Angela Bull — Portfolio

The Human Face of Sex Trafficking (January 2014)

“You might as well face it, you’re just a ho. That’s why all I’m doing is using you.” So recounts “Leah” of the many degrading messages she received as a 14-year-old victim of sex trafficking. She is one of several young women featured in the Survivor Series developed by California Against Slavery, which was used in 2012 as part of their campaign for Proposition 35. Known generally as the ban on human trafficking, the measure imposed stiffer penalties upon those convicted of enslaving and selling others, especially when it involved the sexual exploitation of juveniles. Californians passed the measure with an overwhelming majority of 81.3%, and its implementation in 2014 means new laws and additional training for law enforcement officers statewide.

Proposition 35, also known as the CASE (Californians Against Sexual Exploitation) Act, requires additional POST training relative to sex trafficking, its victims, and its perpetrators. The training, which is currently in development, will consist of video-style instruction including interviews and scenarios with experts, law enforcement officials, and victims of sex trafficking. Both current officers and academy recruits will be required to complete the course, which will focus on the identification of sex trafficking, an overview of associated street-level activities, and actions officers can take if they encounter it in the field.

San Diego Police Officer James “Chappie” Hunter is featured as a subject matter expert in the video, and he is currently assisting in the development of the curriculum. It’s a logical fit for Hunter who has been training officers on the topics of pimping, pandering, and prostitution since 2008. After training over 3,500 officers in various venues, Hunter has noticed a common thread among those coming into his classes: “they don’t understand the crime.” Officers are taught from the beginning that both pimping and prostitution are violations of the law, and both parties are criminals. “This is not a victimless crime,” Hunter said, “this is by force.”

Prostitution is often used as a general term for sex trafficking, but the two are not interchangeable. A woman can choose to independently prostitute herself, but such is the exception. Prostitutes are usually being trafficked by a pimp or someone who forces them to have sex for money. These females, who can be juveniles or adults, are often subjected to long hours on the streets, in cars, or in hotel rooms having sex with strangers for money. They then give the money to their pimp, who is typically a friend, family member, or someone they consider their boyfriend. Regardless of their relationship, pimped females are manipulated through physical and mental abuse, causing them to believe that they are not capable of living another lifestyle. As such, they are victims of their pimps rather than perpetrators of a crime.

When females involved in sex trafficking are juveniles, the crime is especially egregious. Such victims are what motivated Daphne Phung, the director and founder of California Against Slavery, to develop Proposition 35. Phung was first introduced to the subject in college when she conducted research on child sex trafficking in Thailand. Years later, when she saw an NBC Dateline special on sex trafficking in the United States, she felt the need to get involved. “I had a desire to protect children, and to provide justice for women,” said Phung. “I wanted people to know that this is not just a third-world problem, but an issue in their own backyard.”

In developing Proposition 35, Phung had two primary goals: to increase the penalties for those convicted of pimping and to change the perception of prostitutes as victims rather than criminals. With the changes to existing legislation, Phung effectively met her first goal. Offenders are now subject to prison terms that range from five to twenty years or even life, fines of up to $500,000, and mandatory registration as a sex offender per California Penal Code §290. The law also requires sex registrants to provide their internet identifiers and services with law enforcement agencies, but that portion is currently suspended while it undergoes appellate court review for civil rights violations.

The law addresses Phung’s second goal by adding Evidence Code §1161, which prohibits victims of sex trafficking from being tried as prostitutes. However, Phung sees this as a small victory in the big picture of public perception. “It’s going to take several years to implement Proposition 35 to its full extent,” she said. “Changing behavior and mindset among law enforcement, prosecutors, and judges takes time. To see a girl on the street as a victim and not as a suspect takes time.”

Hunter’s past experiences with prosecutors attest to Phung’s concerns: “Of all those pimping cases getting prosecuted by the district attorney, we were only getting one to three years sentences on people who should’ve gotten 10,” he said. “We stopped sending cases to the DA and started taking them to the federal agencies instead, because those cases were getting sentences of 10 to 20 years.” However, the slow process of federal trials made cases painstakingly long. The new legislation gives local courts more ammunition in the prosecution of pimping cases, which could lead to faster and more favorable outcomes. “I can’t wait,” Hunter said.

Lieutenant Chris McGrath of San Diego Police Department’s VICE Unit echoed Hunter’s optimism. He has seen a rising trend in sex trafficking activities in San Diego over a short period of time. “Six years ago, we had three to four referrals [per year] for underage victims of sex trafficking,” he said. “This year, we’ve had 65 to 75 referrals for trafficking victims under the age of 18, with one as young as 12 years old.” To address this increased activity, McGrath has instated a Human Trafficking team with one detective sergeant and two detectives on-call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For sex trafficking cases where the victim is a juvenile, he said, “detectives will always respond.”

In addition to ramping up investigative efforts, the VICE Unit has also changed their policy on addressing “Johns,” the nickname given to men who pay for sex. In years past, they would typically be cited and released. Now, solicitors are booked into jail. McGrath says that he is already seeing a decrease in clientele, and believes that, as a result, demand may be moving out of San Diego and into Mexico. “A lot of people see prostitutes as a blight,” he said, “but my opinion is that the guys out there looking for sex are the real problem.”

Phung also wanted to address the issue of demand in Proposition 35, but she received a lot of push-back from supporters. “Society wasn’t ready because the awareness was not there,” said Phung. “The mindset was that prostitution was a victimless crime. If the general public couldn’t see a 12-year-old girl on the street as a victim, how could they see a 40-year-old man as a suspect?” Phung will introduce another proposition in 2014 that addresses demand by changing the penalties for soliciting prostitution to mimic those of a DUI charge. If passed, convicted offenders will be subjected to minimum prison time, fines, and educational requirements. “It’s going to hurt you, your pocket, and your reputation,” said Phung.

Still, officers are better equipped to identify victims of sex trafficking rather than solicitors, and McGrath said that he is pleased with their current efforts: “Patrol officers are doing a wonderful job of identifying people we want to talk to. They are paying attention to who is out there walking, asking better questions about their backgrounds, and submitting referrals to us through field interviews and calls.” Such efforts help VICE provide rescue-type services to victims of sex-trafficking, and often leads to the identification of other victims and their pimps.

This is exactly what Phung envisioned with the CASE Act’s training requirements, and she hopes it will change the way agencies approach prostitution and pimping in 2014: “What you used to think of as a prostitution case is the start of an investigation, not the end of an arrest.”