BOYS AND TRAFFICKING: IDENTIFYING AND SERVING SILENT SURVIVORS

Surviving the Streets:Experiences of LGBTQ Youth, YMSM, YWSW

Engaged in Survival Sex

Meredith Dank, PhDJustice Policy Center

Urban Institute

Terminology

Youth engaged in survival sex: The terms “youth engaged in

survival sex” and “youth who exchange sex for money and/or material

goods (e.g. shelter, food drugs, etc.)” are used here to reflect young

people’s experiences of involvement in the commercial sex market in

their own terms. These terms describe a behavior as opposed to

labeling the youth themselves.

Exploiter: An individual who uses tactics involving force, fraud, and

coercion to control a young person’s involvement in the commercial

sex market.

Peer facilitator: A peer, who may or may not be engaged in survival

sex, who provides nonexploitative support to someone engaging in

survival sex, such that the person engaging in survival sex does not

have limited mobility; decides what they do and what they trade sex

for; and is not subject to force, fraud, or coercion. 

Methods

• Interviews with N=283 LGBTQ youth, YMSM, YWSW

• Eligibility criteria:

• 13-21 years old, self-identified as LGBTQ, YMSM or YWSW

• involved in survival sex in NYC ( i.e., receives payment in the form of cash or other in-kind payment in exchange for sex and trades in the New York City area)

• Respondent driven sampling: participants recruit other

youth to the study

• Worked in partnership with Streetwise and Safe (SAS), a

New York City based organization

• Researchers trained youth leaders to conduct in-depth

interviews

• Anonymous and confidential

Findings

Sample Characteristics: Birthplace

• 2 in 3 youth were born (63%) and/or raised (65%) in New

York City.

• Approximately 3 in 4 respondents were born and/or raised

in the tri-state area of New York City, New Jersey and

Connecticut.

Gender

Male46%

Female35%

Trans Female11%

Trans Male3%

Trans Other2%

Other*3%

*Includes queer/questioning, an-drogynous, femme, gender non-conforming, and genderless

• Half identified as male, one-third as female• 11% identified as transgender female, 3% identified as

transgender male

Sexual Orientation

• 38% identified as gay or lesbian• 13% identified as straight• 37% identified as bisexual

*Includes open, pansexual, no preference, and no label

Bisexual

Gay

Lesbian

Heterosexual

Queer and questioning

Other*

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%

37%

23%

15%

13%

3%

9%

Race

Black 39%Multiracial 33%

Latino 17%

Other, 6%White, 5%

Native, 1%

• Majority of youth were people of color

• 39% identified as Black/African-American

• 17% as Hispanic/Latino

• 33% with more than one race and/or ethnicity (most commonly Black

and Latino)

Education

Most youth (76 percent) were not currently enrolled in school, although almost half (48 percent) had neither graduated high school nor obtained a GED. Of those currently enrolled in school, 39 percent reported not having attended class within the year before their interview.

Living Situation

Shelter Family Home Street Friend's Home Own Place/

Apartment

48%

11% 10% 10% 9%

Age First Engaged in Survival Sex

7 9 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

1% 1% 1%3%

5%

14%13%

14%

25%

9% 9%

2% 2%

• Average age was 17 years old

• Most youth were 15 to 18; full range was 7 to 22

How First Engaged in Survival Sex

Friends or peers42%

Someone approached

me24%

Own initiative18%

Exploiter6%

Family4%

Peer facilitator1%

Other2%

Given something, not free

3%

How I Got Involved

“I don’t remember it that vividly, all I know is just that I was starving. …My friend was like, ‘come to the stroll trust me, you'll get somebody.’ I was hungry, I was cold, so I did it.”

21 years old, black, gay, male

How I Got Involved

It came to the point where my mother had kicked me out of the house, and I was staying with him. So pretty much he was paying everything for me, so I really didn’t really have a choice. I didn’t know how to handle it, because he was still basically giving me my financial needs, so I couldn’t—I would say no then he just came like, “I know you need to take care of your girlfriend” and stuff like that and I couldn’t . . . I couldn’t say no, because at the time she was pregnant . . . I figured I am sacrificing myself, my body for somebody else—I felt like I’m doing a good thing.

20 years old, black, male, heterosexual

What Do You Receive In Exchange for a Sexual Act

Mon

ey

Shelte

rFo

od

Drugs

Alcoho

l/cigar

ette

s

Tran

spor

tatio

n*

Prot

ectio

n

Other

**0%

25%

50%

75%

100%88%

29%

19%13%

4% 3% 1%

9%

* e.g., Metrocard, bus fare** e.g., jewelry, gifts

Situations Involving an Exploiter

14.5% of youth had been in an exploitative situation involving a trafficker

(evidence of force, fraud and coercion)

Feelings About Trading Sex

Complexities

There are many positive things about trading sex. You can

trade sex for the life of your kids, you can trade sex to keep

your apartment, you can trade sex to feed yourself…Some

people think that the sex trade is the worst thing you can do

cause your selling yourself…but when it boils down to it, if you

have no food in your stomach, if you have no transportation,

but you have a man in your face willing to give you money for

a half hour, you put your pride to the side, you throw

everything out the window and you forget who you are and you

forget what you’re doing and you learn to be someone else.

19 years old ,Latino gay male

Desire to Stop Engaging in Survival Sex

• 67% of youth reported wanting to stop at some point or immediately (5%)

• 21% said they had already stopped

• 7% said they had no desire to stop

Desire to Stop Engaging in Survival Sex

I just need my own apartment and stuff, I need my own

apartment a stable job like not even a stable job, I will take you

know should I work at Burger King if it meant like it could pay

my rent, and pay my little expenses and this time like a little

some left over yeah, I would do that I’m not very like a

complex person I’m very content with my life.

21 years old, black gay male

Criminal Justice Involvement

Run-ins with Law Enforcement

• Over two-thirds (71%) of the sample reported having had a run-in (stop, question and/or frisk) with law enforcement.

• Most (51%) reported that they happened rarely (e.g., couple times per year).

• Over a quarter (26%) said such encounters happened occasionally (e.g., couple times per month).

• 19 percent said they happened frequently (e.g., couple times per week)

Frequent Run-ins

Interviewer: How often have you had run-ins with the police? Interviewee: Oh God almost every day. I’ll try to sleep on the train, I wake up to police, I try to sleep in abandoned buildings, wake up to police, walk down the street - the police walk up to me. Interviewer: And how long would you say you have been having interactions with the police like that every day? Interviewee: Since I was young…[since] I was 14, I don’t know, they’ll always find something.

20 years old, bisexual Latino male

Positive Interactions

One time but they just stopped me because they was like... it was kind of late outside and the dude he was, supposedly a nice cop, he was like, ‘It’s kind of late outside, it’s night time, what are you doing?’ I’m like, ‘I’m walking home’, and he said, ‘Where do you live?’ I said, ‘I live down this block.’ He was like, ‘Okay, I just wanted to make sure you get home safely because it’s been reported that there were thefts and robbery and stuff going on, people robbing people.’

18 years old, gay black male

Number of Arrests

Zero29%

One25%

Two11%Three

7%

Four4%

Five4% Six to Ten

11%

Eleven or more9%

Frequency of Arrests

Interviewer: How many times have you been arrested? Interviewee: As an adult or in my life? Interviewer: In your life. Interviewee: More than all your fingers and toes and my fingers and toes and probably all my friends. Interviewer: And so you’re saying you’ve been arrested what 20, 40 times? Interviewee: Like 75. Interviewer: Legit? Interviewee: Legit, I went to juvenile prison. Interviewer: Okay, okay, so when did you start getting arrested? Interviewee: When I was 12.

21 years old, pansexual multiracial female

Arrest Charges

38%

29%

22%22%19%

16%

9% 8%3% 3% 3% 1% 1%

11%

Arrest Experience

Interviewee: He started choking me before we got in the patrol car, so I was upset about that. But I went about it the wrong way I was just screaming and acting a fool and flailing, had I been quiet and just you know remembered his number…his supervisor was even a little worried because I kept screaming, ‘I'm going to do something, I remember all your badge numbers, I will write a report on you guys.’ Interviewer: How did he come to be choking you? Interviewee: He was telling me to shut up, he was telling me to shut up because I was screaming for help. There were people watching and I said, ‘somebody get help, get help, they are arresting us for no reason, get help get help.’ And then he started choking me, telling me to shut up.

20 years old, gay black and Latino male

Unpaid Tickets

I had like six tickets I can’t pay, and I can do nothing about it because I had to go to court Far Rockaway for the train ticket [which was] about taking [up] two seats. The trespassing [one] I told you about, and they give me a Desk appearance ticket for that in Manhattan. [So, I got one] in Far Rockaway, I got two more here in Manhattan and one in the Bronx.

20 years old, bisexual Latino male

Child Welfare Experiences

Child Welfare Experiences

I went through the ACS and that was because of my twin sister running around, being in the village and stuff, getting into trouble, getting locked up for prostituting and things like that. So, it affected me but I was old enough to know and lie to them. I lied to the ACS, so they closed the case.

19 years old, Male, Gay, Latino

Child Welfare Experiences

My interactions with court system, the family court system, the ACS court system, it’s alright but it needs some improvement because I feel like me getting discharged from foster care and having to go into this lifestyle was unacceptable because I was prepared, I had a job, I was prepared for it and I just feel like they cut, they let me off short and it was just because of my age and that bothered me so much.

19 years old, Male, Gay, Black

Recommendations

• Develop accessible street-based and comprehensive drop-in services and peer-led outreach.

• Improve safe and supportive short-term shelter, long-term affordable housing, and family-based placement options subject to periodic review.

• Create safe and supportive housing and placement protocols specific to transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals.

• Broaden access to and improve gender-affirming health care.

• Develop living-wage employment opportunities.

• Improve food security among LGBTQ youth.

Recommendations

• Adopt nondiscrimination, confidentiality, and complaint procedures in shelters, programs, and out-of-home placements.

• Create safe and supportive protocols specific to LGBTQ youth engaged in survival sex for child welfare, court system and probation personnel, through adoption of non-discrimination, harassment, confidentiality and complaint policies and procedures

• Design police training curricula to improve relationships with LGBTQ youth and decrease profiling, harassment, and abuse.

• Establish clear guidance in federal-state cooperative grant incentives to ensure that youth engaged in survival sex do not face arrest, court-involvement, discrimination, and involuntary confinement

Contact

Meredith Dank, PhD

Justice Policy Center

Urban Institute

mdank@urban.org

Full reports: http://

www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/2000119-Surviving-the-Streets-of-New-York.pdf

http://

www.urban.org/sites/default/files/alfresco/publication-pdfs/2000424-Locked-In-Interactions-with-the-Criminal-Justice-and-Child-Welfare-Systems-for-LGBTQ-Youth-YMSM-and-YWSW-Who-Engage-in-Survival-Sex.pdf

Tina Frundt

Founder/Executive Director

202.525.1426 (office)

www.courtneyshouse.org

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Are You Ready to Change Your Perception?

Courtney's House38

Who Are We?

Courtney's House39

Courtney’s : We provide services for youth in the DC, Northern Virginia & Maryland area.

Courtney's House is a drop in center that offers a Non-Residential Program that serves 12-21 year old survivors of Domestic Sex Trafficking, Female, Male, and the LGBTQ community.

In addition, Courtney’s House offers emergency Case Management to clients over the age of 21 for 30 days.

Mission: To provide survivor focused, trauma informed, and holistic services to survivors of sex trafficking.

Services

Courtney's House40

Intake Assessments• Assessments are screening methods for Sex Trafficking.

Street Outreach • Friday & Saturday nights ( 2-7am)

Hotline• 24 Hours, 7 days a week• Answered by survivors of sex trafficking, DV and sexual assault• 1-888-261-3665

Research• Support Street Outreach• Find possible matches with Missing Kids• Find & remove Online ads for clients

Services (continued)

Courtney's House41

Survivor Support GroupsParent/Guardian Support GroupsMentoringTutoringSurvivor Intensive Case Management Parent Insensitive Case ManagementDrop-in Center

Types of Trafficking

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• Testing the waters• Calling others the names they

have been called to see how you react

• Talk about an abusive boyfriend that they live with, with other girls, or rape

see what questions you follow up with

Common Ways Survivors Tell without Telling

Trauma on the Brain

Courtney's House44

Of course higher risk of PTSD Mood Disorders

Self-blame, Shame, GuiltDissociation, Depersonalization Limited ability to think about themselves

in the future, plan goalsAffects on sex drive Drug and/or alcohol use, but DO NOT

assume

Trauma on the Body

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Who’s Pulling the Strings???

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PIMP Controlled

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GANG ControlledIntervene Assessment

(from Shared Hope International)*Courtney’s House expanded on these questions)

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FAMILY ControlledIntervene Assessment

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BOYS/TRANS Controlled

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Pimp Control TERMS:

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Pimp ControlTERMS (continued)

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Hard Facts

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Sexually exploited minors should not be treated as criminals or delinquents but as severely traumatized and abused survivors requiring protection, empathy, specialized services and counseling/therapy.

They should NOT be re-tramautized through arrest, prosecution and detainment.

Police Officer Oath: “I will always have the courage to hold myself and others accountable for our actions.”

Contact Information

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If you have a question about webinar content, please contact:Tina Frundt, Founder and Executive Director, Courtney's

House, tfrundt@courtneyshouse.orgMeredith Dank, Senior Research Associate, The Urban

Institute, mdank@urban.org

If you require a certificate of completion for this webinar, please contact:Naomi Smoot at smoot@juvjustice.org

To learn more about CJJ, including how to become an individual or organizational member, visit www.juvjustice.org/about-us/.