214 – The Role of Advocacy in Prevention and Protection

Dr. Sandie Morgan and Dave Stachowiak are joined by Linda Smith, Founder and President of Shared Hope International, and Christine Raino, Senior Director of Public Policy. Linda was recently appointed to the White House Public-Private Partnership Advisory Council to End Human Trafficking. Christine leads the Center for Justice & Advocacy’s research and advocacy on state and federal laws pertaining to protections and services for juvenile sex trafficking victims. Together they discuss the recently released Protected Innocence Challenge Report. Key Points The Protected Innocence Challenge Legislative Framework recognizes that most of the faps in responding to domestic minor sex trafficking must be addressed at the state level. Using this framework to grade states based on the strength of their laws related to the commercial sexual exploitation of children, there has been significant progress in advancing their laws in states across the country. Resources Shared Hope International Protected Innocence Challenge Internet Safety Guide Advocacy Action Center Invading the Darkness Are you enjoying the show? If you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to subscribe or rate the podcast on iTunes by clicking here. Click here for FAQs about podcasts and how to subscribe. Haven’t been receiving our newsletter? Visit our homepage to join today. Contact us with questions, comments, or suggestions at [email protected]. Transcript Dave [00:00:00] You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. This is episode number 214 – The role of Advocacy in Prevention and Protection. Production Credits [00:00:10] Produced by Innovate Learning, Maximizing Human Potential. Dave [00:00:30] Welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking Podcast. My name is Dave Stachowiak. Sandie [00:00:35] And my name is Sandie Morgan. Dave [00:00:38] And this is the show where we empower you to study the issues, be a voice, and make a difference in ending human trafficking. Sandie, glad to be back with you again today. Sandie [00:00:48] Me too. Dave [00:00:50] Today, an important conversation with an important leader in this space. We’re really thrilled to welcome to the show today, Congresswoman Linda Smith. She is the founder and president of Shared Hope International. Linda was recently appointed to the White House Public-Private Partnership Advisory Council to end human trafficking. And Sandie, you and I have talked about this the last few episodes. Sandie [00:01:11] That’s right. Dave [00:01:12] Linda is the primary author of From Congress to the Brothel and Renting Lacey and coauthor of The National Report on Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking in the Demand Report. Linda has testified before Congress presented at national and international forums and has been published in news outlets and journals. Linda served as a Washington state legislator from 1983 to 1993, before she was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1994. And she’s joined today by Christine Reno. Good morning to you both. Linda [00:01:41] Good morning. Christine [00:01:42] Good morning. Sandie [00:01:43] We’re,, so glad to have you here. Linda, would you introduce Christine? Linda [00:01:49] Oh, I am delighted to. Christine Reno started with Shared Hope, now, nearly 10 years ago. She came in to help boost the legal side of Shared Hope because we were going to grade every state on 41 points of law. And the first point was having a law on domestic minor sex trafficking and make sure the men that buy those kids for sex are perceived as the and actually penalized as the serious felons that they are. They’re rapists of children and they should be treated that way. So, Christine has led the legal team that keeps growing here at the institute in analyzing all the 50 state laws. She, I don’t know where you passed your bar, but I know you did. Christine [00:02:37] DC in Virginia. Linda [00:02:37] DC in Virginia, and before she came here, you practiced in the courts. Sandie [00:02:44] That’s great. And what that really represents to all of us, especially in the nonprofit sector, combating human trafficking, is we never do this alone. We always have to have a team of experts to really capture all of it because no one person can do it on their own. But tell us just briefly, for those who have never heard of Shared Hope, how long it’s been around and what your primary mission is. Linda [00:03:16] Well, I was still in Congress. I ended up being called about,, some children in cage-like situations in India. And I couldn’t sleep,, so I went and found it was true. I got a hold my husband and a friend, converted assets, and started safe houses all within about five days. Sandie [00:03:34] Wow. Linda [00:03:34] And I couldn’t stop because,, some of those were young women, mostly that had nowhere to go. And a prostitute gets very little sympathy, whether they’re 12, 13, or 23. There’s just very little sympathy around the world. They’re labeled and denied justice. And I just couldn’t stop. But early in the time that Shared Hope existed, and I started Shared Hope while I was still a member of the U.S. Congress. I started realizing that not only did people not know, but the new law passed in 2000 was not being understood. Most people didn’t understand that we, the Congress, made this law to apply domestically too, not just to those coming across borders, but domestically. So, the agencies really weren’t doing much except for cross borders, people coming in, and they certainly did not think the new law applied to buyers of commercial sex. And in fact, after several times of appeals, finally in 2013, it was verified by the courts that the law did apply to buyers. And the words,, so licit, obtain, those types of words that were in the law certainly meant the buyer was a part of the act. 2013, 13 years. Sandie [00:04:54] Wow. Linda [00:04:54] But Shared Hope did the research, the ground research under another corporation called trafficking markets. And we went into all the states involved as well as three other countries. And we ran the same model who’s buying, who’s selling, what were they selling, how far would the buyer go on the properties? And when we came out of that and I presented that research back to Congress, it was congressional research off of the new trafficking office. We showed that the primary product in the United States for sex trafficking was a minor, and normally was about a middle school child, from what we found.  And that I found a lot of 11 to 13-year-olds and so we had what we had found. We used Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Georgia, Las Vegas, later we added Kansas, 10 other states, Texas, with a lot of other states. And then we produced the DMST, the Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Report, and then called on Congress to call on...