Survivor praises harsher law on sex crime
Buyers, not victims, faulted in trafficking
In the early 2000s, Kathy Givens left Houston and went to Dallas with a man who she believed cared about her — one that wanted to be in a relationship and share in his business aspirations with her.
But once they left, Givens said her eyes were opened to what he was truly capable of. As a young adult, she began being trafficked.
In those first few nights, she said she saw “so many” buyers and clients. She was trained on what to do and how to talk.
Eventually, she broke free — and following that period in her life, Givens has devoted her time to helping others who went through similar experiences. Today, she’s the co-founder and executive director of Twelve 11 Partners, an nonprofit that seeks to support survivors of trafficking.
Givens said a new state law — which makes buying sex a felony — gives her hope “we’re moving in the right direction.”
“We can’t just keep blaming victims, and this problem is not all on the victims,” said Givens, adding that there’s a whole infrastructure of people who contribute to the crime.
At least a few dozen people in Harris County have been charged under the new law for soliciting prostitution — the first of its kind in the U.S. — since it took effect in September.
According to numbers provided through a records request filed with the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, at least 45 felony solicitation charges have been filed since Sept. 1, when the new law took effect.
“I think it means that what we’re doing is working,” said Jessica Anderson, commander of the Houston Police Department’s vice division.
Authorities have used a variety of methods to crack down on human trafficking in the Houston area — including signage in the Bissonnet area that warned of the felony penalty before it took effect and undercover operations in which authorities pretend to be sex workers.
Anderson said in an interview last month that there had been a “significant” decrease in how many people were out walking in the Bissonnet area, anecdotally speaking. She viewed it as an indicator that increased patrols and vice operations were working.
And the new law, in part, brought heightened punishment options on those engaging with sex trafficking, including the potential for longer prison time for first-time buyers or solicitors.
Kathryn Griffin — who founded We’ve Been There Done That, which aims to support people who were involved in the sex trade — said sex buyers will be held accountable under the new penalty, since it’s oftentimes just the sex worker who is arrested while the buyer “gets away scot-free.”
“We need to fund the police so that we can have enough boots on the ground that are trained to do this properly,” Griffin said in an interview.
“They don’t have enough manpower to meet the demand of all of the buyers,” she added.
Houston Police Department spokesperson Jodi Silva said it values its relationship with its community partners as well as the assistance they provide to combat human trafficking, which the department is working as much as it can to do.
Anderson has previously told the Chronicle that sex trafficking was a longstanding concern and if it “was something we could just arrest ourselves out of, we would have done it by now.” She thought the increased penalty would be a deterrent.
Dane Schiller, a Harris County District Attorney's Office spokesperson, said in an emailed statement that the office would be reviewing each case individually. He added that the agency has previously seen “that many defendants charged in anti-prostitution operations are nonviolent first-time offenders, but others are engaged in human trafficking, pimping or other crimes."
"Texas law provides for a range of options, including coming down hardest on those who are violent or repeat offenders,” he added. “Only time will tell how this new (law) will impact what is going on in the streets."
Givens also spoke to the need for investment in not just the criminal justice system, but also rehabilitation and restorative programs for people to get help. She said society hasto think about “the whole picture” — it’s not just the crime of trafficking itself happening.
She brought up questions like: How did the victim get trafficked, and what was their life like before? What were some of the vulnerabilities they faced? What were some things the buyer or exploiter faced?
“We’re such a lock-emup-and-throw-away-thekey state and lock-em-upand-throw-away-the-key nation, that it’s hard for us to comprehend that there may be other things that we need to fix so that we can stop this once and for all,” she said.
“But if we only focus on the crime, like if we only focus on the act itself, the event itself … I don’t think that we’re going to be as fruitful as we want to be.”