As Super Bowl weekend quickly approached, several local Miami law enforcement officials teamed up with social services agencies to try and reach out to young prostituted girl on the street.

Brad Dennis, director of search operations for KlaasKIDS Foundation, stated pimps were bringing girls and young women from as far away as New York and Texas to Florida for the Super Bowl. Beginning the Wednesday prior, teams of volunteers hit the streets in an attempt to find victims of trafficking and get them to leave the streets. The job is not as easy as it seems, as volunteers attempt to make contact with the girls without their pimps noticing.

The volunteers, agencies, and law enforcement involved hope the outreach program will survive long after the weekend is over.

It is estimated over 100,000 girls and young women are victims of human trafficking and/or under the control of pimps in the United States.

N. Y. woman charged with prostitution in Seabrook may be victim of human trafficking

By Charles McMahon
cmcmahon@fosters.com
Saturday, January 30, 2010

A 49-year-old woman who was originally charged with prostitution may be a victim of sex trafficking, according to police in Seabrook. The woman was arrested and charged with prostitution as a result of an undercover investigation at the woman’s apartment. When the woman was arrested, she was found in her bedroom with a male customer. After she was taken away, three more males came to the apartment looking for her services. Police reported the woman did not speak very much English and they now fear she may be a victim of sex trafficking. She currently remains in jail with a $7,500 cash bond. There was no information released on whether any of the “customers” were arrested.

Police Chief Suggests Shaming Sex Customers

by: Brent Begin
January 8, 2010

San Francisco Police Chief George Gascon announced a plan to stop the rise of prostitution along Polk Street and Russian Hill by having mug shots and license plate numbers of people buying sex posted on a website or other media outlets. Gascon hopes these shaming tactics will deter some potential customers from sex trade patronage.

Honduran Girls Allegedly Forced into Prostitution

Associated Press
January 15, 2010

A McAllen, Texas bar owner and one of his bartenders were placed in custody by federal agents after a house raid revealed several Honduran girls who were allegedly forced into prostitution. Beleal Garcia Gonzalez and Elizabeth Mendez Vasquez are both illegal Mexican immigrants and have been charged with harboring illegal immigrants.

The raid in Mission, Texas, on January 13, 2010, lead to the discovery of at least three Honduran girls, between 14 and 17 years of age. The girls stated they were forced to work for $20 a day in Garcia's bar and were forced to engage in prostitution to pay off their smuggling debts.

“President Barack Obama Declared January 2010 as National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month”

Press release by the White House
January 4, 2010

Present Barack Obama signed a proclamation on January 4th, 2010, declaring January 2010 as National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month. In the White House press release, the declaration stated the following:

“As a Nation, we have known moments of great darkness and greater light; and dim years of chattel slavery illuminated and brought to an end by President Lincoln's actions and a painful Civil War. Yet even today, the darkness and inhumanity of enslavement exists. Millions of people worldwide are held in compelled service, as well as thousands within the United States. During National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, we acknowledge that forms of slavery still exist in the modern era, and we recommit ourselves to stopping the human traffickers who ply this horrific trade.”

The White House recognizes the need for prevention of human trafficking and is calling on all federal, state, local, and social agencies to come together to find a solution to human trafficking. The President calls on all Americans to “educate themselves about all forms of modern slavery and the signs and consequences of human trafficking.”

To read the proclamation in its entirety, please visit http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/presidential-proclamation-national-slavery-and-human-trafficking-prevention-month

Sex Ed: Keeping up with the johns: Why Men Pay for Sex, and What Happens When They Do

By Jay Dixit, published on November 1, 2009- last reviewed December 6, 2009
Psychology Today

It is a common misconception that most men who pay for sex are “losers” who cannot find sex any other way; however, a recent study shows most of these “customers” are in fact in a stable relationship and hold down a steady job. So why do these men turn to prostitution?

The most common reason men report using individuals in prostitution is to live out fantasies they can not do with their wife/girlfriend or to supplement their sex lives. Others are attracted to the “thrill of adventure,” while others state they enjoy the rush of committing an “illegal and secret act.”

According to Victor Malerek, author of The Johns: Sex for Sale and the Men Who Buy it, all of these men have one thing in common: they all do not think about the women they use and what the circumstances were that brought the women into prostitution. Psychologist Melissa Farley, another researcher who studies men who purchase sex, states that these men often come to view women as objects and may have difficulty in maintaining normal and healthy relationships.

“Prostitution Now Outlawed In R.I., But Is That Good?”

by Ian Donnis; November 15, 2009 from WRNI

Until earlier this month, Rhode Island was the only place in the country where prostitution was legal across an entire state -- because of an unintended loophole in the law. In 2003, a court case made it clear that prostitutes were free from prosecution if their sex trade occurred behind closed doors. There were a growing number of so-called Asian spas that critics say are thinly veiled brothels. Attorney General Patrick Lynch says the new law will allow law enforcement to shut down these spas if they continue to offer sexual services, and to go after organizations that exploit women as prostitutes.

On Nov. 3, Gov. Donald Carcieri closed the loophole by signing a bill that immediately banned indoor prostitution. "Prostitution, outdoors or indoors, is a bad thing," he announced. "I think it's been a black eye, frankly, in our state, that we've allowed this to go, for whatever the reason is, for far too long.” But even the main legislative sponsor of the new law acknowledges that it won't end prostitution. And critics like state Rep. Rod Driver say it will hurt women forced into the sex trade by poverty or drug addiction. "The proponents of the bill keep talking about the victims — the victims being the women that are in this profession," he says. "So we're going to help the women by putting them in prison, and I have a real problem with that."

“Sex workers 'have right to set terms'”

KIM ARLINGTON COURTS
November 17, 2009

It might seem unusual for a rape charge to arise from an incident in a brothel, but the Crown Prosecutor, Mark Tedeschi, QC, told the court that sex workers were entitled to set conditions on their sexual encounters - just like everyone else. This trial involved a US Navy serviceman accused of sexually assaulting a prostitute at a Potts Point brothel. Timothy Davis has pleaded not guilty to a charge of sexual intercourse without consent, and also denies an alternative charge that, with intent to have sexual intercourse, he recklessly inflicted actual bodily harm on her. In evidence the woman recalled that near the end of the half-hour session, Mr Davis became violent and removed his condom. ''I started freaking out,'' she told the court. ''He put me in a headlock, started suffocating me with the pillow … I thought he was going to snap my neck.'' She said he had sex with her as she struggled. Afterwards, she felt ''happy to still be alive''. The Crown alleged that Mr Davis was determined to have unprotected sex, even though he was told that sex with a condom was a house rule. The trial continues.

“Man pleads guilty in sex slave case”

By SCOTT WALDMAN November 16, 2009

Lester Dutcher pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Albany late last week to charges that he tried import a minor for the purposes of prostitution. In court papers, Dutcher said the girl would also have been made to cook and clean for he and his wife. No girl was delivered to Dutcher, who faces 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine at his sentencing, scheduled for Feb. 16. In online chat rooms between November 2006 and June 2007, Dutcher wrote to people he believed to be in Europe and Nigeria that he had a customer who wanted a young girl for a sex slave. Dutcher apparently had plans to acquire other women. He sent a real estate listing of a house that he wanted to buy to house sex slaves and said he hoped to charge men $200 an hour to patronize the prostitutes . He said he would offer special rates to groups of men. He told investigators "that's what I'm into" and admitted to viewing and receiving child pornography for about year.

“Fears of a sexless Amsterdam”

By Abbie Steiner November 15, 2009

Amsterdam is known for its liberal views on otherwise taboo topics such as prostitution, which is legal within Amsterdam city limits. The “red-light district” of Amsterdam is the area where the most sex trafficking occurs, grossing more than $100 million each year, and although it is considered the most affluent tourist attraction of the Netherlands, city officials are trying to stifle the sex trafficking. Amsterdam residents who are against the movement to shut down the district believe that it is a tolerant community where freedom is highly valued, and that it should remain as such. There are now about 250 (down about 50 percent since previous years) windows – actually glass doors – each displaying a scantily clad girl (or sometimes two) dressed in lingerie or a fantasy costume. Mayor Job Cohen, sided by Deputy Mayor and advocate for the Dutch Labour Party Lodewijk Asscher, drove the movement to shut down the district as of Feb. 8, 2008.

Since the beginning of the movement, more than 109 windows have been shut down in the district, and more are on their way If the plan goes through, the neon lights will give way to high-end real estate, galleries and expensive furniture stores. Many of the residents of Amsterdam are bitter about the transformation and believe that an Amsterdam with no red-light district is like a “Paris with no Eiffel Tower” and are convinced that shutting down the district will only serve to hurt the economy. Many more residents, however, are excited for the change and look forward to delivering their hometown from “sleaze” and “dirty money.”