It’s a rather startling number. At any given time, there are between 100,000 and 300,000 children in the U.S. alone at risk for child sex trafficking. While many people tend to think this horrific crime is something that only occurs in third world countries, they are sadly mistaken. This modern day form of slavery is alive and well in our own backyards. Girls are not the only targets either—so are boys.
“These are not children living in some faraway place, far from everyday life,” FBI Director James Comey stated. “These are our children. On our streets. Our truck stops. Our motels. These are America’s children. They are not for sale”
The Facts
To put the problem in perspective, consider these alarming numbers:
75% of underage sex trafficking victims said they had been advertised or sold online.
A pimp can make $150,000-$200,000 per child each year and exploits an average of 4-6 girls.
325,000 children are at risk for becoming victims of sexual exploitation in the United States.
The average age of entry into the sex trade in America is 12 – 14 years old.
U.S. Cities Notorious For Sex Trafficking
In 2003 as a part of its Innocence Lost National Initiative, the FBI identified 18 U.S. cities where child prostitution is a major problem. Atlanta ranked number one on the list—a number city and community leaders are obviously not too happy about. However, they’re determined to combat the problem head on.
“It’s a moral evil. It’s a moral cancer in the midst of a great city, and it’s something as a faith-based community are trying to address,” stated Cheryl Deluca-Johnson with the non-profit group Street Grace
Her organization is a non-denominational alliance of churches, community partners, and volunteers whose goal is to bring an end to commercial sexual exploitation in Atlanta and duplicate these efforts in cities across America.
“One of our initiatives is supporting at-risk neighborhoods,” she stated. “We know that if all we do is rescue rather than prevent children from entering it in the first place, then we’ll increase the number of children affected by it.”
Of course, Atlanta is not the only city grappling with this massive problem. According to the FBI, the other following cities are hubs for human trafficking:
Chicago
Cleveland
Dallas
Denver
Detroit
Knoxville
Las Vegas
Los Angeles
Milwaukee
New Orleans
Norfolk
Omaha
Pittsburgh
Portland
Sacramento
San Diego
Seattle
Grooming: What It Is
Grooming is the process by which an offender draws a victim into a sexual relationship and maintains that relationship in secrecy. The shrouding of the relationship is an essential feature of grooming.
The grooming sex offender works to separate the victim from peers, typically by engendering in the child a sense that they are special to the child and giving a kind of love to the child that the child needs.
According to the organization, 68 percent of these likely sex trafficking victims were in the care of social services or foster care when they ran. However, victims could be anyone—your son, your daughter, neighbor, niece or nephew.
The Warning Signs
It’s not uncommon for a law enforcement officer to list a child as a runaway rather than endangered and a victim of sex trafficking. That’s why it’s so important to pay close attention to these ten warning signs below:
1. Unknown numbers on phone bills or unexpected credit card charges
It’s important that parents are attentive to a child’s phone bills. In an open and honest environment, it can be helpful to sit down and go over the charges/call with the child to learn who they’re interacting with.
2. Going missing from home at odd hours or for days
Although this warning sign may see somewhat obvious, it is usually the excuse or reasoning behind their absence or location that is cause or concern. Keep in mind that trafficker want to conceal the child’s activities by using threats or force, making it harder to verify their whereabouts.
3. Unexplained relationships or interactions with older adults
These types of relationships are clearly inappropriate, but the underlying danger is that the older individual could be manipulating or forcing the child to perform sexual acts or favors.
4. Alcohol or drug use
Alcohol and drugs are common ways that traffickers recruit children into the sex industry. The goal of the trafficker is to diminish a child’s natural resistance to unnatural situations and/or to get victims addicted so that they will do anything to get their next fix.
5. Bruising
Any signs of physical or sexual abuse are major causes for concern. Adults should be aware that predators seek anonymity; therefore, external signs of abuse may be hard to identify. More likely, evidence of abuse shows up in changes in behavior or emotions.
6. Delinquent behaviors or increase of criminal activity
Trafficked victims are not just forced to perform sexual favors. Traffickers force victims to steal, lie, cheat or con in addition to selling themselves. Many times, the victims are not engaging in these activities themselves but rather for the older adult.
7. Withdrawal or loss of interest in age appropriate activities
Children at risk of becoming victims exhibit low self-esteem and poor self-image. Predators will prey on children by convincing them that they are valued, thereby luring them away from normal activities and social interactions.
8. Sudden increase in absences and tardiness from school
If a child is not attending school or suddenly begins to miss a lot of school, then they are likely with someone else. Predators will seek to draw children away from activities that they don’t really like to convince them that more enjoyable activities can be had away from supervision.
9. New “street name”
Predators will convince children to go by other “street names” or pet names in order to conceal their identity and age.
10. Sudden change in dressing patterns, personal hygiene or grooming
This warning sign is not a typical teenager showing interest in make-up or nicer clothes. This is a sudden and drastic change in their appearance and grooming habits.
Need Help?
Lauth Investigations and Thomas Lauth are experts in helping families locate missing loved ones.
While each missing persons case is different and results will vary, Lauth has been helping families for more than 20 years and boasts nearly an 85% success rate.
If you or someone you know need assistance, call them today at 1.800.889.FIND or 317.951.1100
Mental illness is a much bigger problem than many people realize. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, one in four adults experiences mental illness in a given year. This equates to approximately 61.5 million Americans.
Here’s how the other numbers break down:
2.4 million people live with Schizophrenia
14.8 million people live with major depression
42 million people live with anxiety disorders
6.1 million people live with bipolar disorder
9.2 million people live with co-occurring mental health and addiction disorders
One Women’s Personal Encounter with Mental Illness
Those statistics hit very close to home for Diana Kim, a Hawaii-based photographer who documented her homeless dad’s life through a series of special photos several years ago.
Growing up, her own father’s mental health dramatically declined. Diagnosed with Schizophrenia, overtime he refused to bathe, eat, or take his medication. He would also see things that did not really exist.
At 5-years-old, her dad left her and her mom. He walked away from his family and opted for a=a nomadic life of living on the streets.
Years later, fate would reunite Kim with her father once again. While shooting a photography project on the streets of Honolulu in 2012, Kim surprisingly located her father among the homeless she was documenting.
In an interview with NBC news, Kim stated, “Some days I would literally just stand there and stare downwards because I couldn’t get myself to see him in the condition he was in. My own flesh and blood, but still such a stranger to me…Many of the photographs were shot haphazardly. The photographer in me knew that these images needed to be created, that I needed to have them as a record for myself — a reminder that this was real even after I walked away.”
As she documented her father’s life as a homeless man, their relationship began to blossom. He eventually got the help he needed in order to begin leading a normal life.
Unfortunately, for many people with mental illnesses — it often goes unnoticed by loved ones. For some people, it can be triggered by a job loss, death of a family member, a bad relationship, imbalance in the brain, etc.
Mental Illness and the Missing: The Connection
Has someone close to you with a mental illness gone missing? If so, you are not alone.
On average, 90,000 people are missing in the USA at any given time, according to Todd Matthews from the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, or NamUs, a national database for missing people.
It’s thought that many have a mental illness. Mental illness can affect someone’s ability to cope with life, which may lead them to decide to go away without telling anyone.
They may vanish to a life of homelessness, as was the case of Kim’s father–or something far, far worse.
Most people believe that mental disorders are rare and “happen to someone else.” In fact, mental disorders are common and widespread. In adults, young adults and adolescents–it’s important to know the signs:
Confused thinking
Prolonged depression (sadness or irritability)
Feelings of extreme highs and lows
Excessive fears, worries and anxieties
Social withdrawal
Dramatic changes in eating or sleeping habits
Strong feelings of anger
Strange thoughts (delusions)
Seeing or hearing things that aren’t there (hallucinations)
Growing inability to cope with daily problems and activities
Suicidal thoughts
Numerous unexplained physical ailments
Substance abuse
If you or someone you know is in crisis now, seek help immediately. Call 1-800-273-TALK (8255) to reach a 24 hour crisis center or dial 911 for immediate assistance.
Need Help?
Lauth Investigations and Thomas Lauth are experts in helping families locate missing loved ones.
While each missing persons case is different and results will vary, Lauth has been helping families for more than 20 years and boasts nearly an 85% success rate.
If you or someone you know need assistance, call them today at 1.800.889.FIND or 317.951.1100.
It’s an alarming statistic. Approximately 2,300 Americans go missing every single day. This includes both children and adults. Even more disturbing, perhaps, is that every 40 seconds, a child goes missing in the United States. For families with missing relatives, the pain of a lost loved one is indescribably hard. Their world is forever changed—especially when there’s no closure or explanation as to what led to the disappearance in the first place.
However, the search for missing people has been revolutionized thanks to the rise in social media. Now shares and retweets can help bring missing people home. Hundreds of law enforcement agencies and private investigators around the country are using social media in a way never imagined—to solve cases.
To date, there are more than 1.3 active users on the hugely popular social media site Facebook. There are presently more than 645 million active users on Twitter. Other popular sites include Pinterest, Tumblr and Instagram—all with millions of active users as well. With so many active users on each of these sites, the chances of “clues” emerging into a missing persons case increases dramatically.
A prime example of how law enforcement uses Facebook in an attempt to locate missing people. (Courtesy: Horry County Police/Facebook)
INFORMATION GETS DISTRIBUTED FASTER
“Social media enables us to spread the word further, and it has proved more successful for us finding people,” Lt. Raul Denis with the Horry County Police Department recently told Myrtle Beach Online. “It generates tips, it works.”
REACHES A LARGER AUDIENCE
Thanks to the ease of sharing information via retweets, reblogs and “likes,” word of missing persons reaches many more people over a much larger geographical area. Friends and family often make Facebook pages dedicated to the search for those they’re trying to find, and it often yields positive results.
LETS USERS EASILY INTERACT WITH LAW ENFORCEMENT
Within the last few years, hundreds of law enforcement agencies have created Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, etc. Along with distributing information quicker and reaching more people, social media allows law enforcement to conveniently interact with the community through posts and messaging. By creating an environment where every day people can easily reach authorities, tips or other pertinent are likely to increase.
CAN IDENTIFY A PERSON’S LAST KNOWN LOCATION
Depending a user’s privacy settings, social media posts may include a person’s whereabouts. Facebook, Foursquare, Yelp and several other sites make it possible to share a person’s last known location by “checking in.”
ALLOWS LAW ENFORCEMENT TO IDENTIFY PEOPLE ASSOCIATED WITH THE MISSING PERSON
Many social media sites, like Facebook, will allow users to “tag” other people in their posts. They can also allow someone to see who they are friends with and even what relationship they are to other users. This can be very beneficial to investigators looking to possibly question people who may have known the missing person.
While social media sites are primarily used to communicate with friends and family in a fun and entertaining way, never underestimate their value when it comes to cracking a missing persons case.
FINAL NOTE:
Lauth Investigations and Thomas Lauth work with social media experts to design a social media
advocacy specifically designed for a missing person case. If you or someone you know need assistance locating a loved one, call them today at 1.800.889.FIND or 317.951.1100.
U.S. cities where child prostitution is a major problem. Atlanta ranked number one on the list—a number city and community leaders are obviously not too happy about. However, they’re determined to combat the problem head on.
“One of our initiatives is supporting at-risk neighborhoods,” she stated. “We know that if all we do is rescue rather than prevent children from entering it in the first place, then we’ll increase the number of children affected by it.”
