Survivor POV | What is Human Trafficking?
The term “trafficking” has steadily entered the spotlight in recent years. What do you picture when you hear the word “trafficking?” Does your mind flash pictures of illegal substances or firearms being smuggled across borders? Or maybe instead of a shipment of drugs, you think of children in shipping containers or immigrant workers facing years of indentured servitude. Whatever framework your mind offers, there is a much broader context than we realize.
Google’s Oxford Language Dictionary defines trafficking as “deal or trade in something illegal.” The department of human justice defines human trafficking as “a crime that involves compelling or coercing a person to provide labor or services, or to engage in commercial sex acts. The coercion can be subtle or overt, physical or psychological.”
This article will focus on the sexual exploitation side of human trafficking, but it is important to remember sexual exploitation is only one part of a much larger story that affects hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. My simple definition of human trafficking is “when an individual feels pressure to perform sexually in exchange for something.“
Human Trafficking – Broadening Our Definition
The last decade has seen a flood of imagery and media highlighting the reality of sex trafficking. As a survivor, I am extremely grateful for the general awareness this has fostered. Unfortunately, the depictions of exploitation often focus on rare cases and seem to narrow the range of those affected. No doubt, the child kidnapped in a foreign country and locked in a basement and the prostitute on the corner that was groomed by her step-father are both real examples of human trafficking. But so are countless others being trafficked here in our beautiful country, right in front of us, including over social media or even through socially acceptable avenues.
Under the current definition of human trafficking, the single mom on your street pressured into offering her body to a wealthy boyfriend to feed her kids is a form of trafficking. The teenager groomed by an online pedophile who is manipulated by threats to send explicit pictures is being trafficked. The hundreds of college students being lured into sugaring sites - dating sites that insinuate money will flow freely if a wealthy benefactor is “pleased” - are part of a plan to normalize human trafficking.
“Anytime a sexual act or favor is being offered from a place of feeling compelled or coerced in exchange for something, you will find a case for human trafficking.”
The more we are stretched to see human trafficking and sexual exploitation from a larger lens, the more we realize it could be much closer to our sphere of influence than we realize.
As we begin to see the entire scope of human trafficking, we can see that it is colorblind, blind to social status or age, blind to politics, religion, health or income. We can see the demand and supply affecting every area of society. It’s true some sectors are more vulnerable to exploitation than others, but in my experience, not one is entirely excluded. I was personally trafficked for decades – throughout my childhood, adolescence and into my adulthood – and I found myself with individuals from all walks of life.
Human Trafficking – a Survivor’s Experience
My trafficking experience did not happen in seclusion or hidden away. I was right alongside my blissfully unaware peers and unknowing teachers. I would be sold at night and expected to continue with my scheduled routine the next day, putting on the childhood “normal” along with my school clothes. Perhaps if the adults in my life knew what to look for, I would have been free sooner. Perhaps if they realized how close human trafficking was to their individual lives, I could have been rescued years earlier. I wasn’t the “typical” victim. I made straight A’s, participated in sports, church and band. I wasn’t who they were looking for.
The trafficking continued well into my adulthood, until I moved out of the country.
Even after years of therapy, it took me a long time to identify myself as a survivor of human trafficking. I have found this experience to be true among many survivors, even when our stories fit the textbook definition. If you or someone you know may be exchanging sexual acts or favors for basic needs, drugs, out of fear or simply because it’s too much to resist another’s control, please reach out for help.
You are not alone.
National Human Trafficking Hotline - 888-373-7888
For more information on identifying Human Trafficking - Recognizing the Signs
