Myth Busters: Human Trafficking and Sex Work Lindsay and Stephanie

What a Google Search of “Human Trafficking” Produces: https://www.google.com/search?q=human+trafficking&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj048i6kunXAhUCT98KHRzGBdAQ_AUICygC&biw=1680&bih=956

Sensationalization of Human Trafficking in the Media https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yo8VrHkHIF0

2017 Statistics (according to the Human Trafficking Hotline) Calls This Year: 13,897 (12/1/17) Human Trafficking Cases Reported This Year: 4,460 Type of Trafficking: Sex Trafficking (3,186) Labor Trafficking (689) Trafficking Type Not Specified (411) Sex and Labor (174) Gender: Female (3,698) Male (607) Gender Minorities (53)

Myth 1: Trafficked persons are foreign nationals or immigrants from other countries. Reality: The federal definition of human trafficking includes both U.S. citizens and foreign nationals. Both are protected under the federal trafficking statutes.

Myth 2: Human trafficking, to be considered criminal, must involve some form of transportation across state or national borders. Reality: Trafficking does not require transportation. However, perpetrators often keep their victims on the move to keep them in unfamiliar places and under their control.

Myth 3: Human trafficking is another term for human smuggling. Reality: Smuggling is a crime against a country’s borders. Human trafficking is a crime against a person. Smuggling requires illegal border crossing. Human trafficking involves commercial sex acts or labor or services that are induced through force, fraud, or coercion.

Myth 4: There must be elements of physical restraint, physical force, or physical bondage when identifying a human trafficking situation. Reality: The Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000 addressed “subtler” forms of coercion to include psychological means of control.

Myth 5: Victims of human trafficking will immediately ask for help or assistance and will self-identify as a victim of a crime. Reality: Victims of human trafficking often do not immediately seek help or self-identify as victims for a variety of reasons (lack of trust, self-blame, or coercion). 

Myth 6: Human trafficking victims always come from situations of poverty or from small rural villages. Reality: Poverty is a risk factor but is not a single causal factor or universal indicator of a human trafficking victim. Some victims come from families with higher SES.

Myth 7: Sex trafficking is the only form of human trafficking. Reality: The federal definition of human trafficking encompasses both sex trafficking and labor trafficking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=63&v=7isrcnDRc5Q

Myth 8: Human trafficking victims are always female. Reality: Men and women, children and adults can be victims of human trafficking.

Myth 9: Human trafficking only occurs in illegal underground industries. Reality: Human trafficking has been reported in business markets such as restaurants, hotels, and manufacturing plants.

Myth 10: If the trafficked person consented to be in their initial situation it doesn’t count as trafficking Reality: Initial consent to commercial sex or a labor setting prior to acts of force, fraud, or coercion (or if the victim is a minor in a sex trafficking situation) is not relevant to the crime, nor is payment.

Myth 11: ALL foreign national trafficking victims are undocumented immigrants or here illegally. Reality: Not all foreign national victims are undocumented. Foreign national trafficked persons can be in the United States through either legal or illegal means.

The Grooming Process https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2h0bTgTSCo

Vulnerable Populations and Risk Factors: Individuals who have experienced childhood abuse or neglect Children involved in the foster care and juvenile justice systems Runaway and homeless youth Victims of violence Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning (LGBTQ) individuals Migrant workers Undocumented immigrants Racial and ethnic minorities People with disabilities People with low incomes Those with a history of substance abuse Those communities exposed to intergenerational trauma Those lacking social support https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0l7w_QU9DY4

What to know as a School Counselor: Traffickers use an array of tactics to exploit children. Traffickers can use social media and other websites to recruit victims or sell trafficked services online. Traffickers can be strangers but they can also be parents, family friends, acquaintances, teachers, significant others, or peers. Trauma can have a tremendous impact on a child’s development. School counselors should believe children when they disclose, connect children with help, and fight for their healthy development moving forward. Traffickers can spot at-risk children very easily.

Further… Human trafficking can be hidden in plain sight. Some warning signs to look out for are: Appearing malnourished Showing signs of physical injuries and abuse Avoiding eye contact, social interaction, and authority figures/law enforcement Seeming to adhere to scripted or rehearsed responses in social interaction Lacking official identification documents Appearing destitute/lacking personal possessions Working excessively long hours Living at place of employment Checking into hotels/motels with older males, and referring to those males as boyfriend or “daddy,” which is often street slang for pimp

Poor physical or dental health  Tattoos/ branding on the neck and/or lower back Untreated sexually transmitted diseases Small children serving in a family restaurant Security measures that appear to keep people inside an establishment - barbed wire inside of a fence, bars covering the insides of windows Not allowing people to go into public alone, or speak for themselves These warning signs are adapted from information provided by the Polaris Project and its National Human Trafficking Resource Center and Innocents at Risk.

Resources https://humantraffickinghotline.org/what-human-trafficking/myths-misconceptions https://humantraffickinghotline.org/states https://www.acf.hhs.gov/otip/news/fbi https://safesupportivelearning.ed.gov/human-trafficking-americas-schools/risk-factors-and-indicators https://ovc.ncjrs.gov/humantrafficking/

Fact Sheet to Print for Class: https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/otip/trafficking_infographic508.pdf