O.k., this post gets dark. If you can’t make it through, I understand.
When I started writing The Antique Picker’s Daughter in 2014, Jeffrey Epstein wasn’t on my radar. (He was on the authorities’ radar in Florida. Sadly, they didn’t do their job. Shout out to reporter Julie K. Brown, who did what the police and F.B.I. didn’t, and who was instrumental in revealing details of his abuse of young women and the lenient 2008 plea deal he received; her work ultimately led to his 2019 federal arrest and the resignation of Labor Secretary Alex Acosta.)
The Antique Picker’s Daughter is about Frankie, who becomes homeless at 15 and lives on the street. It also touches on human trafficking.
Before writing the novel, I did have some knowledge about youth homelessness; friends had experienced it, relatives had experienced it.
I also had some knowledge of human trafficking because I worked in the local public library system, and when the Kingston Police ran an information session on human trafficking, I attended in order to learn if there were signs I could watch out for while working at the library that might indicate someone was being trafficked. (There are many signs of trafficking, although few of them would be easily visible during one cursory meeting.)
From that session, and from research I did while writing the novel, I have learned a lot. One thing I’ve learned is that Jeffrey Epstein and his customers who abused mostly young, mostly marginalized people for sexual gratification, although reprehensible and execrable, are not, unfortunately, outliers. Jeff’s customers were, perhaps, richer, more blatant, and more arrogant than most johns, but despite the fact they felt they were an exalted bunch — smarter than the rest of us, they thought, more accomplished, convinced they were above the law — they were in fact run-of-the-mill johns; Jeff and Ghislaine were expensive pimps. Anything else is window-dressing. There was nothing glamorous about Jeff or Ghislaine or what they did.
The realities that let Jeff flourish and helped him escape prosecution — at least initially — are harrowing; at the same time, they are all too familiar, a pattern of abuse our society seems to condone directed at girls, women, and vulnerable, marginalized people:
The statistics:
• Every year 100,000 to 300,000 children and youth are sexually exploited in North America • Traffickers (usually gang members or organized crime) can make over $280,000 a year by controlling one person.
• 12-14 is the average age children reported their first experience of being exploited through the sex trade.
• Marginalized populations — girls and women, Indigenous people, LGTBQ2+ people, people from racialized communities — are statistically more highly represented among those who are exploited.
• Women are much more highly represented among people who are sex trafficked — which is familiar to people — but men are more highly trafficked in the labour market, which fewer people know about: agriculture, meatpacking plants, construction.
• Johns are overwhelmingly (98%) male.
• They first pay for sex between the ages of 24 to 27.
• Almost 50% are married.
• Over half the johns paid for sex over 30 times.
• 20% of johns surveyed in the Greater Vancouver area admitted they committed violent offenses or used coercion against a sex worker at least once.
How does homelessness play into this dynamic?
• Homeless children and youth are much more easily coerced or forced into human trafficking than housed youth are.
• Approximately 35,000 to 40,000 young people (aged 13–24) experience homelessness annually in Canada, and they represent about 20% of the total homeless population.
• Youth homelessness is often characterized by "hidden homelessness" (couch-surfing), with key drivers including family conflict, 2SLGBTQIA+ discrimination, and system failures. (Homeless Hub)
• 33% of runaways have been forced to perform a sexual act against their will.
• 21% to 42% percent of homeless youth report sexual abuse, compared with one to three percent of youth in the general population, and one in three teens on the street will be coerced into prostitution within 48 hours of leaving home.
• 82% of homeless youth report having traded sex for money, 48% have traded sex for food, and 22% trade sex for drugs.
There are more statistics, equally grim, but all point to two simple facts: first, if we can help keep children and youth from becoming homeless, we can keep them from becoming involved in human trafficking; second, the sex trade is overwhelmingly fuelled by men, and the sex trade is not victimless — as we know from Virginia Giuffre’s testimony, as we know from the testimony of other survivors of Epstein and his customers, and as we know from the testimony of many other survivors of the sex trade.
And the suffering caused by the depredations of the sex trade aren’t limited simply to the people involved in it; the suffering spreads out to affect family members and friends of the exploited. The damage it creates is widespread and costly.
What to do? First: believe the victims. If someone discloses abuse to you, the three things you say right away are:
1. I believe you.
2. It’s not your fault.
3. I am going to do everything I can to make sure this doesn’t happen to you again.
And then do it: lobby politicians at every level of government to put money into helping families in crisis and into fighting homelessness. Put money into helping families before they end up in crisis; provide supports for families and children. Raise the minimum wage — poverty is the root of many problems. Invest in social services for children and youth. Every dollar invested in that support saves $7 dollars down the line.
Stop blaming the victims, who are largely from marginalized and vulnerable populations. Start putting the responsibility on the johns, the gang members and organized crime who recruit and exploit vulnerable individuals: raise the fines for paying for sex, and for human trafficking; make prison terms longer. Put money into finding and prosecuting human traffickers.
Even though there are no easy fixes, we need to keep working to remedy the causes of homelessness and human trafficking. Question the values of a society that is structured so that casual cruelty and abuse toward the vulnerable and powerless are ingrained, a society that acts as if it’s acceptable for rich, powerful people to abuse vulnerable people and pay little to no penalty. Name the abusers. Protect the abused.