From Alaska Newspapers Inc. reporter Alex DeMarban via The Tundra Drums: Vice officers with the FBI and Anchorage Police Department spoke at the Bureau of Indian Affairs meeting in Anchorage Thursday, offering warnings about the disproportionate number of Alaska Native girls and women who are recruited into sex-trafficking rings.
About one third of the women arrested for prostitution in Anchorage in 2009 and 2010 have been Native, said Sgt. Kathy Lacey. Alaska Natives are about 16 percent of the state's population, so the number of arrests is disproportionately high. Police recognize that many of the prostitutes are victims who have been lured into prostitution rings by pimps. They arrest the prostitutes partly in an effort to break the strong dependence -- often fueled by drug-addiction and fears of violence -- the girls and women have on their pimps. Once they are in custody, they can also receive treatment.
Lacey and FBI investigator Jolene Goede gave a similar presentation in Bethel in October. They warned that girls from villages are targeted by pimps because they are considered "versatile." They can be advertised on the Internet as Asian or Hawaiian, for example. The girls are looking for a support network in Anchorage and money to live. They might have a low-self esteem. Pimps prey on those weaknesses and others to draw them in.