7A- Testing the Hypothesis

7A: Testing the Hypothesis

Kidnapping/ Sex trafficking prevention

·             Opportunity:

-               All over the world, there are thousands of people who are kidnapped every year.  A large percentage of those kidnapped are then sold to sex trafficking. For some reason, college towns seem to be targeted which shows the increase. In addition to this, many people are not aware of their surroundings or can sense someone is following them.

-               The who: Could be anyone, however, college students

-               The What: They are victims of sex trafficking and kidnapping

-               The Why: Many students in college towns don’t have their parents here and that’s why college towns are targeted because kidnappers know that people will not be looking for them right away.

·             Testing the who: Right now this is affecting all over the world. People who are victims of sex trafficking are sold on online markets and could potentially end up anywhere. The reason I specified college towns is because we currently live in one and sex traffickers target these areas to look for young adults.

·             Testing the what: Some of the methods that these people use for kidnapping. Such as making up fake stories, taking you when no one is around, breaking into your house, following you around and watching your daily routine.

·             Testing the why: The use college towns to look for young adults that don’t have parents around to notice when your missing. The reason they sex traffic and kidnap is for sexual assault and money.

·             Interview #1

-               This interview was conducted with a sorority sister ( not mentioning any names). She is aware of sex trafficking in college towns and says that she always spreads the word to other girls when she hears something is up in our area. She finds this to be terrible and uncomfortable even to think about.

·             Interview #2

-               In this interview, the girl I interviews knew someone who was approached by a strange lady and she was asking her if she could please give her a ride home because her son was their alone sick. She obviously said no because she was very uncomfortable and could sense something was off. Later on, she found on that this woman would take girls to a house where multiple men would sexually assault them. This happened here in Gainesville she says and she is horrified and scared from this experience.

·             Interview #3

-               This interview was done with a male college student. He says he has not personally had any experience with sex trafficking or kidnapping here in Gainesville. He also said that he was not aware that college towns were targeted.

·             Interview #4

-               This interview was with a young female college student in a committed relationship. She says that she is aware of sex trafficking in college towns but she is not scared because she never goes out alone especially at night. She also said that she doesn’t really go out in general while she is up at school because she has a boyfriend and her classes are difficult.

·             Interview #5

-               This last interview was with a speaker who came into the sorority house and talked to us about coming forward if we have been sexually assaulted. She was very aware of the increase in sex trafficking in college towns and recommended that all of us girls to look out for one another because of its increase. She gave some prevention tips such as don’t go out alone ever, don’t walk around at night, stay near the college campus and don’t go in areas that you are not familiar with.

·             Given these interviews what did you know about the opportunity that you didn’t know before?

·             From these interviews, I did not think that many people would know that college towns were targeted because before I started researching this I was not aware of this.

·             I also learned about a story of a stranger approaching a young female who was trying to kidnap her she later found out.

·             Something I already knew was the males arent very aware on this topic because they think that it is generally women, however, it can happen to males too.

·             I also learned some prevention tips that everyone should always keep in mind.