Examples of a Decentralized Sex Trafficking Network in the U.S.

The Korean brothels in the United States are set-up and run in an extremely stereotyped manner, but have no overarching coordination or hierarchy. A shared understanding of how to operate the brothels, high degree of rotation through the networks, and informal ties between transporters and owners have all contributed to the relative uniformity of their networks.

The three actors described below operate independently, but belong to the same general network of groups that do business together.

Brokerarranges for the smuggling of women into the country. Taxi service monitors the needs of the different brothels and transports women between them, filling the positions. Brothel operatormanages a brothel, including hiring, firing, and controlling the women. May or not be the owner, or may own the brothel and a few others.

The examples below are different typical configurations of a sex trafficking network in the United States, based on the operations of the Korean massage parlor networks.

In New York City and L.A., Korean brokers who have smuggled women illegally into the United States sell the women to a Korean massage parlor operator. The brothel operator buys the value of their smuggling debt, and will require the women to either pay it off, work it off, or a combination of both. The brothel operator has no formal ties with the brokers, but does business with them when new employees are required. The connection between the broker and the brothel operator may have been facilitated by a Korean taxi service that monitors openings in the brothels.

In Flushings, NY, an area in Queens with a large Korean community, recruiters will go to legitimate Korean massage establishments for women, and may say that the women can make much more money at another job doing the same thing. The recruiter will arrange for the transportation of the women to a Korean massage parlor in another state. When the women arrives, she discovers from the brothel operator that she must pay back the value of the transportation, the lodging and food, and will only receive tips, forcing her to provide sex to customers to make enough money to pay off the debt.

An alternate arrangement may involve a recent Korean immigrant arriving in New York or L.A., with thousands of dollars of debt to pay off. A Korean taxi service driver will advise her that the fastest way to pay off the debt is to work at a massage parlor. For a fee, he brings her to a massage parlor, where the woman is pressured strongly to provide commercial sex to the customers or risk being fired. The Korean taxi services monitor the needs of various brothel operators, and transport women between them. They are well known in the networks for taking advantage of the women through fraud and exorbitant charges. Brothel operators who are not happy with a woman may try to sell her to another operator, hoping to recover his or her debt payment. The woman is then transportated to the new location and comes under control of the new business owner.

Date: 2015-12-18; view: 896