'Nameless' Film Premieres Addressing Child Sex Trafficking in Nation's Capital
WASHINGTON, April 23, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- On Thursday, April 25, 2019, Nameless premieres at Landmark's E Street Cinema. The three-part film series about child sex trafficking in the District of Columbia includes expert testimony from 15 interviewees, including Commander Duncan Bedlion, Youth and Family Services Division, Metropolitan Police Department and Dr. Katherine Deye, Freddie Mac Foundation Child and Adolescent Protection Center, Children's National Health System.
Nameless offers insights and strategies of on-the-ground service providers and experts, identifies gaps that still need to be addressed, and explores prevention and intervention approaches. "The District has a strong, coordinated response to child sex trafficking that includes all of the agencies involved with the care of these children," says Rachel Friedman, Executive Producer and Deputy Director of Men Can Stop Rape. "This film will raise awareness about how the community can help prevent children from being harmed."
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, "Child sex trafficking refers to the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, obtaining, patronizing, or soliciting of a minor for the purpose of a commercial sex act. Offenders of this crime who are commonly referred to as traffickers, or pimps, target vulnerable children and gain control over them using a variety of manipulative methods."
The film series includes episodes on how the trafficking occurs, who is most impacted and vulnerable to being trafficked, and what the community can do to stop and prevent children from being trafficked. According to the human rights organization, Rights4Girls, child sex trafficking survivors are disproportionately girls of color. Risk and protective factors that make children more vulnerable to sexual exploitation include a history of sexual and/or physical abuse, community or family instability, child welfare involvement, housing instability, and disconnection from the education system. "Between higher than-average experiences of homelessness, poverty, and social isolation, children in foster care are more vulnerable to being sex trafficked than children who aren't in care," says Aubrey Edwards-Luce, Esq., MSW, Senior Policy Attorney for DC's Children's Law Center. "We hope that by shedding light on these increased risk factors in DC, we can work together to fight this crisis." The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention cites that, "there are no Federal, national estimates of the extent and prevalence of CSEC [Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children] in the United States due to a variety of issues including general underreporting of the crime and the difficulties associated with identifying and measuring victims and perpetrators."
Nameless is a project of the DC Coalition to End Sexual Violence (DCCESV) ? a partnership between Men Can Stop Rape and DC Rape Crisis Center. DCCESV is a community of service providers and allied professionals that seeks to enhance the capacity of organizations and agencies to strategically partner and effectively address the needs of sexual violence victim-survivors in the District through education, training and technical assistance, advocacy, and policy. Visit www.dccesv.org and learn more about sex trafficking resources in the District at www.askdc.org or Men Can Stop Rape at www.mcsr.org.
CONTACT: Will Harris, 202-534-1838, [email protected]
Rachel Friedman, 617-388-7742, [email protected]
HANDLES: TW/IG @DCCESV @MenCanStopRape, FB @DCCESV @MCSRape
HASHTAG: #Nameless #ASKDC
SOURCE Men Can Stop Rape
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