Amid the excitement over Kansas City hosting the NFL Draft and the sizable economic bump that could accompany the three days of festivities, a few people are concerned about an uptick in an unwanted money-making enterprise — the selling of sexual services.
While not always the case, prostitution can be a result of human trafficking , which is the use of force, fraud or coercion on an adult to control another person to engage in commercial sex acts or solicit labor or services against their will. Any commercial sex with minors is defined as trafficking. Large sporting events, including the NFL Draft, are often portrayed as opportunities for sharp rises in sex trafficking, but reality is more complex.
In reality, she says, trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation affect women daily, and societal protections are insufficient. Kris Wade, the founder and executive director of the Justice Project, a local nonprofit that supports and advocates for women in poverty, said she is in touch with networks that have reported observing a slight increase in trafficking during large sports events — and that out-of-town traffickers may bring people into a city.
Precise data on sex trafficking is difficult to get as much of it goes unreported, due to a loyalty victims may feel to their traffickers a symptom of battered woman syndrome , fear of consequences from the trafficker or fear of criminalization by police. According to reports from the National Human Trafficking Hotline database, 1, hotline tips were received from Missouri, with of the tips coming directly from victims or survivors of trafficking.
Both labor and sex trafficking occur in Missouri and Kansas, but the available data shows a higher demand for commercial sexual exploitation. The trafficking hotline study found that Missouri cases were identified as human trafficking, with victims involved in these crimes.
