Mary Pember: Native girls victimized by traffickers in Minnesota

Seventy-five percent of juvenile sex trafficking cases in Minneapolis in 2013 involved Native American victims even though Native people make up just 2 percent of the city’s population. Long-time advocate for Native girls and women, Susan Koepplinger, shared this statistic in a recent Minnesota Public Radio report highlighting a new sex trafficking study.

The study, “Mapping the Market for Sex with Trafficked Minor Girls in Minneapolis: Structures, Functions and Patterns,” dissects the multi-level criminal enterprise that targets primarily young, vulnerable girls of color from poor neighborhoods. Rather than focusing on numbers, the researchers examined the patterns and contours of sex trafficking according to the MPR story. Lauren Martin and Sandi Pierce are the two lead researchers of the report. Martin and Pierce examined court and police data from 2008 to 2013 and gathered anecdotal information from adult sources working directly with prostituted and trafficked youth. Researchers from the University of Minnesota’s Urban Research Outreach-Engagement Center and Othayonih Research worked in cooperation with the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota to create the report.

Martin told MPR that the sex trafficking market is driven by the preferences of sex buyers.

Pierce agreed. She noted that sex buyers preference for “exotic” females make Native American girls especially desirable.

“Light skinned Native girls are the most versatile and can be marketed as several different ethnicities by pimps,” she said.