Vednita Carter

Last updated
Vednita Carter
Born
Occupations
  • Author
  • activist
Years active1996–present
TitleFounder and executive director of Breaking Free

Vednita Carter is an American anti-sex trafficking activist, author, and executive director of the "Breaking Free" organization which helps women escape prostitution.

Contents

Biography

Carter grew up in Twin Cities, Minnesota. Unable to afford college, she responded to an ad looking for dancers, which turned out to be an ad looking for strippers. [1] [2] [3] Carter saw many women in her profession migrate to prostitution, she said it was a "stepping stone to prostitution". She worked in the industry for a year before she was able to escape. [1]

In 1989, Carter began to work with women in prostitution in Minnesota at a different agency, which later closed, and became program director. [4] In 1996, [5] Carter founded Breaking Free, an organization that aids girls and women in exiting prostitution. [6] She subsequently became this organization's executive director, [7] and the program expanded to offer more support, including: "emergency services such as food, clothing, shelter, medical assistance, legal assistance to victims of trafficking". [4] By 1998, the organization rented an apartment block to permanently re-house women and girls, and by 2010, they had more apartments and three "transitional houses". [4] In 2015, the housing block named "Jerry's Place", after Sgt. Gerald Vick, was closed due to funding issues. [8]

In their book Juvenile Justice: Advancing Research, Policy, and Practice, Francine Sherman and Francine Jacobs call Carter "a leading service provider for exploited women and girls". [9]

Carter has been published in Hastings Women's Law Journal, [10] the Michigan Journal of Gender and Law, and the Journal of Trauma Practice . [11] Carter contributed the piece "Prostitution = Slavery" to the 2003 anthology Sisterhood Is Forever: The Women's Anthology for a New Millennium , edited by Robin Morgan. [12]

Activism

In 1996, Carter founded the organization Breaking Free. Breaking Free is a non-profit organization based in St. Paul, Minnesota with the goal of helping women escape prostitution. [13] Breaking Free provides a variety of services to the women. These services include food, clothing, and emotional support. Breaking Free also provides addiction services, permanent and temporary housing, as well as legal assistance and job training. [14] The services are offered with no strings attached.

Since 1996, Breaking Free has helped over 6,000 women. [14]

Carter also established a "John School", which educates men arrested for solicitation about the effects of their actions to persuade them not to solicit again. Carter believes that as long as men continue to purchase sexual favors, sex trafficking will not end. [14]

Awards

Carter won the 2010 Survivor Centered-Service Provider category from the Norma Hotaling Award. [4]

Carter was one of six women granted the Women of Distinction award by Century College in 2012. [15]

Carter was awarded the Path Breaker Award from Shared Hope International in 2014. That same year, she was also named a CNN Hero. [13]

In 2015, she was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Divinity, Ambassador-at-Large and Chaplaincy from CICAInternational University and Seminary. [13]

Selected bibliography

I know that working with women and girls who have been used in prostitution/trafficking is my destiny in this life. ... it is what I am meant to do. When I think about the millions of women and children throughout the world who are exploited and have no other options to change the course of their life, I feel compelled to do all that I can do to help them in some way.

—Vednita Carter explaining her motivations for her work [4]

Chapters in books

Journal articles

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sexual slavery</span> Slavery with the intention of using the slaves for sex

Sexual slavery and sexual exploitation is an attachment of any ownership right over one or more people with the intent of coercing or otherwise forcing them to engage in sexual activities. This includes forced labor that results in sexual activity, forced marriage and sex trafficking, such as the sexual trafficking of children.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Child prostitution</span> Prostitution involving a child

Child prostitution is prostitution involving a child, and it is a form of commercial sexual exploitation of children. The term normally refers to prostitution of a minor, or person under the legal age of consent. In most jurisdictions, child prostitution is illegal as part of general prohibition on prostitution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Commercial sexual exploitation of children</span> Commercial transaction that involves the sexual exploitation of a child

Commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) is a commercial transaction that involves the sexual exploitation of a minor, or person under the age of consent. CSEC involves a range of abuses, including but not limited to: the, child pornography, stripping, erotic massage, phone sex lines, internet-based exploitation, and early forced marriage.

Prostitution is illegal in Russia. The punishment for engagement in prostitution is a fine from 1500 up to 2000 rubles. Moreover, organizing prostitution is punishable by a prison term. Prostitution remains a very serious social issue in Russia.

Forced prostitution, also known as involuntary prostitution or compulsory prostitution, is prostitution or sexual slavery that takes place as a result of coercion by a third party. The terms "forced prostitution" or "enforced prostitution" appear in international and humanitarian conventions, such as the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, but have been inconsistently applied. "Forced prostitution" refers to conditions of control over a person who is coerced by another to engage in sexual activity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prostitution in Brazil</span>

Prostitution in Brazil is legal, in terms of exchanging sex for money, as there are no laws forbidding adults from being professional sex workers, but it is illegal to operate a brothel or to employ sex workers in any other way. Public order and vagrancy laws are used against street prostitutes. The affordability of prostitutes is the most inquired-about term in word completion queries on purchases on Google in Brazil.

Prostitution is illegal in Egypt. The Egyptian National Police officially combats prostitution but, like almost all other countries, prostitution exists in Egypt. UNAIDS estimate there to be 23,000 prostitutes in the country, including Egyptians, West African and Eastern Europeans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human trafficking</span> Trade of humans for exploitation

Human trafficking is the trade of humans for the purpose of forced labour, sexual slavery, or commercial sexual exploitation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sex industry</span> Field of business

The sex industry consists of businesses that either directly or indirectly provide sex-related products and services or adult entertainment. The industry includes activities involving direct provision of sex-related services, such as prostitution, strip clubs, host and hostess clubs and sex-related pastimes, such as pornography, sex-oriented men's magazines, women's magazines, sex movies, sex toys and fetish or BDSM paraphernalia. Sex channels for television and pre-paid sex movies for video on demand, are part of the sex industry, as are adult movie theaters, sex shops, peep shows, and strip clubs. The sex industry employs millions of people worldwide, mainly women. These range from the sex worker, also called adult service provider (ASP), who provides sexual services, to a multitude of support personnel.

Melissa Farley is an American clinical psychologist, researcher and radical feminist anti-pornography and anti-prostitution activist. Farley is best known for her studies of the effects of prostitution, trafficking and sexual violence. She is the founder and director of the San Francisco-based organization, Prostitution Research and Education.

Donna M. Hughes is an American academic and feminist who chairs the women's studies department at the University of Rhode Island. Her research concerns prostitution and human trafficking; she was a prominent supporter of the campaign to end prostitution in Rhode Island, and has testified on these issues before several national legislative bodies. She sits on the editorial board of Sexualization, Media, and Society, a journal examining the impact of sexualized media.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human trafficking in the United States</span> Human trafficking as it relates to the United States

In the United States, human trafficking tends to occur around international travel hubs with large immigrant populations, notably in California, Texas, and Georgia. Those trafficked include young children, teenagers, men, and women; victims can be domestic citizens or foreign nationals.

Prostitution in Cambodia is illegal, but prevalent. A 2008 Cambodian Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation has proven controversial, with international concerns regarding human rights abuses resulting from it, such as outlined in the 2010 Human Rights Watch report.

Prostitution in Libya is illegal, but common. Since the country's Cultural Revolution in 1973, laws based on Sharia law's zina are used against prostitutes; the punishment can be 100 lashes. Exploitation of prostitutes, living off the earnings of prostitution or being involved in the running of brothels is outlawed by Article 417 of the Libyan Penal Code. Buying sexual services isn't prohibited by law, but may contravene Sharia law.

<i>Nefarious: Merchant of Souls</i> 2011 film by Benjamin Nolot

Nefarious: Merchant of Souls is a 2011 American documentary film about modern human trafficking, specifically sexual slavery. Presented from a Christian worldview, Nefarious covers human trafficking in the United States, Western and Eastern Europe, and Southeast Asia, alternating interviews with re-enactments. Victims of trafficking talk about having been the objects of physical abuse and attempted murder. Several former prostitutes talk about their conversion to Christianity, escape from sexual oppression, and subsequent education or marriage. The film ends with the assertion that only Jesus can completely heal people from the horrors of sexual slavery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human trafficking in Nevada</span>

Human trafficking in Nevada is the illegal trade of human beings for the purposes of reproductive slavery, commercial sexual exploitation, and forced labor as it occurs in the state of Nevada, and it is widely recognized as a modern-day form of slavery. It includes "the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power, or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sex trafficking in the United States</span>

Sex trafficking in the United States is a form of human trafficking which involves reproductive slavery or commercial sexual exploitation as it occurs in the United States. Sex trafficking includes the transportation of persons by means of coercion, deception and/or force into exploitative and slavery-like conditions. It is commonly associated with organized crime.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of sexual slavery in the United States</span>

The history of sexual slavery in the United States is the history of slavery for the purpose of sexual exploitation as it exists in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Feminist views on the sex industry</span>

Feminist perspectives on sex markets vary widely, depending on the type of feminism being applied. The sex market is defined as the system of supply and demand which is generated by the existence of sex work as a commodity. The sex market can further be segregated into the direct sex market, which mainly applies to prostitution, and the indirect sex market, which applies to sexual businesses which provide services such as lap dancing. The final component of the sex market lies in the production and selling of pornography. With the distinctions between feminist perspectives, there are many documented instances from feminist authors of both explicit and implied feminist standpoints that provide coverage on the sex market in regards to both "autonomous" and "non-autonomous" sex trades. The quotations are added since some feminist ideologies believe the commodification of women's bodies is never autonomous and therefore subversive or misleading by terminology.

Sex trafficking in China is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation and slavery that occurs in the People's Republic of China. China, the world's second-most populous country, has the second highest number of human trafficking victims in the world. It is a country of origin, destination, and transit for sexually trafficked persons.

References

  1. 1 2 Savarese, Lynn; Abolitionists, New. "The Believer: Vednita Carter". www.worldwithoutexploitation.org. Retrieved 2020-03-09.
  2. Williamson, Celia (2008), "Abolitionist approach to prostitution (present-day advocates)", in Renzetti, Claire M.; Edleson, Jeffrey L. (eds.), Encyclopedia of Interpersonal Violence, vol. 1, SAGE Publications, p. 2, ISBN   9781412918008.
  3. Sher, Julian (2011), "High-risk victims", in Sher, Julian (ed.), Somebody's daughter: the hidden story of America's prostituted children and the battle to save them, Chicago: Chicago Review Press, p. 36, ISBN   9781569765654, Vednita Carter, an African American stripper turned activist ...
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "2010 Norma Hotaling Award Recipients". Global Centurion. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
  5. Coolidge, Sharon (18 August 2006). "Out of 'the life,' they learn to live". USA Today . Gannett Company . Retrieved 10 September 2013.
  6. Budig, Susan (27 October 2007). "Prostitution: Should it remain a crime?". Twin Cities Daily Planet . Twin Cities Media Alliance. Retrieved 10 September 2013.
  7. Baran, Madeleine (27 October 2009). "Group holding vigil to remember victims of prostitution-related violence". Minnesota Public Radio . Retrieved 10 September 2013.
  8. Norfleet, Nicole (11 February 2015). "Breaking Free to close Jerry's Place housing for trafficked girls". Star Tribune. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
  9. Sherman, Francine T.; Goldblatt Grace, Lisa (2011), "The system response to the commercial sexual exploitation of girls", in Sherman, Francine T.; Jacobs, Francine H. (eds.), Juvenile justice: advancing research, policy, and practice, Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, p. 336, ISBN   9780470497043.
  10. Belles, Nita (2011), "What's love got to do with it? Absolutely nothing!", in Belles, Nita (ed.), In our backyard: a Christian perspective on human trafficking in the United States, Nashville, Tennessee: Free River Press, p. 117, ISBN   9780615451800.
  11. Dismantling Rape Culture Conference. "2013 Keynote Speaker: Vednita Carter founder and executive director of Breaking Free: "Sex trafficking/prostitution, racism and slavery"". University of Vermont. Archived from the original on 10 October 2013. Retrieved 11 November 2015.
  12. Carter, Vednita (2003), "Prostitution = Slavery", in Morgan, Robin (ed.), Sisterhood is forever: the women's anthology for a new millennium , New York, New York: Washington Square Press, pp.  315–324, ISBN   9780743466271. Details.
  13. 1 2 3 "World Without Exploitation". www.worldwithoutexploitation.org. Retrieved 2020-03-09.
  14. 1 2 3 Toner, Kathleen (13 March 2014). "Helping women escape 'the life'". CNN. Retrieved 2020-03-09.
  15. Livingstone, Nancy (16 November 2012). News release: Century names women of distinction for 2012 (PDF). Minnesota: Century College. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 February 2013. Retrieved 9 October 2013.