Sex Trafficking in the USA & Abroad -- USA Today Series of Articles
Sex trafficking is behind the lucrative illicit massage business. Why police can't stop it.
Rachel Axon, Cara Kelly and Michael Braun
USA TODAY•July 31, 2019
Within hours of a police raid of Miami Beach massage parlors in 2017, Chief Daniel Oates stood before TV cameras praising his agency’s eight-month effort to crack down on prostitution and human trafficking.
Officers had detained 10 Asian women and, through interpreters, tried to determine which of them were victims and which were perpetrators. The city, he said, had shut down four brothels posing as spas.
“Obviously, the message to these kinds of operations is that they won’t be tolerated in our town,” Oates said.
Even before the news conference started, however, the case had begun to fall apart. Some sex workers - potential witnesses against the organizers - were gone.
One of the spas would avoid being shut down altogether. The one person charged with trafficking in the case later was allowed to plead guilty to profiting from prostitution, a lesser charge.
Police across the nation have touted sex spa stings for years as evidence that they are cracking down on rampant human trafficking. The publicity surrounding these operations hit a high in February in raids in South Florida that led to charges against New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who police said was caught on video paying for sex acts.
But a USA TODAY review of three high-profile raids - the one in Miami Beach and others in nearby Hollywood and Southwest Florida - found that law enforcement’s tough-on-trafficking rhetoric fizzled after initial headlines. Charges were dropped or pleaded down. Spas often popped up in the same or new locations. And any notion of going after higher-ups who profit from trafficking, including international crime figures bringing women from overseas, never materialized.
“Almost every local law enforcement that does one of these cases, the quote usually is, ‘We think we’re getting the tip of the iceberg,’ ” said Brad Myles, CEO of Polaris, a nonprofit group that operates the National Human Trafficking Hotline. “What is the iceberg? Or how many icebergs are there? I don’t know if anyone has a really good handle on who the masterminds are.”
Polaris estimated that 9,000 illicit massage parlors operate in the USA based on reviews on Rubmaps, a Yelp for sex spas, bringing in about $2.5 billion a year.
New England owner Robert Kraft faces misdemeanor solicitation charges in Palm Beach County after police say he twice paid for sex acts at Orchids of Asia Day Spa in January.
Hints of a broader organization not touched by law enforcement stings hover beneath the surface. Through a search of thousands of Florida public records ranging from corporate filings to massage licenses, USA TODAY found connections among more than a third of the 41 spas raided in the three recent operations alone, and links from them to a larger network of potentially suspect massage parlors all over the state.
Prosecutors defend their track record by noting that a felony trafficking charge is just one tool in their toolbox. Because of the difficulty of getting victims to cooperate, they can look to alternatives that do not require proof that a victim was coerced, such as racketeering or money laundering.
“I think much bigger and broader than just that one charge,” said Katherine Fernandez Rundle, the Miami-Dade state attorney.
Fernandez Rundle ran through her list of what matters most: “What were the outcomes of the cases? Did we shut them down? Was somebody punished? Was somebody held accountable? Was a victim rescued? Were there proceeds that were taken? Were business licenses forfeited? Did people go to prison? Did people go to jail?”
Operation Spa LLC, a multi-agency, two-year law enforcement operation in Southwest Florida, convicted six operators for racketeering and/or money laundering, resulting in probable prison sentences of up to three years. Even in that case, though, eight women pleaded guilty to prostitution-related crimes.
Florida law enforcement often falls back on charging women working in the massage parlors. Of the 57 arrested in the three recent raids, all but three were women, mostly immigrants from China but also Cuba, Haiti, Guatemala and elsewhere. Forty-two faced prostitution charges.
After each of two summer raids in Hollywood, the department released a poster with mugshots of those charged, touting its aggressive approach. The posters were a sea of women and one man.
“We will continue to crack down on these types of businesses, which are used as fronts for prostitution,” Police Chief Tomas Sanchez said in a news release. “These massage parlors breed other criminal activities, including human and sex trafficking, drug sales and money laundering.”
By the time police completed the second operation, they had charged at least 30 women with prostitution.
Though the case in which Kraft was charged continues, it’s followed the same trajectory.
In March, Martin County Sheriff Will Snyder told USA TODAY that the spas involved had “all the trappings of human trafficking.” Today, only one woman who ran a spa in Vero Beach faces charges even tangentially tied to trafficking, through a racketeering statute.
Prosecutors charged Kraft with misdemeanor solicitation - which he is fighting. The two women accused of providing sexual services to him each face a felony related to prostitution.
Human trafficking experts compared law enforcement's spa approach to arresting corner drug dealers instead of going after cartels.
“You take the dealer off the street, and another dealer pops up," said Carmen Pino, who participated in massage parlor investigations before he retired as a federal agent with Homeland Security Investigations in Miami. "We can shut them down today, they’re just going to move somewhere else. Because you’re still not getting the big organizers.”
Victims are supposed to be the focus, but proving they were enslaved can be difficult
America’s understanding of human trafficking evolved as lawmakers and the public began to view those caught up in forced sex work as victims, not criminals.
Congress passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act in 2000, citing growth of the sex trade and of the criminal enterprises behind it. Victims, Congress said, were “repeatedly punished more harshly than the traffickers themselves.”
Florida followed the federal government’s lead. In 2004, Gov. Jeb Bush signed the state’s first human trafficking law. Trafficking carries heavy penalties: up to 20 years in prison at the federal level and more in some states. In Florida, convicted traffickers must register as sex offenders, and victims receive greater protections - including the possibility of getting their criminal records erased.
13 statistics that explain the global sex trade
As states passed get-tough laws to punish traffickers, law enforcement agencies stepped up their efforts to train officers how to respond when they encounter sex workers.
Many departments bring in experts to train patrol officers and detectives to recognize telltale signs of human trafficking. Women might be licensed for massage in more than one state, so they can be moved around with ease. Flushing, New York, is a common trafficking port of entry from overseas, so that Queens neighborhood might appear on their travel documents. If they don’t have identification, someone else might be holding it to limit their ability to leave.
Police have turned to digital resources, tracking movement by traffickers on social media and scouting for locations of interest via online review boards such as Rubmaps. Miami Beach police launched their investigation after concerned citizens shared screenshots from Rubmaps with elected officials.
Task forces organized by federal and local agencies deputized health inspectors, business leaders and bus drivers to report the more subtle clues to sex slavery, such as men coming and going at all hours, regular movement of workers to and from the spas and stored bedding, suitcases and cooking supplies.
Experts said there’s been a sea change in how police and prosecutors view these cases. Focus has shifted from sex workers to traffickers reaping the proceeds - though that hasn’t been universally adopted.
Among the most prominent cases following the new model: a sting in Minnesota in 2016, which began with a tip from law enforcement in Arizona about women rotating through apartment complexes.
The operation led to what Minnesota authorities called one of the largest sex trafficking rings ever dismantled by the federal government. Hundreds of Thai women were trafficked to U.S. spas and brothels, and tens of millions of dollars were laundered back to Thailand.
Several things set that investigation apart: The multi-agency effort was led by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota, instead of police, and it relied on federal agents who specialized in financial and immigration crimes.
Law enforcement went after organized crime from the start, charging higher-level members of the organization instead of women working in the spas. They partnered with the Thai Community Development Center, which helped build trust with victims.
Rubmaps is a review site for illicit spas, kind of like a Yelp for customers seeking more than a massage. Police use the site to pinpoint suspect businesses.
That trust, Minnesota prosecutors said, can be undermined if the women are charged with prostitution. Without the help of victims, it’s harder to meet the law’s standard of proving force, fraud or coercion.
“It’s very difficult to build a victim-centered case if you’re also prosecuting them,” said Laura Provinzino, assistant U.S. attorney in Minnesota.
Thirty-six people have been convicted or pleaded guilty to their roles in the organization. Sixteen were convicted of sex trafficking conspiracy - five identified by law enforcement as higher-ups in the organization were convicted in a jury trial after only one day of deliberations.
41 spa raids end with few convictions - and business resumes
What happened in Minnesota is the exception, not the rule.
In Florida - which ranks third after California and Texas for human trafficking reports - stings have been carried out against dozens of massage parlors. Those raids almost never led to trafficking charges.
USA TODAY reviewed the cases of nearly 500 people charged with human trafficking from 2008 to 2017 in Florida. Just 15% were convicted of trafficking; most saw their charges reduced, changed or dropped completely. Of the three people charged in spa cases, none ended up with a conviction for trafficking.
In Hollywood, police conducted undercover operations inside 24 Broward County spas during the summers of 2016 and 2017 in Operation Red Light. No one went to prison, not even two spa officials who acknowledged they tried to bribe police.
In Southwest Florida, the state Department of Law Enforcement led Operation Spa LLC, an investigation that culminated in raids of 13 spas from Naples to Tallahassee in June 2017. Even though the state’s investigative summary noted numerous signs of trafficking, no one faced that charge.
The Miami Beach raid of four spas went further than most, leading to one of the three human trafficking charges. Police charged Mi Cha Jones with trafficking, saying women at the spa told them that Jones knew they were engaging in sex acts and that she withheld much of their earnings to pay for room and board.
As the case progressed, the state attorney offered Jones a deal: Plead guilty to profiting from prostitution. Her sentence? Probation and court costs.
Law enforcement faced challenges in the case, including deciphering business paperwork written in Mandarin, but the biggest hurdle was the two victims, both of whom were picked up in the raid and refused to cooperate with prosecutors.
Without their testimony, Fernandez Rundle said, there was no way to prove they had been forced into prostitution.
Richard Hull joined Miami Beach police on their raid in 2017, representing the citizen’s police advisory board that wanted the spas flushed from their neighborhood. One of the spas, Jade Massage, shared an alley with a private school.
Seeing the conditions the women “lived, ate, slept (and) worked in” altered Hull’s perspective.
“You have kids going to a Montessori school at $18,000 a year, and you have some poor girl coming here as a slave not able to leave the place of work in the same block,” Hull said. “It shouldn’t be happening in this country.”
After the raids, at least half of the 41 raided parlors were reviewed again on Rubmaps, suggesting sex acts continued to be sold. There is no way for USA TODAY to verify those reports, which are posted anonymously, and some spa managers and workers vehemently denied sex activity continues. A few of the spas were caught up in subsequent police efforts.
USA TODAY Network reporters visited all 41 spa locations this spring and found 13 that were still massage parlors. For some, documents indicate the same people are involved in managing the business. For others, it’s hard to tell.
Reina Vogeler, an aesthetician, arranges her work area on Tuesday, April 16 at the Bouquet Beauty Salon in Naples. The business has been open since August 2018. In June 2017, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement raided the previous tenant at this location, Asian Massage of Naples.
To neighbors, as well as nearby businesses and their patrons, who’s in charge is immaterial if the spas continue as fronts for trafficking and prostitution.
Wedged between restaurants, pawn shops, laundromats and liquor stores, the raided massage parlors typically stand out only because of what can’t be seen. Windows are obscured by signs, giant photos, curtains or darkened glass. Often, doors are kept locked, requiring clients to be buzzed in. Neon “open” signs are common, as are advertisements out front for special services.
Bonita Spa in Hollywood advertises a “Brazilian Moon Shower” in green, yellow and blue lights. It has been raided more than once, resulting in arrests in 2016 and 2017, two of which led to charges and no contest pleas. Corporate records indicate it has stayed under the same ownership. According to Rubmaps reviews posted as recently as June, offerings may still extend beyond showers.
“She is pretty open with what she offers from the get go and thus I ask her to skip the massage and we got to business,” one reviewer said.
Hollywood police raided Bonita Spa in 2016 and 2017 as part of Operation Red Light, and two women pleaded no contest to charges related to prostitution. The spa remained open when reporters visited this spring.
A worker there told USA TODAY that she didn’t speak English but would give the reporter’s business card to her manager. The manager did not reach out, and subsequent calls to the spa were not returned.
The Hollywood Police Department declined multiple interview requests and did not answer a lengthy list of detailed questions from USA TODAY. Miranda Grossman, the department’s public information manager, said she could not comment because the department is conducting follow-up investigations.
“These investigations are ongoing and are part of a larger and disturbing picture of illegal massage parlors that are a front for commercial sex and human trafficking networks,” she said.
Help us report this story
If you have any information on illicit massage parlors or sex trafficking operations, or are a survivor of sex trafficking, we want to know.
Tell your story
Citing the ongoing nature of the Operation Spa case, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Office of Statewide Prosecution declined interview requests from USA TODAY. Neither answered a list of detailed questions.
In early April, a reporter stopped at the address on Pine Ridge Road where Asian Massage of Naples had been raided two summers ago by state special agents. The parlor has a new name, Naples Healthy Spa. A license posted on the wall listed the owner as Guohua Zhang.
Six days earlier, Zhang had been arrested by the Collier County sheriff after an undercover officer said Zhang accepted $200 to perform oral sex at the spa during a massage. Zhang signed a deferred prosecution agreement. If she satisfies the conditions - which include community service and AIDS/HIV testing - the state attorney will drop the prostitution charge.
A web of spa connections suggests a network built to survive police raids
Untangling the roots of sex trade networks undoubtedly taxes the resources of law enforcement. But public documents offer plenty of intriguing leads.
USA TODAY found evidence that spas are interconnected at Florida’s Division of Corporations and its Board of Massage Therapy, in records related to the businesses behind the three high-profile raids.
Massage parlors seem to be in perpetual motion, as if stuck on spin cycle. Companies are incorporated and dissolved. Names and addresses are added and removed, swapped from one company to another or discarded when the pressure is on.
Most of the 41 spas raided were run through limited liability corporations, which provide a layer of anonymity to business owners. Compared with regular corporations, LLCs are easy to set up and Florida, like most states, allows them to include foreign nationals .
In documents, parlors may appear to be owned by someone working on site, sometimes listed as the LLC’s registered agent, officer or ambassador. Human trafficking experts said those individuals can start out as victims before being promoted to house managers or might be repeat customers tapped as straw owners. The raided spas had revolving doors of registered agents, officers and ambassadors.
Operation Spa: Two years later, statewide crackdown results in no trafficking charges
Angelina Li of Jal Accounting filed paperwork to remove a woman from her post as one company’s registered agent less than two weeks after the woman was arrested by Hollywood police at a Jade Spa. Li subbed in another woman who had been the registered agent for the company running a different Jade Spa in Miami Beach.
A year later, police raided that second Jade Spa.
Chad Brink has worked on a dozen trafficking cases over his 25-year career as supervising special agent for Arizona’s Financial Crimes Task Force. He said the turnover USA TODAY observed resembles a model he’s seen, in which the spas are essentially franchises of a larger operation.
The owners “basically lease out or sublet massage parlors, trying to rotate the girls through, so they don’t get caught as often,” Brink said. “Lady A is going to be the owner for six months, then an inspection or something happens, and right after the inspection, she sells the business. Really she’s just releasing the franchise back to the original owner.”
Brink said LLCs and the certified public accountants filing their paperwork play an integral middleman role, intentionally obscuring the true owners.
Li said she works with only a handful of spa clients and does not know of any illegal activity or efforts to hide owners.
“I'm not running the business, and I'm not even in the business, so how can I?” she said. “We just have bookkeeping for whatever the client is.”
Regardless of intent, the churn complicates matters for law enforcement.
Olive Spa, which replaced the raided Lulu Spa on 7441 Collins Ave. in Miami Beach, has signs clearly signaling that no sexual contact is allowed.
On the night of the Miami Beach raid, police cordoned off Lulu Massage with yellow tape, its “OPEN” sign still lit but its doors shut.
Four days earlier, Olive Spa Inc. - a company registered to another spa in Miami - had changed its address to Lulu’s location. Two days after the raid, Lulu’s original LLC was dissolved.
The switch was suspicious, said Daniel Morgalo, a Miami Beach police captain. It prevented the city from keeping the spa closed because the business officially belonged to someone new, who was not in charge when undercover evidence was gathered.
“It is frustrating for the investigators because sometimes it's like sweeping water,” Morgalo said. “No matter how hard you sweep, it still comes back.”
Youngmei Cai & Associates handled the transfer of Olive Spa to the address of Lulu’s, which had been a Jal client for years. The two accounting firms are within an hour’s drive of each other along Florida’s East Coast
The names of the firms and their representatives - Li and Joseph Leung at Jal Accounting and Yongmei Cai - appear on records for nearly a dozen of the spas targeted in the three raids USA TODAY reviewed. Registered agents and officers who appeared alongside the CPAs indirectly connect a handful more.
In total, reporters found more than 60 spas in Florida related to 100 LLCs that used the same accounting firms or registered agents, according to corporate filings. At least three-quarters of those spas have been reviewed on Rubmaps since 2017.
USA TODAY found no mention of either CPA firm in public police and court documents related to the raids.
Cai, 48, and Leung, 65, are licensed accountants. Li, 37, is not. Chinese-language websites include referrals to Leung’s firm; Cai says on her Facebook profile that she is from Wuhan, China, and advertises on her website that she speaks Chinese. Spas are front and center in both firms’ public portfolios, along with Asian import, investment and real estate businesses.
Contacted by phone, Cai, like Li, denied any knowledge of illegal activity - although she said she was aware of the police raids.
“We do our due diligence as a CPA, but we do not know any human trafficking,” Cai said. “Because I’m a CPA, I only talk numbers and financial statement.”
Leung could not be reached for comment.
In its executive summary for Operation Spa, state law enforcement officials said using limited liability companies disguised the nature of the business and concealed its proceeds. It alone among the three raids mentioned the use of LLCs.
Robert Neil Jones pleaded guilty to multiple charges including racketeering and money laundering stemming from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's Operation Spa LLC. He is due to be sentenced in October and, if he meets the terms of his plea agreement, faces three years in prison.
The case listed four companies that officers said were run by Robert Jones; his wife, Xuan Lang; and her brother, Jun Lang - all of whom were arrested. Jones and Jun Lang face prison time. Xuan Lang faces 21 months of community control.
One of Jones’ spas turned up in USA TODAY’s search with a connection to Youngmei Cai - she was the registered agent on an LLC registered to the spa’s address during the investigation. That connects Operation Spa to the Miami Beach raid two months later.
Law enforcement never connected those dots.
Morgalo said his department and the agencies behind Operation Spa didn’t share information about their respective investigations. The accounting firm connections unearthed by USA TODAY, he said, “would be something that I would want to look at as an investigator.”
Worker answers the door in a red bikini
Behind the pastel facades of a dozen spas in Southwest Florida, agents found signs that women workers were brought there to live on site. The state’s investigative summary details trips back and forth from parlors to airports, plane tickets from New York, suitcases and shipments of women’s clothing, and Costco grocery receipts.
An undercover agent reported that Jun Lang, who said he ran the massage parlors but didn’t own them, detailed how the women got there: A family member brought them from New York.
Nearly two years later, Operation Spa LLC is nearly concluded, with sentences for prostitution, racketeering and money laundering - but no one faces a human trafficking charge. In April, USA TODAY reporters visited the 13 raided locations. Five remained massage parlors.
Jade Spa in Cape Coral, Florida, was one of 13 massage parlors that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said was
An “open” sign hung in the window of Asian Massage of Naples on Davis Boulevard in April. Yujiao Zhan said she owned the place and another location, Jade Spa in Cape Coral. Zhan said ownership of the two parlors changed “about a year ago. It is a new place.”
The corporation listed on both of their business massage licenses formed a month after the raid. That LLC’s primary operating address is the location of a third spa in Naples.
All three spas have been reviewed on Rubmaps in the past six months. One customer of Asian Massage of Naples in January used the abbreviation of a slang term for masturbation: “She asked if I would like anything extra. Asked about prices. Went back and forth one time and settled for a HJ.”
In 2017, agents made one of their arrests at Jade Spa, where they said a woman worker had negotiated to masturbate an undercover officer for $60. Today, a red neon sign illuminates its name in one storefront of a beige strip mall on a major thoroughfare and behind a preschool.
A USA TODAY network reporter was greeted there in April by an employee wearing a red bikini and a thigh-length robe. She spoke little English but said through Google Translate that no sex services are provided.
SUBSCRIBE: This is very important journalism. Please support us.
Axon reported from Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Miami and Miami Beach. Braun reported from Naples, Sarasota, Bradenton and Cape Coral. Karl Etters reported from Tallahassee.
Contributing: Brooke Baitinger, John Kelly, Sara Marino and Brett Murphy.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Sex trafficking at massage parlors: Police raid spas, convictions rare
https://news.yahoo.com/sex-trafficking-behind-lucrative-illicit-013607049.html
___________________________________________________________________________________
13 sex trafficking statistics that explain the enormity of the global sex trade
Cara Kelly
USA TODAY•July 30, 2019
Sex trafficking is a massive, worldwide problem that can take many forms. One of the most prolific: America’s multibillion-dollar illicit massage industry.
The prominence of illegal parlors and their ties to sex trafficking drew national attention in February with the arrest of New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and hundreds of other men who police say solicited sex acts in Florida spas. In March, Martin County Sheriff Will Snyder told USA TODAY that the spas involved had “all the trappings of human trafficking.”
Law enforcement has ramped up it’s tough-on-trafficking language in recent years, touting raids on illicit spas as proof of crackdowns. Yet, a USA TODAY investigation into recent high-profile raids in Florida found the outcomes don’t match the rhetoric. Only one woman in the raids that saw Kraft arrested faces a charge related to trafficking. And in other cases, USA TODAY found instances where business at sex spas returned to normal within months of police activity.
The exact number of sex trafficking victims forced to work in illicit massage parlors is unknown. But reporting methods and analysis have improved in recent years, and advocates and researchers largely agree that the problem is growing, to as many as 9,000 illicit spas in the U.S. alone.
“These places have really benefited from being underestimated for decades,” said Brad Myles, CEO of Polaris, a nonprofit that operates the National Human Trafficking Hotline. “I think now there are certain communities finally kind of tapping into the reality that they’ve been underestimated and tapping into the enormity of the challenge.”
Here are 13 statistics that help explain the scope of the problem.
1. There are more than 4 million victims of sex trafficking globally
A study from the United Nations’ International Labour Organization estimated 3.8 million adults and 1 million children were victims of forced sexual exploitation in 2016 around the world.
2. 99% are women and girls
The vast majority of sex trafficking victims are women and girls, though men, boys, trans, intersex and nonbinary individuals can be victims as well. The International Labour Organization estimates that 99% of the adults and children forced into sexual exploitation in 2016 are female.
3. There is no official estimate of sex trafficking victims in the U.S.
The State Department releases an annual report on human trafficking with breakdowns for individual countries, though it is largely focused on government actions to address the trafficking and does not estimate the total number of victims. However, in its 2019 report, the State Department found the top three nations of origin for human trafficking victims were the United States, Mexico and the Philippines. It does not break that figure down for sex trafficking alone.
Further reading: Sex trafficking, prostitution is anything but a 'victimless crime,' experts say
Further reading: From harmful fetishes to sex trafficking, Robert Kraft case highlights risks facing Asian women
Polaris tracks the number of reports made to the National Human Trafficking Hotline, a figure often used by researchers. In 2018, it received 5,147 reported cases of human trafficking. Of those, 3,718 were related to sex trafficking.
4. 7 in 10 victims were exploited in Asia and the Pacific region
According to the International Labour Organization report, more than 70% of sex trafficking victims were located in Asia and the Pacific, compared with 14% in Europe and Central Asia and 4% in the Americas.
In illicit massage parlors in the U.S., the vast majority of reported trafficking victims are from China, with a notable number from the Fujian province in southeastern China. South Korea forms the second highest group.
5. 1 in 7 reported runways in the U.S. in 2018 is likely a victim of child sex trafficking
In the U.S., sex trafficking victims include immigrants as well as American citizens. Though there is no official number, advocates and researchers say the number of domestic victims is high.
According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, 1 in 7 of the more than 23,500 runaways reported to the nonprofit organization were likely victims of child sex trafficking.
6. Girls in foster care are particularly vulnerable
In recent years, a pipeline from the foster care system to trafficking has gained attention.
A report from the Human Rights Project for Girls, Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality and Ms. Foundation for Women supports that finding. Titled “The Sexual Abuse to Prison Pipeline,” the report found that girls who grow up in the instability of the child welfare system, particularly those placed in multiple homes, are “vulnerable to the manipulation of traffickers who promise to love and care for them. Indeed, some traffickers purposely troll for youth in certain group homes because they are aware of this vulnerability.”
7. Profits from forced sexual labor are estimated at $99 billion worldwide
According to a 2014 report from the International Labour Organization on forced labor, commercial sexual exploitation accounted for two thirds of the profits from forced labor. And forced sex work commanded the highest profits per victim compared to other types of labor like domestic work.
8. Profits are highest per sex trafficking victim in developed economies
Though the number of victims is highest in Asia, the annual profits per victim were highest in developed countries because traffickers can charge more for sex acts. The International Labour Organization estimates annual rates of around $80,000 per victim in developed countries and $55,000 in the Middle East.
9. There are an estimated 9,000 illicit massage parlors across the U.S.
Polaris estimates that more than 9,000 illicit spas operate across America. In a 2017 report, the nonprofit found that illicit parlors are in business in every state - in suburban strip malls as well as big cities.
According to a 2014 report from the Urban Institute, the number of illicit parlors is growing and they’re expanding beyond hubs on the East and West coasts.
10. Profits from illicit massage parlors are estimated at $2.5 billion
In its report, Polaris calculated the total based on a national average of two women working at each illicit massage parlor, with an average of 12 men visiting each parlor a day spending $60 per visit, based on commercial sex review boards.
Similar estimates were calculated by researchers who published a 2017 article in the Journal of Human Trafficking. Researchers found the industry brought in $107 million annually in Houston, and extrapolated that figure to $2.8 billion nationally.
11. Events like the Super Bowl increasingly are monitored for sex trafficking
Efforts to combat trafficking around major events have increased in recent years, most notably around the Super Bowl.
"It's not necessarily about football or the NFL," Courtney Dow, an outreach coordinator for the Atlanta-based nonprofit Dream Center, told USA TODAY before Super Bowl LIII in January. "When groups of men get together, usually trafficking and exploitation increases.”
In May, police arrested four men on human-trafficking-related charges following a sting around the Kentucky Derby. Louisville Metro Police said those arrested were from out of town and had responded to online advertisements for sexual acts with minors.
Further reading: Sex trafficking at Super Bowl LIII in Atlanta: Advocates, players fight against exploitation
Further reading: Police arrest 4 men accused of promoting human trafficking on Derby Day
Advocates are split on whether events increase trafficking, however.
"We actually think that trafficking is a major issue 365 days a year," Miles said. "The same 20,000 pimps are moving around to where the action is."
12. Prosecutions of sex trafficking are down in the U.S.
The State Department’s 2019 Trafficking in Persons Report found the Department of Justice opened significantly fewer human trafficking investigations in 2018 compared to 2017, dropping from 783 to 657. It also reported significantly fewer prosecutions: 230, down from 282.
That holds true for cases specifically focused on sex trafficking. Of the prosecutions, 213 were for sex trafficking, down from 266 in 2017.
13. Victims are still arrested for crimes they were forced to commit by traffickers
The State Department’s report found that at the state and local level, victims are still being arrested for crimes they’re compelled to commit such as commercial sex work, including child victims.
This comes despite a push for “safe harbor” laws, passed in at least 34 states, which are meant to stop child sex trafficking victims from being prosecuted for prostitution and other charges related to commercial sex. Forty-four states have passed laws allowing survivors to seek a court order vacating, expunging or sealing convictions that resulted from acts traffickers forced them to commit.
Need help? See something?
The National Human Trafficking Hotline is confidential, toll-free and available 24/7 in more than 200 languages.
Call: 1-888-373-7888
Text: “BeFree” (233733)
Chat: humantraffickinghotline.org
Contributing: Ryan W. Miller, Nicquel Terry Ellis, Alia E. Dastagir
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 13 trafficking statistics that enormity of the global sex trade
https://news.yahoo.com/12-sex-trafficking-statistics-explain-013146305.html
______________________________________________________________________
https://news.yahoo.com/human-trafficking-why-cases-hard-005908140.html
Rachel Axon, Cara Kelly and Michael Braun
USA TODAY•July 31, 2019
Within hours of a police raid of Miami Beach massage parlors in 2017, Chief Daniel Oates stood before TV cameras praising his agency’s eight-month effort to crack down on prostitution and human trafficking.
Officers had detained 10 Asian women and, through interpreters, tried to determine which of them were victims and which were perpetrators. The city, he said, had shut down four brothels posing as spas.
“Obviously, the message to these kinds of operations is that they won’t be tolerated in our town,” Oates said.
Even before the news conference started, however, the case had begun to fall apart. Some sex workers - potential witnesses against the organizers - were gone.
One of the spas would avoid being shut down altogether. The one person charged with trafficking in the case later was allowed to plead guilty to profiting from prostitution, a lesser charge.
Police across the nation have touted sex spa stings for years as evidence that they are cracking down on rampant human trafficking. The publicity surrounding these operations hit a high in February in raids in South Florida that led to charges against New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who police said was caught on video paying for sex acts.
But a USA TODAY review of three high-profile raids - the one in Miami Beach and others in nearby Hollywood and Southwest Florida - found that law enforcement’s tough-on-trafficking rhetoric fizzled after initial headlines. Charges were dropped or pleaded down. Spas often popped up in the same or new locations. And any notion of going after higher-ups who profit from trafficking, including international crime figures bringing women from overseas, never materialized.
“Almost every local law enforcement that does one of these cases, the quote usually is, ‘We think we’re getting the tip of the iceberg,’ ” said Brad Myles, CEO of Polaris, a nonprofit group that operates the National Human Trafficking Hotline. “What is the iceberg? Or how many icebergs are there? I don’t know if anyone has a really good handle on who the masterminds are.”
Polaris estimated that 9,000 illicit massage parlors operate in the USA based on reviews on Rubmaps, a Yelp for sex spas, bringing in about $2.5 billion a year.
New England owner Robert Kraft faces misdemeanor solicitation charges in Palm Beach County after police say he twice paid for sex acts at Orchids of Asia Day Spa in January.
Hints of a broader organization not touched by law enforcement stings hover beneath the surface. Through a search of thousands of Florida public records ranging from corporate filings to massage licenses, USA TODAY found connections among more than a third of the 41 spas raided in the three recent operations alone, and links from them to a larger network of potentially suspect massage parlors all over the state.
Prosecutors defend their track record by noting that a felony trafficking charge is just one tool in their toolbox. Because of the difficulty of getting victims to cooperate, they can look to alternatives that do not require proof that a victim was coerced, such as racketeering or money laundering.
“I think much bigger and broader than just that one charge,” said Katherine Fernandez Rundle, the Miami-Dade state attorney.
Fernandez Rundle ran through her list of what matters most: “What were the outcomes of the cases? Did we shut them down? Was somebody punished? Was somebody held accountable? Was a victim rescued? Were there proceeds that were taken? Were business licenses forfeited? Did people go to prison? Did people go to jail?”
Operation Spa LLC, a multi-agency, two-year law enforcement operation in Southwest Florida, convicted six operators for racketeering and/or money laundering, resulting in probable prison sentences of up to three years. Even in that case, though, eight women pleaded guilty to prostitution-related crimes.
Florida law enforcement often falls back on charging women working in the massage parlors. Of the 57 arrested in the three recent raids, all but three were women, mostly immigrants from China but also Cuba, Haiti, Guatemala and elsewhere. Forty-two faced prostitution charges.
After each of two summer raids in Hollywood, the department released a poster with mugshots of those charged, touting its aggressive approach. The posters were a sea of women and one man.
“We will continue to crack down on these types of businesses, which are used as fronts for prostitution,” Police Chief Tomas Sanchez said in a news release. “These massage parlors breed other criminal activities, including human and sex trafficking, drug sales and money laundering.”
By the time police completed the second operation, they had charged at least 30 women with prostitution.
Though the case in which Kraft was charged continues, it’s followed the same trajectory.
In March, Martin County Sheriff Will Snyder told USA TODAY that the spas involved had “all the trappings of human trafficking.” Today, only one woman who ran a spa in Vero Beach faces charges even tangentially tied to trafficking, through a racketeering statute.
Prosecutors charged Kraft with misdemeanor solicitation - which he is fighting. The two women accused of providing sexual services to him each face a felony related to prostitution.
Human trafficking experts compared law enforcement's spa approach to arresting corner drug dealers instead of going after cartels.
“You take the dealer off the street, and another dealer pops up," said Carmen Pino, who participated in massage parlor investigations before he retired as a federal agent with Homeland Security Investigations in Miami. "We can shut them down today, they’re just going to move somewhere else. Because you’re still not getting the big organizers.”
Victims are supposed to be the focus, but proving they were enslaved can be difficult
America’s understanding of human trafficking evolved as lawmakers and the public began to view those caught up in forced sex work as victims, not criminals.
Congress passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act in 2000, citing growth of the sex trade and of the criminal enterprises behind it. Victims, Congress said, were “repeatedly punished more harshly than the traffickers themselves.”
Florida followed the federal government’s lead. In 2004, Gov. Jeb Bush signed the state’s first human trafficking law. Trafficking carries heavy penalties: up to 20 years in prison at the federal level and more in some states. In Florida, convicted traffickers must register as sex offenders, and victims receive greater protections - including the possibility of getting their criminal records erased.
13 statistics that explain the global sex trade
As states passed get-tough laws to punish traffickers, law enforcement agencies stepped up their efforts to train officers how to respond when they encounter sex workers.
Many departments bring in experts to train patrol officers and detectives to recognize telltale signs of human trafficking. Women might be licensed for massage in more than one state, so they can be moved around with ease. Flushing, New York, is a common trafficking port of entry from overseas, so that Queens neighborhood might appear on their travel documents. If they don’t have identification, someone else might be holding it to limit their ability to leave.
Police have turned to digital resources, tracking movement by traffickers on social media and scouting for locations of interest via online review boards such as Rubmaps. Miami Beach police launched their investigation after concerned citizens shared screenshots from Rubmaps with elected officials.
Task forces organized by federal and local agencies deputized health inspectors, business leaders and bus drivers to report the more subtle clues to sex slavery, such as men coming and going at all hours, regular movement of workers to and from the spas and stored bedding, suitcases and cooking supplies.
Experts said there’s been a sea change in how police and prosecutors view these cases. Focus has shifted from sex workers to traffickers reaping the proceeds - though that hasn’t been universally adopted.
Among the most prominent cases following the new model: a sting in Minnesota in 2016, which began with a tip from law enforcement in Arizona about women rotating through apartment complexes.
The operation led to what Minnesota authorities called one of the largest sex trafficking rings ever dismantled by the federal government. Hundreds of Thai women were trafficked to U.S. spas and brothels, and tens of millions of dollars were laundered back to Thailand.
Several things set that investigation apart: The multi-agency effort was led by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota, instead of police, and it relied on federal agents who specialized in financial and immigration crimes.
Law enforcement went after organized crime from the start, charging higher-level members of the organization instead of women working in the spas. They partnered with the Thai Community Development Center, which helped build trust with victims.
Rubmaps is a review site for illicit spas, kind of like a Yelp for customers seeking more than a massage. Police use the site to pinpoint suspect businesses.
That trust, Minnesota prosecutors said, can be undermined if the women are charged with prostitution. Without the help of victims, it’s harder to meet the law’s standard of proving force, fraud or coercion.
“It’s very difficult to build a victim-centered case if you’re also prosecuting them,” said Laura Provinzino, assistant U.S. attorney in Minnesota.
Thirty-six people have been convicted or pleaded guilty to their roles in the organization. Sixteen were convicted of sex trafficking conspiracy - five identified by law enforcement as higher-ups in the organization were convicted in a jury trial after only one day of deliberations.
41 spa raids end with few convictions - and business resumes
What happened in Minnesota is the exception, not the rule.
In Florida - which ranks third after California and Texas for human trafficking reports - stings have been carried out against dozens of massage parlors. Those raids almost never led to trafficking charges.
USA TODAY reviewed the cases of nearly 500 people charged with human trafficking from 2008 to 2017 in Florida. Just 15% were convicted of trafficking; most saw their charges reduced, changed or dropped completely. Of the three people charged in spa cases, none ended up with a conviction for trafficking.
In Hollywood, police conducted undercover operations inside 24 Broward County spas during the summers of 2016 and 2017 in Operation Red Light. No one went to prison, not even two spa officials who acknowledged they tried to bribe police.
In Southwest Florida, the state Department of Law Enforcement led Operation Spa LLC, an investigation that culminated in raids of 13 spas from Naples to Tallahassee in June 2017. Even though the state’s investigative summary noted numerous signs of trafficking, no one faced that charge.
The Miami Beach raid of four spas went further than most, leading to one of the three human trafficking charges. Police charged Mi Cha Jones with trafficking, saying women at the spa told them that Jones knew they were engaging in sex acts and that she withheld much of their earnings to pay for room and board.
As the case progressed, the state attorney offered Jones a deal: Plead guilty to profiting from prostitution. Her sentence? Probation and court costs.
Law enforcement faced challenges in the case, including deciphering business paperwork written in Mandarin, but the biggest hurdle was the two victims, both of whom were picked up in the raid and refused to cooperate with prosecutors.
Without their testimony, Fernandez Rundle said, there was no way to prove they had been forced into prostitution.
Richard Hull joined Miami Beach police on their raid in 2017, representing the citizen’s police advisory board that wanted the spas flushed from their neighborhood. One of the spas, Jade Massage, shared an alley with a private school.
Seeing the conditions the women “lived, ate, slept (and) worked in” altered Hull’s perspective.
“You have kids going to a Montessori school at $18,000 a year, and you have some poor girl coming here as a slave not able to leave the place of work in the same block,” Hull said. “It shouldn’t be happening in this country.”
After the raids, at least half of the 41 raided parlors were reviewed again on Rubmaps, suggesting sex acts continued to be sold. There is no way for USA TODAY to verify those reports, which are posted anonymously, and some spa managers and workers vehemently denied sex activity continues. A few of the spas were caught up in subsequent police efforts.
USA TODAY Network reporters visited all 41 spa locations this spring and found 13 that were still massage parlors. For some, documents indicate the same people are involved in managing the business. For others, it’s hard to tell.
Reina Vogeler, an aesthetician, arranges her work area on Tuesday, April 16 at the Bouquet Beauty Salon in Naples. The business has been open since August 2018. In June 2017, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement raided the previous tenant at this location, Asian Massage of Naples.
To neighbors, as well as nearby businesses and their patrons, who’s in charge is immaterial if the spas continue as fronts for trafficking and prostitution.
Wedged between restaurants, pawn shops, laundromats and liquor stores, the raided massage parlors typically stand out only because of what can’t be seen. Windows are obscured by signs, giant photos, curtains or darkened glass. Often, doors are kept locked, requiring clients to be buzzed in. Neon “open” signs are common, as are advertisements out front for special services.
Bonita Spa in Hollywood advertises a “Brazilian Moon Shower” in green, yellow and blue lights. It has been raided more than once, resulting in arrests in 2016 and 2017, two of which led to charges and no contest pleas. Corporate records indicate it has stayed under the same ownership. According to Rubmaps reviews posted as recently as June, offerings may still extend beyond showers.
“She is pretty open with what she offers from the get go and thus I ask her to skip the massage and we got to business,” one reviewer said.
Hollywood police raided Bonita Spa in 2016 and 2017 as part of Operation Red Light, and two women pleaded no contest to charges related to prostitution. The spa remained open when reporters visited this spring.
A worker there told USA TODAY that she didn’t speak English but would give the reporter’s business card to her manager. The manager did not reach out, and subsequent calls to the spa were not returned.
The Hollywood Police Department declined multiple interview requests and did not answer a lengthy list of detailed questions from USA TODAY. Miranda Grossman, the department’s public information manager, said she could not comment because the department is conducting follow-up investigations.
“These investigations are ongoing and are part of a larger and disturbing picture of illegal massage parlors that are a front for commercial sex and human trafficking networks,” she said.
Help us report this story
If you have any information on illicit massage parlors or sex trafficking operations, or are a survivor of sex trafficking, we want to know.
Tell your story
Citing the ongoing nature of the Operation Spa case, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Office of Statewide Prosecution declined interview requests from USA TODAY. Neither answered a list of detailed questions.
In early April, a reporter stopped at the address on Pine Ridge Road where Asian Massage of Naples had been raided two summers ago by state special agents. The parlor has a new name, Naples Healthy Spa. A license posted on the wall listed the owner as Guohua Zhang.
Six days earlier, Zhang had been arrested by the Collier County sheriff after an undercover officer said Zhang accepted $200 to perform oral sex at the spa during a massage. Zhang signed a deferred prosecution agreement. If she satisfies the conditions - which include community service and AIDS/HIV testing - the state attorney will drop the prostitution charge.
A web of spa connections suggests a network built to survive police raids
Untangling the roots of sex trade networks undoubtedly taxes the resources of law enforcement. But public documents offer plenty of intriguing leads.
USA TODAY found evidence that spas are interconnected at Florida’s Division of Corporations and its Board of Massage Therapy, in records related to the businesses behind the three high-profile raids.
Massage parlors seem to be in perpetual motion, as if stuck on spin cycle. Companies are incorporated and dissolved. Names and addresses are added and removed, swapped from one company to another or discarded when the pressure is on.
Most of the 41 spas raided were run through limited liability corporations, which provide a layer of anonymity to business owners. Compared with regular corporations, LLCs are easy to set up and Florida, like most states, allows them to include foreign nationals .
In documents, parlors may appear to be owned by someone working on site, sometimes listed as the LLC’s registered agent, officer or ambassador. Human trafficking experts said those individuals can start out as victims before being promoted to house managers or might be repeat customers tapped as straw owners. The raided spas had revolving doors of registered agents, officers and ambassadors.
Operation Spa: Two years later, statewide crackdown results in no trafficking charges
Angelina Li of Jal Accounting filed paperwork to remove a woman from her post as one company’s registered agent less than two weeks after the woman was arrested by Hollywood police at a Jade Spa. Li subbed in another woman who had been the registered agent for the company running a different Jade Spa in Miami Beach.
A year later, police raided that second Jade Spa.
Chad Brink has worked on a dozen trafficking cases over his 25-year career as supervising special agent for Arizona’s Financial Crimes Task Force. He said the turnover USA TODAY observed resembles a model he’s seen, in which the spas are essentially franchises of a larger operation.
The owners “basically lease out or sublet massage parlors, trying to rotate the girls through, so they don’t get caught as often,” Brink said. “Lady A is going to be the owner for six months, then an inspection or something happens, and right after the inspection, she sells the business. Really she’s just releasing the franchise back to the original owner.”
Brink said LLCs and the certified public accountants filing their paperwork play an integral middleman role, intentionally obscuring the true owners.
Li said she works with only a handful of spa clients and does not know of any illegal activity or efforts to hide owners.
“I'm not running the business, and I'm not even in the business, so how can I?” she said. “We just have bookkeeping for whatever the client is.”
Regardless of intent, the churn complicates matters for law enforcement.
Olive Spa, which replaced the raided Lulu Spa on 7441 Collins Ave. in Miami Beach, has signs clearly signaling that no sexual contact is allowed.
On the night of the Miami Beach raid, police cordoned off Lulu Massage with yellow tape, its “OPEN” sign still lit but its doors shut.
Four days earlier, Olive Spa Inc. - a company registered to another spa in Miami - had changed its address to Lulu’s location. Two days after the raid, Lulu’s original LLC was dissolved.
The switch was suspicious, said Daniel Morgalo, a Miami Beach police captain. It prevented the city from keeping the spa closed because the business officially belonged to someone new, who was not in charge when undercover evidence was gathered.
“It is frustrating for the investigators because sometimes it's like sweeping water,” Morgalo said. “No matter how hard you sweep, it still comes back.”
Youngmei Cai & Associates handled the transfer of Olive Spa to the address of Lulu’s, which had been a Jal client for years. The two accounting firms are within an hour’s drive of each other along Florida’s East Coast
The names of the firms and their representatives - Li and Joseph Leung at Jal Accounting and Yongmei Cai - appear on records for nearly a dozen of the spas targeted in the three raids USA TODAY reviewed. Registered agents and officers who appeared alongside the CPAs indirectly connect a handful more.
In total, reporters found more than 60 spas in Florida related to 100 LLCs that used the same accounting firms or registered agents, according to corporate filings. At least three-quarters of those spas have been reviewed on Rubmaps since 2017.
USA TODAY found no mention of either CPA firm in public police and court documents related to the raids.
Cai, 48, and Leung, 65, are licensed accountants. Li, 37, is not. Chinese-language websites include referrals to Leung’s firm; Cai says on her Facebook profile that she is from Wuhan, China, and advertises on her website that she speaks Chinese. Spas are front and center in both firms’ public portfolios, along with Asian import, investment and real estate businesses.
Contacted by phone, Cai, like Li, denied any knowledge of illegal activity - although she said she was aware of the police raids.
“We do our due diligence as a CPA, but we do not know any human trafficking,” Cai said. “Because I’m a CPA, I only talk numbers and financial statement.”
Leung could not be reached for comment.
In its executive summary for Operation Spa, state law enforcement officials said using limited liability companies disguised the nature of the business and concealed its proceeds. It alone among the three raids mentioned the use of LLCs.
Robert Neil Jones pleaded guilty to multiple charges including racketeering and money laundering stemming from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's Operation Spa LLC. He is due to be sentenced in October and, if he meets the terms of his plea agreement, faces three years in prison.
The case listed four companies that officers said were run by Robert Jones; his wife, Xuan Lang; and her brother, Jun Lang - all of whom were arrested. Jones and Jun Lang face prison time. Xuan Lang faces 21 months of community control.
One of Jones’ spas turned up in USA TODAY’s search with a connection to Youngmei Cai - she was the registered agent on an LLC registered to the spa’s address during the investigation. That connects Operation Spa to the Miami Beach raid two months later.
Law enforcement never connected those dots.
Morgalo said his department and the agencies behind Operation Spa didn’t share information about their respective investigations. The accounting firm connections unearthed by USA TODAY, he said, “would be something that I would want to look at as an investigator.”
Worker answers the door in a red bikini
Behind the pastel facades of a dozen spas in Southwest Florida, agents found signs that women workers were brought there to live on site. The state’s investigative summary details trips back and forth from parlors to airports, plane tickets from New York, suitcases and shipments of women’s clothing, and Costco grocery receipts.
An undercover agent reported that Jun Lang, who said he ran the massage parlors but didn’t own them, detailed how the women got there: A family member brought them from New York.
Nearly two years later, Operation Spa LLC is nearly concluded, with sentences for prostitution, racketeering and money laundering - but no one faces a human trafficking charge. In April, USA TODAY reporters visited the 13 raided locations. Five remained massage parlors.
Jade Spa in Cape Coral, Florida, was one of 13 massage parlors that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said was
An “open” sign hung in the window of Asian Massage of Naples on Davis Boulevard in April. Yujiao Zhan said she owned the place and another location, Jade Spa in Cape Coral. Zhan said ownership of the two parlors changed “about a year ago. It is a new place.”
The corporation listed on both of their business massage licenses formed a month after the raid. That LLC’s primary operating address is the location of a third spa in Naples.
All three spas have been reviewed on Rubmaps in the past six months. One customer of Asian Massage of Naples in January used the abbreviation of a slang term for masturbation: “She asked if I would like anything extra. Asked about prices. Went back and forth one time and settled for a HJ.”
In 2017, agents made one of their arrests at Jade Spa, where they said a woman worker had negotiated to masturbate an undercover officer for $60. Today, a red neon sign illuminates its name in one storefront of a beige strip mall on a major thoroughfare and behind a preschool.
A USA TODAY network reporter was greeted there in April by an employee wearing a red bikini and a thigh-length robe. She spoke little English but said through Google Translate that no sex services are provided.
SUBSCRIBE: This is very important journalism. Please support us.
Axon reported from Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Miami and Miami Beach. Braun reported from Naples, Sarasota, Bradenton and Cape Coral. Karl Etters reported from Tallahassee.
Contributing: Brooke Baitinger, John Kelly, Sara Marino and Brett Murphy.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Sex trafficking at massage parlors: Police raid spas, convictions rare
https://news.yahoo.com/sex-trafficking-behind-lucrative-illicit-013607049.html
___________________________________________________________________________________
13 sex trafficking statistics that explain the enormity of the global sex trade
Cara Kelly
USA TODAY•July 30, 2019
Sex trafficking is a massive, worldwide problem that can take many forms. One of the most prolific: America’s multibillion-dollar illicit massage industry.
The prominence of illegal parlors and their ties to sex trafficking drew national attention in February with the arrest of New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and hundreds of other men who police say solicited sex acts in Florida spas. In March, Martin County Sheriff Will Snyder told USA TODAY that the spas involved had “all the trappings of human trafficking.”
Law enforcement has ramped up it’s tough-on-trafficking language in recent years, touting raids on illicit spas as proof of crackdowns. Yet, a USA TODAY investigation into recent high-profile raids in Florida found the outcomes don’t match the rhetoric. Only one woman in the raids that saw Kraft arrested faces a charge related to trafficking. And in other cases, USA TODAY found instances where business at sex spas returned to normal within months of police activity.
The exact number of sex trafficking victims forced to work in illicit massage parlors is unknown. But reporting methods and analysis have improved in recent years, and advocates and researchers largely agree that the problem is growing, to as many as 9,000 illicit spas in the U.S. alone.
“These places have really benefited from being underestimated for decades,” said Brad Myles, CEO of Polaris, a nonprofit that operates the National Human Trafficking Hotline. “I think now there are certain communities finally kind of tapping into the reality that they’ve been underestimated and tapping into the enormity of the challenge.”
Here are 13 statistics that help explain the scope of the problem.
1. There are more than 4 million victims of sex trafficking globally
A study from the United Nations’ International Labour Organization estimated 3.8 million adults and 1 million children were victims of forced sexual exploitation in 2016 around the world.
2. 99% are women and girls
The vast majority of sex trafficking victims are women and girls, though men, boys, trans, intersex and nonbinary individuals can be victims as well. The International Labour Organization estimates that 99% of the adults and children forced into sexual exploitation in 2016 are female.
3. There is no official estimate of sex trafficking victims in the U.S.
The State Department releases an annual report on human trafficking with breakdowns for individual countries, though it is largely focused on government actions to address the trafficking and does not estimate the total number of victims. However, in its 2019 report, the State Department found the top three nations of origin for human trafficking victims were the United States, Mexico and the Philippines. It does not break that figure down for sex trafficking alone.
Further reading: Sex trafficking, prostitution is anything but a 'victimless crime,' experts say
Further reading: From harmful fetishes to sex trafficking, Robert Kraft case highlights risks facing Asian women
Polaris tracks the number of reports made to the National Human Trafficking Hotline, a figure often used by researchers. In 2018, it received 5,147 reported cases of human trafficking. Of those, 3,718 were related to sex trafficking.
4. 7 in 10 victims were exploited in Asia and the Pacific region
According to the International Labour Organization report, more than 70% of sex trafficking victims were located in Asia and the Pacific, compared with 14% in Europe and Central Asia and 4% in the Americas.
In illicit massage parlors in the U.S., the vast majority of reported trafficking victims are from China, with a notable number from the Fujian province in southeastern China. South Korea forms the second highest group.
5. 1 in 7 reported runways in the U.S. in 2018 is likely a victim of child sex trafficking
In the U.S., sex trafficking victims include immigrants as well as American citizens. Though there is no official number, advocates and researchers say the number of domestic victims is high.
According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, 1 in 7 of the more than 23,500 runaways reported to the nonprofit organization were likely victims of child sex trafficking.
6. Girls in foster care are particularly vulnerable
In recent years, a pipeline from the foster care system to trafficking has gained attention.
A report from the Human Rights Project for Girls, Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality and Ms. Foundation for Women supports that finding. Titled “The Sexual Abuse to Prison Pipeline,” the report found that girls who grow up in the instability of the child welfare system, particularly those placed in multiple homes, are “vulnerable to the manipulation of traffickers who promise to love and care for them. Indeed, some traffickers purposely troll for youth in certain group homes because they are aware of this vulnerability.”
7. Profits from forced sexual labor are estimated at $99 billion worldwide
According to a 2014 report from the International Labour Organization on forced labor, commercial sexual exploitation accounted for two thirds of the profits from forced labor. And forced sex work commanded the highest profits per victim compared to other types of labor like domestic work.
8. Profits are highest per sex trafficking victim in developed economies
Though the number of victims is highest in Asia, the annual profits per victim were highest in developed countries because traffickers can charge more for sex acts. The International Labour Organization estimates annual rates of around $80,000 per victim in developed countries and $55,000 in the Middle East.
9. There are an estimated 9,000 illicit massage parlors across the U.S.
Polaris estimates that more than 9,000 illicit spas operate across America. In a 2017 report, the nonprofit found that illicit parlors are in business in every state - in suburban strip malls as well as big cities.
According to a 2014 report from the Urban Institute, the number of illicit parlors is growing and they’re expanding beyond hubs on the East and West coasts.
10. Profits from illicit massage parlors are estimated at $2.5 billion
In its report, Polaris calculated the total based on a national average of two women working at each illicit massage parlor, with an average of 12 men visiting each parlor a day spending $60 per visit, based on commercial sex review boards.
Similar estimates were calculated by researchers who published a 2017 article in the Journal of Human Trafficking. Researchers found the industry brought in $107 million annually in Houston, and extrapolated that figure to $2.8 billion nationally.
11. Events like the Super Bowl increasingly are monitored for sex trafficking
Efforts to combat trafficking around major events have increased in recent years, most notably around the Super Bowl.
"It's not necessarily about football or the NFL," Courtney Dow, an outreach coordinator for the Atlanta-based nonprofit Dream Center, told USA TODAY before Super Bowl LIII in January. "When groups of men get together, usually trafficking and exploitation increases.”
In May, police arrested four men on human-trafficking-related charges following a sting around the Kentucky Derby. Louisville Metro Police said those arrested were from out of town and had responded to online advertisements for sexual acts with minors.
Further reading: Sex trafficking at Super Bowl LIII in Atlanta: Advocates, players fight against exploitation
Further reading: Police arrest 4 men accused of promoting human trafficking on Derby Day
Advocates are split on whether events increase trafficking, however.
"We actually think that trafficking is a major issue 365 days a year," Miles said. "The same 20,000 pimps are moving around to where the action is."
12. Prosecutions of sex trafficking are down in the U.S.
The State Department’s 2019 Trafficking in Persons Report found the Department of Justice opened significantly fewer human trafficking investigations in 2018 compared to 2017, dropping from 783 to 657. It also reported significantly fewer prosecutions: 230, down from 282.
That holds true for cases specifically focused on sex trafficking. Of the prosecutions, 213 were for sex trafficking, down from 266 in 2017.
13. Victims are still arrested for crimes they were forced to commit by traffickers
The State Department’s report found that at the state and local level, victims are still being arrested for crimes they’re compelled to commit such as commercial sex work, including child victims.
This comes despite a push for “safe harbor” laws, passed in at least 34 states, which are meant to stop child sex trafficking victims from being prosecuted for prostitution and other charges related to commercial sex. Forty-four states have passed laws allowing survivors to seek a court order vacating, expunging or sealing convictions that resulted from acts traffickers forced them to commit.
Need help? See something?
The National Human Trafficking Hotline is confidential, toll-free and available 24/7 in more than 200 languages.
Call: 1-888-373-7888
Text: “BeFree” (233733)
Chat: humantraffickinghotline.org
Contributing: Ryan W. Miller, Nicquel Terry Ellis, Alia E. Dastagir
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 13 trafficking statistics that enormity of the global sex trade
https://news.yahoo.com/12-sex-trafficking-statistics-explain-013146305.html
______________________________________________________________________
https://news.yahoo.com/human-trafficking-why-cases-hard-005908140.html