Today, I found a conference on sex trafficking that I want to attend. The immigrant population of my state has grown tremendously over the last few years - and we have a hunch that there is also sexual enslavement or sex trafficking going on . . . but we don't have any true numbers. Every once in a while, a law enforcement agency busts an illegal brothel and arrests illegal immigrant women for prostitution. But we don't have any real proof of numbers and who and where they are.
And, this is one of the real problems with all sexual violence work. So many of the victims are silent or invisible, it's hard to know exactly the scope of the problem. If we don't have numbers, we can't justify the money we need to make services and assistance available.
Our local law enforcement recognizes that immigrant peoples are often targeted for crime. I think they would rather believe that those crimes are only property crimes.
sigh.
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