On September 23, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee held a hearing, “Combating Human Trafficking: Federal, State, and Local Perspectives.”
In joint testimony, Anne Gannon, national coordinator, Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction, Office of the Deputy Attorney General, Department of Justice (DOJ), and Joseph S. Campbell, deputy assistant director, Criminal Investigative Division, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), noted that “This year marks the tenth anniversary of the FBI’s most prominent initiative to combat the growing problem of sex trafficking of children within the United States. In June of 2003, the FBI and [DOJ’s] Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) joined the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) to launch the Innocence Lost National Initiative (ILNI). While it is difficult to imagine, the average age of a child targeted for prostitution in the United States is between 11 and 14 years old. Once under the control of a pimp, the proceeds of the commercial sexual exploitation of the child are controlled by the captor, and attempted escapes often result in brutal beatings or even death. The FBI and its ILNI partners execute Operation Cross Country – a three-day nationwide enforcement action focusing on underage victims of prostitution. Our most recent operation in July 2013 – our seventh and largest such operation – concluded with the recovery of 105 commercially sexually exploited children and the arrests of 150 pimps and other individuals. This most recent sweep took place in 76 cities and was carried out by the FBI in partnership with local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies and NCMEC. Over 1,300 law enforcement officers across the country have been trained through the Protecting Victims of Child Prostitution Course at NCMEC, which supports the ILNI.”
Speaking on behalf of the Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center, Executive Director Suzanne Koepplinger said, “Sex trafficking and the commercial sexual exploitation of children is of growing concern in our community…We believe the data we have on hand reflect only a small portion of the true picture of those who have been trafficked into prostitution, for a number of reasons. The widespread normalization of sexual violence in American Indian communities has numbed many youth to the point where they minimize and rationalize what is happening to them, just as domestic violence victims do. Many are engaged in survival sex simply to have a place to sleep at night. Others are gang raped by Native Mob or other local street gangs and are living in fear of the consequences if they do not comply…Drugs are often used to ensure compliance. Most of these girls have multiple risk factors, such as homelessness, early sexual abuse, and/or addiction or mental illness of parents/caregivers. Willingness to report or cooperate with law enforcement is rare due to the lack of secure housing and deep, complex trauma these children suffer from. As they are reluctant to report to law enforcement, they are not counted in the national data sets as trafficking victims. The current requirement to have a law enforcement certification of victimization in order to be counted as a trafficking victim has limited our understanding of the scope of the problem nationally. We believe that 80 to 90 percent of trafficked youth are under the radar and not being reported for this reason.”
The following witnesses also testified:
