Researchers: No prosecution for most Las Vegas sex trafficking cases in 2014

Researchers reviewed 159 sex trafficking cases that were investigated by Las Vegas police in 2014 and found that nearly three-quarters of them did not result in prosecution.

Results of the new study, which helps shed light on the issue’s complexity, were released Monday by the Metropolitan Police Department and Arizona State University.

Dominique Roe-Sepowitz, who works with the university’s Office of Sex Trafficking Intervention Research, led a team of researchers through every detail of each case.

The study found that one difficulty in prosecuting pimps is getting victims to cooperate with police. Less than a quarter of the identified victims cooperated with law enforcement.

“That’s where the work begins,” Roe-Sepowitz said during a presentation and panel discussion at Metro’s headquarters.

The cases involved in the study had 190 victims, and most of them were minors.

Roe-Sepowitz said most minors’ cases start when they are booked on suspicion of prostitution. Adult victims are more likely to come forward and ask for help, she said.

According to the report, about a fifth of victims were lured to town from out of state. This can complicate prosecution when those victims cannot return to Las Vegas, Roe-Sepowitz said.

Almost a third of the pimps came from out of state. In many cases, traffickers used escort websites and social media to recruit victims. Roe-Sepowitz said pimps post photos with extravagant items to impress potential victims.

“The picture he puts up is with money and cars and things that that person is missing in their life,” she said. “It draws them in.”

Many of the cases involved pimps who used romance to manipulate victims. When those efforts failed, many resorted to violence.

“The level of violence was extraordinary,” Roe-Sepowitz said. “The level of psychological violence is something you couldn’t imagine reading over and over and over.”

Roe-Sepowitz said a missed opportunity for convicting traffickers comes from trying to prosecute them on human-trafficking charges and not a cluster of smaller charges, such as kidnapping and domestic violence with strangulation.

Cindy McCain, who serves on the Arizona Human Trafficking Council and the McCain Institute’s Human Trafficking Advisory Council, said communities need to work together to raise awareness, strengthen laws and bolster victim services to tackle the issue.

“We have a long way to go on this, but boy, let me tell you, Las Vegas has done a bang-up job on this,” said McCain, who is married to U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

The McCain Institute for International Leadership and the Amber Alert Training and Technical Assistance Program funded the study.

Contact Blake Apgar at bapgar@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5298. Follow @blakeapgar on Twitter.