How Can You Tell?
People who are being sexually trafficked are experiencing severe emotional manipulation, circumstantial control, social chaos, continuous physical and sexual assaults, and usually the deprivation of most forms of personal agency and respect. This experience is extremely traumatizing and invokes chronic anxiety, stress and physical pain. The subjugation of someone in commercialized sexual servitude is criminal. And victims of these crimes need significant care and time to heal.
The sheer volume of those suffering these crimes in the U.S. is in the hundreds of thousands each year, and its prevalence has grown to virtually every metropolitan area of our country.
And this begs an important question. If it is really this bad, and it is happening this much; “how can you tell?” I mean, how would the average person actually know how to spot it? Surely there is a way to recognize a crime victim when you see them; and then call attention to it, intervene in the situation, and get this poor victim some help, and the trafficker out of the way? I mean….for goodness sake, how hard can it be?!
Well, it’s tricky, and often difficult for the average person to tell, but let’s consider some helpful tips.
Traffickers or pimps (literally “slave owners”) try to hide their role and relationship with their victims. They act like ‘boy-friends’, ‘husbands’, ‘uncles’, ‘friends’ or ‘business associates’ of their victims. They act like they “care”, but if you pay attention, they are noticeably controlling, possessive, jealous and violent.
They are most often men who are considerably older than their female companions, but not always. Sometimes traffickers are women, even peers.
Traffickers often wear expensive clothing and drive expensive cars, and their relationship with their women is all about money. They are demanding, and insist their women dress provocatively. They make their victim feel responsible for everything, but they control all the money and all social contact from the shadows.
Victims often show signs of physical abuse on their bodies, (bruises, cuts, burn marks, limping, etc.).
They may have tattoos on their body that are symbols of ownership or branding: names, money symbols or barcodes are common.
Their demeanor is noticeably submissive toward their “boyfriend” and repressed, and can often seem withdrawn, depressed or oddly distracted and tired.
They may brag about making lots of money and may flaunt expensive clothing.
These are just a few of the many signs of sex trafficking. You can help interrupt this criminal behavior, and even bring much needed help to a crime victim by simply noticing and reporting these signs to law enforcement, a national hotline advocate, a relative of the victim, or a social worker. If you see something, say something. It may not always be a solid case of human trafficking, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.
Call the National Human Trafficking Resource Center Hotline: 1-888-373-7888
Call the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children: 1-800-843-5678
If you can safely engage the victim in a conversation (without the trafficker knowing), encourage them to reach out for help online at: network.atlasfree.com; calling the hotline number above, or even calling Engedi Refuge directly at: 360-922-7600.
This is….how you can tell.
Engedi Refuge is a safe place for sex trafficking victims to experience long-term residential care in a therapeutic program here in the Northwest. We exist for the healing of the victims.