Marisa Wojcik:

Welcome to Noon Wednesday. I’m Marisa Wojcik, a multimedia journalist with Here & Now on Wisconsin Public Television. Joining us today, is Dr. Joy Ippolito. She is the Anti-Human Trafficking Coordinator for the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families, and we’re here to talk about a campaign that the Department of Children and Families has come out with, changing the conversation around human trafficking in Wisconsin. Thanks so much for joining us.

Joy Ippolito:

Thank you for having me.

Marisa Wojcik:

So why this campaign and why now?

Joy Ippolito:

You know, sex trafficking, human trafficking has been around for a very long time. It’s been happening in all of our communities, rural, suburban, the very large cities, urban areas, but we really wanted to start to bring awareness and attention to it. This has been a growing problem, particularly because of the Internet, and we really want our Wisconsin residents to understand this is something they need to be paying attention to.

Marisa Wojcik:

So even just today it was announced that an arrest was made of someone out of Chicago, coordinating in nine states, but human trafficking isn’t always just a huge coordinated effort, right? It looks different in different pockets of the state.

Joy Ippolito:

Absolutely, it really depends. There are definitely some organized sex trafficking rings, which is probably referring to the Department of Justice does a lot of the work on the law enforcement, criminal justice side of that. But trafficking can happen in someone’s own hometown. They do not have to even leave the confines of their home, necessarily, for trafficking to occur. Really, the Internet has made that very easy to do. Although, certainly, traffickers are also still recruiting, grooming, meeting young people out in the community, as well.

Marisa Wojcik:

And this report references backpage.com, which is a website that was used to facilitate human trafficking, but that’s now been shut down, but the Internet is still a big driver of a lot of these?

Joy Ippolito:

Certainly. Yeah, there’ve been several different types of online sites over the years, Craigslist, Backpage. But it’s not that once you take one of those away that the problem necessarily goes away, so there’s still lots of other pockets where this can be occurring on different applications. You know, traffickers are manipulative, they’re savvy. They’re looking for vulnerable people so they might be looking at Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat. Things that individuals are saying, you know, am I pretty, what do you think? Or, someone who might be expressing vulnerability, I don’t have a place to sleep or I’m mad at my mom and dad. And using that to their advantage.

Marisa Wojcik:

So what are some common misconceptions about human trafficking that would be helpful for people to know if they’re trying to look for it in their own relationships?

Joy Ippolito:

So I think, you know, first and foremost, one of the ways to prevent this, is to really have open conversations with young people about what a healthy relationship should look like. What is appropriate to ask in a romantic relationship? A lot of times, there’s this myth that, you know, someone is going to swoop in and you’re going to be able to see that this person is a trafficker. If you ask young people, what does a, you know, pimp look like, they tend to describe someone who’s wearing, you know, a velvet, you know, suit and a top hat, and has a cane and gold chains, and that’s not how pimps or traffickers are approaching them. They’re look like every average normal person. Traffickers can be men and women. And they go after both young men and young women, as well. So we often talk about women being at risk of being trafficked, but it can absolutely happen to men. In terms of warning signs, there are definitely several that, depending on who you are, if you’re a parent, you want to be looking for, you know, is your young person running away from home? Are they hearing reports that they used to be doing well in school and now, they’re skipping school a lot? Are they showing up with items that you know that you didn’t purchase for them? And that you know they don’t have a job, necessarily, that they could’ve afforded? So getting their hair and nails done, bringing in a new cell phone, jewelry, things, again, just of high value. Certainly, if you find sexually explicit photos of a young person on their phone, or on the Internet, that’s a huge red flag that we want people to be paying attention to.

Marisa Wojcik:

Is there a way to approach this that can make a child feel like they’re guilty of something?

Joy Ippolito:

Yes, I mean, one of the biggest things is that we never want to ask a young person, why didn’t you leave, or, you know, how did you get caught up in this? It’s really important to know that traffickers understand how to psychologically manipulate another person. A lot of time, these are cases similar to domestic violence. So they may have convinced that young person that they are their boyfriend, their girlfriend, their daddy, their lover, the person that’s going to take care of them. And so, when you ask, well, why didn’t you leave, it’s because they think this person, this is what love means. Or, that this is what a relationship should be. So you never want to approach them in an accusatory way, or, you know, much like we wouldn’t want young people to say, well, why did you show up to that party, or why did you do this or that? Traffickers are trying to utilize someone’s, potentially, innocence, but also, just their desire for finding someone to connect with. And so, we want to approach them from a very opening, you know, what’s been happening to you, how can we help? And know that that conversation may take a long time, because healing is a process. You know, the first time you approach someone, they might not be willing and open to accepting that help.

Marisa Wojcik:

Are there ways that we’re educating people, outside of parents? You know, even children, themselves, as to if someone, if a stranger approaches you online, or anything like that? Or, this is, kind of, what to look for. In terms of protecting yourself.

Joy Ippolito:

Yeah, so the Wisconsin We Need to Talk campaign focused, very much, on adults. So members of the public, we wanted to raise awareness for them, but we have several other initiatives going on with the department. We have several that are, focus specifically on prevention awareness with young people, so we had the Wisconsin Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force that was co-chaired by the Department Secretary, Eloise Anderson, for DCF. And then, Attorney General, Brad Schimel. And from that task force, we developed several different recommendations, different documents that other groups could use. And one of those work groups focused on, what would be some prevention curriculum that we would recommend. So all of that is available on the website. Schools can choose to use those curriculum, if they want to. We also have a documentary video that is in production that really focuses on the stories of survivors from Wisconsin who were trafficked as young people. And we’ll be turning that into a teachable tool, so there’ll be a facilitated listening guide, because we want to have these conversations with young people so they understand how people might approach them. You know, not to, kind of, get caught up into that promises of love, or I’m gonna take care of you.

Marisa Wojcik:

Have there been policy changes that have, kind of, changed some of the ways that we approach this issue in the state?

Joy Ippolito:

Yes, so federally, our laws changed. So in May 29th, 2017, we, in this state, child sex trafficking is considered to be a form of child abuse. So anyone who is a mandated reporter, typically, people know if they are, or not. Often, if you’re working with young people, in some capacity, whether that’s in a school, you know, other types of school-related, doctors are certainly required for that, too. Need to make a report if they suspect that a young person is being trafficked. But more importantly, we’ve changed our system, so within the child welfare system, we’ve trained all of our work force, really, to understand how to look for these signs. That they need to, basically, screen in and assess these cases. And they’re difficult, they’re not easy to say, oh, yes, this is happening. A lot of times, there’s layers to uncover in that. We’ve also been doing training around the state to other systems who might encounter these cases, because, again, our ability to respond to them is only gonna be as good as the individuals who might come into contact with young people who are at risk.

Marisa Wojcik:

Are there cases where someone should, maybe, think twice about calling law enforcement? ‘Cause that might actually put the child in more danger?

Joy Ippolito:

I mean, I think if we’re ever in a situation where you think a young person is in danger, potentially in eminent harm, you want to be calling 9-1-1, even if you have hesitation about potentially calling law enforcement. I work closely with the Department of Justice and their Human Trafficking Bureau. They’ve definitely done a lot of training and outreach to law enforcement around the state through their yearly training seminars to really help law enforcement understand that these, much like domestic violence cases, where 20 years ago, we didn’t understand to offer services and support, when we find young people, or even young adults, who are caught up, that there’s a lot of trauma, there’s a lot of history behind that, and we need to offer youth services. You know, if you’re not certain if trafficking is going on, I think it really depends on who you are. Whether you’re a parent, or whether you’re someone who has to, kind of, make those reports about opening those lines of communication and just saying, you know, is someone harming you? Is someone asking you to do something that you really don’t necessarily feel comfortable doing? And then, certainly, if something gets uncovered, we want to be able to get that person services. Because, we don’t want to avoid systems just ’cause there is that fear, and we know that for some young people, they have had negative experiences. But we want them to know and understand we’re really trying to change that perception so that they can get the help they need.

Marisa Wojcik:

Outside of, well, with reporting and with arrests, you know, do we have a good idea of data on how prevalent this issue is across the state?

Joy Ippolito:

So that law change that I mentioned last May, kind of gives us the first opportunity to start collecting data, so we’re kind of at the very beginning part of that. Now, we’ve had that law in effect for a year, so in the next several months, we’ll start to look at that data to really understand, where are we getting reports? Are we able to, kind of, gather enough evidence in those? And that’s just from the child welfare side of things. Law enforcement has a different set of, kind of, ways that they record data on that, and I know it’s something that they’ve also been trying to work on.

Marisa Wojcik:

All right, thanks, so much, for joining us.

Joy Ippolito:

Thank you, for having me.

Marisa Wojcik:

If you like this interview, please share it. And if you have comments, we do want to hear from you. For more from Here & Now, and Wisconsin Public Television, visit wpt.org, and thanks, so much, for joining us for Noon Wednesday.