This isn't the movie "Taken. Sex trafficking across America is a more clandestine activity, hidden within the commercial sex industry that has flourished in our country for decades, as well as in plain sight under the veneer of legitimate businesses. Understanding the reality of sex trafficking begins with insight into the market, as well as the perpetrators, victims and customers. The difficulty lies in distinguishing consenting prostitutes from sex-trafficked victims.
Today, commercial sex is advertised both in the street and online. For example, in Washington, D. There, willing sex workers walk alongside sex-trafficked victims, without distinction. However, this is dying practice. Given the growing public awareness about sex trafficking and the resulting increased law enforcement, more marketing is taking place online.
Upper crust clientele may peruse sex workers on websites that provide screening services for high-end "adult companionship. After screening for law enforcement, "in-call" providers will give customers an address for the exchange, while "outcall" providers will go to a location provided by the customer, a home or hotel, for example.
The central distinction between consenting prostitution and sex trafficking is the use of force, fraud or coercion for the purpose of exploitation. This can happen in a number of ways, which infrequently involve conventional kidnapping. For example, a woman managing an erotic massage parlor may import women from South Korea and hold them in indentured servitude to repay an inflated visa debt, like in the case of the "Peach Therapy" in Virginia.
Susan Lee Gross a. Ju Me Lee Gross was sentenced to two and a half years for bringing women in as sex workers to her Annandale-based massage parlor and laundering the proceeds from the illegal activity, according to the Department of Justice. Domestic sex traffickers — colloquially referred to as "pimps" — often feign love and affection for new recruits, filling a void in their lives through the provision of food, shelter, clothing, fellowship and esteem, before coercing or deceiving the victim into the commercial sex industry.
