Transitioning Times

In December 2014, the Comprehensive Human Trafficking bill (Act 105) was passed and signed into law.  Until that time, PA was ranked 49 th of our 50 states in its response to human trafficking in the Commonwealth. In January 2015, the individuals representing interested groups throughout PA met at the Capitol to plan Act 105's implementation.  Among the groups represented were a large contingent of Philadelphia groups that included Dawn’s Place, the Philadelphia Anti-trafficking Coalition, and Covenant House.  The PA Coalition Against Rape (PCAR) had been providing education and outreach for several years, and several of committed Victim Services Organizations were represented (Transitions of PA, YWCA of Greater Harrisburg, YWCA of York, and NOVA Bucks).  The PA Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD) has responsibility to implement the law, but no funding was provided. At this meeting, Shea Rhodes, the new Director of Villanova University Law School’s Cente...

               Priceless is a faith-based movie about a story of sex trafficking, aimed to bring awareness to this tragedy. The main character agrees to make a delivery in a truck to earn some money, without knowing what See was delivering. He finds out there are two young women in the back of the truck and seeks to save them from being captured and sold.                I saw this movie when it aired at the Campus Theatre back in December, and I left with mixed feelings. I am super glad people are working to bring awareness to this tragic issue, and I hope it continues. The awareness surrounding human trafficking has increased tremendously over the last several years. For pure entertainment’s sake, it was a great movie. However, as a professional working in a victims’ service field with a special interest in human trafficking, I had a couple co...

I recently came across an article that documented the finding of a chip inside a trafficking victim. This chip was used to store the victim’s name, date of birth, and other information. The device is similar to ones people use to put in their pets, in case they get lost (Love, 2016).              As someone who is passionate about trafficking survivors and ending human trafficking, I have read a lot of stories and tactics that traffickers use. I have heard about traffickers using physical or sexual harm to keep their victims under their control or even tattoos to brand their victims. This, however, was a first for me. I had never heard of a trafficker using a device like this. This shows me the absolute devaluing of a human being, for the trafficker’s gain. Not only is it possible to buy a human being for less than $90 these days, but you can also keep a chip in them with their information in case they would try to escape...

December 1 st is World AIDS Day.  This year’s World AIDS Day campaign, determined by the United Kingdom’s National AIDS Trust , is #RethinkHIV.  Their goal is to dispel some of the commonly held beliefs about HIV contraction and people living with HIV that are false.  Recently, when actor Charlie Sheen disclosed his positive HIV status, there were many questions from his fellow actors, namely Jenny McCarthy, about their exposure to HIV.  This has been a great opportunity for those in the HIV/AIDS educational community to remind people that HIV is NOT spread by kissing, touching or licking.  Another common misconception is that all intravenous drug users have contracted HIV.  This is also not true.  I found this statistic especially surprising.  The campaign has many suggested Twitter and Facebook posts to participate in World AIDS Day.  One of the suggested posts from the campaign is “There are only three ways to get HIV-u...

This powerful video portrays how entry into sex trafficking can feel, as told by a survivor, GEMS founder Rachel Lloyd.

Did you know that January is National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month?  Not only has our President declared it as such, the Northumberland ,  Union , and Snyder County Commissioners have also. While unfortunately, trafficking happens every day, in the light and in the dark by known and unknown perpetrators, January is an appropriate time to think about trafficking in light of the National Football League schedule.  It has been said , by the Attorney General of Texas, that the Super Bowl is the single largest human trafficking incident .  Although this has been argued by others to be untrue, I am glad that at least the media is covering this topic.  At least people are realizing that humans are being trafficked for nefarious reasons and against their will.  Did you see the video we posted about awareness at the Final Four ?  I would agree with Rachel Lloyd that trafficking happens much more in the dark, not during publicly recognized ...

Truckers Against Trafficking (28:11) from iEmpathize on Vimeo . Human trafficking is the sale or commodification of a person and/or their labor for the benefit of another through methods of force, coercion, fraud, or if the victim is a minor.  Here's a further explanation from The Polaris Project . As defined under U.S. federal law, victims of human trafficking include children involved in the sex trade, adults age 18 or over who are coerced or deceived into commercial sex acts, and anyone forced into different forms of "labor or services," such as domestic workers held in a home, or farm-workers forced to labor against their will. The factors that each of these situations have in common are elements of force, fraud, or coercion that are used to control people.  Then, that control is tied to inducing someone into commercial sex acts, or labor or services.  Many of the outreach and prevention efforts are centered around children, but they are not the only victims...

Shared Hope International has recently completed a project called Protected Innocence, based on research performed by Shared Hope International and compiled in “The National Report on Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking.”  This project gives grades to states for their response to domestic minor sex trafficking, as well as providing suggestions for policy changes.  The Federal  Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) has made sex trafficking of a minor a crime.   Federal law defines sex trafficking as the “recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act.” When considering the crime of domestic minor sex trafficking, under the TVPA, the victim’s age is the critical issue—there is no requirement to prove that force, fraud, or coercion was used to secure the victim’s actions if the victim is a minor.  This is key because many minor sex traffickers do not need to use force or coercion.  The vi...