Targeting sex traffickers: Authorities focus on prostitution profiteers, not victims

If prostitution is the world's oldest profession, prostitution profiteering is the second-oldest. For that reason, authorities target the pimps and traffickers who prey on and exploit vulnerable people (women mostly) rather than the providers themselves, as evidenced by the prostitution-related arrests earlier this month in St. Charles.

Five defendants were held on $5 million bail each on charges of involuntary servitude in connection with an organized crime syndicate authorities say trafficked women in brothels in St. Charles, South Elgin, Elgin, Hanover Park, Palatine and Chicago. None of the seven victims face charges.

"Charging a victim with a crime is never the solution," said Lake County Sheriff John D. Idleburg. "We do not prosecute human trafficking victims for prostitution because they are just that, victims."

Instead, police and prosecutors take a victim-centered, trauma-informed approach with survivors, said Shea Needham, coordinator of the Lake County State's Attorney Human Trafficking Task Force. The task force, which also assists victims of labor trafficking, works with the Lake County Coalition Against Human Trafficking and social service organizations, including A Safe Place, to provide survivors with emergency housing, mental health and substance abuse counseling, and medical care, among other services.

The Cook County Human Trafficking Task Force offers similar services, including job training, relocation assistance and immigration assistance.

Targeting vulnerable

Unlike the St. Charles case, which authorities say involved women brought to the U.S. to engage in prostitution, most trafficking victims are domestic, according to Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart. Most are women and grew up in the communities where they're trafficked, he said. Many live on society's periphery, and getting them to trust authorities "a tough sell," he said.

Identifying victims and obtaining their cooperation poses significant challenges, Idleburg said.

"Survivors often fear their traffickers or are deceived into believing their traffickers love them," he said. "That bond is often difficult to overcome."

Traffickers brainwash victims and threaten them with physical harm, criminal charges and deportation if they are not in the country legally, Idleburg said. They may also threaten the survivor's housing and financial security.

"Predators prey," said Needham, and their victims include people of all ages, races and socio-economic class, gender and sexual orientation, including trans youth, members of the LGBTQIA+ community and domestic violence survivors.

"Domestic violence goes hand-in-hand with human trafficking," she said.

A pervasive problem

Sex trafficking "literally goes on anywhere," Dart said - in residential and commercial areas, in businesses, and in hotels.

"We don't see a lot of cases, but the crime is taken very seriously," said DuPage County State's Attorney Robert Berlin, who has filed lawsuits against adult businesses where prostitution was suspected even when trafficking was unproven. He said he believes the introduction of an ordinance requiring owners, employees and entertainers working in adult entertainment facilities in unincorporated DuPage County to have a license to operate helped curtail trafficking.

Signs of trafficking may include inappropriate activities, Berlin said, "something out of the ordinary that triggers suspicion" like a lot of traffic in and out of a particular home or hotel room at all hours of the day and night.

"Look for things that don't fit into a typical pattern," adds Needham, who encourages residents to report any suspicions to the police or the National Human Trafficking hotline at (888) 373-7888.

"Call us," Dart said. "Not to arrest them, but to help them."