Human trafficking is a modern-day form of slavery, and is a felony under Iowa law, according to the Iowa Attorney General.

At this week’s Feminist Friday, Alissa Stoehr, the interim director of the Margaret Sloss Women’s Center and a professor in women’s and gender studies and sociology, presented “The Realities of Human Trafficking.”

Stoehr has been giving honors seminars on the topic as well as teaching a women’s and gender studies course on the topic.

In the presentation, Stoehr discussed what human trafficking is, human trafficking statistics and terms, how victims are controlled, and what traffickers and trafficking victims look like.

Human trafficking is defined as the illegal movement of people, typically for the purposes of forced labor or commercial sex exploitation.

An important difference to note is between trafficking and smuggling.

Smuggling is the bringing or attempting to bring a person into a country in violation of immigration or other laws. It is also important to note that smuggling involves consent of the person being smuggled.

Trafficking is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, and these crimes are committed against the individual with no consent.

The major difference between these two is the level of consent. Smuggling includes consent and trafficking does not.

It is estimated that 21 million victims of human trafficking are trafficked globally at any one time, according to Stoehr. This number varies from place to place because of the number being actually reported and laws and regulations that allow traffickers to drop their charges from trafficking to kidnapping or prostitution.

Human trafficking does happen in Iowa. There have been a variety of cases in small towns throughout Iowa such as Hills, Iowa and Imogene, Iowa but it is also happening in town such as Denison, Iowa and Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Stoehr gave many reasons for why it happens in Iowa. I-80 and I-35 are two major interstates that traffickers use to transport and Iowa has an increasing seasonal and migrant population. There are also a lot of rural areas.

“When you go through the police academy in Iowa, you are only given 4 hours on human trafficking.” Stoehr said.

According to Stoehr, in smaller towns, human trafficking is going to be the farthest thing on a police officers mind.

On average, a trafficking victim will try to leave his or her trafficker 7 times

100,000 people trafficked each year in the United States and most of them are women and girls and 50% of these people are from other countries

50% of pimps and traffickers are female

46% of trafficked know their traffickers

Pregnant women and LGBTQIA+ individuals are two of the highest trafficked groups

80% of online ads for sex trafficking was coming from backpage.com

On Netflix, there is a documentary titled “I am Jane Doe” which talks about human trafficking and human trafficking through Backpage.com.

Backpage.com was recently shut down because of changing laws and regulations.

Recently a bill titled Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA) introduced by Senator Rob Portman, was passed in the senate which makes it illegal to knowingly assist, support or facilitate sex trafficking.

This amends section 230 safe harbors of the Communication Decency Act, which said that websites cannot be held responsible for what is posted by their users.

“Even if you shut that down, those people that are trafficking on that site are going to find somewhere else to do it, but it’s a step,” Stoehr said.

There are some specific terms that traffickers use to identify themselves and others.

A family is two to three people who are trafficked by family or friends. The people who are trafficked within this group can be other people or other family members

A gang is five to 10 people and in most cases it is supported by the gun or drug trade

“To make more money, a lot of traffickers will run guns, or drugs, or both,” Stoehr said.

A corporate is 10 to 30 people and these victims are trafficked to big events such as the Super Bowl, certain Olympic games, and the Iowa State Fair according to Stoehr.

Bottom Bitch is a term that is used for the most trusted girl in the trafficking ring. Most of the time, according to stoehr, they were trafficked at one time and to prevent being trafficked more, they will start recruiting other people.

“A trafficker looks like you or I,” Stoehr said.

Most traffickers do fall under the stereotype of white, cisgender men who are of a higher socioeconomic status, according to Stoehr.

These traffickers will target anyone. Youth in the foster care system, people with language barriers, runaways and drug addicts are just a few of the people traffickers target.

“I always tell my students just being aware of you surround. Be aware of whose around you, what’s going on around you,” Stoehr said.

Human traffickers will use many strategies to control their victims and not allow them to leave.

Mental and physical manipulation is one way traffickers keep victims. Threats such as it was your fault”, “no one’s going to believe you”, and  “I’ll kill your family if you say something” are common.

There is a report done every year titled “Trafficking in Persons Report” in which the United States Department of State examines the global efforts against human trafficking. In this report, the Department of State places each country onto one of three tiers based on the extent of their governments’ efforts to comply with the “minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.” Tier 1 being the highest ranking and tier 3 being the lowest.

Last year, the United States was ranked as tier 1.

Stoehr is using her knowledge to help students understand the realities of human trafficking and is bringing light to a topic that is very prominent in our society.

Stoehr asked everyone to put the phone number for the National Human Trafficking Resource Center Hotline in their phones. This number is answers 24/7, 365 days and can be answers in a variety of languages.

In the US 8,324 human trafficking reports to the hotline in 2017, most of them were adults, female and sex trafficking cases.

There were 26,357 calls to the hotline, most were community members and miscellaneous, or people who wanted more information

In Iowa, 74 cases were reported and 218 calls were made to the hotline. Most callers were females and most cases were sex trafficking. A large number of faith based organizations also called to find out more information and how they could help.

“I’d rather you call and it be nothing, than don’t call and it be something,” Stoehr said.

Resources to learn more about human trafficking:

The Polaris Project atwww.polarisproject.org

The National Human Trafficking Resource Center atwww.humantraffickinghotline.org

ISU Network Against Human Trafficking and Slavery

Iowa Network Against Human Trafficking and Slavery atwww.iowanaht.org

If you see something, say something

The National Human Trafficking Resource Center Hotline at 1-888-373-7888

Online at https://traffickingresourcecenter.org/report-trafficking