Memo To: Carl Heastie, Speaker of the NYS Assembly

Memo to: Carl Heastie, Speaker of the NYS Assembly

From: Craig Singer, Emma Andrews, & Mini Ravindran

Date: March 11th 2015

Subject: Human Trafficking in New York State

The Problem

Within the state of New York, terrible crimes take place on a regular basis that were prohibited by the thirteenth amendment of the United States Constitution over 150 years ago due to their inhumanity. These crimes are forms of modern day slavery, specifically labor trafficking and sex trafficking.

The New York State Interagency Task Force on Human Trafficking describes the act of labor trafficking as when, “he/she compels or induces a person to engage in labor, or recruits, entices, harbors, or transports a person to engage in labor…” (Hansell, 2008). Labor Trafficking, however, should not be confused with a similar, albeit, different crime all together: sex trafficking.

Sex trafficking involves prostitution, although this is only one component in the act of sex trafficking. Simply put, when an individual “intentionally advances or profits from prostitution [of others]” he or she is guilty of sex trafficking (Hansell, 2008). But in a country where throughout our respective childhood educations we have learned about the evils of slavery; why would individuals willingly take part in such a hateful crime?

The primary incentive for people to participate in the illegal practice of human trafficking is financial gain. Patrick Belser, an economist for the International Labour Office, who published Forced Labor and Human Trafficking: Estimating the Profits and concluded that:

The profits of forced labour[sic] could amount to US $44.3 billion per year, of which US $31.6 billion are made by exploiting trafficked victims. This confirms that ‘modern slavery’ is a lucrative business, which funds the expansion of international criminal groups, contributes to corruption, and undermines the rule of law. (Belser, 2005)

Within the illegal industry of sex trafficking that takes place specifically on American soil, there is also a great deal of money being made through criminal enterprise. In a 2009 report titled Human Trafficking, Modern Day Slavery, and Economic Exploitation it was confirmed that, “In the United States, traffickers make on average US $67,200 annually per victim of nonconsensual sexual exploitation” (Koettl, p.16).

New York must do more to stop human trafficking not only because of its financial influence within organized crime, but more importantly because of the effects this criminal act has on its victims. Northern Iowa’s Human Trafficking Response Team’s website reports that, “It has a devastating impact on individual victims, who often suffer physical and emotional abuse, rape, threats against self and family [sic], passport theft, and even death” (justice.gov).

Further consequences that victims of human trafficking endure include but are not limited to: “debt bondage, isolation, threat of exposure, use and threat of violence, and the use or threat of reprisals against loved ones” (justice.gov). However, the most significant crime that takes place within the act of human trafficking is the denial of ones basic human rights, most importantly, ones freedom. Even though the enactment of the New York State Anti-Trafficking Law in 2007 has taken great strides towards addressing the issues, further action is required to ensure that human trafficking is completely eliminated within New York.

Recently, an upstate New York resident became a victim of the sex trafficking industry that continues to thrive in New York and throughout the United States. Reporter for WGRZ Channel Two of Buffalo, NY, Claudine Ewing writes:

A Niagara Falls man was charged with sex trafficking of a minor and transportation of a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity. . . Marcellus Overton, 39, of Niagara Falls, enticed a victim under 18 between December 2012 and March 2013, to engage in a commercial sex act. The complaint further states that in March 2013, Overton knowingly transported the minor between New York and Georgia to engage in prostitution. (Ewing)

While the United States may have outlawed slavery in 1865, it is appalling that the crime of human trafficking continues to occur within the United States, and undeniably within New York. I urge New York lawmakers, such as yourself, and other members of the New York State Assembly to address this predicament in the near future by considering one or more of the following policy options.

Policy Options

Policy Option 1: Amending New York’s Anti-Trafficking Law to include Asset Seizure

New York’s current anti-trafficking law states that defendants found guilty of labor and sex trafficking may be subjected to additional criminal proceedings whereby “… a court may order a defendant to pay a fine of $5,000 or double the defendant’s gain from the commission of the crime” (NY Anti-Trafficking Network). The financial penalties for those found guilty of sex and labor trafficking in New York are lacking ferocity and do not have a strong enough deterrence effect.

The Covering House, an organization that provides relief to victims of human trafficking, estimates that “Human trafficking generates $9.5 billion yearly in the United States” (Thecoveringhouse.org). If hypothetically one-fiftieth of this revenue were generated in each state, it would mean that approximately $190 million of revenue is made from human trafficking in New York alone. [Note: This number should be considered an underestimate. The Covering House reports that “the Department of Justice has identified the top twenty human trafficking jurisdictions in the country” where New York was listed twice (Thecoveringhouse.org).]

According to the 2013 New York State Asset Forfeiture Report, approximately $48.1 million worth of assets were seized throughout the year (NYSDCJS). If the New York State Legislature were to amend the existing human trafficking law to include asset forfeiture, the law would result in a substantial increase in the total value of assets seized and “actively disrupt the criminal enterprise, maybe even more so than other criminal proceedings” (Whitman, p.3).

In order to affectively discourage the continuation of sex and labor trafficking in New York, Penal Laws §135.35 and §230.34 should be amended to include asset forfeiture with a clause that allows for a percentage to “go toward victim restitution, into a state-established victim fund, or to the government agencies involved in the investigation and prosecution [of such crimes]” (Whitman, p.3).

This additional clause is necessary in order to establish that funds collected from assets seized go directly towards aiding victims and supporting government offices that combat human trafficking. The Long Island newspaper, Newsday, reported last year, “In state cases, New York takes [or allocates] 32 percent of seized assets, which is put in a substance abuse fund” (Deutsch Fuller, 2014). Included with modifying the current law, a supplementary fund should be established that also receives 32 percent of forfeited assets in order to provide relief and resources to those who are suffering as a result of human trafficking and/or to those who are specifically working towards eliminating this criminal enterprise within New York.

Policy Option 2: Require Human Trafficking Education in Schools

Because sex traffickers use schools to recruit victims, students and teachers alike must be armed with knowledge of sex trafficking (Riley, 2013). Educators must betaught ways to identify victims and how to help prevent minor trafficking in schools.

The Department of Education has formulated a fact sheet detailing risk factors of those most vulnerable to trafficking and how they might be recruited(Department of Education, 2007). The Department of Education has outlined how to go about identifying trafficking and what to do if one suspects trafficking. This fact sheet must be widelydispersed, discussed, and reviewed to ensure that each staff member in every New York State school is comfortable with its content and is secure in following through with the protocols and policies detailed.

The educated staff must then use this information to bolster students against the dangers of trafficking. Schools must educate students about trafficking, and provide them with a youth-friendly space to acknowledge and battle risk factors.

Organizations likeGames for Change are helping to bring attention to a myriad of social issues through digital gameplay for K-12 students (Lindberg, 2015). One such game is "Half the Sky Movement: The Game". The game utilizes role-playing, and enables students to interact with a topic using empathy and a critical perspective all while exercising agency, problem-solving skills and social responsibility. This or a similar tool should be used in New York classrooms to help raise awareness of sex trafficking in an engaging, modern way.

School guidance counselorsshould also develop educational programsto provide at-risk students a psychoeducational intervention. Proven beneficial in anexploratory study into domestic minor sex trafficking risk, safe and encouragingpsychoeducational interventions can help students develop protective factors while also identifying the dangers of human trafficking (Countryman-Roswurm & Bolin, 2014).When the participants regularly met with social workers "(a) increasing awareness of healthy versus unhealthy relationship patterns, (b) increasing knowledge on how to set healthy relationship boundaries, (c) increasing the desire and expectation of mental, physical, and sexual respect, and (d) assisting in safe exits from abusive and/or exploitive relationships" they were more able to combat those risk factors most closely associated with sex trafficking (Countryman-Roswurm & Bolin, 2014). These interventions would benefit at risk students across New York State. Therefore, focused and ongoing human trafficking education should be mandatory across New York State for students and school staff members.

Policy Option 3: Increase the Education Requirement for New York State Police Officers to Four Years

New York police officers should also be trained to identify potential and current human trafficking victims, as they are largely responsible for enforcing human trafficking laws. Due to their dominant role in the investigation and capture of offenders, they must be dutifully trained to combat these crimes.

New York State Trooper employment qualifications mandate that employees earn at least 60 hours of higher education credits before employment (http://www.nytrooper.com). Research indicates a positive relationship between level of education and law enforcement officers’ ability to recognize and act upon human trafficking violations (Khan, 2014). Those law enforcement officers with at least four years of post-secondary education have increased awareness about issues of human trafficking.

Requiring law enforcement officers to have 120 hours of higher education would heighten their ability to recognize risk factors and warning signs, enabling them to more affectively combat human trafficking. New York State Police should amend the education requirements of new employees to a mandatory four years of higher education.

Policy Option 4: Use of Court Systems to Prevent the Exploitation of Trafficking Victims

One of the most significant changes in New York State is Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman’s initiative to implement specialized courts that deal with human trafficking, called the Human Trafficking Intervention Courts (“A Bold Plan,” 2013). These trafficking victims, who are the defendants in the Intervention Courts, will have services made available to them, such as shelter, medical and drug treatment, immigration assistance, education and job training (“A Bold Plan,” 2013). They must comply with court-ordered services and programs in order to have their charges dismissed or reduced (“A Bold Plan,” 2013). The model of Human Trafficking Intervention Courts should be expanded throughout New York State. Where there are no courts or social service programs that assist trafficking victims, the creation of task forces to explore the needs of this population would be a crucial step.

On October 17, 2013, Nassau County’s Human Trafficking Intervention Court, which served as a model for the rest of the state, commemorated its first year of operation (DA Rice, 2013). In Nassau County, all prostitution arrests are processed through the Intervention Court, and it is determined whether or not these defendants are victims of international or domestic trafficking (DA Rice, 2013). They are then given non-criminal dispositions and referred for further services such as Nassau County Coalition Against Domestic Violence, STEPS to End Family Violence, Restore NYC and the Mount Sinai Sexual Assault and Violence Intervention Program (DA Rice, 2013). In terms of statistics, the Intervention Court in Nassau handled 295 cases and referred 126 defendants to the health and social programs (DA Rice, 2013).

Policy Option 5: Mandating Anti-Trafficking Initiatives for Public Health Professionals

Studies in the United States among survivors of sex trafficking “suggest that up to 50% of victims seek medical care while in their trafficking situation” (Konstantopoulos et al., 2013). In a study published in the Journal of Public Health, a proposal was made to change the public health response to treatment of sex trafficking victims in five areas: (1) prevention, (2) victim identification, (3) trauma-informed health and mental health care, (4) rehabilitation and referral, and (5) advocacy and policy engagement (Konstantopoulos et al., 2013). In order to prevent the crime of sex trafficking overall and the re-entry of these victims back into the cycle of trafficking, it is important that front-line medical staff be trained to recognize the signs of a trafficked victim and to be prepared to provide trauma-based care (Konstantopoulos et al., 2013).

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has a four-level model to understand violence and to develop prevention strategies (Todres, 2011). Anti-trafficking public health initiatives can be modeled after the CDC model, which consist of “(1) individual risk factors, (2) relationships that might increase the risk of trafficking, including those with peer groups and partners, (3) the role of community settings, such as schools and neighborhoods, and (4) societal factors, including social and cultural norms” (Todres, 2011).

Resources such as the Polaris Project’s Human Trafficking Hotline should be made more prominent through public service announcements as well as signage in schools, health centers and emergency rooms. If victims of sex trafficking know that there is a safe and confidential place they can turn to, then the number of certified victims may increase.

Another challenge regarding human trafficking is that it is a hidden crime, and thus makes it very difficult to accurately measure the number of victims (Konstantopoulos et al., 2013). In addition, because there is no central database for tracking victims, policymakers should focus on creating a centralized system or registry. In New York, once a victim of trafficking comes into contact with a law enforcement agency or district attorney’s office has been identified, there is a process where they can be officially confirmed as a victim of human trafficking if they meet specific criteria (New York Social Services Law, 2015).