Cycle of Crisis: Already Facing an Uphill Battle, Foster Care Children Targeted by Traffickers Too

By Rosario Dowling, Program Director & Jay Rivera, Communications Manager, CAS (Californians Against Slavery) Research & Education

Every day in California, 70 children enter the foster care system for the first, second or third time depending on each specific case. Most children enter the system as victims of physical/sexual abuse, neglect, the lack of essential needs, or abandonment. These are also well-known indicators of vulnerability for a potential sex trafficking victim.

Where are our foster care children being housed? In out-of-home placements, group homes, juvenile hall, and homeless on our streets. In Sacramento alone, two of the children’s receiving homes are situated along “tracks” of pimping and pandering. It is no wonder that 75% of the girls that I have come in contact with in juvenile hall are from foster care and in a cycle of endless visits to our states’ juvenile court system.

A recent House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS) hearing on Feb. 26, titled, “The State of Efforts to Stop Human Trafficking” had a detective testify that 67% of sex trafficked victims were in foster care or in the care of social services. The State of Human Trafficking Report released in 2012 found that 72% of the sex trafficked victims reported were born in the US.

Ending this cycle of crisis isn’t an easy fix but a long term solution that requires the efforts of everyone in the community—not just adoptive parents, emergency placement homes, and respite care homes. Teachers, mentors, role models, friends: become the stability and support that our children need and crave. Intervene on their behalf before the traumatized child becomes the 14% statistic that exits the system of “care” and enters the prison system, as stated in a 2011 Senate Office of Research CA report. We know who and where targeted victims of sex trafficking are. The resources are already in place to combat human trafficking. We cannot blame social services for the ills of our children, if we ourselves are not lining up to care for them.

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Rosario Dowling has been a chronic volunteer from an early age, starting as a bilingual tutor in 3rd grade. She believes that championing the “underdog,” especially those in their adolescent years, is vital to the fabric of our community. Besides having the perfect job, she still finds time to volunteer at the Sacramento County Juvenile Hall through Bridge-Network’s Motivated For Change program; mentoring, retraining, and redirecting of current mindsets for better outcomes with male wards in the Placement (group home) Unit. Rosario was an instrumental member of PROPOSITON 35 Team, leading its grassroots effort in Northern California.

The Scope of Human Trafficking In California

There are an estimated 20.9 million human trafficking victims worldwide at any given time. Astoundingly, this organized criminal enterprise ranks second only to the drug trafficking industry, generating revenues of approximately $32 billion a year.

And while most people associate the term with the smuggling of humans across international borders, the faces of human trafficking are more familiar than you might think. This modern slavery is happening not only on foreign soil but often in our very own zip codes. Would you believe that a staggering 72% of human trafficking victims identified by California’s regional human trafficking task forces are U.S. citizens?

Within the United States, California has become one of the primary transit and destination states for human trafficking victims, with the populous metropolitan regions of Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego nabbing three of the 13 spots on the FBI’s report of the highest child sex trafficking areas in the nation. Unfortunately, the same factors that make California an ideal place to live and work—our large economy, commercial influence, and prime geographic location—have also provided a fertile breeding ground for the exploitation of humans.

In commemoration of Human Trafficking Awareness Month, CalVCP has released a video PSA highlighting the broad scope of human trafficking. The good news is that combatting this crime can be as simple as being aware of its existence and knowing how to respond to it. Join us this month in helping to give silenced victims a voice and shed light on the prevalence of this dark crime.

If you or someone you know is being forced to engage in any activity and cannot leave—whether it is commercial sex, housework, farm work, construction, factory, retail, or restaurant work, or any other activity—call the National Human Trafficking Resource Center at 1-888-373-7888 or the California Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (CAST) at 1-888-KEY-2-FRE(EDOM) or 1-888-539-2373 to access help and services. Victims of slavery and human trafficking are protected under United States and California law.

The hotlines are:

• Available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
• Toll-free.
• Operated by nonprofit, nongovernmental organizations.
• Anonymous and confidential.
• Accessible in more than 160 languages.
• Able to provide help, referral to services, training, and general information.

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The California Victim Compensation Program (CalVCP) provides compensation for victims of violent crime. CalVCP provides eligible victims with reimbursement for many crime-related expenses. CalVCP funding comes from restitution paid by criminal offenders through fines, orders, penalty assessments and federal matching funds.