FBI Agent Educates Future Nurses On Signs Of Sex Trafficking
WINONA LAKE — A local nursing instructor is taking steps to educate some nurses of tomorrow on warning signs related to what experts are calling the growing epidemic of sex trafficking in the U.S.
Chable Johnson, as part of her Issues and Ethics Class at Grace College, hosted a seminar by FBI Task Force Officer Chris McCarty of the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Friday, Feb. 22 in Grace’s McClain Hall.
Johnson’s belief, which was confirmed by McCarty, is that once in the workforce, her nursing students may come face to face with victims of the types of crimes McCarty has spent years battling.
“Human trafficking is the topic that came up for us to discuss,” Johnson said prior to introducing McCarty. “Hopefully we learn exactly what to be looking for. I personally work in an ER in Fort Wayne and have encountered a situation that was definitely a human trafficking situation. So, we as nurses will encounter this.”
McCarty told the nursing students that sex trafficking eclipses the illegal sale of arms and is on pace to surpass the illegal sale of drugs in the next few years.
“This is not about what two individuals do in the privacy of their own (home) — two consenting adults,” said McCarty. “This is about people who are being forced to do something that most of us would never dream of. They got themselves into a situation and they ended up doing things they didn’t want to do.”
McCarty said that human trafficking is a $32 billion per year industry involving 4.5 million sexually exploited men, women and children. The industry is responsible for luring as many as 300,000 victims younger than 18 years old.
For McCarty and law enforcement officials who battle this illegal trade, finding answers to burning questions can sometimes leave people with even more questions.
According to McCarty, who could not be photographed due to the nature of his job, the Internet is the most prominent breeding ground for the recruitment of underage girls to the sex trade. He said recruiters use charisma as a tool, but also prey on areas of a potential victim’s life that the target feels is lacking.
“It tends to be situational as to how these things happen,” he said. “They’re being made to do this by force, fraud or coercion. So many of them start over social media. These guys are very good at what they do.”
McCarty belongs to a task force called Violent Crimes Against Children. He told the future nurses that when they are encountering a victim of human trafficking, too much empathy, or feigned empathy, could be counterproductive.
“The one thing I will caution you about when you get these trafficking victims in is saying ‘I know how you feel,’ because you don’t,” he said.
Victims, according to the presentation by McCarty, consist of 59 percent women, 17 percent girls, 14 percent men and 10 percent boys.
It is also estimated that 600,000 to 800,000 women, children and men are bought and sold across international borders every year and exploited for forced labor or commercial sex.