Speaking out against sex trade
“What we are clearly seeing is that drugs are the currency by which women particularly are kept in subjugation by pimps. It's mostly heroin. These guys are lurking around methadone clinics, treatment centers, hospitals.” — DANIEL F. CONLEY, SUFFOLK DISTRICT ATTORNEY
“As somebody who was in the life prior to this whole boom of technology, it's a really violent industry. It's shifted and changed.”
— CHERIE JIMENEZ, FOUNDER OF THE EVA CENTER, WHICH PROVIDES SERVICES TO WOMEN EXITING THE COMMERCIAL SEX EXPLOITATION UNDERWORLD
“Nearly 100 percent of the time there's going to be drugs involved. … That is a difficulty for our prosecutions. They don't always see themselves (as victims) when we try to hold these traffickers accountable. — BETH KEELEY, CHIEF OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL’S HUMAN-TRAFFICKING DIVISION ON CASES INVOLVING SEX TRAFFICKING VICTIMS
“They've come from homes that have been challenged by a number of things. So that picture of the most vulnerable in our communities (being targeted), it's fundamentally an unfair fight.” — LISA GOLDBLATT GRACE, CO-FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR OF MY LIFE MY CHOICE
“People of a certain age will say, `We don't have a problem anymore. The Combat Zone has been closed for years.' … (The trafficking is) in hotels, it's behind closed doors. The children and women are being sold online, in apartments. If people don't see something, they don't think it's happening. But as far as I'm concerned, that to me is scarier than being in a visible place.” — AUDREY MORRISSEY, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF MY LIFE MY CHOICE
“(Trafficking survivors) say, `I really want to stay sober but I'm broke and I don't know what to do.' I can come in and say, `There is a better way. It's going to be complicated and you're going to be broke.' But I'd rather be sober and broke and piece together my self-worth and dignity over time.” — JASMINE GRACE MARINO, A SEX TRAFFICKING SURVIVOR AND ACTIVIST
“The FBI has interviews … from traffickers and pimps who clearly say there is an intergenerational process to it. `My father was a pimp, my grandfather was a pimp, now I'm a pimp.' It is a success story when you become a pimp, and the more girls you have, the more successful you are.” — DR. WENDY MACIASKONSTANTOPOULOS, DIRECTOR OF MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL’S HUMAN-TRAFFICKING INITIATIVE
“We can never arrest our way of it. Every day there's another website.” — BOSTON POLICE LT. DONNA GAVIN, HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT’S ANTI-HUMANTRAFFICKING UNIT
“We're facing the biggest complex issue, so we have to be complex in how we tackle it. You cannot put a Band-Aid on this issue.” — STEPHANIE CLARK, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF AMIRAH, WHICH PROVIDES HOMES TO TRAFFICKING SURVIVORS
“This is not a women's issue. This is a human rights issue. It's an issue that pervades every community, every social, economic background. We think that if we're in our safe, $500,000, $600,000 home in Lincoln, Sudbury, that this stuff isn't happening.” — DHAKIR WARREN, DIRECTOR OF NETWORK LEARNING AND ENGAGEMENT AT SWANEE HUNT ALTERNATIVES
“There's a recipe for us to follow to provide training. We need some more capacity to make that happen.” — SUSAN GOLDFARB, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE CHILDREN’S ADVOCACY CENTER OF SUFFOLK COUNTY, WHICH COORDINATES SERVICES FOR ABUSED CHILDREN
“It was a little silo, of which do we address first? Because they're so intertwined.” — NIKKI ANTONUCCI, CHIEF OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL’S VICTIM SERVICES DIVISION ON ADDRESSING VICTIMS’ TRAFFICKING TRAUMA AND THEIR DRUG ADDICTION
“She'd drop him off at her dad's house — who was an alcoholic — so then he ended up following in his father's footsteps and being a trafficker.”
— SARAH DUNHAM, LEAD ORGANIZER FOR THE MASSACHUSETTS COALITION TO END HUMAN TRAFFICKING, ON A SEX TRAFFICKER WHOSE FATHER WAS A PIMP AND WHOSE MOTHER WAS JUST 13