On the surface, human trafficking can look like domestic violence or sexual assault, but dig a little deeper and trafficking is a crime against free movement. Victims are forced to work or engage in sexual favors, often through drugs and intimidation.
The girl found recently at Club Madonna has put human trafficking on the minds of South Floridians. Though the club is quiet now, Katarina Rosenblatt refuses to be. She was also 13 when she was recruited into a trafficking circle at the pool of a South Beach hotel where she was living with her mom."This recruiter came across as an older sister and somebody who I could trust. One day she would introduce me to her pimp", Rosenblatt said. "He said could call him daddy. ‘Daddy,’ those were the holes that I had because my father was abusive. "
She spent 4 years in that situation that was over 20 years ago and now she and runs a support group for trafficking victims called There Is Hope For Me. The National Human Trafficking Resource Center runs a hotline and says Florida ranks third in the number of calls.
"When I heard that number, I had not heard of any criminal cases involving human trafficking victims", said Kathryn Rundle, the State Attorney for Miami-Dade County. She also heads up the county’s Human Trafficking Task Force.
"So clearly we weren't looking at the issue in the correct way", admitted Rundle. "Our vision my vision, was that young people from foreign countries Singapore, the Philippines coming in. "
A common misconception.
"What we discovered was we had these cases. For our community here it is 90% local people", Rundle said. "They’re our own boys and girl in our own neighborhoods"
About half her cases involve victims under the age of 18, she says. Which means making a case against the trafficker is harder.
"Their brain isn’t developed and so these predators are fully adept they're completely twisted their brains into believing, 'I'm your boyfriend and you owe me this and I love you', and it goes back and forth", described Rundle.
In general, vulnerability like drug addiction or previous abuse is what puts someone at risk. That was the case for a woman we’re calling Joy, she asked us not to use her real name. She was in college in Boca Raton, living in a dorm when she became a trafficking victim.
"At first in the moment I didn't really think of it as trafficking I just saw this as my life so may as well just suck it up and do it", said Joy.
She says she spent half a year performing sexual “favors” for friends of a guy she met, who told her he loved her. When his threats got to be too much to handle, she moved out of the state. She came back, she says, to prove to people, she could change. Now she’s looking for a job that will let her help other people in bad situations.
"Bring voice to whatever people don’t want to deal with but kind of put it out there and stick it in their faces", Joy said.
And sticking Human Trafficking in people’s faces is what Rundle sees as the most effective way to combat it. Even though law enforcement has been trained to know what to look for, they still rely on tips from family members or suspicious neighbors to see the warning signs in potential victims.
"Dropping out of school, a runaway not living at home, age", listed Rundle.
Florida legislators are also trying to address the issue Two years ago, the State passed its first law empowering local authorities to make arrests in Human Trafficking Cases. And last year, Florida also passed the Safe Harbor bill establishing a plan for what to do when they find a victim.
Rundle’s office went from 0 cases of Human Trafficking two years ago to 107 last year.