Facts About Human Trafficking
In the U.S. people are being bought, sold, and smuggled like modern-day slaves.
Human trafficking can be found everywhere, from the Super Bowl to motorcycle rallies in South Dakota, in the fields of Florida, in gangs in California, and in brothels in Washington, D.C.
- There are more human slaves in the world today than ever before in history.
- Human traffickers often send “broken-in girls” to recruit younger girls into the sex trade. Sex traffickers often train girls themselves, raping them and teaching them sex acts.
- A human trafficker can earn 20 times what he or she paid for a girl. Provided the girl was not physically brutalized to the point of ruining her beauty, the pimp could sell her again for a greater price because he had trained her and broken her spirit, which saves future buyers the hassle.
- Human traffickers are increasingly trafficking pregnant women for their newborns. Babies are sold on the black market, where the profit is divided between the traffickers, doctors, lawyers, border officials, and others. The mother is usually paid less than what is promised her, citing the cost of travel and creating false documents. A mother might receive as little as a few hundred dollars for her baby.
- After sex, the most common form of human trafficking is forced labor.
- Women are trafficked to the U.S. largely to work in the sex industry (including strip clubs, peep and touch shows, massage parlors that offer sexual services, and prostitution). They are also trafficked to work in sweatshops, domestic servitude, and agricultural work.
- Human trafficking is one of the fastest growing criminal enterprises because it holds relatively low risk with high profit potential. Criminal organizations are increasingly attracted to human trafficking because, unlike drugs, humans can be sold repeatedly.
- Sex traffickers often recruit children because they are more unsuspecting and vulnerable than adults and there is a high market demand for young victims. Victims are targeted on the telephone, on the Internet, through friends, at the mall, and in after-school programs.
- Victims face physical risks, such as drug and alcohol addiction, contracting STDs, sterility, miscarriages, forced abortions, vaginal and anal trauma, among others. Psychological effects include depression, personality and dissociative disorders, suicidal tendencies, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Please remember that safety comes first: safety for the client, safety for others and last but not least, safety for yourself. Don’t try to ‘rush the story’ or you could unwittingly re-traumatize your client. Remember that trauma memories are stored differently than other memories – they appear to be stored in a fragmented way by emotion/feelings and are not stored in a linear fashion. Because of how these memories are stored, your client may not yet have the words to be able to tell you the story.
AA Ross Family Counseling has a board approved CEU course that covers suicide and youth issues.
Sign up for the Human Trafficking: Modern Day Slavery Happening in the U.S. Course