The labels that we use define how we understand problems. Sandra Morgan, the Director of the Global Center for Women & Justice and Dave Stachowiak, one of the Center’s board members, identify some common labels that our society uses and discuss best practices for finding better ways to describe issues in human trafficking to help end it.

Transcript

Dave: You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking Podcast; this is episode number 27, airing on April 26th, 2012. Welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking Podcast, my name is Dave Stachowiak.

Sandie: And my name is Sandie Morgan.

Dave: And this is the show where we empower you to study the issues, be a voice and make a difference in ending human trafficking. Sandie were going to be talking about labels today, but before talking about labels, we have had some cool media coverage that has happened as a result of the podcast here.

Sandie: You know, it was very exciting to open my inbox on Sunday morning and have an email from Holly Smith who is a survivor who has testified before congress and at that time had cited our podcast on development, mental development of kids and why they are so vulnerable, so in an article in the Washington times, she also cited our podcast.

Dave: Oh wow!

Sandie: Absolutely, and it’s really important, we will eventually do an interview with Holly, we’ve talked about that and Holly and I are talking about a schedule so put that on your calendar.

Dave: Good, good. Excellent.

Sandie: And if you have any questions that you’d like us to ask survivors like Holly Smith, please send them in to us at GCWJ.vanguard.edu or you can call and leave a voicemail on our phone number which is…

Dave: (714) 966-6361, and you can reach us there anytime.

Sandie: And I had a great conversation going on with one of our listeners in South Africa in the last few weeks and it begins to make it very clear to me how important it is to get information out there and assessable to the everyday person, because we are all in this together and we are not going to be able to end human trafficking just from a law enforcement perspective or just from a victim’s service perspective.

Dave: And it really is a global issue, Sandie, many of the things that we are struggling with here in the states and similar things that they are struggling with in South Africa, similar challenges that the European countries are struggling with. The more we can all learn together and support each other, we really do work to end this on a global scale, because of course its not enough just to do what a lot of law enforcement did back in the 70’s and 80’s around gang enforcement, which they did a great job in one place then the gangs would just move somewhere else down the street or to the next neighborhood, so having a global conversation is really essential for this issue.

Sandie: And I think especially in the area of commercial sexual exploitation, that’s what we’ve talked about several times, and that’s what the article that Holly Smith wrote is about, that there are some things that the everyday person can do which will just become a part of their household vocabulary that can change how this is perceived in their community, among law enforcement professionals, among clinicians, among school teachers. If we can begin to understand how important that is, we can all do something every single day that does change and does contribute to ending this kind of sex trafficking.

Dave: Well Sandie, I am going to throw myself into the category of ‘everyday person.’ I feel like an everyday person, so I am curious, what are some of the things I can do around using the correct vocabulary and using the correct labels, so I am very interested in our topic today to really look at what is in a label, and why is that important for us to consider when we are talking about human trafficking and many of the things that go along with it unfortunately.

Sandie: I think its best summed up in a quote from Sergeant Byron Fasset of Dallas, Texas. I met him a couple of years ago at a Department of Justice conference on human trafficking and he said, if a 45 year old man had sex with a 14 year old girl and no many changed hands, he was likely to get jail time for statutory rape. We would call is statutory rape. However if the same man left 80 dollars on the table after having sex with her, she would probably be locked up for juvenile prostitution, and he would probably go home with a fine, a ticket as a john. So, the difference because she is being sold changes who she is and who he is. Changes the penalty on both sides of the equation, and we aren’t going to talk about him today, that’s another show. We are going to talk about her and while we use the term gender ‘female’ most of the time when we talk about this, I also want to make it clear that this happens to boys as well. And depending on whose statistics you are reading, anywhere from 14 and I heard as high as 20% of commercially sexually exploited children as boys and this is an area that will require more attention as well.

Dave: The example you just gave, Sandie, of the two situations where an older man has sex with a younger woman just r...