Prostitution stings
But adult trafficking victims still fall through the cracks
boost awareness of human trafficking, but adult victims still fall through the cracks.
A 28-year-old Orlando woman. One 21-year-old from Ocoee. One from Gainesville, 25, and a third one from Spring Hill, 36. A man, 27, from Richmond Hill.
All five were rescued this week in Polk County, along with 46 others — who were instead charged with prostitution — as part of Sheriff Grady Judd’s latest sting, “Operation No Tricks No Treats.” But according to Polk County records, those five were identified as victims of human trafficking. Another 209 men were charged with solicitation of prostitution.
While prostitution stings raise public awareness and provide a scope of the human trafficking problem, advocates say there is still more room to protect adult victims of human trafficking. Under state law, minors coerced into sexual activity are automatically considered victims and cannot be charged with prostitution.
But occasionally, law enforcement crackdowns on prostitution result in the preemptive arrest of adult victims before they are connected with advocates.
“For someone who turns 18, the day before, they were a victim, and the next day, they are a prostitute,” said Tomas Lares, founder of Florida Abolitionist, an Orlando organization that works with human trafficking victims over the age of 18.
According to the National Human Trafficking Hotline in Florida — the state with the third most calls for trafficking in the country according to the center’s statistics — there have been 878 human trafficking calls in 2017 so far.
Among the 46 adults arrested on charges of prostitution in Polk County’s latest sting, four of them were 20-year-old women and one was an 18-year-old man. Only two had no criminal record and the 18-year-old had already faced charges ranging from grand theft of cars and fire arms to resisting authorities.
Lares, who has over 13 years of field experience with law enforcement as an advo-
cate, said most victims won’t admit right away that they’re victims because of the psychological and physical trauma they’ve experienced.
Most of them, Lares said, need urgent help to battle acute drug addictions. Others want to reunite with family. Usually, he says, survivors are detained under the Baker Act that evaluates mental health.
Police stings, he said, “would be more effective if law enforcement is educated and informed on human trafficking … I would want to see the same statutes and laws for minors be implemented for adult victims.”
This week, the FBI led a nationwide sting to rescue underage victims of human trafficking called Operation Cross Country. It is the 11th sting of its kind. According to spokeswoman Andrea Aprea, six of the 84 minors recovered around the nation were rescued in Florida.
One of the oldest questions advocates grapple with is how to differentiate trafficking victims from sex workers after a
“If you’re arrested and you don’t have the resources, the cards are that much stacked against you.” Joanna Cifredo, a former policy analyst at the National Center for Transgender Equality in Orlando
sting — the system is imperfect, and the answers vary widely across the spectrum.
Jody Bennett, a regional advocate for the The Porch Light ministry, which assists Polk County Sheriff’s Office during stings, said the fine line between charging a suspect with prostitution and identifying them as trafficking victims is left up to law enforcement.
“One of the biggest telltale signs is if they show up with somebody to the sting,” Bennett said. “Once it is determined that they are a victim, we can connect with them before incarceration.”
Bennett said it is not unusual for victims to be charged with prostitution, but she thinks collaboration between advocates and officials has helped to curb the practice.
“If they were arrested,” Bennett said, being part of the operation “allows us to connect with that person so that we can follow up with them afterwards.”
Most human trafficking advocates agree that even if adults are self-identified sex workers, they are usually engaging in prostitution after being victims themselves.
Sex worker and transgender rights advocates oppose that view. They argue stricter laws against prostitution criminalize people who are already marginalized, instead of creating safer conditions for them to earn a living.
“If you’re arrested and you don’t have the resources, the cards are that much stacked against you,” said Joanna Cifredo, a former policy analyst at the National Center for Transgender Equality in Orlando.
Meanwhile, throughout the city of Orlando, a darker reality remains for many adult victims.
Lisa, who does not use her real name publicly because she is a survivor of human trafficking, is a 50-year-old Orlando native who was first connected to Florida Abolitionist during sting operation three years ago.
Her experience as a victim is different from the one people imagine. She wasn’t a prostitute, and she wasn’t a minor. For five years, she was a servant to her 75-year-old pimp, whom she met when she was 42.
“It doesn’t look like what people think,” Lisa said. “He nailed all the windows shut, and the door was open and I could never walk out of it.”
“The younger ones get all the attention and all the help,” Lisa said. “All you hear is, ‘prostitute, prostitute, prostitute,’ you don’t hear about the techniques.”
Lisa, after two years of intensive trauma counseling, now works as an advocate for the transition organization Samaritan Village.
“I just want to shed light … I want to give back.”