The U.S. Department of State released its Trafficking in Persons Report 2011 back in June, which detailed children and young adults who’ve had their lives ruined—worse than they already were—when, in search of a better life, they were essentially sold into prostitution slavery in another part of the globe. Within the report, there are thousands of accounts from victims of human trafficking, similar to those which have been published by PW in the past, and many of those victims are in Pennsylvania.
2010 saw the most convictions in U.S. trafficking in history, with federal law enforcement charging 181 individuals, 141 convictions in 103 human trafficking prosecutions
Still, that’s just a sliver of the human trafficking pie. According to this 2009 PW article, it took until 2000 to make human trafficking of people born in foreign countries on American soil illegal and can qualify as refugees. A stroll through Chinatown or, really, any rural Pennsylvania town with a strip mall or two brings to light tons of “massage parlors,” which often double as houses of prostitution.
According to the State Department report, victims of sex trafficking often end up as prostitutes in order to work off their debt to the same traffickers who provided their transportation. “It is critical to understand,” the report states, “that a person’s initial consent to participate in prostitution is not legally determinative: if they are thereafter held in service through psychological manipulation or physical force, they are trafficking victims and should receive benefits outlined in the Palermo Protocol and applicable domestic laws.”
There are 900 individuals licensed to give massages throughout the state, says the Pennsylvania Department of State. And according to the PA Independent, businesses themselves are not required to become licensed as massage parlors—only the individuals working there are. They must have graduated from a massage therapy program or have been working for at least five years to get a license—though this, of course, does not apply to those in the country illegally, which many massage therapists who double as prostitutes, are.
“If residents have a question about something they see at a massage parlor, they should call the hotline,” said Krista Hoffman, the criminal justice training specialist for the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape, which works with local law enforcement to help eliminate sexual violence and advocates for the rights and needs of victims of sexual assault.
“If you notice a massage parlor open at 2 a.m., or you notice that employees never leave and that the clientele is just men, it’s usually a tell-tale sign that something is wrong,” Hoffman said.
And being here illegally doesn’t often fare well for life’s length. “In Philly, the average prostitute is dead by 40,” wrote Tara Murtha in Break of Dawns back in 2009. “According to one study, 62 percent of “prostitutes” report having been raped, 73 percent report getting beat up and 72 percent being otherwise homeless. Forty-eight percent confess to being raped at least five times. Research shows 90 to 92 percent of people selling their bodies on the street want to get out.”
The Pennsylvania House and Senate, then, have offered bipartisan bills to chip away at this problem: Signs. House Bill 235 and Senate Bill 338 would require all “rest-stops, bars, motels, welcome areas, strip clubs, massage parlors and other businesses to post an 8 ½-inch-by-11-inch sign with a 28-point font.” It would read: “If you or someone you know is being forced to engage in any activity and cannot leave — whether it is commercial sex, housework, farm work or any other activity — call the National Human Trafficking Hotline.”
The Senate bill was introduced, in part by Philly and Philly-area State Sens. Williams, Farnese, Tartaglione and Leach. Reps. Josephs and O’Brien are partly responsible for the House version, as well.
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