End Sex Trafficking

3 Generations has worked tirelessly for years to raise awareness concerning all issues surrounding sex trafficking and sex slavery. We were both fascinated and appalled to read the brilliant investigative work by Julie Brown and Emily Michot in the Miami Herald highlighting one of the most egregious cases of child sex abuse this country has seen in a long time.

The chief culprit was multimillionaire Jeffrey Epstein, the leader of this large cult-like network of girls that were forced into sex. As far back as 2001, Jeffrey Epstein lured a steady stream of underage disadvantaged girls to his Palm Beach mansion for sex. He would pay the girls, who were recruited from middle and high schools, for massages and then offer them further money to bring him new girls for him.

Eventually, the attorney signed off on a non-prosecution agreement. Epstein pleaded guilty to lesser charges and was sentenced to 18 months incarceration in a private wing of the Palm Beach County stockade. The horrible arrangement, which negated the victims’ stories, only continued to worsen. Federal prosecutors kept his sentencing quiet, didn’t tell his victims about the plea deal so they weren’t in court, and most importantly, his crimes were reduced to felony prostitution charges, giving him the ability to argue that the girls weren’t victims at all — they were prostitutes. This illustrates that our system is still failing victims*. Though the girls abused by Epstein are now suing the federal government because this has been one of the most lenient deals for a serial child sex offender in history, Epstein’s crimes have still gone mostly uncovered (except for Brown, whom we applaud) by the media. At 3 Generations, we are as committed as ever to keeping up with this case and fighting for all victims’ voices to be heard.

In 2019, we will also be filming Yazidi women in Toronto who have suffered from extreme sexual violence in the genocide of their people. We’re grateful to our donors that we have the opportunity to film a survivor of this genocide and at the same time horrified that we still have work to do. Most know that there has been ethnic cleansing of the Yazidi, but the stories many times are silent on ISIS’ sexual violence, such as selling women and girls into sex slavery. By filming these courageous women, we will be fighting to raise public awareness and encourage focused action to end this violence.

*Some jurisdictions are, of course, exceptions, as we’ve demonstrate in Miami available here. The fact that 2 counties in a single state can have such vastly different approaches to a federal crime is plain wrong - the Epstein case highlights that we need a consistent national policy.

Links:

• Article about Jeffrey Epstein

The last few weeks have been a contentious time in the United States with much focus on sexual assault and the judicial process. Regardless of one's political views regarding Supreme Court appointments, no one is denying that sexual assault is a global problem. A problem facing girls, women, boys, men and the transgender too.

At 3 Generations we have been paying special attention to how this filters down to those who are caught up in the complex business of sex trafficking. The Kavanaugh hearings remind us all that while we must apply standards of fairness to those who accused of sexual violence, the murky area of credibility is always present.

Lowest on the credibility spectrum are those who work in the sex industry. We know from victims we have met and filmed, that they are frequently raped, assaulted and some even murdered.  Indeed, it is the most dangerous occupation in this country. Yet few perpetrators are ever brought to justice because a girl or boy forced into sex slavery has so next to zero perceived credibility within our justice system. 

Over the last few weeks we were disturbed by the stories of former victims of sex trafficking who told of trying to report violent crimes of rape and assault who were literally laughed out of police stations. This is not acceptable. But  we were delighted to learn this week that Nadia Murad, a Yazidi survivor of sex slavery, won the Nobel Peace Prize. Her testimony and her story raise the bar for victims of sexual assault across the world. Her credibility is enormous and the Nobel Peace Prize an indisputable achievement.

Our work on this crisis is far from done. We are raising awareness of the pervasiveness of sexual violence and supporting movements to stop it. If we can help raise the credibility barrier for victims then those who deserve to be behind bars for violent crimes will be brought to justice and those who are innocent will walk freely as they deserve. First we have to undestand what sexual violence actually looks like and who the victims are. That is a critical part of our work here at 3 Generations.