Does the Super Bowl cause an increased flow of sex trafficking to its host cities?
The short answer: No.
The long answer: Kind of, but still no.
It’s true that in the past, cities that have hosted the biggest football game of the season have seen an uptick in sexually-based crime, but it’s no bigger than any other major event of its size. Still, local services for survivors of sexual assault preparing. With an increasing public eye on sexual violence and a media circus surrounding the Super Bowl, local advocates are hoping that the question of sex and the Super Bowl, even if originating from a misconception, will be the opportunity they need to educate the community on the reality of human trafficking in Minneapolis, and its continued effects on the city.
The Sexual Violence Center
At the Sexual Violence Center, based on Hennepin Avenue in the Mid-City Industrial district of Northeast, the Super Bowl means business as normal, but being prepared to work twice as much.
The Sexual Violence Center is a stand-alone non-profit rape crisis center that provides short-term support to survivors of sexual violence. In this context, “sexual violence” is an umbrella term that covers a wide swath of sexually-charged abuses ranging from assault to rape to sex trafficking. It is most commonly inflicted on people with disabilities or mental disorders, the homeless, transfolk, and women.
“[Sexual violence is when] someone has power over somebody else, and they use that power to get their sexual needs satisfied,” explained Kristen Houlton Sukura, the Center’s director. She said power over marginalized people often manifests as sexual violence.
The Center focuses on individual care, and was founded to take people in when they’ve suffered to help them move on in whatever way suits their needs best. They offer a 24-hour crisis support line as their primary service (612-871-5111, or 952-448-5425). This hotline provides immediate support for victims, and lays the groundwork for recovery by helping them plan out their next steps. The Center works with anyone 12 years old and up; for younger children, Child Protective Services or other child-centered caregivers are better equipped.
It’s important to note that the Sexual Violence Center does not offer therapy. Their crisis hotline provides immediate support after an incident, but past that, the Center refers survivors to other services that are equipped to handle ongoing cases. The Center’s personnel are trained for community advocacy and the creation of safe environments for victims of trauma. According to Houlton Sukura, many of the Center’s calls come from nursing homes.
Houlton Sukura also sits on the Committee for Sex Trafficking for the NFL. The presence of sexual violence in relation to the Super Bowl has not escaped the NFL’s notice, and they have been working with local leaders to address what needs to be done. It’s generally agreed by experts on the committee that no, sexual violence is not exclusive to the Super Bowl, but it is intrinsically tied to most large events in any city. Incidents of sexual violence will go up simply because of the sheer volume of people coming to the city, and the association of alcohol with the event.
“Alcohol is the number one date rape drug in America,” she said, explaining that 60 percent of sexual assault victims were drunk at the time of their assault.
Prostitution/sex trafficking is one of the many offenses that falls under the purview of the Sexual Violence Center. Lately, many organizations have popped up to address it, but the Center has always taken clients who were prostitutes. The unique aspect of prostitution is that it is a form of ongoing violence, rather than an isolated incident. The Center allows victims to come to them when they are ready to end the cycle.
In 2011, the state of Minnesota passed the Safe Harbor Law, which was in partial effect until 2014, when it was fully implemented. The law mandated that changes be made to ensure that the law no longer punished sexually-exploited youths if they were caught prostituting, and that they be treated as victims of a crime instead.
The problem that presents itself with dealing with prostitution victims is that the Center is obligated to report the crime, and they have to tell the client that they have to report it. This often discourages victims from coming forward, as they usually know their abuser, and often live with them or are otherwise dependent on them. Despite their innocence, the requirement for fast action on the Center’s part may not allow people the time and space they might need to break the cycle.
Eighty-five percent of victims know their abuser, according to Houlton Sukura. The mugger in the dark is a myth; most assailants are someone close who has taken advantage of their power over their victim and the paralysis that power brings.
The Sexual Violence Center has a plan, focusing on the period between January 27 and February 5.
“We already do this work, all we’re going to do is scale it the hell up,” said Houlton Sukura. She hopes that the scale-up in their services will have a positive effect on services rendered in the future. Their crisis line, legal referral service, and hospital support team will all be built up for the duration.
As the big week approaches, the Center’s advice to people wanting to help is simply to be aware, and to be empathetic. Collecting a few phone numbers to give out to people who seem like they need it should you meet them can make all the difference in the world. Houlton Sukura said that if everyone could consider themselves an extension of the Center for even just that one weekend, it could make an amazing difference.
“People are going to see the best of our city, but some are going to see the worst of it,” she added. “If something goes wrong, we hope to God we’re going to show you how Minneapolis deals with it.”
Asian Women United of Minnesota
Asian Women United of Minnesota (AWUM) focuses their service on Asian immigrants, but keeps the doors open to immigrants of any nationality. They see clients most often from Southeast and East Asian, African and Middle Eastern countries. Sipra Jha is a St. Anthony resident, and AWUM’s shelter director. She works with refugee and immigrant women fleeing domestic violence, handles calls, offers shelter and legal advocacy, and helps to locate jobs and housing.
“We’re kind of on the frontline,” she said. “We have immigrant women who have handled all sorts of trauma and civil wars, and they come to America and find themselves as victims of domestic violence.”
Sex trafficking is a huge problem with immigrants from China, according to Jha. The number of women referred to AWUM’s services by police in surrounding counties has been on the rise lately. Jha is thankful that the police see these women as victims, and not criminals. Still, these women are often afraid to oust their abusers, a pattern that’s also familiar to the Sexual Violence Center.
“Most of the time, they don’t know what to say, or they want to go back,” Jha explained, saying that the fear of being alone in a foreign country is a tool of control. “[Traffickers] know how to keep them trapped.”
AWUM has a crisis hotline for both victims and witnesses (612-724-8823), and they encourage the community to be more aware of signs of sex trafficking as more people come to the city for the big game. Jha said that some of the red flags could include a woman who doesn’t seem to be aware of where she is or seems lost, a woman who is accompanied by a man who appears to be making all the decisions/doing all the talking or being overly assertive over her, or a home that has multiple women coming and going frequently from it. The crisis line is open 24 hours a day, but of course in the case of an emergency law enforcement should be called immediately.
In addition to the crisis hotline, AWUM works with immigration services to get visas for victims to stay in the country after they have been found, should they wish to stay. According to Jha, many just want to go home. Short-term shelter is offered to survivors who need it while they get together a plan to move on.
AWUM is also gearing up to tackle the Super Bowl in much of the same ways as the Sexual Violence Center by expanding their services as much as they can over the same date range. Since AWUM offers shelter though, they are facing the unique problem of needing more space and more beds. Their shelters are almost always full, so they will need to find alternative spaces to offer their clients during the predicted surge. Given the nature of their work with immigrants, more interpreters will also have to be on hand. AWUM will collaborate with other services and law enforcement to ensure they have the resources they need.
AWUM employs interpreters for a wide variety of languages, primarily Mandarin, followed closely by Tagalog, one of the most spoken languages in the Philippines. AWUM’s crisis line has multiple foreign language offshoots to ensure that no matter what language they speak, their clients will always have someone who can help them over the phone or at the shelter.
It is important to note that AWUM is a domestic violence shelter, not a homeless shelter. They provide short-term service to women who are looking to get back on their feet after leaving a dangerous living situation. They refer women who need it to the proper resources as quickly as they can to ensure a safe and healthy recovery.
Jha said that there is a very fine line between domestic violence and homelessness. In most cases, a victim knows their abuser, who may be their only lifeline to shelter, food, communication with their home/family, and in some cases supplies for a drug addiction. To leave that situation means homelessness, which in turn can lead to more sexual violence: a vicious cycle. Hence the need for ample space to create a safety net for survivors.
Alongside a shift in attention on the part of the media, there has been a growing change in attitudes toward women in southeast Asian countries. Jha pointed out that from a cultural perspective, being a victim of abuse is considered shameful and rarely talked about, but vocal retaliation against systematic oppression has been getting louder. She hopes the general trend moving away from viewing women as disposable continues and isn’t just a flash-in-the-pan media frenzy.
“No one can do this on their own. It’s about women’s safety, and even if we make a dent in one woman’s life, it changes a whole family,” said Jha. “More men need to come into this movement and join with us. Money can buy a lot of things, but it should never buy humans.”
Amplified Voices, WATCH, and other information
Sarah Perron and her business partner Clea Korf head up Amplified Voices, an advocacy non-profit based out of Northeast geared toward raising awareness surrounding human trafficking and sexual violence. Both Perron and Korf have long careers in the marketing industry, and wanted to use their expertise to create a deeper conversation around sex trafficking. They network with groups focusing on homelessness and domestic abuse. Amplified Voices doesn’t provide direct services, but uses their collective background to inspire action.
“We wanted to create something that would create awareness,” explained Perron. “Our focus is awareness around juvenile trafficking . . . most of the transactions happen online.”
Perron and Amplified Voices provided the Northeaster with a comprehensive study of sex trafficking statistics conducted by WATCH, a judicial advocacy group that works to make local justice systems more responsive to crimes of sexual violence against women and children. The report, at https://tinyurl.com/ycujlzv4 , focused on statistics regarding sex trafficking convictions in Hennepin and Ramsey counties between January 2012 and August 2016. They surveyed 107 sex trafficking centered court cases to derive as much information as they could regarding the treatment of such incidents in Minnesota, and believed based on their findings that sex trafficking in Minnesota has had a new light shed on it, and the way communities think about and react to it have changed.
“The criminal justice system is one of the places where our societal values are most definitely reflected. Our courtrooms are a place where we as a society say that we will not tolerate a certain behavior—and there is a specific sentence that measures how much a certain behavior is condemned,” read a section of the report.
Homelessness, marginalization, exploitation: under the examination of WATCH’s report, these come together as the common themes that tie together the efforts of advocates across Northeast trying to provide a safe place for victims to put themselves back together. Homelessness especially is one of the most major factors in the world of sex trafficking. A quarter of LGBT youths are at risk of being trafficked due to homelessness. Sixty percent of runaways from the foster care system are at risk of being trafficked. A homeless minor is usually approached by a trafficker within 48 hours.
In Ramsey County, the majority of victims were between the ages of 16-17, but in Hennepin, the majority of victims were 20-22. There are a large number of unreported cases assumed, so the average age of victims is most likely skewed due to lack of data. It is generally assumed the majority of victims are under 24. Once a victim turns 18, the offense for their abuser drops from a first degree offense to second degree, and the offender no longer has to register as a predatory offender. WATCH would like to see this penalty adjusted so the bar for a first degree offense is raised to 24.
In all 107 cases tracked by WATCH, the victims were women. An overwhelming majority of offenders were men. In juvenile cases, larger numbers of traffickers were women, but the majority were still men. Women tended to take recruiting, selling, and transportation roles.
Minnesota is third in the nation in terms of volume of sex trafficking incidents. Seventy-five percent of victims are bought and sold online via online services like backpage.com (though backpage has recently shut down their “adult services” section in an attempt to combat this). The key concern of our local advocates, and law enforcement is not that the Super Bowl will bring sex offenders into the city, it’s that it will bring more people for our hometown customers to buy. According to Perron, most of the buyers caught by law enforcement in San Francisco when they hosted the Super Bowl were local, contrary to what had been presumed.
As Sipra Jha put it, “sex trafficking has been going on, and will continue to go on, Super Bowl or no.”
In terms of reporting sex trafficking, community education is vastly important, but woefully lacking, Jha said. Family, friends and victims themselves play the most crucial roles in reporting the crime.
Perron gave an additional list of signs of a trafficking victim. Many of the red flags line up with Jha’s warnings. Keep an eye out for a young boy or girl who won’t speak or look directly at anyone and is accompanied by an older person who is clearly monitoring and directing them. Are they not dressed age-appropriate? Is the older person overly controlling of them?
“Educate yourself, learn how to spot recruitment. Be aware, be an ambassador, and take a stand. This is not invisible,” said Perron.
Contact information:
The Sexual Violence Center
Sexualviolencecenter.org
Office: 612-871-5100
Crisis Lines: 612-871-5111
952-448-5425
Asian Women United of Minnesota
Awum.org
Office: 612-724-0756
Crisis Line: 612-724-8823
Amplified Voices
Amplifiedvoicesnow.org
Office: 612-703-6416
WATCH MN
Watchmn.org
https://tinyurl.com/ycujlzv4
Office: 612-341-2747