In order to win a war, the strategy should include air-assault, ground-rescue, and tribunal justice. First, a key component in winning a war is air war superiority. The goal of an air war is to secure freedom of movement for the coming ground troops through systematic and strategic bombings, as seen in WWII’s Normandy invasion. By the summer of 1944, the Allies gained control over German skies through incessant strikes. That air-dominance disarmed Germany’s ability to refuel their airplanes and transports, rendering them defenseless against additional attacks. But, no war is won without boots on the ground. Captives, imprisoned by a brutal tyrant, are not free unless troops enter enemy territory and engage in hand to hand combat.  No justice is found for the victims unless soldiers capture the dictator and bring him before a military tribunal to face his crimes. The war against human trafficking is no different.  An air war, preparing the way for the coming ground troops is a necessary and effective strategy, but not the whole operation. To win the war, we too must take a three-pronged approach.

THE AIR WAR

Education and public awareness about the grim realities of human trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation is a crucial component in the fight against modern day slavery; and there are a number of excellent international, national, state and regional organizations doing just that. The speed and range in which those organizations attack and influence public perception give anti-trafficking efforts a growing upper hand. Their broad range reaches ground targets that companies of soldiers would not be able to effect. More than 150 years have passed since the abolition of slavery and at REST, we pray for effective campaigns that dominate air space spreading the message that oppression will not be tolerated. REST praises every voice that calls out for justice on behalf of the exploited.

THE GROUND WAR

The ground war is of paramount importance and should not be approached lightly. By nature, hand to hand combat is messy, exhausting and the victories are slow.  Many times, areas of gain have to be re-won. Often, those you seek to liberate are badly wounded and cannot escape without assistance. Additionally, a successful campaign understands that prior to entering enemy territory, knowledge of the encampments and how to reach the prisoners is vital. This is of great importance to REST and our primary role. Since the beginning, REST sought to understand the dynamics of the sex trade by learning from survivors of sex trafficking, women involved in the sex trade, social service agencies, and nonprofit organizations serving vulnerable populations.  We identified specific needs through direct contact with those “in the life” and by leveraging volunteers with backgrounds in wraparound services, case management, and counselors experienced meeting with troubled youth and victims of sexual abuse.  REST learned the language of pimps and girls and the complex set of rules by which they live. We learned the best way to engage with girls, particularly on the street, so that we could build trusting relationships with them without endangering them. Those client relationships taught us what was important to them and what gaps existed in essential services. As we have grown in knowledge and experience, REST has expanded efforts to stand in more and more of those identified gaps and provide a pathway to freedom. In the past year, REST developed one of the most critical and underrepresented resources, long-term, restorative housing.  Through our housing program we provide case management, counseling, education assistance, life skill classes, job training and more.   We are eager to broaden our housing program to serve more young women in need of this critical resource and funding is crucial to our continued success.

THE TRIBUNAL

The demands for justice are the driving force of legislative change. Humanity instinctively cries out when tyrants and oppressors reign uninterrupted and their victims have no recourse. Washington State, with the prodding of many vested nonprofit, political and social advocates, led the nation in anti-trafficking laws.  This year alone, WA legislators unanimously adopted comprehensive language and penalties that provide law enforcement and justice officials tools to combat human trafficking. But, like air and ground war campaigns, legislation efforts alone, won’t fix the problem. We can look to the war on drugs, or the bootlegging that flourished during prohibition-era to know that the solution to a successful war must go beyond legislation.  All three components, air, ground and judicial must work collaboratively.

THE COST OF WAR

There is no dispute that the cost of war is substantial. But, what is the cost of not engaging in the war? What is the cost of the unimaginable suffering and oppression of our children, whose average age of recruitment into the sex trade being 13 years old?  What does it cost our education, heath care and welfare systems to be silent? What is the cost to our future legacy? Albert Einstein said, “The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them do evil and do nothing.” Take action.  Join the war efforts.  There is much work to be done, but freeing the captives comes with a great reward. Your donation no matter how large or small helps us continue. If you would like to make a tax-deductible contribution to providing real escape from the sex trade, please visit our website.

Bridget Battistoni is Director of Operations for REST: Real Escape from the Sex Trade

In a comprehensive study, “Comparing Sex Buyers with Men Who Don’t Buy Sex,” Melissa Farley, PHD, Founding Director of the Prostitution Research and Education, compares the characteristics of men who buy sex versus those who don’t. Besides their involvement with prostitution, the men surveyed revealed surprising attitudes and behaviors when it came to sex and women. Here are ten things you may not know about men who buy sex:

1. On average, men reported were 21 years of age when they first bought sex.

1. 25% of the sex buyers had traveled to another state and while there used women in prostitution.

1. 41% of the sex buyers knowingly used a woman in prostitution who was controlled by a pimp.

1. 66% of the sex buyers observed that a majority of women are lured, tricked or trafficked into prostitution.

1. 74% of the sex buyers reported that they learned about sex from pornography.

1. Sex buyers were more than 7x’s more likely than non-sex buyers to acknowledge that they would rape a woman if they could get away with it and if no one knew about it.

1. Sex buyers are far more likely than non-sex buyers to commit felonies, misdemeanors, crimes related to violence against women, substance abuse-related crimes, assaults, crimes with weapons, and crimes against authority.

1. 89% of sex buyers said they would be deterred from buying sex if their name were to be added to a sex offender registry.

1. 90% of sex buyers said they would be deterred from buying sex if a $1,000-$2,000 penalty were imposed.

1. 100% of sex buyers said they would be deterred from buying sex if a one month jail term were imposed.

Bridget Battistoni is Director of Operations for REST: Real Escape from the Sex Trade

Last week I opened my internet browser in hopes to catch up with the chatter I’d been hearing about North Korea. Instead of reading about the potential threat of a terrorist attack from a foreign nation, my eyes met an article about domestic terrorism. Predators – traffickers – who have waged war against our children.

As soon as the link opened, my eyes met a picture of a girI, 13 years old, grinning with just enough smile to notice small gaps from where her teeth had not quite grown in since loosing her baby teeth.  She is so young. Police say she likely ran away from her Washington home with an older boy she had met online.

As I stared at her face, I was thankful that this girl had a fighting chance to be found because at least she had parents that were concerned and present enough in her life to report her missing.  But, so many girls in her situation aren’t that fortunate. And even more girls believe that this boy (or man) is the ticket out of her chaotic or lonely world. I couldn’t help but wonder, “Would our teams meet her one day on the streets of Seattle while doing outreach to girls being exploited and sold?”

Sex traffickers target children because of their vulnerability and naïvety. The average age of entry into prostitution is 12 to 14 years old and traffickers – terrorists really – are known to recruit at schools, malls and through social media. Recruitment takes many forms: kidnapping; solicitation by other women or girls recruiting on behalf of the sex trafficker; the “boyfriend” approach of appearing romantically interested while slowly coercing them into prostitution; and even the “daddy” form where men promise to care for and be a daddy to girls who long for protection and provision.

As a parent myself, my own heart begs the question, “What can I do?”  Here are six things that you can do to help prevent your child from being lured away by a trafficker:

1.  Set a high standard of “love” within your home. The way you define and express love shapes your children’s self-image, confidence and opinions of future relationships. Treat them the way you want their future spouses to treat them. Help them to distinguish between real love and empty promises or cheap gifts.

1. Talk to your children about sexual abuse. According to the US Department of Justice, every two minutes someone in the US is sexually assaulted, of which 29% are ages 12-17. Let your children know that if anyone has or ever does hurt them, they can talk to you. This is the most important thing you can say. Don’t assume they have not been hurt by sexual violence before. Leave the door open for your child to talk about past circumstances that they haven’t shared with you.

1. Talk to your children about sex trafficking. Discuss ways children and teens are targeted for sex trafficking. Let them know that traffickers specifically try to woo young girls and boys with promises of a better life – whether it’s promises of love and attention or promises of nice things and trips – these pimps look for ways of exploiting dreams. Traffickers can be male or female, even classmates. Traffickers may even use kids to recruit other kids.

1. Talk to your children about the dangers of social media. It’s important to provide practical safety tips like: don’t share personal information on the Internet; don’t accept Facebook requests from unknown people; NEVER share naked photos of yourself with anyone; and tell a parent or a trusted adult if you feel threatened or uncomfortable online. Also, children need help in defining friendships. Social media has distorted our childrens’ understanding of what friendship means. Teach them that a friend is not someone you met yesterday and that a “friend” on Facebook is not the same thing as a friendship.

1. Pay attention to your children. Monitor your children’s social media accounts, look for ways to meet their friends, their friends’ parents and those they hang out with.  Be alert to boyfriends who are much older, or friendships that tend to isolate your child from other friends or family. Notice if your child has new clothing items, makeup products, cell phone or other items and inquire about how they aquired them.

1. Invite your kids to pray for those enslaved. Sexual assault and trafficking can be a fearful or overwhelming subject for children. Invite them to take action by praying for those who are enslaved. This allows for children to acknowledge the suffering of young people who have been trafficked while placing hope in a God who desires freedom for the oppressed.

Bridget Battistoni is Director of Operations for REST: Real Escape from the Sex Trade

According to the Department of Justice, Seattle is considered one of the United States’ worst cities for sex trafficking. While Washington led the nation to criminalize human trafficking, it remains a hotbed for purveyors due to the city’s ports, I-5 corridor and its proximity to an international border. For many, it’s tough to imagine trafficking of women and girls happening openly in our city. But, for anyone who knows Seattle’s history, present day sex trafficking goes back to our city’s origin.

In 1851, the Denny Party washed ashore at Alki Point. Not long after the city’s birth, Mary Ann “Mother Damnable” Conklin (1821-1873) ran the first Seattle hotel and brothel, the Felker House, a two-story building on Jackson Street and First Ave South. Following shortly thereafter, San Francisco brothel owner John Pinnell opened Seattle’s first burlesque house, Illahee (a home away from home) on sawdust fill just below Mill Street (now Yesler Way). Pinnell lured Native American tribes with dreams of a better life for both the young girls he recruited and their families so that he could profit off of the demand for sex of newly arriving lumberjacks.

From 1861 until 1916, dance halls (that sold women) flourished in Pioneer Square. This red light region of Seattle became known as Down on the Sawdust, The Lava Bed, The Tenderloin and finally Skid Row. The Tenderloin District became one of the West Coast’s largest areas of prostitution, boasting hundreds of small cribs (homes broken into small, sparsely furnished rooms used for sex transactions) selling sex to loggers, sailors, and miners. Although some local politicians were under pressure to curb the brothel business, many turned a blind eye, as the sex trade was bringing in badly needed revenue during Seattle’s recession. Some action was taken to curb the growing sex district, but 1884’s ordinance banning “soliciting prostitution upon any of the public streets,” drove independent sex workers into brothels and crib houses, inflaming the commercialization of sex trafficking where pimps and madams ran the game.

Seeing the opportunity to profit in Seattle’s flourishing sex trade, Madam Lou Graham arrived in Seattle and built a lavish, high-end brothel. To lure johns, Graham displayed girls by showcasing them around the city by carriage; this perhaps, was a crude version of porn that still flourishes today.

By 1894, politicians who opposed of the red light district finally won majority on the Seattle City Council and banned liquor in theaters. Because alcohol was closely connected with the establishments that fueled commercial sex, the ban on liqueur brought about the end of the crib houses as well. From 1900 to 1916, Seattle warred, with closed town factions (desiring ethical government and vice enforcement) battling open town factions (advocating the toleration of prostitution, gambling and alcohol).

Nationally, U.S. and Japanese officials announced a campaign to break up the exploding sex trade of young Japanese women being imported by male traffickers posing as husbands for the purposes of sexual exploitation. At that time, more than 500 women were brought as sex slaves to Washington alone.

In 1909, Mayor John F. Miller ordered the “disorderly houses” in Seattle’s red light districts closed. Miller endorsed “the purpose of segregating vice and the establishing of a thoroughly regulated district as the best practicable means at hand of dealing with the social evil.” Later that year, customs officials announced a “deplorable state of affairs” revealing girls being sold by traffickers in Seattle for $400, with quantity discounts.

In 1910, City Councilman Hiram Gill, an open town advocate with financial ties in the Tenderloin, ran for mayor and was elected. Vice and corruption thrived under his leadership.  The following year, Gill and Police Chief Charles Wappenstein were caught conspiring in the construction of a 500-room brothel located on Beacon Hill, the largest in the world.

The roaring twenties brought Nellie Curtis, a madam of legendary proportion. Curtis opened her first brothel in the Camp Hotel on First Avenue. One brothel turned into many, and like most pimps, she profited greatly off of the women being sold. Curtis later took over Pike Place Market’s LaSalle Hotel, eventually making it Seattle’s largest brothel and a profitable business until the mid 1950s.

In usual fashion, the 1970s sparked a plethora of action and protest. Led by the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington and the Association of Seattle Prostitutes, Seattle Police Department came under fire for use of female officers as decoys in their efforts to fight against the sex trade. The groups claimed the police’s actions violated the First Amendment rights of “working women” and unfairly discriminates against them. By the late 1970s, Seattle police reported that prostitution was at the highest level seen in nearly a decade.

In the 1980s,  the Texas couch dance, later known as the lap dance, was invented in Seattle. Just a few years later, in a continued effort to curb prostitution and catch johns, Seattle banned driving around in circles and cat-calling to pedestrians. At that time, Seattle was claimed to be, “the most rampant juvenile prostitution in the country,” according to the National Association for Missing and Exploited Children. Seattle Police Department reported more than 2,000 prostitution arrests in a single year, an all-time record.

Seattle reached another milestone in 2007, when Seattle Lust Tour, still in operation today, was birthed. Reportedly the first tour of its kind in the world, the Seattle Lust Tour guides tourists and Seattleites to historic sites of prostitution and debauchery.

Seattle has long been the leader in trafficking and prostitution, but has also long been a leader in efforts to combat the problem and share those with the rest of the country.  Today is no different. Ten years after Seattle passed the nation’s first anti-trafficking laws, Washington continues to lead the fight in anti-human trafficking, passing twelve additional laws. Washington lawmakers, local law enforcement and many social service agencies, nonprofits and churches have fought back against the sexual exploitation of vulnerable populations. REST is privileged to be a part of this necessary and vital work. If you are interested in joining the fight against the exploitation of girls and women, please visit our website to learn how.

Bridget Battistoni is Director of Operations for REST: Real Escape from the Sex Trade

#1  Prostitution is a victimless crime. The most often stated defense of proponents of the legalization of buying sex is that it is a victimless crime.  Of working adult women in the sex trade, 82% have been physically assaulted; 83% have been threatened with a weapon; 68% have been raped while working; 84% reported current or past homelessness and 68% of women interviewed in 9 countries met the criteria for a clinical diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).(1)

#2 Prostitution is a free choice made by consenting adults. Proponents of prostitution argue that women should have the right to make a living using her own body. On paper, the arguments may seem credible, but the reality of prostitution tells a different story.  A survey of 169 women working in prostitution showed that the average age they were first sold for sex was 14, 75% reported being abused as children, 58% have been assaulted and an overwhelming 92% of women said they would quit if they could afford to. (2)  No young girl grows up dreaming to be bought nightly and assaulted by strange men.

#3 If Prostitution was legalized, it would be safer. Regardless of prostitution’s status (legal, illegal or decriminalized) or its physical location (strip club, massage parlor, street, escort/home/hotel), prostitution is extremely dangerous for women. Homicide is a frequent cause of death…” (3) In fact, 37% of sex buyers think that once sex is paid for, women are obligated to do whatever the buyer wants (4) and the average life span of a woman being sold in the sex trade is 7 years. (5)

#4 Prostitution Prevents Rape.  Some wrongly argue that prostitution prevents rape.  But, given that the average age of entry into “the life” is between 11-14 years old (6) – buying sex is often times rape of a child.  And even when the woman being bought is an adult, she likely has endured years of brutality. In fact, nearly a third of the sex buyers told surveyors that the acts they sought out from women in prostitution gradually changed and increased in violence, including more sadomasochistic sex acts and anal sex. One male sex buyer stated, “I have an easier time treating them worse.”(7) These men become increasingly violent and more prone to rape as they see a women more and more as an object to be used to gratify their lusts.

#5 Prostitution helps women earn income.  There are plenty of profits being made by a multi-billion dollar sex industry, but most often, the girl being bought and sold for sex nightly sees none of it. The overwhelming majority of women involved in street prostitution live in poverty, are frequently homeless, and use drugs and alcohol as a way to numb themselves.  The estimates for women who are under the control of a pimp are as high as 90%. (8) In one study, 80% of the pimps said that the girls and women did not keep any of the money they made so that the pimps “keep control” over their girls.

Statistically speaking, whether through the purchase of porn or a woman for the purposes of sex, she has been a childhood victim of sexual assault, physical neglect and abuse. She has entered the sex trade by manipulation or coercion as a child and feels trapped.  She is not willing; nor reaps financial gains.  Instead, the life she finds herself in is one of continued violence and desperation. If you have bought into the lie that this woman desires to fulfill your sexual compulsions, we invite you to see the truth today. We invite you to take action against the commercial sex industry by joining Defenders USA.  We invite you to sign up for our next REST Training Day and hear from men who have been where you are and have been freed from sexual slavery.

Bridget Battistoni is Director of Operations for REST: Real Escape from the Sex Trade