Interview with James P. Fox
Prepared by Samuel Charles Vella
The interview took place at the District Attorney’s office in Redwood City, California. It was on April 6th at 10:00 am. James P. Fox is a Serra Alum, and he is now the head of the DA office in the San Mateo County. As we began the interview, Mr. Fox shook our hands with energy and enthusiasm. We sat down in two chairs across his desk, and began to talk about Serra High School and college searches. This was very helpful in starting our conversation about our topic of sex trafficking of women and children. He had a lot of basic information on our topic, however, did not have any experience with it, meaning he had not been involved with any cases consisting of sex slaves. The San Mateo County does not have many, if any, involving the sex trafficking of women and children. He gave us information on cases in southern California. He sent us an email with case numbers of the sex trafficking of children.
We were received very well. Nick and I were nervous being escorted into the office by his assistant. We were relieved when we saw how kind and energetic he started the interview with. Because he was a Serra Alum, he treated us with respect and “broke the ice” by asking us questions about Serra sports. It almost felt as if we had known Mr. Fox our entire lives. I had a lot of fun interviewing Mr. Fox and would highly recommend him for later classes.
I expected to learn that in San Mateo County there have not been any cases involving the sex trafficking of women or children. This is partly because of how expensive it is too live in San Mateo. Mr. Fox explained that because of San Mateo’s economy, the sex traffickers have trouble finding affordable places to live. It is more prevalent in southern California, with Mexico and South America in quick access to most cities. I had assumed this would be the case, before I went into the interview.
What surprised me was the fact that many sex trafficking victims are not tricked into becoming slaves, but most are sold. The numbers of victims that have been sold by family members, exceed the number of victims that were captured. Mr. Fox, explained to us that because of the drop of economy families will need the money to stay out of bankruptcy. It is astonishing to see that many families would sell their own children into the sex trafficking business. It is hard to imagine how parents live with themselves after selling their own child into sex slavery.
The interview went very well, and again, I would recommend this interviewee to future classes in Theology 4B. Since he was a Serra Alum it was a lot of fun relating to how Serra was in previous years. I would do this interview again and again.
