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EASTERN Curriculum Level 1 Student Guidebook
EASTERN Curriculum Level 1 Student Guidebook
Educational Curriculum
Protecting American Students from Commercial Sexual Exploitation
WARNING
The trafficking and sexual exploitation of young people is an extremely difficult issue dealing
with mature subject matters. This curriculum is designed for grade levels 8 – 12 and must be
delivered by an educator who has completed all the instructor requirements.
EASTERN Curriculum
P.O. Box 498
Old Saybrook, CT 06475 USA
860-339-5387
EASTERNCurriculum.com
EASTERN
Educator And Student Trafficking Education Resource Network
Educational Curriculum
Protecting American Students from Commercial Sexual Exploitation
The EASTERN Curriculum is designed to educate, equip and empower students on the dangers
of Commercial Sexual Exploitation in America. This curriculum is designed to protect you and your
friends by providing you with important information. The knowledge you are about to be given will
guard you like a shield against anyone who wants to take advantage of you.
Don't lose this Guidebook. Keep it somewhere safe; someplace where you can find it easily in
the future. You may need it.
First, read this true account of one young woman from New England. Her name is Beverly.
Beverly’s Story . . .
“I was 14 years old when a man made me sell myself. At that age, I was all about finding my own identity
and doing anything to go against my parents. So when a man came into my life and gave me a lot of
attention and listened to me when I complained about my parents, I didn’t care that he was ten years
older than me. He told me I was mature for my age and told me I understood him better than anyone
his own age. I didn’t know he was just trying soften me up by making me believe he loved me. I wanted
to believe him so much. And it didn’t matter what my parents said. They didn’t understand me. HE was
the only one who knew what I was thinking before I did. After six months, I thought I loved him, at least
that is what he told me, so I did what I thought my heart was telling me and ran away to be with him.
We ended up in Cleveland, Ohio. He told me we were going to meet the rest of his family.
I didn’t know his family meant myself and three other girls. After I was introduced to them I was
told what my role would be. I would go out to work that night and bring him back the money. He told
me that’s how we were going to build our dream home. He always told me he loved me no matter what,
but he needed to know how much I loved him by making sure I would do anything for him. So I did.
Section One
The Law of the Land
What Is COMMERCIAL SEXUAL EXPLOITATION?
Commercial Sexual Exploitation (CSE) is a serious federal crime with penalties of up to imprisonment for
life. The Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) criminalizes human trafficking and defines Commercial
Sexual Exploitation as “severe forms of trafficking in persons” states that the crime is: “(A) sex trafficking
in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to
perform such act has not attained 18 years of age; or (B) the recruitment, harboring, transportation,
provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for
the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery.” [U.S.C.
§7102(8)]
In short, human trafficking is modern-day slavery . . . and anyone under 18-years old who is
involved with prostitution is a victim.
Commercial Sexual Exploitation can occur when minors (under the age of 18) made to perform
sexual acts anything with a commercial value. This is critical to separating the crime of trafficking from
sexual assault, rape, or molestation crimes against underage victims. The term “commercial sex act” is
defined in the TVPA as the giving or receiving of anything of value (money, drugs, shelter, food, clothes,
etc.) to any person in exchange for a sex act. Importantly, the money or item of value provided for the
sex act can be “given to or received by any person.” This means that the child can be the direct recipient
of the money, food, and/or shelter, and the situation is defined as sex trafficking and, most importantly,
the child is defined as a victim of domestic minor sex trafficking. This issue arises frequently in cases of
homeless youth engaging in “survival sex” to secure food, housing, transportation, and other items of
survival. In the absence of a trafficker/pimp selling the youth, the perpetrator paying for the sex
act with food, a bed, or a ride can become the trafficker.
The TVPA goes on to establish rights that underage victims of COMMERCIAL SEXUAL EXPLOITATION are
entitled to, including:
The right not to be detained in facilities inappropriate to their status as crime victims;
The right to receive necessary medical care and other assistance;
The right to be provided protection if a victim’s safety is at risk or if there is a danger of
additional harm by recapture of the victim by a trafficker.
These rights are not being provided uniformly across the United States as first responders and juvenile
justice struggles to identify the victims and respond within a system ill-equipped to protect the victims
of domestic minor sex trafficking. When the victim of trafficking is a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent
resident minor they often are placed in juvenile detention facilities or sent back to a home from which
they are easily found and re-trafficked by their trafficker.
What Is the Extent of Human Trafficking in the United States?
Contrary to a common assumption, human trafficking is not just a problem in other countries. Cases of
human trafficking have been reported in all 50 states, Washington D.C., and some U.S. territories.
Victims of human trafficking can be anyone under 18-years-old or adults, U.S. citizens or foreign
nationals, male or female.
According to U.S. government estimates, thousands of men, women, and children are trafficked
to the United States for the purposes of sexual and labor exploitation. An unknown number of U.S.
citizens and legal residents are trafficked within the country primarily for sexual servitude and, to a
lesser extent, forced labor.
"When I look back to when I was innocent, I was happy. I know my life will never be the same. I just
want my kids to know what a beautiful woman is."
Simone
Human Trafficking Survivor
Myth Busting
There are a lot of myths about human trafficking. We're going to put those to rest right now....
Myth Number Two: Trafficking occurs mostly in other countries, rarely in America.
Wrong. The 2010 Trafficking In Persons Report (TIP), submitted annually by the US Department of State
stated, "More U.S. citizens, both adult and children, are found in sex trafficking than labor trafficking;
U.S. citizen child victims are often runaway and homeless youth." Ernie Allen, President and CEO of the
National Center For Missing and Exploited Children told Congress, “When they hear the term “child
trafficking,” most Americans think that it only happens somewhere else, in Southeast Asia or Central
America. One police commander said to me, 'the only way not to find this problem in any community is
simply not to look for it.'”
Myth Number Three: Most victims in America are from other countries.
Nope. The vast majority of victims in America are American. Again, Ernie Allen, told Congress Ernie
Allen, President and CEO of the National Center For Missing and Exploited Children told Congress, “Even
if people acknowledge that this crime happens in the United States, they assume the victims are foreign
children brought into this country who are trafficked only in large cities. In fact, we have learned that
most of the victims of domestic minor sex trafficking are American kids who initially leave home
voluntarily and are being trafficked on Main Street USA."
Myth Number Four: Trafficking occurs only in cities where minority victims from poor backgrounds are
found.
False. Human Trafficking doesn't care who you are. Many victims are from suburban or rural areas.
Many, if not most, are NOT minorities. Its victims come from every ethnic and socioeconomic
background.
Myth Number Five: To be considered trafficking, victims must be taken from one place to another;
across national borders, or across state lines.
Totally Not True. While it often involves movement, trafficking does not require transporting or moving
people to be considered a crime. Even though it has the word "trafficking" in it a person can be a victim
of sex trafficking without ever leaving his/her home. It's a crime of exploitation not transportation.
Myth Number Six: This is a victimless crime because most young women are prostitutes by choice and
they make a lot of money.
Dead wrong. If a pimp is involved in an act of commercial sexual exploitation, force, fraud, or coercion
will eventually be used. His victims aren't getting paid because they are a kind of slave and slaves don't
get paid.
Myth Number Seven: Victims are kidnapped.
Wrong again. While kidnapping for CSE does occur ― it's extremely rare. Pimps/traffickers do
everything possible to remain invisible. Kidnapping a girl is bad for "business." It's far easier to recruit or
coerce victims; even romance and seduce them.
Pimps are skilled at seduction and are on the lookout for vulnerable girls. Such girls are the ones
with lower self-esteem, with family and/or peer problems, and that appear shy and submissive. Once
spotted, pimps employ strategies not unlike methods used to recondition soldiers in prison camps: a
honeymoon period of "wooing" occurs, with pimps' spending money on the girl, taking her to nightclubs
and other "sophisticated" parties, making the girl fall madly in love with him.
Next comes the part where he starts isolation tactics, pulling her away from family and friends -
creating a rift between them and her. Then he employs tactics of fear - usually fear that she will lose him
or displease him, and sometimes even fear of physical violence to her and to her family. To keep his
approval she will likely turn a few tricks like he asks, and thus receive lavish praise from him.
At this point his work becomes relatively easy, as her behavior of turning tricks will severely
damage her fragile self-esteem and she will begin to see herself as a "whore" or "hooker". She quickly
becomes convinced that she is worthless, and is utterly grateful that her boyfriend, now pimp, even
wants to be around her. She will willingly hand over all of her money, and put up with violence and
abuse just to keep in relationship with him.
Young girls and women that are trafficked into the sex trade have different stories, but the end
result is the same: the dehumanization and victimization of those helpless to change their
circumstances.
"People don’t realize what you go through, what you come in contact with, what you experience.
There’s so much that people don’t know – like just the raw, nasty putrid shit of it. Your living conditions,
the lack of food, clothing, everything. The way you’re spoken to, the way you’re treated. You’re beaten .
. . You don’t do that to a dog. It’s more than just overcoming a drug addiction. There’s how it affects
your mental health, your physical health, your finances – everything. You literally have to pick yourself
up and pick up little tiny slivers of what’s left of your life. And you have to do it gracefully. And you have
to do it with pride and you have to keep your head up. You have to just ignore all the crap you hear
people saying about you. And to do that by yourself is not an easy thing. You just can’t stop caring. You
just can’t stop because it’s a hard thing to do. There’s only a select few people that seem to be on our
side and want to fight the same battle we do."
Danita
Human Trafficking Survivor
It's Not Just About Sex
Commercial Sexual Exploitation is one of several crimes often placed within the realm of human
trafficking. Other major forms of trafficking include:
Forced Labor
Considered to be the largest sector of human trafficking in the world, forced labor is defined in various
ways, but certain factors are common among its practice. Victims are induced into slave-like exploitation
through fraud, force, or coercion; they receive little or no pay; they are subject to physical, sexual, and
psychological intimidation and abuse; and they are not free to leave their situation.
Forced labor is found in almost every sector of agriculture, manufacturing, domestics, and
nearly every business activity in which unskilled labor is needed to generate a profit. “Human trafficking
is a heinous international crime,” stated the US Department of Homeland Security. “It is unfortunately
flourishing due to the current global financial crisis. With global demand for labor decreasing,
impoverished workers find themselves taking greater risks than before in order to survive. The result: ‘a
recipe for greater forced labor of migrant workers and commercial sexual exploitation of women in
prostitution.’”
Domestic Servitude
Within international Forced Labor, Domestic Servitude is an enormous sector of human trafficking. Its
victims ― of both sexes and all ages ― are often forced into grueling service as house servants,
housekeepers, as well as care givers for children, the elderly, and the ill. Not limited to just one activity,
they are frequently called upon to perform any duty the family keeping them insists upon. They are
rarely allowed to leave the particular premises in which they are imprisoned or seen by those from the
outside. With the “masters of the house” controlling every aspect of their lives, they often experience
ongoing sexual abuse.
Child Soldiering
Armed conflicts pervade human history. Boys and girls used forcibly used as soldiers has been as
common as war itself ― both historically and contemporarily. Susceptible because of their age, poverty,
and lack of education, children are recruited by manipulation, force, or threats. Often abducted at
school, on the streets, or at home, they are inadequately trained, treated harshly, and rapidly pushed
into combat. Once forced into service, they are used in battle, for sexual purposes, as spies, or to clear
landmines.
Forced Marriage
In many parts of the world, it is common for a young girl to be promised ― sold ― into marriage with a
much older man. Money changes hands and the family is pleased to have one less mouth to feed,
especially in cultures which do not value female lives as highly as males. No matter how old she is, her
childhood is over. Forced into constant domestic service, she will no longer be educated, allowed to
develop freely, or even have access to basic healthcare. She is expected to become pregnant almost
immediately, even at an early age. She is now the property of her husband. With her freedom gone, the
course of her life has been hijacked.
Organ Harvesting
Increasingly, medical science advances our ability to save and improve lives by using body parts from
other humans. Since the early 1970s, when drugs were developed to control the body’s rejection of
foreign objects, organ transplantation has developed from being an experimental procedure performed
in a few advanced medical centers, to a fairly common operation performed in hospitals and clinics
throughout the world. This rapid spread of transplant capabilities has created a global scarcity of
transplantable human organs. Looking at the market for human body parts from a completely inhuman
perspective, is there really a shortage? In 2011, the global population was estimated to reach seven
billion people. From organized crime's perspective that equates to seven billion human factories
potentially producing body parts for those who need them and are willing to pay for them. In their view,
there is no supply problem. This only presents the problems of acquisition and distribution, which like all
forms of human trafficking is solved in large part by the Internet where the trade in human flesh is
carried out with little risk of exposure.
"You know sometimes I sit here and think, 'maybe I was a victim of my own devices.' Had my life
become just that unimaginable that I really was looking for someone to take control and tell me what to
do and how to do it, who to be? Is there a day when judgment will come for me and condemn me once
again? Have I sinned? Was it all my fault? Then I talk to someone on the streets or think back to
conversations in jail with other girls who are streetwise, and even they tell me that there is a reason for
me to tell my story. They say what happened to me isn't right and that they’re sad to hear me speak of
such things. They cry and can't get over my story and want me to tell more of it to them and others, like
little kids waiting for the reader to turn the page. I think, well then there is a reason why I am so open
about it and why I think people should listen. Though it feels like so often like I am screaming at the top
of my lungs and no one hears me and no one cares to listen. If they are interested in my raw and
unedited details of this whole ordeal then maybe there is a reason for me to pursue this and keep on
truckin'. Otherwise there are so many days that go by and I think that this is going to get me nowhere
and that my story is useless."
Marie
Human Trafficking Survivor
Red Flags For Commercial Sexual Exploitation
Many students are victims of Commercial Sexual Exploitation each year. If you are concerned about a
friend, perhaps you feel the problem will work itself out. This is very unlikely. This crime against young
people usually continues and often gets worse over time if no action is taken to stop it. You can help
your friend by being honest about your concerns. Say something.
Say something. Lend a listening ear. Tell your friend that you care and are willing to listen.
Don’t force the issue, but allow your friend to confide in you at her own pace. Never blame your
friend for what is happening or underestimate her fear of potential danger. Focus on supporting
your friend’s right to make her own decisions.
Become informed. Find out all the facts you can about commercial sexual exploitation. Contact
the police or call the National Human Trafficking Hotline: 888-373-7888.
Guide your friend to community services. Gather information about trafficking victims services
and programs in your area. These programs offer safety, advocacy, support, legal information,
and other needed services. If your friend asks for advice on what she should do, share the
information you’ve gathered. Let your friend know your she is not alone and people are
available to help. Encourage her to seek the assistance of trafficking victim advocates. Assure
her that they will keep information confidential.
If your friend decides to get out. Help her make a plan to be safe. She may want to call a local
victim services to help create a “safety plan.” Human trafficking assistance programs can help
her look at her options and make a plan to be as safe as possible. Victims of commercial sexual
exploitation may face the greater risk when they try to end the abusive relationship. If the
abusive person has lost control, he may become very dangerous.
Focus on her strengths. Your friend has probably continually been told by the abusive person
that she is a bad person, a bad student, or a bad friend. Your friend may believe she can’t do
anything right and that there really is something wrong with her. Give her emotional support.
Help her examine her strengths and skills. Emphasize that she deserves a life that is free from
abuse, exploitation, and violence.