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Sex trafficking: A crime hiding in plain sight

The Schuyler Sun - 4/10/2017

COLUMBUS - More than a dozen faces were projected onto a screen.

There were pictures of men and women of different ages and races. No two looked the same, but they all shared something in common.

Each was arrested for human sex trafficking in Nebraska or Iowa.

Anna Brewer told the story of a few of them.

There were the four in Omaha who operated massage parlors as a front for prostitution; a husband and wife who enlisted a relative and his girlfriend to recruit teenagers at a Papillion-La Vista High School football game to sell for sex; and a woman who sold her 14-year-old daughter to an undercover State Patrol officer.

Brewer is a former FBI special agent who investigated sex trafficking cases in Omaha and other cities. Now, with the Omaha Women's Fund, a group that seeks to improve the lives of women and children, Brewer helps educate the public about human sex trafficking in Nebraska.

Her most-recent stop was April 4 in Columbus, where she spoke at First United Methodist Church and told the group of about 70 attendees that sex trafficking is a crime hiding in plain sight.

"People don't realize this is happening. They don't recognize the signs and, if they do, they don't know who to call," Brewer said.

The pictures showed there aren't stereotypical traffickers.

"Traffickers can look like anyone," Brewer said.

So can the victims in the $150 billion industry, though children account for about half of those sold for sex and about three-quarters lived in foster care or had another type of guardianship.

Human trafficking is the second-largest criminal enterprise in the world behind drug trafficking. There are hot spots for it along Interstate 80 across Nebraska. Each month, 900 people are sold for sex in the state, according to a report by Creighton University and the Omaha Women's Fund.

Most of the activity is found in Omaha and Lincoln, but sex trafficking isn't confined to big cities. Locations such as North Platte, Scottsbluff and even Columbus also see it.

Brewer said trafficking involves force and coercion of victims. It is not voluntary. With technology, selling someone for sex can happen within a few minutes.

A victim can be bought and sold multiple times. Victims live an average of just seven years from the time they engage in their first commercial sex act because of homicide, suicide, abuse and sexually transmitted diseases.

Most victims, about 88 percent, do have contact with a health care provider. Because of that, Brewer said it's important to educate health care professionals to recognize the signs of someone being sold for sex. The same goes for those in the hospitality industry as traffickers frequently use hotels while moving their victims from location to location.

Some signs are unusual tattoos such as barcodes, or a person who is never left alone, always pays in cash and has few belongings.

Brewer said victims often don't see a way out. They live in fear because of threats, violence and manipulation from their traffickers. They also fear being judged for their experiences. It is important to meet the needs of victims, which include mental health care, teaching life skills and safe houses they can go to after escaping traffickers.

Efforts to stop human trafficking include creating awareness of the problem and passing legislation to stiffen penalties for buyers.

"If we had no buyers we wouldn't have trafficking. Let's teach young men, young kids and people in general to be good people and have healthy relationships," Brewer said.