Human trafficking affects Magdalene women

"I really love that the community has not given up on us," said Regina Mullins, a former prostitute addicted to marijuana and heroin, said. "So many people have the attitude that 'they got what they chose.'"

Mullins is the residence director of Magdalene Nashville, a transitional living program for women victimized by prostitution and their addictions.

"But they didn't get out there by themselves," Mullins continued. "They were raped by a family member. They go looking for love where they can find it or are running away from the hurt at home."

"I don't know a woman on the streets who has not been raped," Becca Stephens told about 300 people gathered last month at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Fayetteville for the first fundraiser for Magdalene Fayetteville. Stephens is the founder of Magdalene House and suffered her own sexual abuse as a child.

"Residents of Magdalene Nashville range in age from 20 to 50," reads the program's website, "and many have been sexually abused between the ages of 7 and 11, began using alcohol or drugs by 13, have spent years in and out of jail and have spent on average a decade on the street prostituting."

Facts and figures and even estimates on the number of women trafficked are difficult to determine. Only recently has human trafficking become a crime in some states, although traffickers in some cases could be charged for kidnapping and prostitution, said Dina Tyler, deputy director of communications and public affairs for the Arkansas Department of Community Correction.

"Trafficking happens more than you think," she said and takes the form of walking the streets, connecting via ads on the Internet and simply trading sexual favors for drugs or something else.

Sgt. Craig Stout of the Fayetteville Police Department said officers have made arrests for prostitution in Fayetteville, and the department has been involved in a couple of cases of trafficking of children. Unless the abuse comes as a part of a big trafficking operation, most of the sex crimes are misdemeanors. However, some arrested for associated crimes of violence and drug charges can face harsher penalties.

All law enforcement agencies in Northwest Arkansas conduct operations targeting prostitution.

"It's something we do have," Stout said. "And it's always there."

Today's solicitation for sexual favors can be found mostly on Internet sites, he said. Daily listings on backpage.com showed 15 to 20 offers Friday.

In the last two years, 88 percent of the women have graduated from the Magdalene program, Stephens reported. "The 20 percent that don't all have horrible stories and outcomes -- they've been murdered, charged with murder, relapsed, relapsed back in to violent relationships. We've had to ID bodies beaten so bad, they could only be identified by their tattoos. We've had women who nobody would claim the body but us.

"The truth is, no one went to the streets by themselves," Stephens continued. "It took a lot of failed systems and a lot of brokenness to get them out there -- and it's crazy to think they're going to get off the streets by themselves."

"Women ask, 'Tell me again what love it,'" Stephens related. "These women have seen the worst the world has to offer, but love speaks so powerfully. We want them to know that kind of hope and joy."

NAN Religion on 05/16/2015

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