Sex trafficking is the gendered exploitation of poor girls and women. Professor Raphael has been researching the sex trade industry for the past 15 years, seeking to determine how girls and women enter the industry of prostitution and whether they have been trafficked. She will discuss her findings and what is known and not known about sex trafficking and the traffickers in the Midwest. Can prosecuting pimps and traffickers and rescuing girls and women end sex trafficking? Is arresting customers the only way to cut into the demand for paid sex that fuels sex trafficking? Participants will also learn what they themselves can do to end sex trafficking in Illinois. 

Jody Raphael is a Senior Research Fellow at the Schiller DuCanto & Fleck Family Law Center at the DePaul College of Law in Chicago since July 2003 and is a visiting professor at the law school. An attorney by training and a 25 year-veteran practicing in legal services programs for the poor in the Midwest, she is a noted national expert on violence against women and girls. Her specialization is on the effects of violence on poor women of color. 

Ms. Raphael is undertaking a multi-year study at DePaul College of Law monitoring the Cook County Circuit Court’s response to domestic violence and sexual assault. During 2007-8, she undertook research with women and girls in prostitution in Chicago who are controlled by a pimp or trafficker to better determine how women and girls are coerced into the sex trade industry in Chicago.