednesday’s Newington Rotary Club meeting, members lined up around a table and filled dozens of brown paper bags with personal hygiene items, snacks and Gatorade, to be distributed to victims of human trafficking working on the streets of Hartford.
Read More
Children in Florida public schools would be taught about the dangers and warning signs of human trafficking under legislation headed to the state House floor. The House Education Committee voted unanimously Tuesday for the bill sponsored by Democratic Rep. Patricia Williams of Fort Lauderdale. The measure would include human trafficking in the health classes currently taught in Florida public schools.
Read More
About 75 people took to the street Saturday to raise awareness about human trafficking and child abuse. The walk was sponsored by the Renew Hope 85 Initiative — a subsidiary of the Circle of Care for Families — and was titled Hope Walk. Signs were along the trail, featuring quotes from human trafficking survivors to remind the participants who they were walking for.
Read More
The new chatbots are safer and cheaper than in-person operations, and they are always on the job. They can deter far more buyers than undercover operations can — before they buy sex. Lieutenant Sharpe said chatbots were “1,200 percent more effective than full operations.” The New York police wait several days to send deterrence messages, so that men won’t know which phone number was the decoy. “The perception for the buyer has to be that any ad could be the ad that sends him to jail,” Mr. Spectre said.
Read More
When I speak on sex trafficking in the United States, I meet many people who believe this crime only impacts children from other countries, who are smuggled across our borders. The truth is approximately 83% of sex trafficking victims in the United States are US citizens. In my new memoir “Beautiful Justice: Reclaiming My Worth After Human Trafficking and Sexual Abuse,” I share the story of two American teen girls who were coerced into sex trafficking by a man who offered to help them when they were on the streets.
Read More
He’d see it on the news. These teens who walked into the mall, smiling with spending money in their pockets, ready to hit the food court or the latest fashion shop or gaming store, being abducted and sold into sex traffickin
Read More
These headlines show that authorities are getting serious about stopping sex trafficking. But more needs to be done to protect the most vulnerable in Texas from being exploited. As a state, we need to adjust the way we address victims who can be resistant to receiving some services.
Read MoreThe real problem of human trafficking is that it is “good business.” Traffickers can sell a human over and over again and still have deniability.
Read More
