New Jersey law enforcement agents are redoubling efforts to fight sex trafficking as Super Bowl is only a month away.
On February 2, New Jersey expects hundreds of thousands of visitors to watch the much-awaited Super Bowl. However, many people believe that New Jersey's highway system and its proximity to New York City makes it an attractive base of operations for traffickers, the report said.
"New Jersey has a huge trafficking problem," U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., who is also co-chairman of the House anti-human trafficking caucus, told MSN News. "One Super Bowl after another after another has shown itself to be one of the largest events in the world where the cruelty of human trafficking goes on for several weeks."
New Jersey law enforcers have been working for years to stop sex trafficking of women. In 2013, the state has strengthened its anti-human trafficking law. In August last year, however, the strengthened law suffered from a roadblock when a federal judge ruled that some of the law's portions may run in conflict with federal legislation. The portion in question pertains to commercial sex ads posted online.
There is limited statistical evidence that links sex trafficking and Super Bowl or any other major sporting event, but the state of New Jersey has taken strides to ensure that this matter is dealt with.
"The Super Bowl is a huge, huge arena for sex trafficking," Danielle Douglas, speaker and advocate who herself was a sex trafficking survivor, told MSN News. "[Some visitors] are coming to the Super Bowl not even to watch football - they are coming to the Super Bowl to have sex with women, and/or men or children."
Jersey officials immediately set up training for thousands of law enforcers, hospitality workers, high school students, airport employees and others on signs of sex trafficking right after it was announced that the 2014 Super Bowl will be held at the MetLife Stadium.
"We've enlisted, basically, every service provider that people coming to the Super Bowl are going to run into," Acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman told MSN News. "There are a lot of eyes that are going to be on their activities and going to be on spotting potential victims of this crime."
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