Backpage Madison Wi

Hidden Labor, Sex Trade Alive In Wisconsin

By Julie Strupp
Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism

MADISON, Wis. -- One morning, Laura woke up a little sluggish -- not fast enough for her boyfriend, Michael. So he stabbed her in the calf.

Eleven years later, Laura, now 30, still bears a deep, nickel-sized crater there.

The two met on State Street in Madison. He took her to Albuquerque, N.M., where he used violence and psychological intimidation to coerce her to sell her body for money. Both names have been changed for Laura’s protection.

Laura says she worked for three months as a prostitute for Michael, who exerted control over her by feeding her drug addiction and exploiting the emotional scars she carried from childhood abuse. One time he sold her sexual services to a man for a bag of drugs, she says.

“Basically Michael claimed he owned me,” Laura says. “I was always so scared.”

Laura finally escaped during a trip to Texas, nearly losing her life in the process as Michael, high on crack, crashed their car. She took the chance and ran away.

Laura is a survivor of human trafficking. She recounted her story at Project Respect, a Madison nonprofit that helps sex workers. The details of stories like hers are difficult to corroborate, director of Project Respect Jan Miyasaki says. But Miyasaki, who’s been working with Laura for about seven years, says Laura’s story is credible and follows a typical pattern.

Human trafficking is a little-recognized crime that involves controlling or attempting to control a person by force, fraud, debt bondage or coercion for sexual exploitation or forced labor.

Instead of physical bonds, a battery of psychological tactics often restrain victims, says Miyasaki. They can be lured by offers of a job, a meal or a place to stay, access to drugs or a relationship — then are manipulated by traffickers until they feel trapped.

SeattleCrime.com | News | McGinn Meets With Other Mayors About ...

At a press conference at city hall last week, Mayor Mike McGinn said he was meeting with other mayors from around the country as part of his efforts to get Village Voice Media-owned Backpage.com to crackdown on juvenile prostitution ads.

Mayor McGinn's down on the US Conference of Mayors in LA today, where he apparently met with mayors from Salt Lake City, Oakland, Pembroke, Madison, WI, St Louis, Louisville, and Burnsville, MN—as well as Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore's anti-human trafficking DNA foundation —to discuss Backpage.

No word yet on how McGinn's coalition-building efforts went, but we'll see what we can find out.

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