Human Trafficking in Kansas Schools

Jennifer Montgomery

Director, Human Trafficking Education & Outreach

Chair, Kansas Human Trafficking Advisory Board

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DISCLAIMER: This presentation is the property of the Office of the Kansas Attorney General and is for educational and informational use only. Do not disseminate content without prior written permission.

Information in this presentation is provided as a public service to enhance public education and is accurate as of July 25, 2022.  It is not intended to take the place of statutory law, regulations, or guidance documents. Such information is subject to change. The presentation is not legal advice, therefore, please  consult with your own legal counsel for legal advice and assistance with your legal matters.

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KANSAS ATTORNEY GENERAL

DEREK SCHMIDT

Items to be covered

• Definitions
• Statistics
• Profiles of victims, traffickers and buyers
• Common myths/misunderstandings
• Vulnerabilities/Dynamics
• Role of technology
• Red Flags
• Effective intervention
• Kansas Anti-Trafficking Laws
• Reporting & Resources

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Human Trafficking

• Human Trafficking is based on recruiting, harboring and/or transporting people solely for the purpose of exploitation
• No freedom to leave situation
• Includes labor trafficking and sex trafficking
• Human Trafficking, a modern form of slavery, is one of the largest and fastest growing criminal industry in the world
• Exploits a person’s vulnerabilities
• Trafficking industry thrives on ignorance and preys upon the uneducated.

Human Trafficking in Kansas

• U.S. DOJ has identified Kansas as an originating state for domestic minor sex trafficking.
• All forms of trafficking have been identified in KS—including sex and labor trafficking.
• Kansas has adopted laws that seek to protect and rescue human trafficking victims.

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Why Kansas?

• Centrally located
• Intersection of major federal interstates: I-70 and I-35
• Hub of mid-western commerce
• Exchange points

Kansas Stats

• Polaris hotline reported 390 contacts from Kansas in 2020.
• DCF received 164 reports of HT that were assigned for follow up in SFY 2021. 677 reports of HT that were assigned for follow up between July 2015-June 30th 2021.
• KBI received 59 Polaris tips of HT in 2021, as well as 35 tips from others (outside agency tips, Homeland Security, Guardian group)

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**See Disclaimer

**See Disclaimer

Polaris Map

The Victim

Human Trafficking

Characteristics of a Sex Trafficking Victim

• Traffickers are seeking those with vulnerabilities—
• Have a history of sexual abuse
• Have an unstable living situation
• Facing poverty or economic need
• Substance abuse issues
• Have a history of domestic violence
• Mistreated groups (people of color, LGBTQI+, undocumented, etc…)
• Not likely to consider themselves as victims.

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(Polaris, 2022)

Diagram showing Correlations

Sexual Assault

Characteristics of a Labor Trafficking Victim

• Can be U.S. citizens, foreign nationals, women, men, children.
• Vulnerabilities include immigration status, recruitment debt, isolation, poverty.
• Work as domestic servants, farmworkers, factory workers, traveling sales crews, food service/hospitality industry, construction, carnivals and health & beauty industry.

Force, Fraud, Coercion

Indicators K-12

• Demonstrates an inability to attend school on a regular basis and/or has unexplained absences
• Frequently runs away from home
• Makes references to frequent travel to other cities
• Exhibits bruises or other signs of physical trauma, withdrawn behavior, depression, anxiety, or fear
• Lacks control over his or her schedule and/or identification or travel documents
• Is hungry, malnourished, deprived of sleep, or inappropriately dressed (based on weather conditions or surroundings)
• Shows signs of drug addiction
• Has coached/rehearsed responses to questions

Additional indicators:

• Demonstrates a sudden change in attire, personal hygiene, relationships, or material possessions
• Acts uncharacteristically promiscuous and/or makes references to sexual situations or terminology that are beyond age-specific norms
• Has a “boyfriend” or “girlfriend” who is noticeably older and controlling
• Pregnancies or multiple STI’s
• Tattoos indicating HT

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�Services Critical for Effective Intervention and Protection

• Medical needs
• Safety Planning
• Treatment for Major Trauma, Complex PTSD
• Long term counseling and assistance
• Housing (45 beds nationally)

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• Assistance dealing with and testifying against pimps/traffickers
• Addiction treatment
• Educational needs
• Employment assistance
• Trauma-informed or specific assistance from responders

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The Trafficker

Sex Trafficking

Characteristics

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• Age 19-45 years old
• Average education is 9.3 years
• 50% completed high school or GED
• 95.5% had a history of drug or alcohol abuse
• 90.0% had a criminal record
• Made $220,000 – $500,000 a year

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Convicted Kansas Traffickers

Source: EMCU

How Traffickers Control Victims

• Physical abuse
• Depravation of basic needs
• Physical restraint, captivity or confinement
• Withholding medical care
• Physical assault
• Murder
• Sexual abuse
• Rape
• Forced prostitution
• Sexual humiliation

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• Psych/emotional violence
• Intimidation/fear
• Lies, deception, blackmail
• Unsafe environments
• Isolation/forced dependency (controlling victims personal docs)
• Shame and self blame

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Additional ways…

• Substance abuse/misuse
• Forced and coerced use of drugs & alcohol which can create longer-term addiction and monetary dependency.

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• Manipulation/Romance
• Many use romantic relationships to access victims (Romeo pimps).

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• Cultural disorientation
• Movement across state or international borders may put victims in areas where they don’t speak the language = vulnerability.

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Urban v. Rural HT

• Use of internet and social media in recruitment and advertising similar.
• Trafficker often known to victim in rural areas. More likely to be a parent or relative (familial trafficking).
• Trafficker to receive material goods or basic needs v. money for sex with children in rural areas. (parental figure selling a child for food or shelter)

Source: “Sex Trafficking of Minors in Metropolitan, Micropolitan and

Rural Communities”; Cole, Sprang, Ruiz, 2014, Child Abuse & Neglect.

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Familial Trafficking – Economic Exchange

• Sex acts with a minor exchanged for drugs 75%
• Sex acts with a minor exchanged for cash 70%
• Sex acts with a minor exchanged for material goods or services 60%
• Minor was forced to perform sex acts live on camera 33%

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Pornography can be sex trafficking

Source: Domestic Minor Familiar Sex Trafficking, Samaritan Women, 2022

Risk Factors – Familial Trafficking

• Acute poverty
• Substance Abuse/Addiction in family
• Neglect of basic needs
• Verbal emotional or spiritual abuse
• Other criminal activity in the home
• Domestic violence
• Housing instability
• Single parent household
• Absent father
• Child sexual abuse
• Pattern of running away from home
• Generational prostitution
• Incarcerated family members
• Pornography present in the home

Source: Domestic Minor Familiar Sex Trafficking, Samaritan Women, 2022

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Common Myths & Misunderstandings

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• Sex trafficking occurs when something of value (does not have to be money) is exchanged for sex with a vulnerable adult or child.
• Traffickers are not always strangers. In many cases, traffickers are romantic partners/spouses, parents, other family members or someone already known to the victim.
• Human trafficking does not have to include a violent act such as abduction or use of physical force. In reality, most traffickers use psychological means such as manipulation, threats or fraud to induce victims into providing commercial sex or exploitative labor.
• Human trafficking is often confused with human smuggling which involves illegal border crossings. Trafficking does not actually require any movement or transportation. Victims/survivors of trafficking can be recruited and trafficked in their own communities, even in their own homes.
• Victims of trafficking frequently stay in exploitative situations due to psychological manipulation, fear of violence, isolation and economic abuse. In some cases, physical restraint and restricted movement is used to control.

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Role of Technology

Human Trafficking

Recruitment

• Traffickers set up fake accounts online to “friend” teens.
• Teens are approached online and/or in person, at malls, bus stops, parties, at school and other public places.
• Traffickers will use other teens who are already recruited to scout and recruit new teens.
• Traffickers may pretend to “date” teens to manipulate and gain their trust.
• Drugs, alcohol, money and expensive gifts are often used to manipulate teens.

Role of Social Media

• Access and ability to connect with more vulnerable people online.
• Ease of assessing vulnerabilities online. (photos, posts)
• Online grooming. Meeting needs by understanding their vulnerabilities. Exploiting them.
• Quicker relationships than traditional.
• Connection, recruitment and sales.
• Coercion through photo sharing. (sextortion)

University of Toledo study, 2018

Social Media as a Means of Control

• Many mainstream apps have been corrupted to abuse & control those trapped in trafficking:
• Traffickers will use social media to isolate them from their support systems by restricting their contact through social media
• Traffickers will heavily monitor victims social media to control
• Traffickers will use social media to impersonate victims, spread damaging rumors, distribute intimate images
• Traffickers will stalk a victim’s account activity even after they have left the trafficker

Sites, apps, and more

**See Disclaimer

Stages of Grooming

• Targeting a victim – Looking for a noticeable vulnerability:
• Emotional neediness
• Low self-confidence
• Economic stress

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• Gaining trust & information:
• Through casual conversations (online, social media, in person)

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• Filling a need:
• Buying gifts
• Being a friend
• Beginning a love relationship
• Buying drugs and alcohol

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Stages of Grooming

• Isolation:
• Creates time to be alone with victim
• Plays a major role in victims life
• Attempts to isolate from family & friends
• Abuse begins:
• Trafficker begins claiming a service must be repaid (gifts, alcohol/drugs given, car rides, cell phones)
• Trafficker demands sex as the payment.
• Maintains control through threats, violence, fear and blackmail.

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Kansas Teen Trafficked

Social Media Facts

• 2 in 5 teens say they tell their parents very little about what they do and where they go online
• 1 in 5 kids has received a sexual solicitation online
• In 82% of online sex crimes against minors, the offender used the victim’s social networking sites to gain access
• 39% of teens have sent sexually suggestive messages via text, email or instant messaging
• 12% of parents knew their teens were accessing pornography

Source: Keeping Kids Safe in the Digital Age, Street Grace, 2018

Vulnerabilities/Dynamics

Human Trafficking

Adverse Childhood experiences

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Sexual abuse was the strongest predictor of human trafficking: the odds of human trafficking was 2.52 times greater for girls who experienced sexual abuse, and there was a 8.21 times greater risk for boys who had histories of sexual abuse.

Effective Intervention

Human Trafficking

Assessment

• Child’s physical and emotional well-being
• Child’s use of alcohol and drugs
• Child’s risk of self-harm
• Child’s risk of re-engaging in prostitution
• Level of family involvement with the child
• Whether the child needs other intervention services

Effective Intervention

• Restore a sense of safety;
• Reduce the effects of trauma;
• Help victims move from feeling powerless and hopeless to regain a sense of trust;
• Reestablish future dreams and goals; and
• Help HT victims return as vital, productive community members

Unique Needs of Human Trafficking Survivors �

• Think $. Reducing people into objects in the most crass way.
• HT victims represent an exceptionally high-needs population—severe mental health issues, grave physical safety concerns, shelter and food needs, heightened protection needs, high addiction issues, and immigration/legal problems.
• Multidisciplinary approach is critical to meet need
• Need for long-term services—2 years or more

Check Yourself

• How do you ensure that you “first do no harm”? What might you need to consider?
• What bias might you have that you will need to address to be effective?
• How can your interaction be more victim-centered?

Targeting Demand

Human Trafficking

What is Demand?

The desire for a particular commodity, labor or service.

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In context of HT, demand is for labor that is exploitative or services which breach the human rights of the person delivering those services.

Sex Trafficking

Source: Veronica’s Voice

Buyers

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Age Range of Buyers:

18-89

42.5 median age

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• 19% of buyers’ professions involved working with children (teacher, sports coach, military recruiter, boy scout leader)

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• 99% of sex buyers are male

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• 22% involved a position of authority or trust (attorney, law enforcement, military or minister)

Demanding Justice Project Benchmark Assessment, 2014

Demand an End Public Awareness Campaign

• Kansas has launched Demand an End which is a sex trafficking-specific public awareness campaign targeting the demand for commercial sex in KS.
• The campaign focuses on sex buyers − attacking the root of the problem – those who perpetuate the sex trafficking industry by purchasing individuals for sex.
• More than 3,500 Kansans signed the online petition demanding an end to commercial sexual exploitation of human beings

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Big Concept

• Those who purchase sex fuel the sex industry.
• Most women in prostitution do not have a choice.
• People who buy sex always have a choice.

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If there were no buyers, there would be no business for the traffickers and no victims of human trafficking.

Kansas Anti-Trafficking Laws �

Human Trafficking Crimes- KS

Victim under 18:

• Commercial Sexual Exploitation of a Child (CSEC)
• Aggravated Human Trafficking

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Victim 18 and older:

• Human trafficking if coerced into labor or sexual exploitation.
• Related crimes that can involve trafficking:
• Buying sexual relations
• Promoting the sale of sexual relations
• Selling sexual relations

Change in Kansas Law

2005 - First anti-human trafficking statute in KS

2013 - The law recognizes the victimization of minors who are commercially exploited in selling sexual relations –even when they don’t believe they are victims.

2015 - new law was passed allowing victims of human trafficking to seek civil remedies and restitution from convicted traffickers.

2017 - Those Promoting Sale of Sexual Relations added to sex offender registration list.

Expungement time for juvenile selling sexual relations made immediate.

Crime Victims Compensation Board rules that disqualify HT victims are eliminated.

All CDL holders in KS must take a basic HT awareness training.

HT has been added to list eligible for protection orders (PFAs).

2021 – Most businesses in Kansas required to post the National Human Trafficking Hotline number for victim assistance & referral, reporting to law enforcement.

*Additional other associated crimes (not an exhaustive list)

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Human Trafficking Advisory Board

• Advise on creation and implementation of new laws

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• Members include law enforcement, prosecutors, court personnel, advocates, service providers, survivors and relevant state agencies.

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• The official state board for anti-human trafficking policy in Kansas under the oversight of the Attorney General. KSA 75-757

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Review of Red Flags and Reporting

Human Trafficking

Red Flags/Indicators

• Inability to attend school regularly/unexplained absences
• Coached or rehearsed responses to questions
• Frequently running away from home
• Bruises, other signs of physical trauma, withdrawn behavior, depression, anxiety or fear
• Hunger, malnourishment, or inappropriate dress (based on weather or surroundings)
• A “boyfriend” or “girlfriend” who is noticeably older or controlling
• Sudden change in attire or material possessions
• Tattoos (branding)
• Signs of addiction, promiscuity
• Not living with immediate family (employer)

U.S. Dept. of Education, 2015

Mandatory Reporter

Kansas Reporting Laws:

Mandated reporters are required to report child abuse or neglect under the Kansas reporting law (K.S.A. 38-2223) as follows:

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When any of the following persons has reason to suspect that a child has been harmed as a result of physical, mental or emotional abuse or neglect or sexual abuse (includes suspicion of HT), the person shall report the matter promptly.

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Teachers, school administrators or other employees of an educational institution which the child is attending and persons licensed by the secretary of health and environment to provide child care services or the employees of persons so licensed at the place where the child care services are being provided to the child.

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Other mandatory reporters

• Doctors, dentists, nurses, psychologists & other mental health providers, social workers, health care administrators
• Firefighters, EMS providers
• Law Enforcement Officers
• Juvenile intake & assessment workers, court services, community corrections officers

KSA 38-2223

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Report Human Trafficking

• 911(local law enforcement)
• 1-800-KSCRIME (KBI tip line), website form
• Homeland Security Investigations:1-866-DHS-2-ICE
• National Human Trafficking Hotline: 1-888-3737-888 or TEXT INFO or HELP to 233-733 (24 hours, 7 days a week)
• To report a sexually exploited or abused minor, call the National Center for Exploited and Missing Children (NCMEC) hotline 1-800-THE-LOST or cyber tip reporting http://www.cybertipline.org .
• KSAG Victim Services Division: 1-800-828-9745

Resources

NHTRC Hotline 1-888-3737-888

polarisproject.org

sharedhope.org

NCMEC – Online Safety Tips

https://www.missingkids.org/netsmartz/resources

Human Trafficking is Happening in Kansas

Questions?

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Jennifer Montgomery

jennifer.montgomery@ag.ks.gov

(785) 296-6115

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https://ag.ks.gov/public-safety/human-trafficking

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