This presentation will focus on the hours spent researching the presence of indicators of human trafficking in massage parlors in Jackson County, Michigan. The presentation will begin with a review of the relevant literature on Asian massage parlors, proceed with the research questions set out to answer, continue with the methodological approach employed, and then conclude with the data collected. The purpose of this presentation is to expand awareness of how Asian massage parlors function, their connection with organized crime, and explore whether or not their employees may be victims of human trafficking. Finally, the possibilities for future research and scholarship on the study of Asian massage parlors as venues for human trafficking in Southern Michigan, as well as potential obstacles to continuing this type of research will be discussed.

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This presentation redefines what the trauma-informed care model looks like when accompanying survivors of human trafficking. The content builds on the Trafficking Conference 2015 session, “Lessons Learned in Providing Trauma-Informed Services to Human Trafficking Survivors” and is based on an article on this topic by the presenters. The presenters recently conducted a conference on accompaniment of trauma survivors in Central America, where one of their principle learnings was the power of accompaniment as a tool when working with trafficking survivors. The presentation comes from the multidisciplinary perspective of the presenters, and will develop and apply five core Trauma-Informed Practices (TIP’s) that service providers, academics, and policy makers can utilize in improving response to all forms of human trafficking. The heart of the TIP’s is to view service provision as accompaniment of survivors by creating safety and reciprocity with, for, and among survivors and service providers. The purpose of this workshop is to engage practitioners in developing an anti-trafficking response that give survivors something to move towards, not just something to escape from.
 

In this intermediate- to advanced-level workshop, participants will accomplish the following objectives:
 

·         Learn a new framework for creating a survivor-driven trauma-informed care model;

·         Discover and discuss specific Trauma-informed Practices for accompanying human trafficking survivors while providing assistance after exiting the trafficking situation;

Engage law enforcement, policy makers, service providers, academics, and survivors in improving the anti-trafficking response by learning techniques to create safety and reciprocity with and among survivors and responders.

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For those working in the helping professions, compassion fatigue is as common as “turbulence” during a windy flight. In order to address this turbulence, one must develop self-care strategies and warning systems to let them know they are moving into the caution zone and the oxygen masks will soon deploy. Prevention and self-care can best happen when professionals are able to distinguish between and identify personal and professional vulnerability. This interactive workshop will help professionals renew their passion and commitment to the field and their work.

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Ohio Crime Victim Justice Center is a statewide 501(c)(3) non-profit that provides free legal assistance to crime victims during the criminal justice process. OCVJC also provides victims’ rights trainings to various professionals who work with crime victims to help them understand and enforce the rights of Ohio’s state and federal crime victims during the criminal justice process. This training will teach participants about crime victims’ rights at all stages of the criminal justice process, including the hospital, investigation, prosecution, and post-conviction.

This presentation will also focus on educating participants on OCVJC’s Crime Victims’ Rights Toolkit, a first-of-its-kind online resource dedicated to helping crime victims and those who advocate for them to understand all rights and other useful information available to Ohio’s state and federal crime victims. This tool can be used to manage advocate cases and create an online forum for interaction between advocates and their clients.

Presentation Objectives:

·         Recognize when victims’ rights issues are implicated in their cases;

·         Identify which victims’ rights are implicated and how to address these rights; and

Describe how to utilize the toolkit to victims and coworkers.

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This research project follows a qualitative-quantitative approach used to gain a deeper understanding on the strategies used by the adults who are involved in the exploitation of children. This study exposes, and helps put into perspective, how the sexual trafficking of minors is differentiated from other types of sexual offending behavior. Integrated theory (including trauma theory) and multifactor theories, such as the confluence model provide the theoretical backdrop for this study. While the focus of data collection comes from perpetrators of child exploitation, it is important to underscore what we understand and hypothesize about victims. It is hypothesized that adverse childhood experiences and family modeling created a cascading effect that impacts the way adolescents interact in the adult world. Secondly, it is further hypothesized that as a result of these adverse situations, children’s vulnerabilities become manifest in unhealthy relationships with adults including those who have chosen to exploit them sexually.  Q Methodology is a research method that is used to study people’s subjectivity and points of view on a particular phenomenon and serves as the primary methodology used in this study.  Face-to-face interviews with inmates incarcerated in State of Ohio correctional institutions were conducted and consisted of specific questions which served as the platform for the Q sort. Questions targeted the topics of victim recruitment, victim retention, as well as explored offenders’ perceptions of the relationships they have with the girls they have exploited in the sex business. 

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On college and university campuses around the country, student activists are working to address two issues that have remained separate from each other: universities’ histories with the slave trade and modern-day human trafficking. This study analyzes these two trends in campus activism. First, the author tracks the movement to respond to American universities’ history with the Atlantic slave trade. Using social movement theory, the author analyzes the birth of this movement and the actors and factors that have led to its progress. Second, the author focuses on the campus-based movement to combat modern-day slavery. She notes the social reasons why the two movements have remained distinct thus far and suggests that the two movements could benefit from cooperation and integration.

Presentation Objectives:

·         To raise awareness about the role American universities played in the Atlantic slave trade and continue to play in modern-day slavery;

·         To trace the progress of two social movements and identify key actors and factors;

·         To assess the quality of universities’ responses to each movement;

·         To offer a toolkit for student activists and faculty seeking to contribute to productive conversations about their institutions’ history with slavery;

To suggest how the two movements could support each other.

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In 1885, The Salvation Army, social reformer Josephine Butler, and the Pall Mall Gazette joined together in a successful attempt to stem the trafficking of young girls from prostitution by raising the age of consent (for sexual activity) in London, England. This effort, known as the Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon, involved a sensational newspaper series stemming from the actual purchase of a thirteen-year-old child (Eliza) to prove how easily a child could be obtained for illicit purposes. Drawing upon historical records, trial transcripts, and journal entries, Eliza's story illustrates the challenges faced by the reformers, as well as the ethical concerns as to their methods. The presentation will include opportunity to consider ethical and moral concerns in regards to contemporary advocacy for clients and legislation.

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Human trafficking, along with drugs and weapons have been reported as the top three largest organized crime industries in the world. It is estimated that one to two million women and children are trafficked annually around the world for the purposes of forced labor, commercial sexual exploitation, or domestic servitude. The main objective of this study was to explore the picture of sexual exploitation. The study showed that the sex trade is becoming very popular to traffickers because of the expanding commercial sex industry in Asia and male client’s preference for young women and virgin girls to avoid HIV infection (UNIFEM). Traffickers made an estimated $7 -12 billion in profits annually, whereas the human trafficking industry is $32 billion internationally (UN, 2008). The study observed that about one million ‘unreported’ Bangladeshi women were trafficked in Pakistan and 300,000 Bangladeshi children have been trafficked to the brothels of India over a period of time (Star October 8, 2000). Over the last five years at least 13,220 children were reportedly trafficked out of the country, 4,500 women and children from Bangladesh are trafficked to Pakistan annually (UNIFEM) and 50,000 Bangladeshi girls are trafficked to India every year through 4,222 kilometers border areas (Biswas, 2015). As a Tier 2 country, Bangladesh is a transit and a destination country for women and girls forced into prostitution. Bangladeshi women and girls are especially trafficked to India, Pakistan and the Middle East (TIP Report, 2015) using Dhaka- Mumbai-Karachi-Dubai as the main trafficking route (Biswas, 2015).

In this intermediate- to advanced-level workshop, participants will accomplish the following objectives:
 

·         Learn a new framework for creating a survivor-driven trauma-informed care model;

·         Discover and discuss specific Trauma-informed Practices for accompanying human trafficking survivors while providing assistance after exiting the trafficking situation;

Engage law enforcement, policy makers, service providers, academics, and survivors in improving the anti-trafficking response by learning techniques to create safety and reciprocity with and among survivors and responders.

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