The numbers of people who are victims of human trafficking are shocking.
According to the International Labour Organization, on any given day in 2016, an estimated 25 million people around the world were subjected to human trafficking and forced labor. In the United States, the Polaris Project’s analysis of 2021 National Human Trafficking Hotline data estimated there were 10,359 human-trafficking situations reported, involving an estimated 16,554 victims that year. The United States Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics determined that “a total of 2,027 persons were referred to U.S. attorneys for human trafficking offenses in fiscal year 2021, a 49% increase from the 1,360 persons referred in 2011.”
Closer to home, through Dec. 1, there have been 147 human trafficking-victim contacts in Riverside County in 2024, with 91 law-enforcement investigations launched as a result. That’s according to Denise Rodriguez Bowman, director of the Forensic Services and Victim Advocacy (FSVA) unit at the Barbara Sinatra Children’s Center in Rancho Mirage, and the Coalition to End Human Trafficking, Riverside County (CEHT).
These numbers are just the tip of the iceberg—since many human trafficking situations go unreported.
The CEHT is the lead victim-advocacy actor in Riverside County’s efforts to curtail incidents of human trafficking. Created three years ago, the coalition is a victim-centric collaboration between the Barbara Sinatra Children’s Center Forensic Services and Victim Advocacy unit, and the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department Anti-Human Trafficking task force. As part of their ongoing efforts to expose the plight of, and increase support for, human-trafficking victims, the CEHT will be holding its first Riverside County Anti-Human Trafficking Conference on Wednesday, Jan. 8, at the Agua Caliente Resort Casino Spa in Rancho Mirage.
During an interview with the Independent, Bowman discussed the sad reality that many victims of human trafficking—defined by the U.S. Department of Justice as “compelling or coercing a person to provide labor or services, or to engage in commercial sex acts”—are children.
“We typically put human trafficking under the umbrella of child exploitation, kind of (as) a subset of child abuse,” Bowman said. “Many of the children and adolescents who we work with, they really are in the same arena of child abuse, exploitation and human trafficking. … We’ve been (helping) children, by way of child advocacy services, for close to 20 years. The Barbara Sinatra Children’s Center works within a child-advocacy model, which is working with children who have been victimized and (providing) frontline services. When I say children, I mean both a child or an adolescent. Many people fail to understand that ‘children’ include teenagers, too.”
In 2021, Bowman’s FSVA unit partnered with the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department to develop a plan for a more proactive approach to human trafficking—one that stressed awareness and education, as well as increased efforts in eastern Riverside County, including the Coachella Valley.
“Many of the law-enforcement task force members are located in the western part of the county, so they would come out (east only) when something happened,” Bowman said. “Our emphasis, our strategic plan, was to really look at it from a proactive (perspective): Let’s get out into the community. Let’s start to interface with the community about what they may be seeing, and (teach them) if they’re not sure what they should be reporting, or how to report it, or what are they really looking at.”
Bowman—who has been the FSVA director since 2017 and has 24 years of experience working with victims of child abuse and human trafficking—proudly said this proactive approach has showed enough results to warrant the expansion of the program throughout the county. It is now the default approach to unraveling human-trafficking relationships and protecting victims in the county, and the Barbara Sinatra Children’s Center team is the lead victim-services provider.
“We have a vast geographical service area, and we evolved partnerships in the process,” Bowman said. “Currently, we partner with two other victim-service providers that are strategically placed throughout the county: REACH in Hemet and Rebirth Homes in Riverside. … We also work with diverse stakeholders that have a vested interest in working in human trafficking by providing services.” Those include the Cahuilla Consortium, Safe House, Million Kids, the Galilee Center, the Coachella Valley Rescue Mission, Eisenhower Health and Olive Crest among others.
“It’s pretty intricate,” Bowman said. “We’re always working from a multi-disciplinary team standpoint. The premise of the child-advocacy model is that you do not do this alone. It’s a united front, working together to combat human trafficking, both sex and labor, and we look at it through prevention, awareness, outreach, education and intervention. We know that one agency alone cannot do it. It really takes this coalition of vetted partnerships to work together for the benefit of our community, the survivors and the victims who we serve. … There are no silos, and there are no egos in this work. It’s really collaborative, working together. That’s the premise of the mission.”
The Difficulty of Identifying Victims
Identifying and addressing human-trafficking situations can be difficult for outsiders. That’s why it is so critical for family members, friends or concerned members of the public to report what they believe are suspicious circumstances or behaviors.
“The problem about human trafficking is that it’s very difficult to identify, and very under-reported,” Bowman said. “From January 2024 to the beginning of December, (CEHT partners) have had 147 victim contacts thus far, with law enforcement handling 91 investigations. Those are people who were identified through the task force. Now, the number is higher if you include people who may have been a victim of trafficking and wanted our services, but wanted nothing to do with law enforcement. The number is really not very black and white. We’re always going into the community and interfacing to bring awareness about reporting labor and sex trafficking.”
Bowman said human trafficking and child abuse “never sleep.”
“We just need the community to really care about these kids, and we need more foster-care placements. We need more people who want to take adolescent teenagers.”
Denise Rodriguez Bowman, director of the Forensic Services and Victim Advocacy unit at the Barbara Sinatra Children’s Center
“It’s every day, 365 days a year, morning and nights,” she said. “The professional people who do this work need to have extreme passion for it, because it doesn’t end at 5 p.m. Sometimes, you may get calls about crisis emergencies, victim recovery or identification at all hours of the night.
“There are times when it’s very sad. It’s heartbreaking. I have teenagers myself, and it just breaks my heart that many of these kids don’t have the familial support that they need to be healthy humans. Most of the kids who we encounter have had some poly-victimization in their life: They were sexually or physically abused, or had neglect in their childhood, and that leads into this arena of human trafficking. … We just need the community to really care about these kids, and we need more foster-care placements. We need more people who want to take adolescent teenagers. You know, they’re not easy, because they’re teenagers. It tends to grab at your heartstrings at times, but we’re always understanding that we are the light. When you’re walking in the darkness with these kids, or these adults, and trying to bring them to the light … we always say, ‘This is where help meets healing.’ So if we can, we want to help you start your healing.”
The Role of Teachers
In 2010, President Obama proclaimed January as National Human Trafficking Prevention Month; each president since has followed suit each year. This, in part, is why the Coalition to End Human Trafficking, Riverside County chose to hold the aforementioned inaugural Riverside County Anti-Human Trafficking Conference on Jan. 8. The keynote speaker will be Rachel Fischer, an author, consultant and a survivor. The free-to-attend conference is not open to the general public, but is intended for professionals working in various aspects of anti-human-trafficking entities, from law enforcement professionals to teachers.
“This is our first conference brought to you by the coalition and the task force for Riverside County,” Bowman said. “We really want to be intentional and specific, so this year, we’re starting off with our professionals in the community. We need to teach our professionals how to respond, to identify, to report, and where to report any indicators that they see with the children and adolescent adults they interface with in the community. We’re looking at law enforcement, social workers and NGOs, people who do social-services work throughout the county, and educators—primarily middle and high school educators throughout all of Riverside County.
According to the International Labour Organization, on any given day in 2016, an estimated 25 million people around the world were subjected to human trafficking and forced labor.
“We still have a good number of registration openings for educators, and we will have experts on identification of human trafficking, what those indicators are, how to respond and interface with youth who may be participating in ‘the life,’ and then how to report. Really, it starts with these people who are interfacing with these kids every day. They have relationships with them in the school systems, and they need to be able to report to the right people. I think because our county is so large, people don’t always know how to report, or where to report.
Bowman said the coalition plans to hold future forums and conferences for parents and members of the community.
“With teenagers, the (priorities are) education, communication, transparency and honesty,” Bowman said. “So many people have this mantra, ‘Oh, take away their cell phones, and look through them.’ These teenagers are way smarter than we are. If they want to do something, they’re going to, and you’re not going to find out … so why don’t we be open and transparent? Let’s be real about what’s happening in the world, about social media, about meeting people online. What does it look like? Be honest about what it is, so that if they get into a situation, and they’re like, ‘Uh oh, I’m in trouble,’ then they will come to a trusted adult—someone who isn’t going to judge them, and isn’t punitive (or) interrogating. It’s actually open, receptive and saying, ‘Let me help you figure a way out of it.’”
If you are concerned that someone you know may be trapped in a human-trafficking situation, you can report that situation to the Riverside County Sheriff at 760-836-3215 for the east county, or 951-776-1099 for the west county. You can also contact the National Human Trafficking Hotline number at 1-888-373-7888 (via text at 233733), or the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children Hotline at 1-800-843-5678.
Learn more about the Riverside County Anti-Human Trafficking Conference at humantraffickingcoalition.org/conference.
This is a very sad reality made worse by open borders. Happy to see Riverside County taking positive steps to help teach outreach people in the community to beable to reach and help these victims. It will be a trauma that will be with them for life. Learning coping skills and being put in good homes could help them so much. Good Story Kevin. Thank you.