On this show we’ve discussed in depth the structures and dynamics of child sex trafficking with guests such as Nick Bryant author The Franklin Scandal: A Story of Powerbrokers, Child Abuse and Betrayal. Dr. Lori Handrahan was also a guest in 2012 explaining how her former husband abused and trafficked their 2 year old daughter in the state of Maine. Dr. Handrahan has served as a United Nations consultant and her career background focused on gender based violence, international human rights, conflict and post conflict environments in regions such as Central Asia, Africa and the Balkans. This is important to add in the context of researching her book titled Epidemic: America’s Trade in Child Rape. The book is a deep analysis to begin accurately understanding the scope of pedophilia within the U.S. military, law enforcement and educators. The crime is driven by a demand of images and video of children being raped and tortured. Its common that most of those committing the criminal acts of abusing and murdering children are parents, often the father. But, from the courts to the lack of accurate statistics and data, there are also systems in place to protect and conceal this criminal activity. Dr. Handrahan also emphasizes the national security risks involved with the surprising number of how many prosecutors and judges, government employees, military personnel, and local and state police being arrested for trading child pornography or committing acts of child sexual abuse. You often hear media reporting about arrests of individual pedophiles and child trafficking rings, but rarely are the dots connected exposing an unfortunate yet real epidemic.
Dr. Handrahan’s articles on Medium
Guest – Dr. Lori Handrahan, completed her doctorate from London School of Economics. She holds over twenty years of practitioner work in Central Asia, Asia, Africa and the Balkans, and she has focused on gender-based violence, international human rights, humanitarian response, conflict and post-conflict environments, masculinities and men/boys in development and violence, and gender within UN reform and organizational change. She has served as a UN consultant for UNFPA, UNDP, OCHA, UNHCR and UNICEF. She was UNHCR’s first gender expert in emergency operations in Chad during the Darfur genocide and Regional Gender Advisor for UNHCR in The Balkans. She was lead researcher for CARE’s Girls’ Leadership Assessment in Yemen, UNFPA’s Gender-Based Violence Information Management System pilot in Uganda, and OCHA’s Gender Review. Dr. Handrahan’s first book, Gendering Ethnicity, was published by Routledge in 2001. She is published in peer-review journals such as The International Feminist Journal of Politics and Security Dialogue, has been a guest on CNN, FOX News, CTV and VOA, and has written Op-eds in The New York Times and the Christian Science Monitor.