Investigating and Prosecuting Trafficking in Illicit Massage Businesses, Part 2

Investigating and Prosecuting Trafficking in Illicit Massage Businesses: Investigative Strategies, Part 2 Presented by Jane Anderson, Attorney Advisor at AEquitas and Bradley Myles, CEO and Oriene Shin, Strategic Initiatives Specialist at Polaris Illicit Massage Businesses (IMBs) are known fronts for criminal activity and human trafficking. They are venues guised as legitimate massage or bodywork businesses in which women are forced, coerced, and defrauded into performing countless sex acts with strangers on a daily basis. As in other sex-trafficking settings, many of the women fail to self-identify as victims of sexual, psychological, and physical violence by perpetrators who exploit their inability or unwillingness to engage the criminal justice system. Instead, the women view themselves as consenting members of IMBs. In spite of increased law enforcement efforts to combat human trafficking, IMBs have proved to be difficult targets largely because of ineffective response focused more on arresting individuals (particularly women) than on effectively dismantling organizations and offering services to victims. This traditional law enforcement response jeopardizes victim safety, permits “buyers” to escape accountability, and permits owners to resume operations in a new venue. Part 2 provides practical investigative strategies to build successful prosecutions of the owners, operators, and accomplices of IMBs. The presenters discussed enhancing investigations through partnerships with civil and criminal allied investigative agencies and service providers. This recording also provides an analytical framework for developing investigative strategies designed to identify and preserve evidence supporting a wide range of charges that can be prosecuted with or without victim participation