Human trafficking can have numerous lasting impacts on survivors’ lives. These include mental health impacts, such as depression and PTSD; physical health impacts, such as chronic pain, injuries, and exposure to sexually transmitted infections; housing instability or homelessness; and legal issues related to immigration, child custody, eviction, and vacatur or expungement of criminal records.

Anti-trafficking organizations are tasked with identifying and addressing these needs. This can be a considerable challenge, often requiring a combination of direct support and referrals and carried out while navigating complex systems and funding requirements. A related challenge concerns impact. Put simply, how do we know whether our services are working? What counts as a meaningful improvement in clients’ lives?

Read more in our briefing note: Measuring the Impact of Services Over Time

Cast was selected as one of 25 organizations across the U.S. to leverage data and technology to advance racial equity in policing, prosecution, and prevention. This initiative was supported by the Urban Institute and Microsoft Justice Reform. Our project was specifically focused on ‘Forced Criminality’, which refers to the act of traffickers forcing their victims to commit crimes such as theft, leading to criminal records that can jeopardize their future and well-being. Cast has created an interactive dashboard that features an analysis of our client data, guidelines for practitioners who are interested in collecting such data, and free resources. We’ve also included an accompanying document for social service providers below.

Practitioner Guidelines – Documenting Forced Criminality

Don’t miss out on the latest happenings at Cast. Our November newsletter has got you covered. Be in the know and stay informed by checking it out today.

November Newsletter 2023

Cast applauds recent motions by the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors to address the housing and mental health needs of survivors of violence. We are encouraged by the County’s adoption of a public health perspective when addressing human trafficking. Cast has over 25 years of experience providing direct services for survivors of all forms of trafficking across Los Angeles County, and supporting policy, training, technical assistance. As an authority on human trafficking, Cast has presented several recommendations to the LA County Board of Supervisors. We invite you to read about Cast’s analysis and recommendations aimed at improving the mental health and physical safety of women who are fleeing domestic violence, sexual violence, and human trafficking in our support letter.

Cast Letter on BOS Motions_17 Nov 2023

Human trafficking can have long-term effects on survivors’ mental health. Additionally, many of the conditions that make people vulnerable to trafficking, such as poverty and discrimination, can also have long-term effects on mental health.³ One of the most common outcomes is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This briefing note explores the impact of Cast’s Community Case Management services on identifying & addressing PTSD among trafficking survivors. Read more:

PTSD Among Human Trafficking Survivors

 

In response to the Sound of Freedom movie, survivors of human trafficking have compiled a list of movies exploring broader aspects of trafficking that are often overlooked. This list is focused on the root causes of human trafficking and was vetted by survivors around the world. Root causes include lack of housing, poverty, immigration policy, incarceration, racism, transphobia and homophobia, misogyny, the stigma that trafficked boys and men face, familial child trafficking, MMIP, police violence, religious abuse, child marriage, reproductive rights, access to healthcare, and many other intersecting factors.

This list will be evolving as a living document. Please help support survivor-centered narratives and storytelling and share this on your networks.

Human Trafficking Movies Compiled by Survivors

Sunday, July 30th is World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, and this year’s theme is to leave no one behind. As people and organizations working to end human trafficking daily, this rings true for us. You may have recently seen or heard about the new movie Sound of Freedom, and want to know what you can do next to support survivors. The film has been controversial for good reason. Human trafficking is a complex experience and can look very different in each case. As the experts, we are stepping up to help you learn more about human trafficking and find the best ways to get involved.

Join us on Instagram, on September 6th, to ask questions of the experts and get the information you need to make an impact! But you may be asking yourself, how can I help in the meantime?

Demand Constructive Congressional Action
There aren’t many moments when a phone call can make a difference on Capitol Hill, but we’re in one now. The International Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2023 (S. 920) coordinates many U.S. government programs against human trafficking, ensures survivor experts are heard at the highest levels, and supports nonprofit organizations working on the frontlines around the world. It’s bipartisan and not controversial, but like all laws it needs a push to pass. Be the push. Make a call. Find your representatives by state/zip: Senate | House. While you’re at it, let Congress know that proposals to reduce funding for anti-trafficking programs in the 2024 budget will only make life easier for traffickers and harder for victims.

Help Prevent Human Trafficking
Learn ways to keep your children/grandchildren safe online.
Encourage your local school system to offer training to students, educators, staff, and parents to prevent child trafficking.
Some communities are more at risk for human trafficking, including people with histories of poverty, family instability, physical and sexual abuse, and trauma, as well as racial and ethnic minority students. Volunteer opportunities that support these people in particular are an excellent way to support your local community and join the fight.

Find and Support Your Local Anti-Human Trafficking Program
Programs that have been doing this work for a while are often underfunded. They have learned what works and what doesn’t and are best positioned to do this work. If you want to learn, they’re a great place to start – find out if they offer any educational programming or if you could help coordinate an event for them to teach. And if you want to help fight trafficking, ask what they need to better support survivors.

Want to Learn More?
National Survivor Network: Hollywood and Human Trafficking
Freedom Network USA: Child Labor Trafficking in the USA
Polaris Project: Human Trafficking 101 Training
Love 146: Do More Guide

If you or someone you know is experiencing human trafficking, get help by calling the National Human Trafficking Hotline at (888) 373-7888.

In solidarity,

The Anti-Trafficking Community

At a press conference last month, San Diego Police Chief David Nisleit took aim at atSB357, the Safer Streets for All Act. The law, which went into effect two months ago,SB357, repealed previous California law that criminalized loitering with the intent to engage in sex work. Nisleit claimed SB357 prevented law enforcement from acting to disrupt human trafficking.

It was an odd claim, considering the police chief made it during a press conference in which he announced his department had successfully disrupted a human trafficking operation, identifying 16 victims of trafficking in the process and arresting 48 people after SB357 took effect. But Nisleit isn’t alone. In recent weeks, a small group of politicians and right-wing media personalities have spread similar claims. Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson, for example, spent an entire segment accusing SB357 of turning California into “a haven for human trafficking.”

These claims are not only false, but they also threaten much-needed reforms —such as those made by SB357 — to combat trafficking.

Although nowhere near a “haven” for human trafficking, California does have its share. According to the Public Policy Institute of California, 13% of all trafficking cases in the U.S. in 2021 occurred in California. No amount is acceptable, and Attorney General Rob Bonta has made ending human trafficking in the state a priority.

In the past, police departments would use the criminalization of loitering with the intention of sex work to arrest sex workers. They claimed that these arrests allowed them to get information that helped to identify victims of human trafficking. But for years, many police departments — including those in Oakland, San Francisco and San Diego — have been moving away from relying on loitering charges to combat human trafficking. That hard data is difficult to square with the current hysterical claims that this repealed statute was an essential tool for law enforcement to address trafficking.

So why did police departments move away from arresting trafficking victims to prevent human trafficking? Because it doesn’t work.

According to a study by UCLA School of Law researchers, nearly 1 in 3 “loitering, with intent” charges from 2017 to 2019 in Los Angeles were rejected due to a lack of sufficient evidence. Moreover, the practice made the problem even worse. Countless survivors of trafficking have said that being arrested was not only traumatizing and revictimizing, but created insurmountable barriers to seeking employment, safe housing, public benefits and immigration relief. Among survivor groups, it’s often said that the fastest way to trap someone in a life of exploitation is to arrest them for it.

Arresting the victims of trafficking is also considered a harmful and ineffective intervention strategy by many federal officials. Guidelines issued by the U.S.intervention Department of Justice’s Enhanced Collaborative Model Task Force prohibit funding from being used to arrest those engaged in the sex trade or sex buyers as a means of identification, outreach and assistance, citing that these tactics compromise survivor safety and recovery.

The practice was also under fire for being discriminatory. “Loitering with intent to commit prostitution” is so vague and subjective — allowing an arrest based on how someone is dressed or what makeup they’re wearing — that officers could make arrests for completely arbitrary, discriminatory and baseless reasons. Data from across the state also showed significant racial and gender disparities in who was arrested for loitering. People arrested under the old law were overwhelmingly transgender and cisgender (i.e., not transgender) women of color — not sex buyers or human traffickers. Black adults, for example, made up a majority of the people arrested for this crime in Los Angeles from 2017 to 2019, even though they are only 8.9% of the city’s population.

Traffickers rely on these arrests to criminalize victims so that they are trapped and unable to access safety due to their criminal records. The arrests make individuals being trafficked even more vulnerable to continued exploitation.

SB357 reduces the criminalization and vulnerability of survivors and enables those who were convicted of the repealed loitering crime to clear their names.

A core tenet of human trafficking is that traffickers utilize force, fraud and coercion to control their victims. The state replicates these circumstances when it threatens survivors with prosecution under a loitering law to incentivize them to cooperate or provide information. By threatening arrest and incarceration, the government signals to survivors that they cannot trust the criminal legal system and that it is not there to protect them. These practices only make it more difficult for survivors to trust the services that are available to them, such as housing, health care and counseling.

SB357 is a small step in the process of repairing our systems that cause harm to survivors.

Survivors of trafficking need support and resources without the threat of arrest as well as strong labor protections that all workers deserve.

Human trafficking has existed as long as inequality has existed and truly addressing it means doing the work to reduce inequality — as opposed to grandstanding for attention.

Leigh LaChapelle is associate director of survivor advocacy at the Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking. Tony Hoang is executive director of Equality California.

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It seems like whenever human trafficking is in the news, we get a sensational view and not the full picture. A celebrity has been arrested for sex trafficking, and all the victims are young women. A company has been caught paying their immigrant workers nothing.

What should be making the news is that our own social systems are enabling human trafficking, and that it is happening right alongside homelessness.  These are hard truths but they tell us what needs to be done. With a new Mayor of Los Angeles and changes in the City Council, let’s turn our attention to what we are doing – and could be doing – to stop human trafficking from happening in Los Angeles and elsewhere.

What makes someone vulnerable to homelessness also makes them vulnerable to human trafficking. For many survivors, a lack of safe housing was not only a cause of their trafficking experience but also a result of it. Many people are forced or tricked into living with their trafficker or in a place they cannot easily leave. When they do leave, most have nowhere to go and become vulnerable again on the streets. They cannot return to their home neighborhood or their families because traffickers threaten to harm them or their loved ones. Many who were trafficked when they arrived in the US do not know where they are or who to turn to, and do not speak the local language. Almost nowhere is safe.

As an agency serving survivors of human trafficking in Los Angeles, the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (Cast) is acutely aware of the housing and homelessness crisis in our city and county. Cast runs a 24-hour hotline for anyone seeking help finding safety and resources. Over half of the 2,210 calls last year were from potential victims and most (over 1,000 people) were experiencing homelessness. Housing is human trafficking survivors’ number one need.

Since the homelessness crisis in LA has created the conditions for human trafficking, then addressing it properly will help prevent human trafficking.

For 20 years, Cast has been the only agency providing dedicated housing for human trafficking survivors in Los Angeles: emergency shelter for up to 90 days, transitional shelter for up to two years, and wraparound services while survivors get back on their feet, like counselling and legal aid. Cast served 1,625 survivors and their family members last year.

But we are facing increasing and unprecedented demand for housing – like everybody else. Our two shelters are dedicated to female-identifying adults, so we cannot provide housing to males or survivors with children and are often full. So, my team is on the phone most days, asking other shelters if they have room for survivors of human trafficking.

Nine times out of ten, the answer is ‘no’.

It is unacceptable that when survivors of human trafficking bravely escape their situation, they often have nowhere safe to go. When Larissa called our hotline, she and her three children – the youngest, a baby – were sleeping in her car, hiding from the trafficker. Since Cast’s emergency shelter (being run from a hotel during COVID) was full, we called over 30 other shelters but none could take them in. So Cast provided services to Larissa and her children in her car for a week, until a room at our shelter became available. They stayed with us for a month and then we supported Larissa to find a safe, affordable, permanent home, keeping in touch with her for months after to make sure she settled in and knew her rights as a tenant.

Cast supports survivors to find permanent housing but rents in LA are at their highest ever, making leaving a shelter harder than it already is. If survivors cannot afford housing, they cannot easily access services or get a job, and are extremely vulnerable to being trafficked again.

This is an untenable situation. How can it be solved?

First, we need public agencies to include human trafficking in their victim housing and homelessness initiatives. We should not have to plead to be included and consulted, but we often do. Maybe it’s because well-meaning public servants think that human trafficking is happening somewhere else and not in our own neighborhoods. Maybe they don’t understand that human trafficking survivors need specialized services to meet their special needs. Who deserves housing?

Second, we need a dramatic increase in funding, especially for permanent housing, in line with the real world we are in. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, governments made large sums available to respond to the risk of homelessness, like rental assistance and emergency housing vouchers, but these have run out. The fallout of COVID, inflation and economic instability is only increasing the risk of human trafficking happening. We know that hundreds more survivors will call us this year, saying they are homeless and in danger. What do we tell survivors we can’t help simply because we don’t have the funds?

If we want to both prevent human trafficking and do right by survivors, let’s agree on what might make the biggest difference and let’s make it happen: a safe, affordable home for everyone. Addressing the housing and homelessness crises in Los Angeles – once and for all – will also help stop human trafficking.

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Read our 2022 Impact Report to learn more: 2022 Impact Report

The Durfee Foundation has announced that Kay Buck, CEO of the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking, is one of six recipients of the 2023-2024 Durfee Stanton Fellowship.  The Fellowship aims to provide changemakers and leaders in Los Angeles the opportunity to pursue an inquiry that seeks to improve the lives of people living in Los Angeles. 

As part of her fellowship, Kay will seek to explore more about what it will take to end human trafficking sustainably and in a way that honors survivors human rights.  Kay knows from working with survivors of human trafficking that arrest is not the answer and can be extremely harmful to survivors.  Kay aims to explore what the answer is, so survivors of human trafficking don’t have criminal records that stop them from getting housing, getting jobs, or moving on with their lives.  Kay is deeply committed to ending human trafficking, and fighting the systemic barriers to that goal.

Read more here