When Sharon was 13, she had no idea what was being done to her wasn’t normal.
One of five women featured during a panel at the Safe Coalition for Human Rights’ fourth annual United Nations World Day Against Human Trafficking symposium Wednesday night at Chateau Banquets in Merrillville, Sharon — who didn’t give her last name for safety reasons — proudly wears her “survivor” title after many years of suffering as a victim. She was raised in Gary but made her way to Madison, Wisconsin, before coming back to escape further domestic violence.
“Ashley House (one of SAFECHR’s programs) took me in, and I learned how to change my opinion of what happened to me,” Sharon told the attendees. “I was a victim, but now, I’m a survivor.”
Human trafficking, which the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crimes defines as “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of people through force, fraud or deception, with the aim of exploiting them for profit,” was estimated in 2023 to be a $275 billion industry worldwide, Indiana State Representative John Bartlett, D-Indianapolis, reminded the audience during the expert panel. That number hasn’t been updated, but that it’s billions of dollars in the first place indicates that there’s not a lot of impetus to stop people from getting involved with it, he said.
It’s even more frustrating that people — from legislators on down — don’t seem to understand what it is or, if they do, don’t tend to want to throw their full weight at the problem, Bartlett said. Indiana, for example, is No. 6 in the country for dating violence.
“Why do people get drunk? If I turn my back, it’s not happening,” Bartlett said. “We run away from the hard things.”
“We wouldn’t have (human trafficking) if it wasn’t profitable,” added Genevieve Meyer, founder of the Resiliency Foundation, which works to abolish child marriage across the country. “This starts with paying people what they need to live, but until we fix that, we can’t fix the rest.”
Misconceptions about trafficking don’t help, the panel agreed. Not all traffickers are men, and not all victims are women, so teaching people to understand that is key.
“We have to talk to boys about their bodies and give them empathy,” said Lake County Police Deputy Commander David Marshall III, whose work with human trafficking takes him across the country. “When it happens to boys, they’re typically blamed for it.”
As well, male victims are often not identified but are younger, which contributes to the confusion, added Yvonne Moore, Focused Needs Director for the Indiana Department of Child Services’ Human Trafficking Response System. But the misinformation about what trafficking looks like is perhaps the worst misconception of all.
“When you hear things like ‘Kids are being sold in Wayfair boxes, that’s not true,” Moore said. “The more we fight against that, the better.”
As for parents, they will do well to “be the bad guy” with their kids more often, Marshall said. He can’t count how many times he’s asked for a child’s phone as evidence, only for the parents to balk and say they “can’t take their phones from them.”
“That’s when I’ll ask them, ‘Who owns the phone? You? Well then, Mom, take your phone,’” Marshall said. “Sometimes being popular is not the best for your kid. Also, flip phones work.”
In Indiana, little-to-no money is given toward fighting the problem, Meyer admitted, though state legislators have taken some steps, such as House Enrolled Act 1416 that Bartlett sponsored. It requires that all gas stations, welcome centers and safety rest areas display human trafficking awareness information.
“The one time you can be by yourself is in the bathroom, and one of things victims do is train themselves to memorize numbers,” he said.
Above all, as always, people need to speak out if they see something that doesn’t look right, Bartlett said, and they need to put their legislators on the spot.
“Ask any candidate where they stand on human trafficking. If they don’t know it exists, they don’t need your vote,” Bartlett said.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
