TRUE & FALSE

FALSE – Sex Trafficking victims are mostly from other countries, and sex trafficking is not prevalent in the United States.

TRUE – Anyone can be a victim of sex trafficking.  Traffickers don’t limit their victims to those outside the United States, sex trafficking is just as prevalent in the United States as it is in other countries.  It’s happening across America.  The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) reported the following for 2022:

  • Over 19,000 reports of possible child sex trafficking.

  • Over 400 reports of runaways were likely victims of child sex trafficking and were being exploited through a gang.

  • Trends revealed that when children run away frequently or for long periods of time, they tend to be running from an unsafe situation or to an unsafe situation.  1 in 6 of more than 25,000 cases of reported missing children were likely victims of child sex trafficking.

  • Of the children reported missing 18% who had run from the care of child welfare, were likely to be victims of child sex trafficking.

FALSE – Sex Trafficking requires movement.

TRUE – Many victims of sex trafficking never leave their own home, especially in the cases where the parents/guardians sell the children; a spouse or boyfriend is selling their wife or girlfriend.  Many victims/survivors never leave their hometown while they are being exploited.

FALSE – Sex Trafficking always involves organized crime.

TRUE – It is not uncommon for a trafficker to be a parent, friend, student, even well-respected community members are traffickers.  Not all trafficking operations are on a large scale, there are many small-scale operations where traffickers just have two or three people they sell regularly.

FALSE – Traffickers are all strangers and/or abductors.

TRUE – Although some victims are abducted it’s more commonly reported by the victims that the perpetrators were someone they knew, such as, friends, family, acquaintances, neighbors, friends of friends, and intimate partners.  Traffickers are more apt to be strategic about who they recruit.  They are more likely to reach out to someone with vulnerabilities, develop a relationship with them, take advantage and manipulate them into sex trafficking.

Traffickers also look to make connections via online through games and social media, by chat/private messages, they develop relationships with the victim and begin to build trust with them.  Traffickers move into neighborhoods with the intent of building relationships with families by helping them with babysitting, driving them places, helping with repairs or needs.

FALSE – I live in a small town and don’t live near an interstate highway system so there isn’t any sex trafficking near me.

TRUE – While interstate systems and exchanges are a place where sex trafficking happens, we need to understand that sex trafficking exists because there is a DEMAND for illicit sex.  People who buy other people for sex are the reason for this crime not the interstates.

Victims of sex trafficking are being sold in their home states, hometowns (small or large), or in their homes – no interstates are needed.  Some traffickers move victims between cities all over the United States and some traffickers never move them out of their towns.

FALSE – Victims want to stay in sex trafficking.

TRUE – Traffickers form a trauma bond with their victims making it very difficult for them to leave.  It takes an average of 7 times before a victim may actually leave sex trafficking for good.  Trauma bonds are where the abused person feels an attachment to the abuser.  Traffickers use a cycle of abuse then positive reinforcement.  Victims are abused then the trafficker may tell them they are sorry and have regret for hurting them, profess their love to them; this makes the relationship feel safe again and that the victim is needed.  It’s all about power and control for the trafficker.