mother from Gray’s cell phone. Sarah was too scared to give her mother details regarding her captors or on her exact location for fear that they would harm her family. This fear was not unfounded, as Gray knew where her mother and family members lived. Arizona policeman Greg Scheffer says victims often don’t call the police, even when given an opportunity to do so, for fear of reprisals (Villa & Collom, 2005b).
After receiving her daughter’s phone call, Sarah’s mother called the police. The officers made repeat visits to the apartment where Sarah was held and were, at times, just inches away. After Butler was arrested on the last visit and placed in the patrol car, she informed police that Sarah was hidden in the box spring. Butler expressed concern that Sarah might run out of oxygen as she almost fainted the last time she was forced to hide in the compartment. Interestingly, Butler was a victim of similar crimes at age 17. It seems that she subjected Sarah to the same strategy of beatings, threats, and imprisonment that she experienced. Phoenix police sergeant Chris Bray told the
Arizona Republic
that Butler’s actions are not uncommon in victims of abuse, specifically child abuse. “It’s kind of a battered-child syndrome,” Bray said. “It happened to them. They hated it. And then they do it to someone else” (Villa & Collom, 2005b).
CHILD SEX TOURISM
Child sex tourism is a form of exploitation that often takes place off U.S. soil but at the hands of U.S. citizens and legal residents. Many Western men travel to Southeast Asia, particularly Thailand, and pay for sex with children. The humanitarian organization World Vision, which collaborates with the U.S. State Department, HHS, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), estimates that there are 2 million children enslaved worldwide in the commercial sex trade. It also estimates that U.S. citizens make up 25 percent of child-sex tourists globally and up to 80 percent of child-sex tourists in Latin America (World Vision, 2009). In response to the exploitation of children via sex tourism by U.S. citizens and residents, the U.S. government enacted the Prosecutorial Remedies and Other Tools to End the Exploitation of Children Today (PROTECT) Act of 2003, which grants the United States jurisdiction to prosecute its citizens and legal permanent residents who go abroad and pay to have sex with a minor. It does not matter whether the client had knowledge that the child was a minor. Convicted sex tourists face up to 30 years’ imprisonment (U.S. Department of Justice, 2006b). Another program, called Operation Twisted Traveler, was launched in February 2009. The program is a collaborative effort by ICE, the Department of Justice, and law-enforcement officials in Cambodia to identify, arrest, and prosecute U.S. citizens and legal residents who travel to Cambodia for child-sex tourism (U.S. Department of Justice, 2009).
As a result of information provided to ICE by the International Justice Mission and Action pour les Enfants, three U.S. citizens were indicted for alleged acts of sex tourism in September 2009. Jack Louis Sporich (75 years old) and Erik Leonardus Peeters (41 years old) were each charged with three counts of having sexual contact with three Cambodian boys, while Ronald Gerard Boyajian (49 years old) was indicted on one count of sexual contact with a 10-year-old Vietnamese girl. If they are found guilty the men face up to 30 years’ imprisonment for each count of sex tourism. Reports say that Sporich would drive his motorbike in the city of Siem Reap, tossing Cambodian currency as a means of catching the attention of children (U.S. Department of Justice, 2009).
WHAT HAPPENS TO VICTIMS AFTER TRAFFICKING
Even after rescue or escape, the victim experience is far from over. One concern among social service providers is the large number of persons who are found in agent raids, arrested, and deported without a proper evaluation as to whether they