During this episode, Sandra Morgan and Dave Stachowiak speak with Deputy Chief Derek Marsh about the importance of not just studying how we can rescue victims but also how we can prevent children from becoming victims. In 2004 Derek Marsh helped start the Orange County human trafficking task force. He explains that victims usually become victims because of environmental factors. At our 2016 Ensure Justice conference, Derek spoke about how people also become victims due to lack of resources and quality of education. Because of the lack of access, those who live in poverty become more vulnerable to people who can exploit them. Many people in poor communities are just trying to survive because of conflict and there not being enough infrastructure to support them.  Children become vulnerable because of migration. About 1.4 million children are those of undocumented immigrants and 2 out of 10 of these children are in greater risk because of poverty.  Because of their immigration status, pimps are likely to manipulate young women and children. They take advantage of their vulnerability and also threaten to report them to authorities. Our goal is to stop this from happening before they have been victimized and exploited. If we’re going to approach this issue proactively, we have to identify the vulnerable people and create programs that are collaborative. We need to create programs across the nation that help identify the boys and girls at risk and provide them with resources so they can provide for themselves and to prevent their future children from continuing this cycle.

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Resources:

Derek Marsh Bio

Dr. Sandra Morgan’s new blog

Global Center for Women and Justice

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