Founding and Non-Profit Status

 

Purpose

 

Searchlight exists to engage in intelligence-gathering, investigation and work in tandem with law enforcement, government and military throughout the United States and foreign jurisdictions to aid in and facilitate the location and recovery of children, women and boys who are victims of human sex and labor trafficking/slavery, and to provide assistance to such law enforcement and prosecutorial agencies as are appropriate in the arrest, prosecution, mitigation and termination of the illegal actions of those engaged in such human trafficking;  and to do everything necessary, proper, advisable or convenient for the accomplishment of the purposes set forth in its Articles of Incorporation, and to do all other things incidental thereto or connected therewith.

 

Searchlight shall carry out its purposes in any state, territory, district, possession, dependency or other political subdivision of the United States of America, or in any foreign country, to the extent that such purposes are not forbidden by the law of such state, territory, district, possession, dependency or political subdivision of the United States of America or by such foreign country.

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Governance

 

Searchlight is governed by a Board of Directors, including a Chairman of the Board, together with Officers and an Advisory Board of qualified individuals who donate their time to the mission of rescuing innocent victims from human trafficking and sex slavery.

 

Background of Business Purpose

 

Human trafficking, also known as trafficking in persons, is a crime that involves the exploitation of a person for the purpose of compelled sex or labor. There is no single profile of a trafficking victim. Victims of human trafficking can be anyone—regardless of race, color, national origin, disability, religion, age, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, socioeconomic status, education level, or citizenship status.  Child Sex Trafficking involves any person under the age of 18 who is engaged in commercial sex acts, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion, even if she appears to consent to the commercial sex act. 

 

Trafficking of human beings has become one of the top three most prolific and lucrative criminal enterprises in the world today. This includes sex trafficking/slavery, much of which is perpetrated on children, but also labor slavery. Sex trafficking of minors in the US, alone, represents a $30 billion per year illicit business. The US has the greatest number of sex trafficking victims in the world. It is estimated that there are 700,000 to 900,000 women and girls being sex trafficked in America today, with 100,000 new children victimized each year.  Every year, 1.2 million children are trafficked worldwide and 80% of those enslaved are under age 24, with some as young as six-years-old.  The average age for females being forced into sex trafficking in the United States is 12 to 17 years-old. In other countries it is much lower than that.

It is estimated that 30,000 trafficked people die each year from: Abuse, Disease, Torture, and Neglect while being trafficked for sex.