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Sex Trafficking in One US City: Traditional Policing and Boston’s Shift to a Survivor-Centered Response

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Human Trafficking Is a Public Health Issue

Abstract

Human trafficking has become a pervasive issue in Boston, Massachusetts, and other cities and towns across the USA. Unfortunately, because much of it occurs behind closed doors and there is stigma surrounding its victims and survivors, it is immensely difficult to procure reliable data and determine trends in victimology for prevention and investigation efforts. Despite these challenges, law enforcement in conjunction with other public sectors has acknowledged common elements of the problem, including the cycle of intergenerational violence, the influence of the internet, and the opioid crisis. Chapter authors use Boston as an example of how law enforcement can shift to a victim- and survivor-centered response for prostitution and sex trafficking. The Boston Police Department’s Human Trafficking Unit (BPD HTU) detectives have learned the importance of addressing the needs of victims while investigating cases of prostitution and trafficking. Rather than using traditional approaches that solely criminalized its victims, the detectives have worked successfully with non-governmental organizations and service providers. They collaborate with these partners who provide victim care and resources that enable the investigators to build cases for successful prosecutions while keeping victims safe. This chapter highlights the Massachusetts legislation on human trafficking, the types of service programs that work with BPD HTU, BPD HTU’s approach to human trafficking cases, and best practices found for law enforcement working with trafficked persons. There are ultimately several recommendations for law enforcement, lawyers, medical practitioners, and advocates alike to focus their efforts, including addressing demand and improving multi-sector collaboration, to abolish this public health issue.

The original version of this chapter was revised. An erratum to this chapter can be found at DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-47824-1_25

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Change history

  • 05 May 2017

    In Chapter 5 titled “The Ignored Exploitation: Labor Trafficking in the United States” the affiliation of the author Susie Baldwin has been updated to read as “HEAL Trafficking, P.O. Box 31602, 3001 North Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90031, USA, e-mail: SBaldwin@healtrafficking.org”.

Notes

  1. 1.

    Sex trafficking refers to the recruitment, enticement, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purposes of a commercial sex act; any commercial sex act involving a minor, regardless of use of force, coercion, or fraud. Prostitution refers to exchanging the performance of sexual acts for money; a legal term, usually connotes a crime.

  2. 2.

    A trauma-informed approach is one that acknowledges the impact of trauma (e.g.: violence or exploitation) while responding in a way that fully supports without re-traumatizing. A thorough description of this approach is included in Chapter 18 of this book.

  3. 3.

    Worcester is a small city about an hour away from Boston.

  4. 4.

    AEquitas: The Prosecutors’ Resource on Violence Against Women is an organization that aims to improve the quality of justice in human trafficking cases and other abusive and exploitative crimes.

  5. 5.

    A “track” is an area known for street prostitution.

Abbreviations

BPD:

Boston Police Department

HTU:

Human Trafficking Unit

HT:

Human Trafficking

CEASE:

Cities Empowered Against Sexual Exploitation (Atlanta, Boston, Cook County, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Oakland, Phoenix, Portland, San Diego, and Seattle)

DCF:

Department of Children and Families

SEEN:

Support to End Exploitation Now

CSE:

Commercial Sexual Exploitation

BUILD:

Roxbury Youth Works’ Being United in Leading Our Destiny Program

GIFT:

Roxbury Youth Works’ Gaining Independence for Tomorrow Program

IPV:

Interpersonal violence

MLMC:

My Life My Choice

JRI:

Justice Research Institute

SCDAO:

Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office

NGO:

Non-governmental Organization

EVA Center:

Josephine Butler Education Vision and Advocacy Center

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Law Enforcement/Boston Police, 989 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA, 02215, USA

    Donna Gavin

  2. University of Michigan Law School, 625 S. State Street, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA

    Cassandra Thomson

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  1. Donna Gavin
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Correspondence to Donna Gavin .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Emergency Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA

    Makini Chisolm-Straker

  2. Department of Emergency Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Hanni Stoklosa

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Gavin, D., Thomson, C. (2017). Sex Trafficking in One US City: Traditional Policing and Boston’s Shift to a Survivor-Centered Response. In: Chisolm-Straker, M., Stoklosa, H. (eds) Human Trafficking Is a Public Health Issue. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47824-1_19

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47824-1_19

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