The bonds that bind them: Getting sex-trafficking victims out of the game requires complex care

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OKLAHOMA CITY – The sun on the dark, dirty pavement should have been foreboding, but Kiera and her friend were enticed by the promise of comfort. They had run away from a teen treatment center and thought the house near NW 10th Street and McKinley Avenue in Oklahoma City would be a haven.

Kiera Samantha, 16, could see the bars on windows covered by blankets; it was a dark place. She was greeted by Freeze, a blue-eyed black man. Kiera’s friend left, never to be seen again, and Kiera began to realize she had been recruited into the game.

She would have sex, or she would be killed.

That day, she became one of many sex trafficking victims in Oklahoma and one of the estimated 2.5 million victims worldwide. She would have to deal with the emotional trauma of being trafficked for sex the rest of her life.

“From the investigators I’ve talked to, Oklahoma isn’t any worse off than any other state,” said Craig Williams, an investigator with the human trafficking division of the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics. “But it’s definitely a problem worth addressing.”

Selling women for sex is profitable – more profitable than selling drugs, because there’s no capital investment and victims can be sold repeatedly.

A study by nonprofit agency A Heart for Justice found that a human trafficker can make $200,000 per victim per year, 10 times the $20,000 profit in one kilogram of a street drug.

Kiera was vulnerable, looking for the loving family she never had.

A young, abused runaway, she had the typical victim’s background. Her family’s sexual abuse traced back four generations, she said. Kiera was a victim by age 12, and beginning at age 14 suffered a series of rapes by strangers and acquaintances as she moved from living on the streets to foster care and back to the streets.

The bonds that bind them:

• Victims’ reluctance to testify can mean lesser charges for traffickers
• Mother finds daughter for sale online

The day she met Freeze, she had to choose life or forced sex. She was taken to the Classen Motel, where her first customer was in his mid-40s.

“Why are you doing this?” he asked her. “You’re so young.”

For months, Kiera was turned out on street corners. She received no payment – her traffickers kept all the money and had sex with her themselves. She was allowed to sleep on a dirty mattress on the floor.

A Department of Human Services worker stopped at the house once. Kiera, the only white girl in the house, never said anything to the woman.

But the day one of the guys at that house in a blue car touched her leg and said, “We’re going to have some fun,” Kiera sensed that he intended to kill her. When the car slowed at an intersection, she jumped out and ran.

A lack of numbers

Human trafficking has two sides, sex and labor. Victims of each share psychological abuse that keeps them responding the way most would expect; they believe they have no choice, that there is no way out. Even when they get out, there are few places to go for help, which is especially problematic for juvenile sex trafficking victims. The problems persist in large part because victims rarely turn to the police, and law enforcement officials say victims are unlikely to take the stand against their trafficker in court.

That disguises the depth of the problem by skewing the statistics kept by law enforcement agencies, who often settle for charging sex traffickers with the lesser offenses.

By state and federal definition, trafficking requires that the trafficker use force, fraud or coercion, although those elements are not necessary when the victim is a minor. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, there were 2,515 suspected incidents of sex and labor trafficking in the U.S. between January 2008 and June 2010. Among those, only 218 were confirmed sex trafficking cases, with 459 people confirmed as sex trafficking victims.

Based on data from the Polaris Project, a nonprofit organization that works to prevent human trafficking, Oklahoma ranked 18th in number of calls per capita to the National Human Trafficking Hotline, (800) 373-7888. Since Dec. 7, 2007, the hotline has had 807 calls from Oklahoma, which included reports of more than 118 potential human trafficking cases.

In 2009, the hotline had 39 calls from Oklahoma, with nine referencing potential trafficking situations. The number of calls increased in 2010 to 63, but only three were assessed as being potential trafficking situations. By 2011, the number of potential cases had increased to 11, though the number of calls decreased to 29 people.

In Oklahoma, the FBI reported only nine human trafficking arrests of any kind in the last six years. The agency has made 27 arrests for the lesser offense of sexual exploitation of a minor in just the past two years.

Psychological restraints

Even if the number of sex trafficking victims in Oklahoma was available, the numbers are just empty talking points. Even after victims have been rescued, they have to deal with the demons in their heads.

“Human trafficking victims are victimized multiple times as a routine part of their day,” Williams, the Oklahoma investigator, said. “But they’ve also got intermittent reinforcement, where they’re doing something or being made to do something that they don’t want to do, or is bad, but they get rewarded for doing that bad thing. And then also, they’re completely dependent, oftentimes, on that trafficker. The trafficker is the source of shelter, the source of food, the source of clothing – the source of basically all the essentials of life.”

Victims form a bond with someone who takes care of them, and that bond keeps them running back, not turning in their oppressors and not testifying.

“The bonds that bind human trafficking victims are oftentimes not physical,” Williams said. “If we devote too much energy into that imagery of there being a physical chain, then we misunderstand human trafficking.”

Williams said that in some cases, the victim is sent out on the streets, given until 10 p.m. to make a certain amount of money. All the while, she could be worried about the safety of a child the trafficker has kept, or the threat to her own life.

“We don’t often encounter the trafficker physically with the trafficking victim,” Williams said. “That’s one of the concerns I have with the specific imagery of the chains. It’s not a scene out of Taken. That’s not the way that human trafficking works in the United States.”

It works through meetings arranged over the Internet, sometimes on a website called backpage.com, or through the network of pimps who know each other and each other’s girls. Some of them are even friends on Facebook.

That’s how Tarran Arnel Brinson of Tulsa recruited victims. Brinson was recently sentenced to 17 years in prison for conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking of children, sex trafficking of children, attempted sex trafficking of children, interstate travel, transportation in aid of racketeering, coercion and enticement, and obstruction of justice.

R. Trent Shores, assistant U.S. attorney in the Northern District of Oklahoma, called Brinson a finesse pimp, meaning he uses his charm to get the girls into his business. Conversely, a guerilla pimp uses force.

Shores said Brinson developed a relationship with one 17-year-old girl, whom he used to recruit others through Facebook. He had her send messages to her friends offering them a job as an escort, describing it as fun and pressure-free.

One 14-year-old victim responded and became a commodity, but her face never made it to the website where many traffickers advertise. Instead, Brinson used the pictures of 19- and 20-year-old girls from California he copied from Facebook.

“None of the pictures we obtained in the advertisement were of the teenage girl,” Shores said.

In Brinson’s case, the victim testified in her trafficker’s defense. To counter, prosecutors called on an expert in victimology, the study of the psychological effects experienced by the victims of crime. They explained why a victim would help the accused.

“I think it’s a fair statement that the victim’s testimony was consistent with things he had talked about in victimology,” Shores said. “The facts then fit what he would have expected.”

Help is scarce

Although many law enforcement agencies employ an advocate for domestic violence victims, few have one for trafficking cases. The Oklahoma City Police Department does not have one.

OKCPD Lt. Doug Kimberlin said he would like to see more advocates who would work through a third-party organization, because most trafficking victims do not want to cooperate with police, fearing they will also be put in jail.

“It’s a trust relationship you’re trying to build with an institution that you think wants to put you in jail,” he said. “If a victim’s advocate trusts us, and we can get the victim to trust the victim’s advocate, then that information (about the victim’s experience) will get to us.”

Kiera said if victims know there is help at the police department through a victim’s advocate, they would be more likely to step forward.

Sarah Rahhal, a licensed clinical social worker and the chief operating officer at Oklahoma City’s Northcare, oversees clinicians who work with traumatized adults, including sex trafficking victims.

She said the victims have complex mental health needs, often from post-traumatic stress disorder and substance abuse disorders. Like cattle, many victims are tattooed or branded by their pimps as a symbol of ownership.

“Oftentimes, addiction is a way to cope with trauma,” Rahhal said. “For this population, or those that are survivors, they have complex trauma because it’s a trauma that’s occurred repeatedly.”

Victims sometimes seek Northcare’s services after a recommendation from a police department or because the facility works with trauma care. The clinic has an open-access policy, so patients are not required to have an appointment. They can just walk in the doors and ask for help.

“They don’t always identify themselves a victim or survivor of human trafficking,” she said. “We find it’s important for us to ask, ‘What’s happened to you?’ not, ‘What’s wrong with you?’ That is very much a trauma-informed approach. They might not talk about what’s happened to them for quite a while.”

But they can’t be forced into treatment.

“They’re not a prisoner,” Williams said. “They’re treated as a victim. So ultimately they have to make the choice to engage in the services that are available to them. We will make sure they have the opportunity.”

Help for juveniles

For victims under 18 years of age, DHS steps in to determine whether the child’s circumstance is a result of parental neglect or some other cultural dynamic. Some of the children are reunited with their parents; others go into state custody.

Within 48 hours of going into custody of DHS, there is a show-cause hearing, where parents and the caseworker appear before a judge to decide the child’s fate. During that same 48 hours, the child is placed in a safe setting to be interviewed, and the parents are interviewed as well.

The child could be sent out of state for treatment, because there are no treatment facilities in Oklahoma that specialize in juvenile sex trafficking victims. Whether or not a child is sent out of state depends on how long the child is in DHS custody; most are released to relatives.

If a child needs treatment, he or she can be sent to Missouri, which has a facility that can treat a child for six months or longer. However, DHS has not sent any children to Missouri to seek treatment.

“Most of them need substance abuse therapy, and of course they’re going to need intensive mental health therapy,” said Jennifer Postlewait, program field representative for DHS in Oklahoma County.

Postlewait said that for many young victims, the trafficker was a boyfriend or girlfriend the victim wanted to please. In return for earning money with sex, the trafficker provides clothes or an expensive purse; it’s often the only remuneration the victim receives.

It’s that connection that requires them to need psychological care. Their care continues beyond their treatment for drug addiction, Postlewait said.

“On average, they’re going to receive psychological treatment through the duration, even after reunification occurs,” she said. “Even after that intensive inpatient setting, they’re still going to get that outpatient therapy. Their treatment – long term – is still over a year. Their therapists might say that a year is enough, but then as they hit a new developmental age in their life, their trauma will resurface and they will re-enter back into some type of therapy program. Honestly, the therapy and the healing process for that type of trauma is ongoing for the rest of their life.”

Help for adults

Oklahoma has two certified shelters for adult victims, the Beautiful Dream Society, or BDS, in Oklahoma City, and target=”_blank”>Dayspring Villa in Sand Springs.

Combined, the two shelters have room to help approximately 22 victims, with five beds at BDS and room for up to 17 victims at Dayspring.

“Getting training for personnel is extremely important,” said Margaret Goldman, program manager with the Oklahoma attorney general’s victim services unit, which sets the certification standards. “Especially with the population of human trafficking victims, because they have suffered so much trauma and they are so fragile.”

Goldman and department director Lesley Smith March visit the shelters every three years to complete a certification review.

Victims are encouraged to stay in shelters, which are equipped to deal with the effects of the victim’s trauma; a friend or relative taking in a victim may not know what to expect.

“With human trafficking victims, you could have cartels out there looking for them,” Goldman said.

For the cartel or the trafficker, losing that victim means losing a source of income.

“We feel (housing victims in a private home) poses a danger to the public,” Goldman said. “Anyone dealing with victims must be certified. They’ve just been through so much. They don’t think they need help right away. Then after a while, they feel like they need some help. It’s not intimate partner violence; it’s very complicated.”

Dayspring Villa has served 38 sex trafficking victims since June 2012, nine of whom came with children. They are only certified to take adults, but have temporarily housed some juvenile victims who were close to age 18.

“When the police call, we don’t turn anyone away,” said Wilma Lively, Dayspring executive director. “We felt like if we didn’t help these victims, then who would? Who was going to?”

They helped Goldman and Smith March develop the certification standards.

“We’re learning together,” Lively said. “When we run up against something, we call (Goldman) and tell her what’s going on.”

Lively and her staff have seen firsthand the trauma the women have suffered while being a part of the sex trafficking industry.

“They’re so traumatized,” she said. “They’re nervous. They’re afraid of their own shadow. They’re afraid to tell you anything because they think you’re going to tell the police. They truly believe if they tell you anything about their sex trafficker, then they’ll come find them.”

Despite Dayspring’s work, Lively said getting care afterward is too late.

“We have to identify what is causing young children to get in this situation,” she said. “We have to start asking. Instead of just putting the children in DHS custody, we have to find something to help them emotionally.”

Dr. Elizabeth Hopper, director of Project REACH, a program at the Justice Resource Institute in Boston, said it is vital to have shelters that specialize in sex trafficking victims.

“We see depression, a lot of post-traumatic stress disorder,” she said. “There’s also something (they often have) called complex PTSD, which is when you’ve experienced trauma from a very early age. If affects the way you see yourself and the world around you.”

Each victim must be treated individually; there is no formula.

“If a person gets bounced from place to place, they might go back to the trafficker,” she said. “The more a provider can follow a person and continue to serve them, despite funding issues, the better.”

Northcare is trying to get involved with caring for adult sex trafficking victims by partnering with the newest sex trafficking shelter, BDS. Through the partnership, clinicians from Northcare would go to the BDS to meet with the victims.

“(The victim’s experience) has been that most relationships are not safe,” she said. “Why would a treatment provider be safe? ‘Nobody has ever helped me before.’ It has to be wraparound care. It’s hard to walk into a mental health center for anyone. For those that have had a lot of trauma it is 10 times harder.”

Finding fixes

The Oklahoma Bar Association has taken up human trafficking legal issues as a cause, inspired by the American Bar Association. It held a continuing legal education course in May to educate lawyers about human trafficking and how they can help. It has since created a network of attorneys who want to make their services available free to both labor and sex trafficking victims.

It has also scheduled training for district court judges to help them identify human trafficking victims and suggest alternatives to requiring victim testimony. At its annual conference in August, the Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association hosted a panel discussion on the signs of human trafficking.

Love’s Travel Stops will sponsor a group called Truckers Against Trafficking later this year. Love’s Communication Manager Kyla Turner said several travel stops were already hanging up posters from the organization and distributing wallet-size brochures with information about trafficking.

She said the company has not heard any stories internally of trafficking occurring in a Love’s parking lot.

“Love’s has a different business model,” she said. “We have smaller parking lots. Truckers get what they need and move on. I haven’t had any stories from general managers that need to make that call about trafficking. We’re doing it because we know it exists and we want to be a help, both with our employees and our truck drivers.”

Love’s will use a training video from Truckers Against Trafficking to educate employees about signs of human trafficking at their travel stops.

Kendra Paris, Truckers Against Trafficking executive director, said Love’s will also be a part of a coalition of law enforcement officers, members of the trucking industry, and representatives from truck stop companies.

“Everything we do is from an empowerment angle,” she said. “It really speaks to what we’re trying to do out there, which is to empower members of the trucking industry to really take back the road and recognize that it’s the traffickers that are exploiting a legitimate business.”

Empowerment is the key to helping catch traffickers and to ending the process of human trafficking. That is what Kiera, now 40, is trying to do. She speaks frequently at engagements to tell people about the realities of sex trafficking. She never uses her last name to protect her identity.

“Trying to be a productive person after going through this stuff – it’s difficult,” she said. “Innocence is taken away. You never get a chance to be innocent again.”

She said now spends her time surrounded by love from friends and family.

But she keeps track of her years of what she calls mental normalness. She’s on her second year.

“You never get a chance to know what a normal life would be like,” she said. “I used to never wear mascara that wasn’t waterproof because I would cry all the time.”

She emphasized that sex trafficking victims do not have a choice about having sex. They are surviving.

“Compliance is not consent,” she said. “Compliance is survival. Survival is what you will do.”