This Monday, the Residential Advisory Board (RAB) sponsored an event titled “Stop Human Trafficking.” The event aimed to raise awareness about the issue of human trafficking and welcomed Jillian Mourning as a guest speaker to discuss human trafficking in the modern age. Mourning, herself a human trafficking victim, is the founder of All We Want is LOVE, an organization dedicated to educating, training and providing rescue resources to as many people as possible in an effort to end human trafficking and sex slavery.
In her talk, Mourning described her own experiences as a victim.
Her ordeal began when she was in college in Charlotte, N.C. on track for Pre-Med. In order to make extra money, she started modeling again — something she had done since she was 12. She quickly booked several gigs, and at one in Boston she was introduced to a woman who referred her to a man interested in representing her.
The man appeared well-dressed and charming when she first met him. According to Mourning, he was worth $15 million.
Coming from a broken childhood, the man became her manager and acted like the father Mourning never had.
“I met an incredibly successful and persuasive man who was like a father figure to me,” Mourning said.
After a few months working together, he flew her out of Scottsdale, Ariz. for a “booking.” That night, her manager and two other men raped her while they videotaped it.
“Here in the United States, it’s so much more of a mental coercion,” she said.
Her manager threatened to blackmail her with the video, destroying her image on the internet.
“I was 19, never been in trouble, living in a small bubble, asking myself ‘Will I be able to get a job? What will happen?’” Mourning said.
That began her life of mental slavery to her manager. Mourning reported that she had been forced to launder money nationally and have sex with whomever he ordered.
While all this took place, Mourning was still in college. But due to the ordeal, her grades dropped, and she withdrew. None of her friends noticed a change, even after she dropped all her second semester classes.
Mourning explained that vulnerability is a huge part of human trafficking in the United States. Traffickers meet girls and appeal to their needs; some create fake Facebook profiles and pose as handsome teens.
“Over 50 percent of girls in the United States know their trafficker,” Mourning said.
Once the grooming period is over and trust is gained, the traffickers will shame the girls in a heinous way, she explained.
“They might be taken and raped 30 or 40 times over a weekend,” Mourning said.
Mourning explained that this desensitizes the victims to sex and shames them, making them submissive.
“I hated myself,” Mourning said when asked about how it felt to be betrayed by this trusted figure.
Such self-loathing makes it difficult to identify victims because they are afraid to come forward and be judged.
“American culture has a tendency to ‘slut shame’ a victim, because they don’t want to accept that people this evil are living in society,” Alexis Hood, a freshman who attended the lecture, said.
Mourning emphasized this point, referring to the act of blaming the victim as an excuse to be ignorant.
“People are proud to have breast cancer and survive that. Yet sexual assault is stigmatized. You can only be shameful about it,” Mourning said.
The embarrassment of coming forward makes it hard for victims of US trafficking to want to prosecute their offenders. The conviction rate for trafficking cases is about 77 percent, according a 2008 ICF International report. Minors — those under the age of 18 — do not have to face the accused in court, but that right is not extended to adults.
In February, a bill was heard in the Maryland state legislature that would raise the age limit for victims from 18 to 21 for the crime of trafficking a minor.
Making the victims come forward is the best chance they have of being rescued, Mourning argued. Victims will otherwise have to wait until their trafficker is arrested, usually on unrelated charges, as was the case in Mourning’s situation.
In July, a massive inter-agency effort called Operation Cross Country VII rescued 105 victims and arrested 159 pimps across the country.
Yet, according to the Polaris Project, between four and 27 million humans are estimated to be trafficked in the world, with 100,000 estimated children to be in the United States sex trade alone.
The BWI area is the third most lucrative area for human trafficking in the United States, according to a 2013 CNS Maryland news report.
Marianne Avari, a senior who organized the event, wanted to bring awareness to this local and international issue.
“I don’t think people realize that it happens at our back doors,” Avari said.
Mourning plans to start tackling human trafficking internationally, but as of now, she is still focused on working to combat it in the United States. Currently, she is working with Embassy Suites to post signs in rooms threatening action if caught having sex with a trafficking victim.
Through All We Want is LOVE, Mourning has also started a campaign called “Clean-Up the Traffick,” which works to put soap bars and help packets in truck stop bathrooms. The soap label has help information that can be removed and hidden until the victim is able to access a phone. So far, 30,000 bars of soap have been deployed, with 13 cases opened as a result.
“It seems small,” Mourning said. “But again, it’s 13 lives saved.”
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