Think of a small-time drug dealer, 17 or 18 years old, making $50 a day selling drugs who then finds he can sell his girlfriend for $1,000 a day. She agrees to do so because she is an addict and he controls her source of drugs. This is a common scenario in sex trafficking.
“The chances of him getting caught as a pimp or trafficker are very, very low,” said associate professor Dominique Roe-Sepowitz, director of research at the Office of Sex Trafficking Intervention Research (STIR) on ASU’s Downtown campus.
STIR was established within the College of Public Programs in January 2013 by Roe-Sepowitz. The office collaborates with law enforcement and 25 mostly local organizations to combat human trafficking through awareness, detection and intervention. It provides education and awareness through research-driven training enabling everyone to be a part of the solution.
“We are trying to help people become more aware, allow them to train more people and keep paying it forward,” Roe-Sepowitz said. “Our research will sustain us. We have lots of research to do.”
Much of STIR’s research is screening online sex ads for potential minors while law enforcement uses the Sex Trafficking Matrix in order to filter through ads and detect high-risk trafficking, analyze the text and photographs in the ad, and highlight specific aspects pertaining to minors.
On March 6, STIR published a report, supported by the McCain Institute, on the demand for prostitution and sex trafficking during the Super Bowl.
Of the 1,345 screened ads in Phoenix used as a baseline 10 days before and after this year’s Super Bowl, 1,282 were flagged as prostitution ads, 1,070 were flagged as potential sex trafficking ads and 34 ads were flagged as potential sex trafficked minors, all of which were sent to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. It is not illegal to post these ads, Roe-Sepowitz said.
“There is legislation in process, both local and national, that is trying to make sure that if you allow this content on your website, you are responsible to be sure that he or she is not a minor,” Roe-Sepowitz said. “Right now that doesn’t exist. They don’t have any identification, they’re using a fake visa card and there is no way to track whether or not he or she is an adult or kid.”
Roe-Sepowitz thinks traffickers are finding minors locally.
“Because (the minors) are not supervised very well or they have all these risk factors, like running away, they are more vulnerable,” she said.
Kristi Hickle, associate director of research development of STIR, is one of nine students who work with the organization.
“At the heart of STIR is an interest in getting students excited about something and providing a place for them to be a part of this work,” Hickle said.
As for intervention, the researchers in STIR work face-to-face with victims and survivors of sex trafficking through outreach and psychoeducation interventions like Esuba and a diversion program for adults arrested for prostitution called Project ROSE — Reaching Out to the Sexually Exploited.
Hickle said interacting with the victims provides meaning to the rest of the research they do because they are connected to the people who are having these experiences.
Project ROSE is an opportunity for these women to change their lives. Roe-Sepowitz said if not for Project ROSE, there is no way to connect with the victims because they are arrested and sent to jail, but with the project they are diverted to the search and services are provided for them.
But some women are not ready to change.
“In these cases they think they are not being victimized. She thinks that he loves her and that they are going to have a life together. They truly believe they are being loved,” Roe-Sepowitz said.
Melissa West, the director of outreach services of STIR, is in charge of cyber outreach and monitoring online sex ad sites for minors. If the ads have any signs of escort, solicitation or prostitution, she emails them with a link to a website of resources if they want to get out of the lifestyle.
“A lot of people at least know, if they are not ready yet to get out, at least they have some numbers to call for when they are,” West said.
West goes out on the streets every Tuesday night from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. with Catholic Charities Diversion to offer women food, water and health kits. She says there is no judging and they are not trying to force the women into anything, they are just letting people know help is there.
“It’s one of those things where we know we are not going to eradicate prostitution, we are definitely not that naive,” West said. “But we are saying we never want it legal, children are never for sale and for those adults that are consenting, whenever you want to get out — we don’t believe in what you’re doing but whenever you want to get out — we got your back.”
Sex trafficking has received attention because of the upcoming Super Bowl here in Arizona, but it is still a topic not many people like to discuss. Roe-Sepowitz said that is because it’s “dirty.”
“It’s like the underbelly of the world,” she said. “I understand why people don’t want to know because it’s hard to accept that No. 1, people would treat each other this way and No. 2, these are victims that are walking among us.”
Hickle said that by showing sex trafficking is a problem through factual information, people cannot deny that sharing real stories and providing specific ways people can help are key to getting people to understand and care.
“I never thought in this work that people would disagree with what you do,” Roe-Sepowitz said, but she thinks it has been a good life lesson. “It is so interesting. It’s a good life. I mean it’s tough work and I appreciate that I work with victims every week because it keeps me really centered on why we are doing it and what we need to do.”
Contact the reporter at Siera.Whitten@asu.edu
