Hawaii residents dominate in buying sex online, study says

A new study that shines a light on a hidden corner of Hawaii’s illicit sex trade estimates that 1 in 11 adult males here buys sex online.

Researchers also found that nearly three-fourths of those who responded to decoy ads on a popular adult-oriented website were from Hawaii’s 808 area code, refuting claims that tourists and the military are driving the demand for sex trafficking.

“I have never seen a response like Honolulu,” said Dominique Roe- Sepowitz, director of the Office of Sex Trafficking Intervention Research at Arizona State University, which conducted the study. She said the “robust response” to the ads far outpaced results from similar surveys done in 15 major cities.

The report on online sex buyers is the first part of a “Sex Trafficking in Hawaii” study whose future installments will explore victim experiences and how sex trafficking is conducted, law enforcement efforts and the availability of preventive and support services for victims.

The research is being funded by the Kaimas Foundation, a private family foundation that emphasizes education, health and women’s empowerment.

Roe-Sepowitz has been involved in sex-trafficking research for 13 years and started the ASU program in 2013; it is one of fewer than 10 such programs in the nation. She said the study of the online demand for sex provides a broad look at one aspect of sex trafficking in Hawaii, which is also conducted on the streets and in brothels, massage parlors, hostess bars, private “party houses” and other venues.

Those involved in anti-sex-trafficking efforts say the study is significant as the first major examination of the demand component of the sex trade here.

“The numbers show just how pervasive it is,” said Khara Jabola- Carolus, executive director of the Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women, a partner in the study.

Because of her work on the commission and with agencies and nonprofit groups that help sex- trafficking victims, Jabola-Carolus said she was not surprised by the findings showing an overwhelming segment of online sex buyers are Hawaii residents.

“There’s a knee-jerk reaction that tourists and the military are main drivers of the sex trade,” she said. “They’ve always augmented the demand but at the end of the day, it’s our men and the values that we espouse or say we espouse that aren’t reflected in the behavior of our men.

“It’s actually just a very violent culture for women here. Sex through coercion or transactional sex is an accepted part of male behavior here … and this data demonstrate that.”

Kevin Takata, supervisor of the Criminal Justice Division under the state Department of the Attorney General, said he was not so much surprised as dismayed by the findings.

“If these are local (phone) numbers — not tourists and perhaps not the military but our own residents — then, to paraphrase: Honolulu, we have a problem,” he said.

GATHERING DATA

The “Sex Trafficking in Hawaii” data were collected via the “capture-recapture” sampling technique commonly used to track wildlife populations.

Roe-Sepowitz and her team posted a typical ad for the sale of sexual services in the “women seeking men” personals on the Oahu page of Backpage.com, an international website known for adult-oriented advertising that was shut down by the U.S. Department of Justice in April.

The decoy ad ran for 24 hours a week apart on March 23 and 30, when there were 58 and 57 other sex ads posted, respectively.

The March 23 ad received a total of 756 texts and calls, 407 of which were from unique phone numbers representing 87 area codes. Seventy percent, or 286 unique contacts, were from the 808 area code, according to the study.

The ad was repeated March 30, drawing 430 texts and calls, including 239 unique contacts from 49 area codes. Seventy-four percent of the unique contacts, or 177, were from local phone numbers.

Roe-Sepowitz noted the second ad appeared over the Easter weekend, which may have influenced the response. She said researchers went ahead anyway because they suspected Backpage.com would soon be shut down by federal authorities, which indeed happened a week after the second ad appeared.

The text and voice messages included requests for specific sex acts and buyer locations, which spanned the island chain. Potential buyers were from Hilo, Waikoloa, Puna and Kona on the Big Island, Lahaina and Kihei on Maui, Kauai and Kailua, Ko Olina, Waikiki, the North Shore and other spots on Oahu, plus a handful of hotels and military bases.

Roe-Sepowitz said the ads attracted apparent sex traffickers as well, with “looking for talent” messages offering to help “grow your business” and “great pay for a couple of hours work.”

No contact was made between the researchers and the respondents, whose phones numbers and other information were collected for research purposes only and are not being shared, she said.

Even against the backdrop of a religious holiday, Roe-Sepowitz described the response as “extraordinary,” especially in comparison to identical studies conducted in 15 other U.S. cities. For example, 45 unique contacts responded to the ad in Phoenix, Ariz., 25 in Chicago and 22 in Boston.

The wide difference between the number of Hawaii and mainland responses can be partially attributed to the fact there are more sex ads in those cities, so the calls and texts would be more diffuse. Still, for the Hawaii ads, described by Roe-Sepowitz as “boring” and “bland,” to attract so much interest in such a short period of time shows a “robust” market here for sex trafficking.

The enthusiastic interest in online sex buying also provides incentive for sex traffickers.

“If you’re a trafficker and your product gets calls from 400 different people, seriously, you’re more likely to say, ‘I got to get four more girls,’” she said.

FORMULATING DATA

Applying sampling formulas to the data collected from the ad responses and Census Bureau population numbers, researchers estimated the online sex buyer market in Hawaii at 18,614 individuals. Additional capture- recapture formulas led to a “conservative” estimate that 9.6 percent of the adult male population — or roughly 1 in 11 men — shop for sex online.

By comparison, the average ratio of online sex buyers in the 15 cities previously studied was 1 in 20 adult males, according to Roe-Sepowitz.

To confirm the existence of an online sex-buying market outside Honolulu, researchers followed the same protocol in placing ads on the Big Island page of Backpage.com. At total of 178 unique contacts were collected on those same dates. Fifty-nine percent of the unique responses on March 23 were from Hawaii phone numbers, as were 68 percent of the unique responses on March 30.

In both the Oahu and Big Island sampling, researchers were startled by the immediate response to ads. Calls and texts occurred at highest frequency in the first hour the ad was posted, from 5 to 6 p.m., indicating a ready market of eager buyers who closely monitor new postings, according to Roe-Sepowitz.

In fact, within the first four and a half minutes of posting, the March 23 Oahu ad attracted 11 unique contacts, the study said.

“What’s unusual from all the other places we conducted the study was the robust response,” Roe-Sepowitz said. “I’ve never seen anything like this. Immediately within the first hour the response was extraordinary.”

While Takata questioned some of the assumptions used in the calculations, he said the “Sex Trafficking in Hawaii” study “confirms we have a problem.”

“Regardless of the methodology, what they are saying is we have a problem we have to recognize, and one of the first steps in that direction is education (from research),” he said.

“What stands out is that Hawaii’s numbers far exceed other major cities.”

Although the study did not look at whether online buyers were shopping for sex with minors under the age of 18, “it’s very common for kids to be bought and sold online,” according to Jessica Munoz, president and founder of Ho‘ola Na Pua, a nonprofit agency that provides therapy and other services to girls who escape or are rescued from sex trafficking.

“It does call for an increased level of awareness in our community that without demand we wouldn’t have sex trafficking … . If you don’t cut that market, it’s going to continue,” she said.

RESULTS OF STUDY

Jabola-Carolus and others involved in advocacy for sex-trafficking victims are hoping the results of the study will raise community and political awareness of the issue and boost enforcement efforts, which they characterize as lackluster.

“We are penalizing more people for jaywalking and for being homeless than for buying other beings to sexually use them,” she said.

Only four cases of “human trafficking for commercial sex acts” were reported in Hawaii in 2015 and two in 2016, with three arrests in 2015, according to the 2016 crime report from the state Department of the Attorney General, the most recent statistics available.

Statewide, adult prostitution arrests, for buying or selling, declined from 516 in 2007 to 156 in 2016. Prostitution arrests in Honolulu alone dropped from 477 to 94 over the 10-year period, and there were an additional 48 juvenile arrests for prostitution during that time.

Of the 156 people arrested statewide in 2016, 101 were women, according to the crime report.

Meanwhile, the National Human Trafficking Hotline said it received 17 calls from sex-trafficking victims in Hawaii last year.

The low number of sex-trafficking cases cited in the state crime report is “only the tip of the proverbial iceberg,” Takata said.

“Contrasting that with what we are hearing from the services that help victims of sex trafficking, I believe those are woefully under-reported. It’s just a glimmer of what is actually happening in Hawaii, and the reason for that is that, like anywhere sex trafficking is happening, it’s primarily a hidden crime.”

FEDERAL FUNDS

Takata said his department just recently discovered the federal grant that supports its Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force that investigates child pornography can be expanded to cover online sex trafficking.

“There is the technology for that and we do intend to address that,” he said, declining to elaborate.

Honolulu Police Department officials had not seen the “Sex Trafficking in Hawaii” report and declined to comment at length. However, Maj. Calvin Tong, commander of the Narcotics/Vice Division, said in an email, “Prostitution activity has become more challenging to investigate for several reasons, including the shift from street to online solicitation and changes to the law and investigative practices.”

Roe-Sepowitz is already engaged in the second phase of the study, a survey of sex-trafficking victims and their family members to learn how they were recruited and trafficked, what kept them in the trade, how they got out and related issues. That report is expected to be released in January.

In a preview of her research, she said the vast majority of those interviewed were under the age of 18 when they first became involved in sex trafficking. Many grew up in unstable households and were sexually abused by a family member. Some were even trafficked by family members for drugs or money.

Substance abuse — one way sex traffickers maintain control over victims — is another common thread.

The “Sex Trafficking in Hawaii” study notes Hawaii does not have an organized effort to combat sex buying, and those interviewed by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser agreed on the need for better collaboration between city, state and federal law enforcement, in conjunction with social service agencies and nonprofits.

The study concludes: “Ultimately, sex buyer demand is the culprit of sex trafficking … . An effective response to sex trafficking will require a response to sex- buying demand.”

The response, Roe-Sepowitz said, “has to start with this knowledge: This is happening here. It is the people we love who are buying sex … . If we pretend it’s not happening, we can’t do anything about it.”

Report: Sex Trafficking in Hawaii by Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Scribd