Over and over again, human trafficking is executed through forcing individual girls to work as street prostitutes, call girls or escorts. They are forced to give sexual services to male customers in exchange of cash. They are controlled by someone referred to as “pimp.” A lot of pimps are victimizing both adults and minors to sell sex on the streets. But the outcome is usually through physical or sexual threats, manipulation, physical abuse and false pledges.
Street prostitution as a source of victimizing young girls
When young girls are forced to participate in any activities in street prostitution, a pimp can automatically use coercion, force and/or deception in order to hold control over the young prostitute or escort.
In a usual scenario, a pimp forces a prostitute to give a particular customer sexual services, which cause the prostitute to participate in money-making sexual acts. The victims’ earnings are all confiscated by the pimp and only a less amount or nothing at all is left behind for the victim.
The usual victims of street prostitution are young girls turned into prostitutes or escorts. When a prostitute is under the legal age of 18, she/he is considered as a victim of sex trafficking. This is regardless of the fact that a pimp forced or coerced him/her.
The common ways of controlling young prostitutes
Basically, there are three ways of controlling young prostitutes, call girls or escorts. Pimps use coercion, force and/or fraud to earn money from their young sex workers.
Coercion
Pimps use coercion in order to get a young prostitute or escort provides commercial sex services. They give threats to embarrass the prostitute through exposing his/her profession to his/her family and the society. Pimps also give threats to do harmful things to the family of the prostitute. There are also abusive acts that happen just to make the victim work, including emotional, verbal and psychological abuses.
Force
Pimps also use force in order to get an escort or prostitute work. They use sexual and/or physical abuse just to make the victim submit herself/himself. The abuse is usually in the form of frequent rapes done by one or more people at once. Pimps also confine their victims to the residence and give limitation on any kind of communication to friends and family. They do not allow any kind of movement that will let a family or friend know that the victim is suffering.
In the most sick cases there are people trafficking children here are some tips on how to spot them and also a woman who was arrested for it.
A Marrero woman is behind bars, accused of trafficking a child for sex. Investigators have not released any details about the case against Candice Caulfield, 38, but she was booked Friday with human trafficking, trafficking of a child for sexual purposes, second-degree cruelty to juveniles, contributing to the endangerment of a juvenile, promoting prostitution, enticing a person into prostitution, according to arrest records and the state Attorney General's Office.
The attorney general's Cyber Crime Unit arrested Caulfield following an investigation with the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office and U.S. Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations division, according to Laura Colligan, spokeswoman for the attorney general's office.
The Cyber Crimes Unit began looking into Caulfield's activities after they received a tip from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, Colligan said. Investigators executed a search warrant at her home, 1840 Wellington Drive, Marrero, and arrested her.
In a written statement, Attorney General James Caldwell said his investigators joined forces with local, federal and non-profit agencies to “combat the buying, selling and abuse of innocent children.”
“It's important for people to know that child sex trafficking is not just something that happens in other countries or something you see in the movies. It's real, and, despite having some of the toughest human trafficking laws in the nation, it exists right here in Louisiana,” Caldwell said.
Caulfield was being held without bond Tuesday at the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center on the charges related to the investigation. She was also booked with three outstanding traffic attachments.
While the attorney general's office remained mum about Caldwell's case, officials offered the public red flags that can indicate a child is the victim of sexual trafficking.
Those warning signs include a child who:
-
Is not free to leave the place of residence or interact with friends.
-
Has unexplained absences from school for a period of time or demonstrates an inability to attend school on a regular basis.
-
Has bruises or other physical trauma, withdrawn behavior, depression or fear.
-
Has high-security measures in the home such as opaque or boarded up windows, locked gates, barbed wire or security cameras around the residence.
-
Is not allowed or able to speak or communicate for themselves; a third party may insist on being present.
Anyone with information Candice Caulfield or any other incidents of child sex trafficking should contact the Louisiana Attorney General's Cyber Crime Unit at 1.800.256.4506. Suspected cases of human trafficking can also be reported to local and state law enforcement agencies, or the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1.888.373.7888.
Credits: Marrero woman booked with child sex trafficking, promoting prostitution – The Times-Picayune – NOLA.com
Fraud
This is usually in a form of false promises of having a better life. Pimps usually use this kind of tactic to young immigrant girls from poor countries. They promise those young girls that they will earn bigger amounts of money when they work under their control.