http://deadspin.com/the-truth-about-the-nfl-the-super-bowl-and-sex-slaver-1511917053?utm_campaign=socialflow_deadspin_facebook&utm_source=deadspin_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow
Any actual nexus for human trafficking would require a larger-than-normal number of willing buyers. Sports fans would need to be willing to risk arrest away from home, in addition to desiring commercial sex from coerced victims, possibly underage ones. The Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Women wrote in a 2011 report: "This simplistic equation relies on problematic assumptions about masculinity, business practices within the sex industry, sex workers' capacity to take action, and the root causes of trafficking." After reviewing reports from the World Cup, the Olympics and the Super Bowl, the report concluded that there was no evidence of increased human trafficking at sporting events. "There's not an enormous amount of data that tells the story that there's a giant spike in trafficking around the Super Bowl," said Polaris Project CEO Bradley Myles in an interview with USA Today.
Traffickers also would have to see a profitable opportunity where independent sex workers apparently do not. 'Diana,' an independent escort who frequently travels with clients, said the Super Bowl is one event she's never been invited to, professionally. "I've attended other, smaller-scale games with clients, but I've never been invited to the Super Bowl. Those who've gone take male friends or male family members," she said. "And I've never once heard of an escort planning a tour around working the Super Bowl, not even those women who tour regularly." To track if men were more likely to buy sex at sporting events, anthropologist Dr. Laura Agustín says researchers would have to shadow fans. "I'd have to be sure to be on the same plane with them, and then get there and hang out and see how much drink they've had, and how they feel when they watch football, and how many of them go to pay for sex. You can't do this research!"
One piece of evidence held up to prove an increase in Super Bowl-related trafficking is the count of Backpage ads—but in order to give significance to that count, one must assume that the increase comes from sex traffickers, rather than independent sex workers seeking to capitalize on tourist traffic. Nobody would mistake an increase in postings for domestic, construction and agricultural workers for evidence of a major nexus of forced labor. Despite this, law enforcement and journalists often classify all prostitution as trafficking, making it even harder to find reliable numbers.
Regardless of whether someone is engaged in sex work willingly or through coercion, it is still a criminal act in almost all parts of the country. As a result, efforts like those that precede the Super Bowl do little to aid victims, according to Elizabeth Ricks, an attorney who works with the Transformative Justice Law Project of Illinois. "With everything illegal, it becomes this gray area, and what I'm seeing in my work is that the trafficking victims are really getting lost in the conversation," she said. "If we had decriminalization, the difference between consensual sex work and trafficking would be much more stark." When the type of labor is legal, like domestic or agricultural work, there is less discretion required of law enforcement to determine if someone is a victim unlike in cases of suspected sex trafficking. "It's the difference between sex and rape," Ricks said. "It would really become very clear that consensual sex work is not the same as having to perform labor under coercion or threat."
It also talk about the domestic violence/Super Bowl myth as well.
Trafficking and partner abuse are serious issues that deserve more attention. But false stats do no good.
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