A 16-year-old girl who spent her childhood in foster care and had a history of running away from home was arrested by police for shoplifting.
During a Tuesday event, the presenter revealed the girl was a victim of sex trafficking and hailed her trafficker as the man who “saved her.” Although the person is fictional, the story and risk of human trafficking among youth in Indiana is real.
Students in the audience dissected the hypothetical case for warning signs of human trafficking during a workshop titled “Human Trafficking in Indiana: Identification and Recognition” at the School of Public Health. In partnership with the Department of Applied Health Science, the program aimed to educate students about the definition of human trafficking and how to identify potential victims.
Chelsea Shelburne, the northeast regional coordinator for the Indiana Trafficking Victim Assistance Program, said Indiana defines human trafficking as a person who forces others to engage in criminal or unwanted behavior, including marriage and prostitution.
In cases in which the person is underage, the state does not have to prove the use of force to convict a trafficker. The exception is helpful in prosecuting perpetrators because many victims do not know they have been trafficked, Shelburne said.
Shelburne’s hypothetical case was based in part on a real victim that considered her trafficker to be the man who “saved her.” He removed her from a group of violent, drug-addicted men who initially picked her up from a gas station after she ran away from home. In exchange for prostituting herself, he gave her a safe place to live and food to eat.
In 2014, the Indiana Youth Services Association, which oversees ITVAP and a network of approximately 30 youth development organizations across the state, identified 30 victims of human trafficking. Last year, the figure doubled.
The organization’s statistics do not include the number of cases identified by law enforcement or the Department of Child Protective Services. Robin Donaldson, chief operating officer of IYSA, said the incomplete statistics shows the lack of coordination in collecting accurate data needed to tackle human trafficking effectively.
“We’ve all been doing things but we’ve been doing them in little silos,” she said.
Shelburne’s efforts are part of a grant awarded to ITVAP that allocates money to educate, serve and strengthen networks addressing human trafficking across the state. The funds provide training to professionals in youth development to identify victims of such crimes.
Monies also allow the organization to employ five regional coordinators including Shelburne to serve at the front line if local organizations interact with a potential victim.
Through their efforts, ITVAP hopes to identify and provide comprehensive services for 150 youth victims of human trafficking across the state by October. The organization has identified approximately 75 victims as of April, Robinson said.
The Youth Services Bureau of Monroe County is a youth advocacy center dedicated to providing community education and services to troubled children and teens. As members of the IYSA network, its staff received training in screening and providing full assessments for youth suspected of being trafficked.
Deputy Director Louis Malone said his organization has conducted less than six full assessments this year. However, he recognizes that the issue is larger in scope than the population he or Shelburne serves.
“Certainly this is an issue in Monroe County,” Malone said. “But more importantly, it’s an issue for anybody who’s in the state, in the nation, part of humanity to recognize that this is something that’s going on with people who are very, very vulnerable.”
