Valley Journal
Valley Journal

This Week’s e-Edition

Current Events

Latest Headlines

What's New?

Send us your news items.

NOTE: All submissions are subject to our Submission Guidelines.

Announcement Forms

Use these forms to send us announcements.

Birth Announcement
Obituary

Human trafficking exposed

Hey savvy news reader! Thanks for choosing local. You are now reading
1 of 3 free articles.



Subscribe now to stay in the know!

Already a subscriber? Login now

A staggering statistic presented at the workshop on human trafficking at Salish Kootenai College on Jan. 15 is that one third of juveniles living on the street will be approached by a pimp or lured into prostitution within 48 hours. 

The presentation at the Johnny Arlee/Victor Charlo Theatre brought together social workers, educators, health care workers and law enforcement as well as students. Speakers were Katharina Werner, Pathways Program Manager at Missoula YWCA, and Guy Baker, Missoula Police and member of the FBI's Montana Regional Violent Crime Task Force.

Werner and Baker debunked some myths. One is that trafficked persons can only be foreign nations or immigrants; many are United States citizens. Trafficking can be either sex trafficking or labor trafficking.

Many folks believe that it’s not trafficking or exploitation, it’s prostitution. While sometimes prostitution is not trafficking, most of the time, “It’s not the girls’ or women’s idea,” Werner said. 

In fact, she said 83 percent of people in prostitution are trafficked. They are kept in line with threats of violence, fraud or abuse of the legal process.

Approximately 80 percent of trafficking victims are women or girls, and 90 percent of those females are working in the sex trade. Most children are between 12 to 14 years when they enter commercial sex industry in the U.S. 

“Human trafficking is about vulnerability,” Werner said. 

Baker agreed. Traffickers prey on people who are vulnerable – victims of previous sexual or domestic abuse, runaway or homeless youth, impoverished and indebted people, displaced people and people seeking a way out.   

Werner said she still hears human trafficking doesn’t happen in Montana communities, only in Portland, Seattle or other big cities, or south east Asia. 

Both Werner and Baker presented cases in Montana, from prostitution rings run out of motels, to backpage.com. 

One case Baker mentioned was a young lady who ran away. She was lured into prostitution, and between April and August, she slept with 600 guys. When she was rescued, she should have been a junior in high school that fall, but obviously she needed counseling and services to fit back into her life.

Many sex traffic victims don’t think of themselves as victims and have trouble leaving a pimp or leaving the life.

Baker checked backpage.com the night before the presentation and found 28 ads on the site.

He said part of the solution is educating the community, “like we did for domestic violence victims late in the 1980s an early ‘90s.”

A local woman in the audience said she was in the life in California and wanted to get out. She was recruited into prostitution when she was 19.

She said she remembers that time and thinks, “Little girl, you should have just gone home. I was pretty easy (to convince to become a prostitute) since I was very into money,” she said, but then she wanted to get out.

“It’s hard to go from $7,000 a night to $8 an hour,” she said. 

Also she needed somewhere to stay and resources to help her survive.

She said used to wear lots of makeup and jewelry, have dyed hair and curls and walk around in stilettos.

“Prostitutes have to look a certain way,” she explained.

Now she wears no makeup and worries about her beautiful young daughter.

Her family has been judgmental, she said. 

“What I did is not who I am,” she said.

Baker and Werner noted that HB 89 will be going through the Montana Legislature to make penalties for trafficking stricter.  

“Trafficking is the biggest human rights and social justice issue of our time,” Werner said. 

 

 

Sponsored by: