On Monday, the FBI announced the rescue of 105 children forced into prostitution and the arrest of 150 pimps in a decades long investigation that involved 76 American cities and girls as young as 13. Three of those arrested and three more rescued, were from Seattle, though the problem here is undoubtedly more pervasive than any statistic can capture. The headlines seem so hard to believe that it’s easy to dismiss this as a remote problem, but having interviewed Bellevue native Noel Gomez of the Organization for Prostitution Survivors (OPS), the story hits closer to home than we may realize.

Noel was trafficked out of Bellevue as a teenager by a man who positioned himself as her boyfriend. Now the co-founder of OPS, who counsels young prostitute through the King County Juvenile Detention Center, lives with severe symptoms of trauma and says people associated with her pimp still look for her.

The news comes after a flurry of reports and conversations about better addressing an obviously disconnected view on gender violence, prostitution and sexuality. It can’t be overlooked that the children rescued in this most recent FBI operation are victims, but the media rarely does a good job of illustrating the complicated backstories of sex workers and their pimps, choosing instead to cast them mostly one-dimensionally as victims or as villains. Those backstories can offer clues into how to fight the pervasive problem of trafficking.

King County for instance, operates a “John School” in an effort to educate men about the girls they’re caught soliciting. The court-mandated program discusses the harm caused by the sex-industry, often mistakenly labeled a victimless crime.

The takeaway message from incidents like this one is that our understanding of human trafficking can’t begin and end with these statistics. We must find a way to paint a more nuanced picture of the problem and the lives it touches.

Celina Kareiva: 425-453-4290; ckareiva@bellevuereporter.com