The Women’s Fund of Omaha partnered with the Creighton Human Trafficking Initiative to develop a report focused on the Nebraska commercial sex market.
Meghan Malik, Trafficking Project Manager for The Women’s Fund of Omaha, says they looked at the online commercial sex market, specifically Backpage.com.
Malik says the research offers some of the first empirical numbers centered on what the commercial sex market and trafficking look like in our communities across the state.
She says the data indicate that on a monthly basis, 900 individuals are sold for sex multiple times in Nebraska.
Malik says it isn’t just happening in urban areas, but also in rural and western Nebraska.
"Of those 900 individuals sold for sex multiple times, 75% of them show some sign of being trafficked. Either it appears they are underage or it appears they’re controlled by a third party. So they have some sort of indicator of trafficking, which was really a shocking number for a lot of us.”
Malik says the goal of the Women’s Fund of Omaha is to shine the light on this hidden and complex issue.
She says the next step is to try to get Senator Patty Pansing Brook’s bill, LB 289 passed in the legislature.
Malik says the bill would increase penalties for traffickers and those who solicit minors for sex.
More information is available at OmahaWomensFund.org.