City still fighting sex trafficking

Phoenix leaders say a recent report minimizing the connection between the Super Bowl and sex trafficking will not decrease the city’s efforts to combat the crime.

Researchers from Arizona State University released a report this month that said Internet sex-trafficking crimes during the Super Bowl are no high- er than during any other time.

Although links between the large sporting event and online sex trafficking exist, they are often exaggerated, said Dominique Roe-Sepowitz, director of ASU’s Office of Sex Trafficking Intervention Research.

“As sex-trafficking awareness increases around the United States, it is critically important that we learn about it and explore it before we draw conclusions, instead of reacting to theories, myths or conjecture,” Roe-Sepowitz said in the report.

Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton formed a task force in December to address child sex trafficking during the Super Bowl in response to reports.

As recently as January, experts told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that the Super Bowl, which will be played at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale in 2015, has become the biggest human-traf- ficking event of the year in the United States.

Phoenix Vice Mayor Jim Waring, who chairs the Child Trafficking Task Force, said while the Super Bowl might have been the impetus for the task force, the city’s intention was always to look beyond the sporting event. The fact that the report showed that minors are being trafficked in Phoenix at all shows the need for the task force, he said.