Tarrant County’s 5 Stone Taskforce’s recent meeting featured research from a local sex trafficking educational leader on what drives trafficking to different communities.
The keynote speaker was Dr. Mary Twis from Texas Christian University (TCU).
Twis teaches anti-trafficking education and research in TCU’s Department of Social Work. As part of her research, she studies what makes one person more at risk for trafficking than another and what increases demand within communities.
Twis says that the way communities are built physically plays a large part. Where roads are in relationship to hotels, group homes, or facilities that serve children could often be correlated with higher levels of sex trafficking.
She compared her method of research to the way that public health issues are analyzed.
“When you think about diabetes, you’re probably thinking about individual choices that might go into predicting that disease or norms [that occur] within a family, and the kinds of food that are selected. But did you know that noise pollution is correlated with diabetes risk? Did you know that air pollution is correlated with diabetes risk? Or that the number of green spaces in a community is correlated with diabetes risk?” Twis asserted.
Twis uses a similar approach in her sex trafficking research to better understand communities that are at risk and vulnerable in an effort to target prevention.
Twis examines four elements of the community and its residents: the microsystem, the mesosystem, the ecosystem, and the macrosystem.
The macrosystem includes societal measures such as anti-trafficking policies, economy, and cultural norms that “glamorize pimps.”
The ecosystem encompasses community resources, including available services and housing.
The mesosystem includes interpersonal relationships. These include factors like an abusive family, parents or friends that have been trafficked, and how much social support someone may have.
The microsystem is someone’s personal characteristics, such as age, gender, race, and health.
All four systems can be studied separately and together to understand risk factors, the correlation between cases, and what preventative measures are most useful within different communities.
Twis shared that research is often focused on a person’s microsystem, which is common when discussing risk and protective factors. However, when the research includes other elements, such as vulnerability and demand factors, a deeper understanding of trafficking as a whole emerges.
“The principles of supply and demand within an economic market have something to do with actually interrupting these issues,” said Twis. “Trafficking occurs at locations … where supply meets demand. So if we can change the levers of vulnerability and demand, we can drive down trafficking.”
The meeting’s spotlight agency was Cheryl’s Voice, a Tarrant County-based nonprofit that educates about domestic violence prevention and overcoming childhood trauma.
LaTasha Williams, the organization’s founder, shared information about the work Cheryl’s Voice is doing in the community.
“Cheryl was my mother. I witnessed the murder of my mother and the suicide of my father when I was young, right here in Fort Worth, Texas,” said Williams, who dedicated the organization to her mother.
“My goal is to let people know how children are impacted and affected and the importance of resources that we have in our community.”
The founder of Phoenix FTW, Kendall Reed, invited meeting attendees to the nonprofit’s one-year anniversary celebration. The event will celebrate the nonprofit’s work in advocating for women in North Texas who have experienced sexual assault and abuse.
Also at the meeting, the 5 Stones Taskforce presented Homeland Security Special Agent John Kochan with the annual legacy award, acknowledging Kochan for going above and beyond his regular job duties to fight sex trafficking in North Texas.
“The Tarrant County 5 Stones Taskforce is a community network engaged in collaborative efforts to end domestic minor sex trafficking in Tarrant County. This is a combined effort that unifies various levels of government, community agencies, and concerned individuals,” its website states.
The website lists several ways that volunteers can become involved in preventing sex trafficking and assisting survivors. The organization hosts meetings on the last Tuesday of every month at 11 a.m.