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Originally posted by mesabi:
I'd like to see President Trump make beefed-up human trafficking legislation a keystone of his second term; both for sexual purposes and labor. I especially think that in the case of underage sexual slavery the offense should carry a death sentence.

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Originally posted by radioman:
but some remained open, claiming, "She had false ID"

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Originally posted by mesabi:
I already support a few organizations called the state and federal governments. I'd like to hold them accountable for doing a better job.

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Originally posted by RogueJSK:

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Originally posted by mrvmax:
FYI here are a few organizations you can support to help stop this

I'd caution you to be very choosy about which anti-trafficking organizations you contribute towards.

There's a lot of money (both grants and donations) in anti-trafficking outreach these days, since it has grabbed the spotlight in recent years and is becoming recognized as a major issue. And as a result, hundreds/thousands of these non-profits are popping up to get their piece of the pie. But many of these organizations don't have the first clue about what they're doing. And some will not cooperate with other similar organizations, instead trying to monopolize on the "trafficking money" in their area. So there's extreme balkanization going on, with all these organization squabbling about territory and money, and often no real unified attempt at working together to help trafficking victims.

In addition, some of these organizations even end up either not cooperating with, or even directly interfering with, law enforcement trafficking investigations, either through inadvertent bumbling because they don't know what they're doing, or because they are purposely anti-law-enforcement-minded.


There's also a lot of false or inflated stats floating around out there from a number of these organizations, who are just using big scary numbers to frighten PTA meetings and church groups into cracking opening their checkbooks to donate towards Saving The Children.


Don't get me wrong... Yes, it's a seriously major problem. And yes, nonprofits are needed to assist with it, since cops can't also be offering mental health counseling, providing shelters, offering family support services, etc. But stuff like I described can be very frustrating, and counterproductive.

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Originally posted by copaup:
I currently work trafficking investigations. It's an enormous problem, but as someone above said it's not like Taken. Everyone seems to think its snatching kids off the street and selling them. That is very, very rare. What is unfortunately very common is to find kids with problems and to groom them until working in the sex trade seems acceptable to them. The vast majority of what I see are runaways who have met their current traffickers via the internet as a way of making money while on the run. I see far more adult victims being trafficked against their will than kids. It's harder to convince adults, even adults who've been in the life, that it's "ok" to be pimped out. I've seen horrible, horrible things since I took this job. The kids tend to be abused psychologically. The adults tend to be controlled by fear and violence.

Here is the best advice I can give on the subject. WATCH WHAT YOUR KIDS DO ONLINE. I spend a lot of time writing search warrants and reading returns from social media. Kids, and I mean KIDS, not teens, are far more aware of sex than those of us who grew up pre internet have any inkling of. They get curious. They ask the internet and it points them places they really shouldn't be. One of the things I have a problem with is convincing juries that the messages I'm reading came from 13 or 14 year olds.

They communicate with each other, and they communicate with adults. Those adults can and will take advantage of them. The scary thing is so will other kids. I see it every day with kids from every social group. Race, religion, economic status, none of it matters. All that matters is parents who take an active role in monitoring what their kids do, who they talk to and what they talk about, and providing them with knowledge to make sound decisions.

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Originally posted by arcwelder:

What I've already seen, from being out in public, but also in peoples homes through work, is that people are more than happy to sit a young child in front of the internet and not pay attention.

It isn't television, and I don't think enough people understand that.

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Originally posted by copaup:

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Originally posted by arcwelder:

What I've already seen, from being out in public, but also in peoples homes through work, is that people are more than happy to sit a young child in front of the internet and not pay attention.

It isn't television, and I don't think enough people understand that.

Truer words have rarely if ever been spoken. I've got a lecture I give to parents about that very topic. The internet may be the greatest invention in the history of mankind. It may also kill us all.

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Originally posted by stu1000rr:
I dont think he means 76,000 per day taken for trafficking.....rather 76,000 per day are trafficked. Meaning pimped.....sold......or other wise.

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Originally posted by a1abdj:

If I recall correctly a person (or persons) suspected of being trafficked were employed in one of his clubs...

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Originally posted by radioman:

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Originally posted by copaup:

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Originally posted by arcwelder:

What I've already seen, from being out in public, but also in peoples homes through work, is that people are more than happy to sit a young child in front of the internet and not pay attention.

It isn't television, and I don't think enough people understand that.

Truer words have rarely if ever been spoken. I've got a lecture I give to parents about that very topic. The internet may be the greatest invention in the history of mankind. It may also kill us all.

any chance that lecture or a similar lecture exists on youtube? I'd like to get more educated since I've got 2 young ones.

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Originally posted by RogueJSK:
Polaris is the only national organizations with which I've personally dealt. (But even their data is reportedly questionable.)

Smaller state/local/hometown organizations are very much a crapshoot, as described.

So my best answer is to do your research. Check their finances (as you should with any nonprofit before donating.) Ask your local cops, or even you local FBI office or Federal prosecutor, which local organizations they work well with.