Shattered Hearts Report (Minnesota)
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Shattered Hearts The Commercial Sexual Exploitation Of American Indian Women And Girls In Minnesota The Minnesota American Indian Women’s Resource Center Table of contents Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................................... iii Background ............................................................................................................................................................ 1 Organization of the report ...................................................................................................................................... 3 I. The context ..................................................................................................................................................... 4 Native women’s experiences during colonization ................................................................................................ 5 Native women’s experiences during national expansion ...................................................................................... 7 Native girls’ boarding school experiences ............................................................................................................ 8 Impact of assimilation policies on Native women .............................................................................................. 10 The damage caused by life in prostitution ......................................................................................................... 14 II. Methods and definitions ................................................................................................................................ 16 III. Prevalence..................................................................................................................................................... 28 Involvement in prostitution ............................................................................................................................... 28 Involvement in the Internet sex trade................................................................................................................ 35 IV. Patterns in entering the sex trade .................................................................................................................. 36 Age of entry ..................................................................................................................................................... 36 Modes of entry ................................................................................................................................................. 39 V. Factors that facilitate entry ............................................................................................................................ 53 Generational trauma ........................................................................................................................................ 53 Runaway, thrown away, and/or homeless ........................................................................................................ 54 Repeated exposure to abuse, exploitation, and violence .................................................................................... 61 Normalization of sexual exploitation and violence............................................................................................. 68 Addiction.......................................................................................................................................................... 73 Risk due to fetal alcohol spectrum disorders ..................................................................................................... 78 Involvement with child protection systems ........................................................................................................ 81 Failure to finish high school .............................................................................................................................. 82 Mental and emotional vulnerability .................................................................................................................. 84 VI. Barriers to exiting the sex trade ..................................................................................................................... 89 Inadequate support to ensure safety ................................................................................................................ 89 Limited resources for support and healing ........................................................................................................ 93 Dependency, denial, and distrust of advocates .................................................................................................. 96 Fear, shame, and the “don’t talk” rule .............................................................................................................. 98 Absence of a common, evidence-based approach ............................................................................................. 99 VII. Conclusions and recommendations .............................................................................................................. 101 Appendix ............................................................................................................................................................ 122 Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center i Shattered Hearts, August 2009 Figures 1. Percent of MIWRC clients reporting involvement in prostitution and pornography ................................ 30 2. Percent of MIWRC clients trafficked into prostitution for another’s benefit ........................................... 30 3. Arrests for prostitution (MIWRC clients reporting involvement only) ..................................................... 31 4. Arrests for prostitution-related offenses in Minneapolis, American Indian females 2004 - 2008 ............ 32 5. Aboriginal representation in Canadian studies with prostituted women ................................................ 34 7. Girls reporting “illegal gang activity is a problem at my school,” statewide............................................ 48 8. Girls reporting that they have been threatened at school during the past 12 months, statewide ........... 49 9. MIWRC clients’ recruitment into prostitution ........................................................................................ 51 10. Girls that ran away in the past 12 months, statewide ............................................................................ 57 11. Poverty-related reasons Native girls and women left stable housing ...................................................... 60 12. Percent of Hennepin County families in poverty by race and Hispanic ethnicity ..................................... 60 13. Child maltreatment by race, statewide .................................................................................................. 63 14. Girls’ reports of physical abuse at home, statewide ............................................................................... 64 15. Girls’ reports of sexual abuse at home, statewide .................................................................................. 64 16. Homeless Native females’ histories of abuse or neglect ......................................................................... 65 17. Lifetime rates of women’s physical and sexual victimization, by race ..................................................... 66 18. Experiences with violent victimization ................................................................................................... 67 19. Girls reporting sexual assault by a date, statewide................................................................................. 68 20. Girls reporting physical assault by a date, statewide .............................................................................. 68 21. MIWRC clients that know someone in prostitution ................................................................................ 70 22. MIWRC clients that know someone who traffics others ......................................................................... 70 23. Girls reporting that a family member physically assaulted another family member, statewide .............. 71 24. Girls reporting that they hit or beat up another person in the past 12 months, statewide ...................... 72 25. Girls reporting that a family member’s alcohol use repeatedly caused problems, statewide .................. 74 26. Girls reporting that a family member’s drug use repeated caused problems, statewide ........................ 75 27. Girls reporting first use of alcohol at age 12 or younger, statewide ........................................................ 77 28. 9th grade girls reporting problematic substance abuse, statewide .......................................................... 77 29. 12th grade girls reporting problematic substance abuse, statewide ........................................................ 77 30. High school graduation rates, Hennepin County Public Schools.............................................................. 83 31. Percent of Hennepin County high school students that dropped out of school, by race .......................... 83 32. Percent of Native street-involved youth currently attending school ....................................................... 84 33. Girls that felt under stress/pressure “quite a bit” or