What about male sex trafficking victims?

I found a YouTube video discussing the sex trafficking of boys. From the YouTube summary:

Are there male victims of child sex trafficking? Do they need help too? Interview by Fernanda Mejia (Project For Healing Humanity) with Blair Corbett (Ark of Hope for Children).

The interview does not go into depth about the topic, however, it is good to see someone talking about this issue. Like Blair, I do not believe there is a single country where the sex trafficking of boys and girls does not occur. I also doubt that girls make up the majority of victims. When one looks at sexual abuse against children, one finds that the rates of abuse between boys and girls is similar, 1 in 6 and 1 in 4 respectively. Many of the researchers who study sexual violence against boys believe the 1 in 6 rate is a low estimate, so the rate could be 1 in 5 or even 1 in 4. But as it is, 16% of boys and 25% of girls are abused, and that is just abuse in general.

How likely is it that people who willing to abuse 16% of boys would decide never to traffic them? It is not very likely. It is more probable that boys who are trafficked simply remain under the radar because no one looks or them, no one asks rescued boys whether they were sexually abused, and because few likely want to come forward out of fear that no one will believe them.

Male victims of sex trafficking

Originally posted on May 17, 2011

The Good Men Project Magazine recently featured an article by Tom Matlack about sex slavery in the United States. Matlack interviewed an agent from Homeland Security. It was a good column that offered a lot of information about sex slavery and what the victims go through. It did have one flaw: there was no mention of male victims at all.

Sexual violence against males is taboo subject. Most male victims do not report their abuse, there are fewer services available to them, and virtually no concern for them either socially or from government-run organizations. This lack of concern renders male victims invisible, and quite often what cannot be seen gets treated as if it does not exist.

In contrast, many groups focus on the issue of the sex trafficking of women, resulting in a lot of — albeit questionable — information, studies, and estimates. Matlack’s column focuses on that greater concern for female victims, which also plays into the political lean of the magazine. To fill the absence of information about male victim of sex trafficking in Matlack’s column, I will provide the information here. Unfortunately, I cannot be as regionally specific as Matlack because there is less information available about male victims of sex trafficking.

But I can start with some general information about human trafficking in the United States.

On human trafficking

The Good Men Project ran a piece by Cameron Conaway on the human trafficking of men and boys:

On the taboo of man-on-boy rape, I’ve talked to several authors and filmmakers who address sex trafficking and they echoed similar sentiments in different words. It should be noted that though their goal is one of awareness it is also one of sales. The two are often intertwined. The more their book or film is talked about, the more buzz. And the more buzz, the more there is awareness and the money to help. That said, these are artists whose work is often shaped by their perception of the general public. Their art isn’t merely for art’s sake and as a result they often have their fingers as close to the public’s pulse as possible. One went so far as to say the following:

“Society can barely stomach the raping of young girls. I feared they couldn’t handle it if my story was about the sex trafficking of young boys. How comfortable would people be with telling others to check out the work? In one sense they could just say it involves rape and most people would assume it meant of a girl or woman. But if it were about a boy or a man could they just say rape and let it stand without adding any extra details? I’m not sure, but I felt that’s where discomfort would come in and I didn’t want to chance it. Great works involve some level of discomfort, but maybe that would be too much.”

Conaway’s piece shows something I and many other people have argued on GMP and elsewhere: there are more male victims of human trafficking, i.e. modern-day slavery, than people think.

A Dose of Stupid v.74

It happens every day. In fact, it is pretty hard to avoid it. There are some things that can only be understood with a slap on the forehead. Things so mind-boggling that one wonders how humans managed to evolve thumbs while being this mentally inept. Case in point:

Tom Martin, leading UK Men’s Rights Activist: “Pedophiles who pay children for sex are not really rapists, because the child … understand[s] the nature of the contract.”

As the old saying goes, even a broken clock is right twice a day. David Futrelle wrote a highly edited piece about Tom Martin’s comments on his blog. For those who do not know, Tom Martin launched a lawsuit against London School of Economics citing sexism against men in their women’s studies department. His suit was dismissed, but Martin continues to speak out about misandry in academia.

However, it seems that like many feminists, Martin does not know when to dial the rhetoric back. Since he made international news, Martin has visited several feminist websites and made very egregious comments like this one. It is painfully clear that he does not like feminists, and while he is entitled to express that, the way he does it undermines his position. He went from having a valid argument to making himself, and by proxy his argument, look utterly ridiculous.

It is painful to watch someone flame out like that, whether I agree with them or not. It is worse in this situation because Martin is squandering his chance to actually make a change. Instead, if anyone who googles his name they will eventually find comments like the one above and that will not help him.

That brings us to how Futrelle actually made a valid point. Yes, he misrepresents Martin’s comments by taking several of them out of context, therein making it appear that Martin holds a position he does not. However, Futrelle does have a point that Martin suffers from footinthemouth disease. (Of course, Futrelle would know what the symptoms are since he suffers from it himself.)

Bulletin Board v154

A place for male victims to talk — When Glenn Allan told an acquaintance he had been sexually assaulted by his hockey coach as a boy, he got a surprising response. “I heard his clipboard and pen fall,” Allan, 47, recalled of giving a statement to the police officer. “He looked at me in shock and said, ‘That son of a bitch did the same thing to me.’” The reaction Allan got from the officer that day isn’t a shock to him anymore. For years, men who were the victims of sexual abuse as children have been disclosing past traumas to him.

Boy sues Scouts over sexual abuse, claims mass abuse cover-up — The Boy Scouts of America has until Friday to produce more than 5,000 records, kept secret for decades, detailing allegations of sexual abuse by scout leaders across the nation. The attorney for the plaintiff, Santa Barbara attorney Timothy Hale, told the Santa Barbara Independent that the files, which will not be made public on Friday, showed that the Boy Scouts of America has maintained thousands of secret “perversion files” detailing child molestation cases, involving up to 20,000 scouts abused by leaders during 1965-85 alone, and perhaps 100,000 since 1925.

Ex-NHL star Theo Fleury describes horror of sexual abuse — Graham James, the former junior hockey coach and convicted sex offender, is appearing before a judge in Winnipeg for a sentencing hearing Wednesday. He pleaded guilty in December to assaulting former Flames Theo Fleury and another male while coaching in the 1980s and 90s. Fleury held a press conference in Vancouver Wednesday morning to read from a complete and unedited copy of his victim impact statement.

L.A. teacher accused of having sex with male students — A female high school Spanish teacher in Los Angeles was arrested after two male students said they had sex with her, police said Thursday. Gabriela Cortez, 42, of Montebello, was arrested late Wednesday on suspicion of two felony counts of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, said Montebello police Lt. Luis Lopez. Cortez was arrested after an 18-year-old youth went to the police station last week and reported that he had a sexual relationship with her from 2008 to 2010 while he was a student at Roosevelt High School in Los Angeles, where Cortez taught Spanish, Lopez said. 

The lost boys of child prostitution

For some people, sexually exploited boys and men are like unicorns. Some people may claim they saw one, but no one really believes unicorns are real. Unfortunately, sexually exploited boys and men are real. Thousands of them are abused every year, yet one would be hard-pressed to find any mention of them.

However, the majority of people involved in the sex trade are not involved by force. Many of them get into the trade as a means of survival as they often have no other way to support themselves. Recently, the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan conducted a study on youths working as prostitutes. The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in New York City study came up with some unexpected results:

From that data, they were able to put a number on the total population of New York’s teen sex workers: 3,946.

Most astonishing to the researchers was the demographic profile teased out by the study. Published by the U.S. Department of Justice in September 2008, [Ric Curtis and Meredith Dank’s] findings thoroughly obliterated the long-held core assumptions about underage prostitution:

• Nearly half of the kids—about 45 percent—were boys.

• Only 10 percent were involved with a “market facilitator” (e.g., a pimp).

• About 45 percent got into the “business” through friends.

• More than 90 percent were U.S.-born (56 percent were New York City natives).

• On average, they started hooking at age 15.

• Most serviced men—preferably white and wealthy.

• Most deals were struck on the street.

• Almost 70 percent of the kids said they’d sought assistance at a youth-service agency at least once.

• Nearly all of the youths—95 percent—said they exchanged sex for money because it was the surest way to support themselves.

The results listed in the Village Voice article are surprising because they fly in the face of what the researchers expected to find.

Bulletin Board v145

12-year-old murder suspect to be charged as adult, plea deal unlikely — Twelve-year-old Cristian Fernandez will be tried as an adult, and is unlikely to get a plea deal for the murder of his two-year old brother. CBS Miami reports prosecutors believe that in March 2011, Fernandez acted with premeditation when he violently pushed his brother into a bookcase and beat him while his mother was out. The two-year-old victim died two days later from a fractured skull and bleeding in the brain. Fernandez is the youngest person ever charged with first degree murder in Jacksonville.

Abuse victims standing up in wake of coach scandals – A national furor over sexual misconduct by college athletic coaches may offer at least one collateral benefit: Experts say hidden victims are being stirred to step forward and press charges against sports and athletic mentors, thereby protecting others from abuse. “These incidents have bolstered victims’ feelings that there is credibility to what happened to them,” said Mary Koss, co-editor of two volumes for the American Psychological Association titled, “Violence Against Women and Children.” Two recent Arizona cases appear to fit that pattern: A longtime faculty member with Brophy College Preparatory was fired amid accusations that he molested students at the Phoenix school years ago.

California prison psychologist charged with faking her own rape to trick husband into moving — Authorities allege a woman was so determined to convince her husband of a need to move to a safer neighborhood that she faked being raped. She split her own lip with a pin, scraped her knuckles with sandpaper, had her friend punch her in the face, and even wet her pants to give the appearance she had been knocked unconscious, authorities said Friday. Charges filed by the Sacramento County district attorney allege Laurie Ann Martinez, a prison psychologist, conspired with the friend to create the appearance that she was beaten, robbed and raped by a stranger in April in her Sacramento home.

DA believes 2 SU ball boys’ claims of being sexually abused by Bernie Fine – District Attorney William Fitzpatrick today said he believes former Syracuse University ball boy Bobby Davis and stepbrother Michael Lang’s allegations they were sexually molested by associate SU basketball coach Bernie Fine. An audio tape Davis made of a phone conversation with Fine’s wife helped corroborate Davis’ sex abuse claims, Fitzpatrick said. He called the tape “devastating.” But for the passage of the statute of limitations, Fine would have been arrested and prosecuted — at least on the misdemeanor charge of third-degree sexual abuse — had Davis and Lang come forward earlier, the DA said.

Fleury says ex-coach should serve 25 years for abuse – Former NHL forward Theo Fleury says that the coach who abused him when he was a junior hockey star should have to spend the next quarter-century in prison. Fleury spoke to CTV’s Canada AM on Thursday about his reaction to a guilty plea from Graham James, the disgraced coach who repeatedly abused junior hockey players under his watch. On Wednesday, James pleaded guilty to repeated sexual assaults on Fleury and another former junior player who cannot be identified under a court order, over a period from 1983 to 1994.