Page 52 - AK Parent Spring 2020
P. 52

  Not in my backyard...or is it?
Saving Alaska’s children from sex trafficking By Amy Newman
Spend any amount of time online and you’ll read stories of child sex trafficking. Facebook posts about an attempted abduction as a child
walked home from school. News stories about children rescued from sex trafficking rings and being transported across state lines.
It’s easy to tune these stories out, thinking “This doesn’t happen in my town” or “This will never happen to my child.”
Statistics, however, tell a different story. A 2016
study commissioned by Covenant House interviewed homeless youth at 10 Covenant House locations across the country, including Anchorage. The findings were startling: 1 in 4 Alaskan
youth reported being
involved in some type of
trafficking, higher than the
national average of 1 in 5.
And it’s not just adults doing the recruitment
and trafficking. Gwen Adams, executive director of Priceless Alaska, says her organization has seen instances of student-led sex trafficking rings at each of Anchorage’s six high schools.
“Most people don’t know it’s rampant here,” says Sherrie Laurie, executive director of the Downtown Hope Center. “It’s so much worse and so much more widespread than I think people have any idea.”
CHILDREN AT RISK
Alaska law defines child sex trafficking as inducing a minor to engage in a commercial sex act through force or threat of force. Although trafficking cuts across all socio-economic and ethnic groups, the common thread among victims is vulnerability, explains Special Agent Jolene Goeden with the FBI’s Anchorage field office.
“Traffickers are often looking for kids who have some type of vulnerability, and that’s most of our teenagers,” she says. “Young girls who have self-esteem issues,
if there’s family issues, problems at home, or drug
and alcohol problems. Just some type of vulnerability where the trafficker can insert himself to fill that void, or to be that person to build up the child’s self-esteem.”
Instability at home makes children more likely to latch on to someone showering them with attention.
“If the child comes from a home that’s not a healthy family with a good support system, the
first person who comes around that’s cool, they get sucked into something,” Sherrie explains.
Experts caution that children can be involved in trafficking even if they’re living at home.
“There’s a misconception about trafficking,” Jolene says. “It’s not like the movie Taken; kids are not being kidnapped, they’re not being snatched. I’m sure that
 “If the child comes from a home that’s not a healthy family with a good support system, the first person who comes around that’s cool, they get sucked into something.”
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