Stats - Local & National

More adolescent girls are commercially sexually exploited in one month in Minnesota than...

• ...there are teens girls who died by suicide, homicide, and accidents COMBINED in one year

• ...there are women who died from complications due to AIDS in one year

• ...there are female infants who died from SIDS in one year

• ...there are women of all ages murdered in one year

The total number of girls trafficked through Internet classifieds and escort services increased 55% in Minnesota over the 6 months of the study.

Taken from the report "Adolescent Girls in the United States Sex Trade:  Tracking Study Results for May, 2010" by The Shapiro Group.  (The comparison data are from the Minnesota Dept of Health, Center for Heath Statistics, 2007.)

More than 100,000 children in the U.S. are victims of commercial sexual exploitation or domestic sex trafficking of minors (Smith, Vardaman, & Snow, 2009). Most victims are young girls, of diverse racial/ethnic backgrounds, who are first victimized between 12-14 years of age.

Homeless and runaway youth are especially vulnerable to sexual exploitation in order to survive—trading sex for shelter, food, safety, and other basic needs. Children engaging in survival sex are considered trafficking victims under federal law because often an adult has benefited from their victimization. An estimated 30 percent of youth living in shelters, and 70 percent of street youth, have at one point been victimized through such sexual exploitation (Estes & Weiner, 2001).

Taken from The Wilder Foundation's report, "Overview of domestic trafficking of minors in the United States," 2009.  References include:  Smith, L.A., Vardaman, S.H., & Snow, M.A. (2009). "The National Report on Domestic
Minor Sex Trafficking." Shared Hope International.

Unaccompanied minors, ages 12-17, are the most invisible of the homeless population because there are fewer services through which to contact them.  Many have come from difficult home situations:
--38% physically abused (47% girls/26% boys)
--20% sexually abused (32% girls/4% boys)
--27% stayed in an abusive situation because they had no other housing (32% girls/22% boys)
--61% have been in a social service or corrections placement,

Taken from The Wilder Foundation report:  "Homeless Children and Their Families in Minnesota", July 2010.

The need for transitional homes

Interviews show that transitional and permanent housing for trafficked persons is extremely difficult to obtain, yet is essential to permanently leave a trafficking situation. 

Transitional or permanent housing facilities are crucial to transition from a life of prostitution. A service provider stated that housing can “change women’s lives […] the women who are in housing stay out of the life.” “It can take two years just to get a grip, [so] how can you rebuild your life if you don’t know where you are going to lay your head,” stated an interviewee.

Social workers who work with GLBT youth agreed that housing is their most important tool to promote long-term, sustainable choices. With housing resources, the social worker explained, risky behaviors are reduced: “If you have a place to sleep at night, you are less likely to contract HIV [or] hepatitis and be in emotional turmoil.”

Also, the lack of available housing may deter trafficked persons from seeking services at all. A service provider reported that “[w]e tell them right away [during street outreach] that we have sixty people on the waiting list for housing and then they never come in...”

Taken from the report "Sex Trafficking Needs Assessment for the State of Minnesota" by The Advocates for Human Rights, 2008.  References to interviews can be found in the report.

During the 2006 legislative session the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act, Minnesota Statutes Chapter 256K.45, was passed. This legislation called for the commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Human Services to provide a report on homeless youth, youth at risk of homelessness, runaways, as well as the coordination of services for these youth.  Download the report here.

This report identified housing (emergency shelter, transitional living programs, and permanent supportive housing for youth with mental illness and/or chemical dependency issues) as the largest need identified by state agency personnel and homeless youth service providers.