Lawyers Manual - Unified Court System

From Sex Trafficking to FGM: Emerging Issues 371
Department estimated that nearly 20,000 victims of trafficking cross US borders
each year. 7 None of these figures includes the most prevalent form of trafficking
— domestic trafficking that takes place within countries.
Many prostituted women are domestically trafficked — moved by pimps
from their homes to locations far away from their support systems. Like
international trafficking, domestic trafficking makes the buying and selling of
women and girls more profitable because customers pay more for novelty. An
additional advantage for sex industry entrepreneurs is that moving women from
location to location makes it easier to keep them isolated and maintain power
and control. Like batterers, traffickers and pimps employ all of the strategies of
coercive control — isolation, threats, sexual abuse, and economic control — and
may not even need to resort to overt violence to secure control because they
have obtained it through more subtle means of domination. 8
Immigrant women, especially undocumented immigrants in conditions of
economic hardship, are especially vulnerable to domestic traffickers. One such
victim, a client of Sanctuary for Families, had been a successful model in her
native Brazil and came to the United States to advance her career. When her
visa expired, she could no longer obtain legitimate work. A limo driver, who
served as a recruiter for traffickers, encouraged her to work for an “escort”
agency and began supplying her with drugs that “eased” her transition into
prostitution. Before long the limo driver was not only her drug supplier, but her
boyfriend, batterer, and pimp.
Domestically prostituted women have often endured many different kinds of
gender-based violence, beginning in childhood and continuing through adolescence
and adulthood. Research demonstrates that between 60% and 80% of prostituted
adults are victims of incest and related forms of child sexual abuse. 9 Indeed the
average age of entry into prostitution is estimated to be between the ages of
twelve and fourteen. 10 Cross-culturally, prostituted adults sustain exceedingly
high rates of battering, rape, and murder and are the targets of many different
kinds of predators, including pimps, “johns,” and serial killers. One Canadian
study found that prostituted adults have a mortality rate that is forty times higher
than that of adults who have not been subjected to prostitution. 11
Whether your client has been internationally trafficked or domestically
prostituted, her experiences may have considerable ramifications for her legal
situation. If she wants to initiate a criminal case against her exploiters or obtain
protection from the criminal justice system, you will need to help her make a
police report, arrange a meeting with the local District Attorney, or contact
federal criminal justice authorities, such as the FBI and the US Attorney. 12