GOOD HOPE, Ala. – Amy Joy, a human trafficking survivor who went on to become a social worker, psychologist and lecturer on human trafficking response and prevention, visited Cullman County Friday for a one-day seminar at Daystar Church in Good Hope, sponsored by the Cullman County Human Trafficking Task Force, Brooks’ Place Child Advocacy Center and Cullman County Juvenile Probation. Joy is the founder/CEO of Human Trafficking Education Seminars.
According to the task force, “She has spent the last decade helping survivors of sex trafficking, developing educational programs on childhood trauma, its impact on the developing person and Dissociative Identity Disorder. She has earned a bachelor’s degree in social work and a master’s degree in public administration, both from the University of Michigan, and is currently earning her Ph.D. in psychology. Amy is the author of Human Trafficking 101: Stories, Stats, and Solutions. As an adjunct professor and international speaker, Amy continues to fight for those adversely impacted by childhood trauma.”
Among Joy’s hosts were Cullman County District Judges Rusty Turner and Chad Floyd, who hear cases of child abuse and see the kinds of crimes committed by traffickers.
Floyd said, “What we’re trying to do is bring awareness to counselors and ground level personnel who are out there and most likely to encounter and see these individuals that have been affected by human trafficking. I know when we live here in Cullman, it’s so easy to really think that human trafficking is something that can go on overseas or can go on in nearby large cities, but it can happen anywhere. And we’re learning today about individuals who were exploited for purposes of sexual exploitation, but persons who are exploited for labor, for housing; there’s just a tremendous amount that we learned already this morning.”
Joy’s presentation laid out chilling facts about human trafficking, including:
- Anywhere from 21 million to 45 million people are enslaved at any given time today around the world, meaning that slavery is a bigger problem in the modern world than at any time in history.
- A new victim is introduced into trafficking every 30 seconds.
- Approximately 1,000,000 new victims enter trafficking each year.
- At any given moment, approximately 750,000 child predators are one the internet, actively seeking victims.
- Trafficking is the fastest growing criminal industry and currently the second largest criminal enterprise in the world, behind guns.
- Trafficking generates approximately $150 billion in annual revenues.
- Where Americans seeking “sex tourism” once had to travel to foreign countries, the U.S. has now become the number one destination.
- The U.S. is now attracting foreign visitors who come here for sex tourism.
- Approximately 300,000 children are traded in sex trafficking in the U.S. each year, and when authorities try to get those kids out of “the life,” only 1700 spots are available in residential recovery programs nationwide.
- Though women and girls are considered the typical victims of trafficking, 44% of victims are male, typically 9-11 years of age when they are first trafficked. Girls tend to enter trafficking at 11-13 years.
- Runaways are prime targets for traffickers and 70% of all runaways will be contacted by a predator within 48 hours of leaving home.
- At any given time, approximately 2,000,000 children are missing in the U.S., and one out of every three of those cases will never be reported.
- The average life span of a child from the time they enter “the life” is only seven years.
Joy told the audience that exact numbers are not available for the 2020 COVID pandemic and shutdown, but that accessing pornography increased drastically during the shutdown, and cases of trafficking rose as laid-off workers became desperate for money. She warned that the available evidence points to a potential 41% increase in trafficking and sex abuse cases during that period.
Turner told The Tribune, “I’m very happy to have the number of people that showed up to listen to Miss Amy Joy tell us about the human trafficking and exploitation of folks. It’s a wonderful program. I really appreciate Juvenile Probation, Brooks’ Place putting this on so we can get the information out to as many people as possible in the community, because it’s going on in Cullman. We know that it’s something that needs to be taken care of, and make more people aware of it, so it’s great to have this kind of program going.”
Task force director Kathy Wilson told The Tribune, “The mission of the task force is to provide education to our community, and today’s training was an excellent opportunity for professionals. If we can arm our community with knowledge, then we can protect our children against these predators. We are grateful for everyone’s support today. We hope to continue to provide training opportunities like this in the near future.”
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