Amelia Franck Meyer

You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. This is episode number 28, airing on May 10, 2012. Welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. My name is Dave Stachowiak.

And I’m Sandie Morgan, Director of the Global Center for Women and Justice at Vanguard University.

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, we are back today with a another interview to help us to gain even more knowledge so we can study the issues, be a voice and ultimately be able to end human trafficking and contribute to making a difference that we always talk about. So, I’m so glad to be back with you and with our guest today.

Well, I’ll tell you a little bit about our guest. First of all, she was one of our workshop presenters at the March Ensure Justice Conference on “Standing Together to End Exploitation of Girls.” She received really high marks from everybody that attended her workshop.

Great!

In fact, if you are interested in ordering a copy of her workshop, you will be able to do that at [email protected]. But let me introduce Amelia Frank Meyer. She has been the CEO of Anu Family Services since 2001. That’s a child welfare agency located in Wisconsin and Minnesota. For those of you who listened to the last podcast, we were talking about not calling these kids terms that put them into juvenile delinquency, but finding and making opportunities by giving them designations that place them squarely in a child welfare context. That’s exactly what Amelia does. She is an advanced practiced social worker, a licensed independent social worker, she has a master’s degree in social work from University of Minnesota, a master’s degree in sociology from Illinois, and a graduate certificate from the University of Minnesota. Dave is always excited, Amelia, to meet fellow friends from Illinois and he was excited when he found out that Illinois is the first state to pass a law that makes it impossible to prosecute any child under the age of 18 for prostitution, no matter what. We are very happy to have you here. Welcome.

Thank you. My pleasure to be here.

When you did your workshop for us at the Ensure Justice Conference, the title of your workshop was “Stop Blaming the Victim.” We talked about the kinds of baggage that come with terms like” teen prostitute” and “child prostitute”. What that does is people say things that are really just unreasonable. A clinician that says, “Well, the first time she was forced, but after that it’s her choice.” Or, “Well, you know, if she’s dressed like that, what does she expect?” We have lots of evidence that people do blame the victim and we have people who are trying to be part of the solution that blame the victim because she doesn’t follow through on what we we advised her to do. What we want to hear from you today is we want to know why we shouldn’t blame the victim. What is her experience? What can we do to better understand the victim?

Well, I’m just struck with this group of girls how much it reminds me of the Stockholm Syndrome and the work that’s been done around that where victims actually identify with their abusers as a protective mechanism. It’s a normal, healthy brain response to captive trauma. When I hear words like “teen prostitute” I get a little cringed hearing those, because there is an implied meaning that it’s a trade, that it’s voluntary or chosen, or “if she just wanted to leave, she could.” This clearly does not emphasize the impact of trauma and fear. There’s so many things we can relate to this kind of experience for girls in terms of kidnap victims, prisoners of war, I mean, Elizabeth smart, Patty Hurst. Experiences of folks who are kept, not in their will. They eventually stop trying to leave because of fear and trauma. This is something that we do as human beings. When we’re in these life or death situations, which in many cases, this is for these girls, we find ways to survive. Using terms like that, that imply some level of [inaudible], you’ll hear the same kinds of things with battered women. “Why didn’t they just leave?” Because there is a very pervasive technique of fear, humiliation, and degradation that is used to make sure that they feel like they can’t leave, that they might die, or someone close to them might die. Or, you know, something terrible has happened to them. This is a kind of brainwashing or occulting that goes on, to help alter the thinking and the ability and will of folks so that they stay in these environments, out of fear. They stay in these environments as a matter of survival.

When we were ending our last podcast, we were citing some of the problems that these kids have, that are brought out of being commercially sexually exploited. Besides the sexually transmitted diseases, PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) seems to be one of the common factors. You just mentioned the trauma associated with rape. Can you speak to that?

Well, a lot of the work that I do in child welfare centers around grief and loss, and responding to trauma from that perspective. That is what I think about when I think about these girls, in terms of the trauma aspect, and what girls are left with as a result of this. You talked about some of the physical and health implications, and those are quite serious in many, many cases and have lifelong impacts. But, the other piece is the incredible grief that comes with the losses. I’ll just name a few off the top of my head, not having intensive experience in this area, but knowing how closely it relates to the girls that I work with as well. The loss ...