a case study on human trafficking

Trafficked: Three survivors of human trafficking share their stories

Date: Monday, 29 July 2019

This story was originally published on Medium.com/@UN_Women

Across the world, millions of women and girls live in the long shadows of human trafficking. Whether ensnared by force, coercion, or deception, they live in limbo, in fear, in pain.

Because human trafficking operates in darkness, it’s difficult to get exact numbers of victims. However, the vast majority of detected trafficking victims are women and girls, and three out of four are trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation .

Wherever there is poverty, conflict and gender inequality, women’s and girls’ lives are at-risk for exploitation. Human trafficking is a heinous crime that shatters lives, families and dreams.

On World Day against Trafficking in Persons, three women survivors tell us their stories. Their words are testament to their incredible resilience and point toward the urgency for action to prosecute perpetrators and support survivors along their journeys to restored dignity, health and hope.

Karimova comes full circle.

When she was 22 years old, Luiza Karimova left her home in Uzbekistan and travelled to Osh, Kyrgyzstan with the hopes of finding work. However, without a Kyrgyz ID or university degree, Karimova struggled to find employment. When a woman offered her a waitressing job in Bishkek, the capital city in the north of Kyrgyzstan, she welcomed the opportunity.

But things took a turn for the worse after arriving in Bishkek. Karimova recalls that, “They held us in an apartment and took away our passports. They told us that we’d be photographed again for our new employment documents, to be registered as waitresses. It felt strange, but we believed them.”

Then, Karimova and the other women were put on a plane to Dubai, handed fake passports instead of their real ones, and shepherded to an apartment after landing. “We were to be sex slaves and do whatever the clients wanted. The next day I was sent to a nightclub and told that I would have to earn at least 10,000 USD by the end of the month,” says Karimova.

For 18 months, her life was consumed by the nightclub work. Upon leaving the club one evening, Karimova saw a police car approaching, and instead of running away, she stayed to let the police arrest her.

“I was deported back to Osh, and since my ID was fake, I spent a year in jail. I filed a police report, and three of the traffickers were captured”.

However, after being released from prison, Karimova was left to live on the streets, ashamed and unemployed. She went back to work in the sex industry until she was approached by Podruga, an organization that assists women subjected to sex and drug trafficking. “They offered me work. I wasn’t sure that I would fit in, but slowly I began to trust them,” she says.

Now, Karimova works to prevent the exact situation in which she found herself. As an outreach worker with Podruga, she visits saunas and other places where sex workers may be. “I often meet girls who dream of going to Turkey and Dubai, to earn more. I tell them, ‘please don’t go...There is nothing good for you there.’”

To prevent their futures from unfolding as hers did, Karimova provides the women with health and safety resources and information about legal aid. “To stop trafficking of women and girls, we have to inform people about the full consequences of human trafficking and how to detect the signs. It is critical to start raising awareness about this in schools, starting young, so that they do not become victims.”

To read more of Karimova’s story and her work to prevent human trafficking in Kyrgyzstan, see her full interview .

Life in limbo.

In the Lake Chad region of West Africa, the Boko Haram insurgency has taken a drastic toll on millions of families. Thousands of people leave home every day, putting their lives in the hands of smugglers in search of a better life.

At 17 years old, Mary did just that. She felt there was no future for her in her home of Benin City, Nigeria, so she sought opportunities elsewhere. She was put into contact with a man, Ben, who promised to pay her way to Italy and use his connections to find her a restaurant job.

Soon after meeting Ben, Mary was called to his house and made to swear that she wouldn’t try to run away. In March 2016, she, along with a group of boys and girls, left for Libya—a stop along their route to Europe.

In Libya, Mary found herself in peril. “Ben took two of us girls one night. He gave the other girl to another man, and he said to me if I didn't sleep with him, he would give me to another man and not bring me to Europe. He raped me,” Mary says.

She wanted out but had no means of contacting anyone back home. “I had to stay there for months until they called me to go on the boat,” she says.

When she was finally put on a boat to Italy, Mary was informed she would be living in a camp and work as a prostitute—unjust conditions that she had never agreed to and couldn’t escape.

“I can't go stand on the side of the road in the name of money," she says, her voice rising. "I have a future. Standing there, selling myself, would destroy my life. My dignity. Everything.”

Now, the people who paid Mary’s way to Italy are demanding money and threatening her mother back in Nigeria. Her voice falters as she explains that, “they said they would do something very bad to her if I don't send money.”

She waits in anguish until her documents are processed. “I'm so sad. I'm under so much pressure. I don't know what to do… I just want to be free. I want it to be over, even for just one day.”

Despite the immense suffering she’s experienced as a victim of human trafficking, Mary’s dream of a better life holds strong. “One day I will have my documents, I will have an education, I will have work,” she says with hope. She wants to become a lawyer and serve those who’ve been trafficked like she has. “I want to give justice to the girls that have to use their bodies for work.”

For more of Mary’s story and UNICEF’s efforts to end the trafficking of children, read the full article .

“I no longer feel alone.”

Khawng Nu, now 24 years old, is from Kachin, a conflict affected and impoverished state in northern Myanmar. There are few job opportunities, so when a woman from her village offered her work in a Chinese factory, Khawng Nu accepted the offer. However, upon arriving in China, Khawng Nu quickly learned that she had been deceived. The situation wasn’t at all what she was told it would be.

Khawng Nu had been trafficked to birth babies, a type of trafficking that accounts for 20 per cent of the trafficking of women in Myanmar . Khawng Nu recalls seeing more than 40 women on the floor of the building where she was kept, some as young as 16.

“They give pills to women and inject them with sperm for them to carry babies for Chinese men,” explains Khawng Nu. They were beaten and bullied at any sign of resistance.

Once the baby was born, the women would supposedly receive 1 million MMK (USD 632).

Khawng Nu managed to send a message home to her family, and, with the help of community leaders, the trafficking broker in her village was arrested, although he refused to disclose Khawng Nu’s location.

Eventually, Khawng Nu’s family was able to gather enough money from neighbors to pay the ransom for her return. When she came home to her village, Khawng Nu shared the names of other girls she had met in China with local authorities, and five were rescued and brought back.

Through the help of a local organization that partners with UN Women, Htoi Gender and Development Foundation, Khawng Nu is working toward a brighter future. “At first, when I returned, I felt ashamed and I didn’t want to show my face,” she recalls. “Now, after meeting with other women trafficking survivors through the peer group organized by Htoi, I no longer feel alone and seeing that there are other women who went through the same experience gave me courage.”

Read the full article for more of Khawng Nu’s story and how UN Women is working to end human trafficking in Myanmar.

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A Case of Human Trafficking

A disheartening encounter with a young patient convinced physician Kimberly Chang, MPH ’15, that medical professionals can play a key role in protecting victims of coerced sex and labor.

Kimberly Chang was fresh out of medical residency in 2003 when a 14-year-old girl stumbled into her exam room at Asian Health Services in Oakland, California. Reeking of marijuana, with bloodshot eyes and bruises all over her body, the girl asked to be checked for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).

Chang, MPH ’15, diagnosed several STDs in the teen—and, with a sinking realization, also determined that her patient was being forced into sex, addicted to drugs, and getting beaten up regularly. Over the next few years, Chang would see the scenario repeated again and again among her mostly poor, immigrant patients.

Yet she continued to view her job as primarily treating their medical problems—until the day a young teen girl arrived at the clinic, acutely ill. She had a high fever, a racing heart rate, and a rash all over her body. She’d lost 30 pounds in three months. But she refused to go to the hospital because she feared she’d be arrested on a previous warrant for prostitution.

Chang spent the entire evening negotiating with her. The girl was willing to drive only with her “purchaser”—a man who bought unprotected sex from her three times a week. For two hours, Chang tried to persuade the man to drop the girl off at the emergency room. They never made it, and it took another day before Chang and her colleagues tracked down the girl through her MySpace page and community contacts. This time, Chang personally arranged for someone to drive her to the hospital, where she spent two months recovering.

“But guess what happened when she got out?” Chang asks, still incredulous. “She was sent to jail.” Although the teenager was essentially an abused child, the police and courts considered her a criminal. That 2008 crisis became the catalyst for all that followed in Chang’s career. She evolved from physician to physician-activist to—bolstered by her new master’s degree from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health—policy advocate. Today, she is propelled by a strong belief that human trafficking should not be a law enforcement but rather a public health issue.

TEACHING PATIENTS THEIR RIGHTS

Chang grew up in Honolulu, Hawaii, in an ethnically Chinese family. Only recently did she learn that her great-grandmother, born in Vietnam, was kidnapped by pirates and sold into slavery in Hong Kong before escaping and starting a family in Hawaii as a plantation worker. “Given the work that I’m doing now,” Chang observes, “I thought that was an interesting connection.”

As a young child, Chang would watch her mother, a speech pathologist, work with children with cerebral palsy. “That care and compassion made a big impact,” she says. At age 12, she set out to be a doctor, calculating to the exact year when she would begin her training as a physician and proceeding straight through college, medical school, and residency before landing at Asian Health Services as a family doctor.

Many of her teen patients came in high on drugs and physically battered. She learned to speak with them bluntly yet sympathetically, to identify who was being forced into sex, and to care for them without judgment. She also made a point of teaching them their rights. In the case of adult patients working as domestic help, for example, she’d explain: “It’s not OK for your employer to hold your passport and stop you from leaving the country.”

Chang was soon promoted to director of a satellite clinic of Asian Health Services. The site served 10 Asian refugee communities but had to turn down many more for lack of language abilities and staff. “It bothered me when I thought about who gets access and who doesn’t. Where is health equity in this?” she says. “I felt I needed to acquire the policy tools to be able to elevate the issues of immigrant and refugee health and of trafficking in the health care, community health, and public health arenas.”

That quest brought her to Harvard Chan through the Commonwealth Fund Mongan Fellowship in Minority Health Policy . There, Chang met people who, like her, were working for populations shut out of mainstream culture and medicine. Her driving goal: to turn human trafficking into a frontline health issue. “How could I make the health care system stronger, so that it could go toe-to-toe with the criminal justice system?” she recalls. “Harvard Chan has given me a platform to make practical changes and reach more patients—not just through my health center but through every health center that wants to take on this issue.”

Commonwealth Fellowship program director Joan Y. Reede, MPH ’90, SM ’92, notes that Chang stood out for her compassion, her creativity—and her impatience at the slow pace of change. “Kim is an extraordinary individual who does not recognize how extraordinary she is,” Reede says. “She hadn’t realized her full potential when she arrived, and over the course of the year she had an awakening that you can make a difference—not by aiming low, but by aiming high.”

Helping young people avoid the sex trade, or get out early, can slow the problem downstream. “By reducing the number of victims,” says Chang, “you can reduce the number of traffickers.”

At Commencement, Chang received the School’s Dr. Fang-Ching Sun Memorial Award for her commitment to vulnerable populations. According to Reede, “It comes out of a deep awareness of the responsibility that accompanies the title of physician—to take care of everyone—and an understanding that the system has that responsibility as well.”

LOOKING UPSTREAM

With MPH in hand, Chang is back at her clinic in Oakland, where she continues to see patients part time. In collaboration with the Association of Asian Pacific Community Health Organizations , she’s also putting into action a policy brief she wrote while at Harvard Chan for the Health Resources and Services Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). In line with that effort, she hopes to collaborate with HHS to create pilot models at federally qualified health centers for step-by-step protocols for trafficking victims, from outreach to long-term chronic care, providing the medical roadmap she wishes she’d had when starting out as a community doctor.

As befits a newly minted public health professional, Chang is also looking upstream at original causes. She believes the first step to stop trafficking at its source is to treat it as a disease. “I see this as community surveillance,” she says. “We talked to the Cambodian elders about this problem, and they started looking out and noticing that, oh, their daughters aren’t just going out and having fun. They’re coming home with bruises.”

Although Chang’s patients were typically trafficked by men outside the family—pimps and boyfriends, for example—it’s not uncommon for people to traffic their own family members for economic reasons. Targeting the poverty that leads these families to such desperate measures is critical, Chang says. So is persuading them to reassess what may have become commonplace—in the exam room, in schools, at community gatherings. “We need to change the social norm,” she says, “and redefine what communities consider acceptable.”

In the complex world of trafficking, a victim today may become a recruiter tomorrow. Chang contends that helping young people avoid the trade, or get out early, can slow the problem downstream. “By reducing the number of victims,” she says, “you can reduce the number of traffickers.”

On a more systemic level, Chang urges public health leaders to join initiatives against human trafficking. “At the moment, most of these are run by criminal justice,” she says. “There’s a scarcity of health care and public health in there.”

LIFE AFTER TRAFFICKING

Looking back at her most disturbing cases, Chang has seen that the right treatment and policies can change lives. The first 14-year-old girl who came in high and bruised? Chang treated her STDs, encouraged her to leave the sex trade, and wrote her a letter of support to get into a health assistant training program. Now in her twenties and in a stable relationship, the young woman has a new outlook on life. “Her main challenge today,” notes Chang, “is college algebra.”

But not all stories from the clinic have happy endings. Chang lost touch with the 15-year-old patient who went to jail for prostitution. She heard the girl became pregnant and was still engaged in sex work. Yet such setbacks don’t discourage Chang.

“I have the privilege of being asked the question, ‘How do you not get demoralized?’ My patients don’t have that privilege,” she explains. “I don’t get demoralized because I have the power to change things. If I don’t use that power, who will?”

Karen Brown is a public radio reporter and freelance writer based in Western Massachusetts who specializes in health and mental health issues.

Watch a video or listen to a podcast of Kimberly Chang and other Harvard Chan students.

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While human trafficking has existed for centuries, communities are paying new attention to the problem. Some high-profile cases — such as the massage parlor investigation in Jupiter, Florida, in March 2019 — have generated extensive media coverage about a specific type of trafficking. There have also been improvements in legislation that address associated crimes, public funding opportunities that focus community attention on improved interventions and response, and — perhaps most importantly — evolving cultural attitudes that are willing to name the illegal behaviors as unacceptable.

Human trafficking involves the use of force, fraud, or coercion to compel another person to perform labor or a sex act for the profit of a third person. Victims can be adults or children, foreign or domestic born. The trafficking can involve purely labor or purely commercial sex or can be a blend of both.

The forms and dynamics of trafficking can vary widely and typically take advantage of local community characteristics. A convention center or military base might generate a market for sex trafficking, for example, whereas seasonal farm work and restaurants might generate a market for labor trafficking (see sidebar, “Environmental Conditions That Enable Trafficking”).

Tracking Trends

The Polaris Project is affiliated with the National Human Trafficking Hotline. Using statistics from callers, the project identified 25 business models of human trafficking. 1 In research conducted in 2018 by the School of Government at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, focus groups of local government workers in the state reviewed the business models to assess which might be visible to staff of any department. 2 (See sidebar, “Business Models of Human Trafficking Most Visible to Local Government Staff.”)

This research illuminated the critical importance of training first responders and inspectors for any purpose—environmental health, code enforcement, fire codes, and so forth. But the focus groups also pointed out the importance of building awareness more broadly among staff who work in libraries, handle registration or licensing functions, manage water/sewer/solid waste/recycling, respond to parking violations or nuisance calls, or work in public waiting areas.

SIDEBAR: ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS THAT ENABLE TRAFFICKING

The following are environmental conditions that enable sex or labor trafficking, either by generating a market for the act, amplifying a vulnerability, transporting victims, or facilitating contact with buyers.

• Tourist destinations
• Large public events
• Seasonal farm work
• Online advertising opportunities
• Highway rest stops
• Military bases
• International borders
• Colleges and universities

Building Awareness

Terra Greene, city manager of Lexington, North Carolina (pop. 20,000), attended a basic awareness training event hosted by the fire department that was open to all city and county staff. “One key note that was so disturbingly impactful for me to hear in the awareness training … human trafficking is incredibly profitable because the controller or profiteer can sell the same human being over and over again.”

For local governments, the default setting might be to assume that dealing with trafficking falls to law enforcement, social services, or possibly public health clinics. However, research, educational efforts, and real-life scenarios 3 together indicate that additional city and county departmental staff have the potential to identify and report the indicators of trafficking, to build community awareness, and to strengthen local systems of response and intervention.

Greene confirms the access city staff have to homes, businesses, and the community at large and goes on to acknowledge the discomfort they might have about reporting indicators of trafficking. “It is critical that public servants take their role one step further when it comes to overall public safety and speak up if they see something. That step can feel like it taps into tremendous inner courage because oftentimes it is innate behavior to mind your own business, especially when on private property.

Donald Duncan, city manager of Conover, North Carolina (pop. 8,000), began his process of strengthening local government response in a similar way, by immediately integrating the content of a “Human Trafficking 101” training event into the content of his public work.

“After sitting through the session, I began to realize how often we see signs of human trafficking, but do not realize it. It was sobering and admittedly depressing. I had been on the periphery of human trafficking and did not understand that until taking the initial training.”

He thought back to the time his wife, an elementary school teacher, suspected one of her students was being abused. Ultimately, it was discovered the child was being prostituted by her own family. While the situation was obviously harmful to the child, no one called it “human trafficking” at the time, but that is what it was.

SIDEBAR: BUSINESS MODELS OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING MOST VISIBLE TO LOCAL GOVERNMENT STAFF

Almost all of the 25 business models of trafficking identified by the Polaris Project can be visible to local government staff:

• Escort services
• Illicit massage, health and beauty businesses
• Outdoor solicitation
• Residential brothels
• Domestic workers
• Bars, strip clubs, and cantinas
• Traveling sales or clean-up crews
• Restaurants and food service sites
• Peddling and begging rings, fundraising sales
• Agriculture and animal husbandry
• Personal sexual servitude; forced marriages
• Health and beauty services
• Construction industry
• Hotels and hospitality industries
• Landscaping businesses
• Illicit activities operated by gangs and organized crime
• Forestry and logging
• Health-care settings
• Recreational facilities

The four business models of trafficking that are not likely to be seen by local government staff in the course of their regular duties are the production of pornography, commercial cleaning services operating at night, arts/entertainment functions, and remote, interactive, commercial sexual sites.

Taking Action

Conover allows for itinerant merchants to conduct door-to-door sales. After a rash of harassing salesmen, the city council directed Duncan to strengthen the policy governing such sales. “We now require these sales groups to present their identification and pay for a permit. The officers on duty run a quick search through National Crime Information Center (NCIC) to make sure there are no outstanding warrants or prior convictions of fraud or violent crime. After implementing this new procedure, one group came to the police department, and we noticed one person bringing in members of the sales crew, handing them their identification documents 4 as they approached. Staff never suspected trafficking until the group was gone.”

Moving forward, Duncan will promote one general and two specific initiatives. First, he decided to offer the basic training to all city staff as part of the safety training regimen and is working with an area service provider to arrange that training.

Second, he is building on a tradition of training staff to be aware of indicators of criminal activity. In the past, the city implemented Fleet Watch, an initiative of the NC Crime Watch program. “To support community policing, the police department-initiated training for sanitation, meter readers, code enforcement, and fire crews to recognize signs of crime and domestic abuse. The idea of broadening awareness to include indicators of human trafficking will not be a stretch,” said Duncan.

Third, Duncan will work with key city staff to consider trafficking through the lens of organized crime, using strategies that evolved from intelligence gathering methods used by the military in Iraq and Afghanistan. The logic underlying such strategies is that gangs represent domestic terrorism and organized crime.” Through peer pressure and forced initiations, they also act as human traffickers. The tactics used to identify foreign terrorists work just as well in North Carolina with NC GangNET 5 and other gang intervention models currently in use. With slight modifications these could all be applied to combat human trafficking.”

City Manager David Parrish, of Greensboro, North Carolina (pop. 287,000), learned human trafficking was allegedly taking place in the Gate City during a council meeting. One evening, a resident raised a concern, outlining what types of services were for sale at a local massage parlor. The resident referenced how the city had responsibilities for business licensing that should not enable associated illegal activity.

In response, Parrish immediately deployed city staff from police, engineering and inspections, and code enforcement to investigate the massage parlor to determine if illegal activity was happening on the premises. The investigation included a review of the licensing and on-site activity. The multidepartment team effort uncovered evidence confirming the owners were in violation of the law. Charges related to human trafficking were filed against them. Since then, police routinely follow up with code enforcement to make sure businesses are operating legally.

“We appreciate residents being vigilant and willing to say something when they suspect criminal activity is happening. This is an example where multiple city departments worked together, using existing resources, to address and resolve this incident of human trafficking,” said Parrish.

SIDEBAR: VULNERABILITIES = OPPORTUNITIES FOR TRAFFICKERS

In general, human traffickers look for points of weakness to exploit. These vulnerabilities can be social, political, financial, or situational, taking many different forms. Here are some examples:

• Family conflict/instability
• Financial stress
• Social isolation
• Homelessness
• Limited English proficiency
• Immigration status
• Unsafe community or living conditions
• Sexual orientation/gender identity
• Lack of transportation
• Rejection by family or community
• History of physical or sexual trauma
• Foster care placement; aging out of the child welfare system
• Political instability
• Cultural background
• Natural disasters

Key Strategies

Addressing the problem of human trafficking is not simple or easy. Here are some initial strategies to consider.

Build awareness of the indicators and basic dynamics of trafficking across all governmental departments, beyond law enforcement and social services.  Suggestion: Invite area service providers to provide basic training, describe local resources for intervention, and begin to build relationships across organizational lines. Encourage self-education through online resources and state or national training opportunities. (See sidebar, “Online Resources for Local Governments.”)

• Develop protocols for reporting in dicators of potential trafficking. Debrief and adjust as needed, once reports are made. Suggestion: At a staff meeting, discuss and decide on the preferred options for reporting (e.g. , local law enforcement, local rapid response team, or the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888 or text 233733), as well as expectations for informing departmental supervisors, the city/county manager, or elected officials.
• If your community has a particular challenge with any of the environmental conditions that enable trafficking or any of the business models that traffickers employ, consider taking a focused approach. (See sidebars, “Environmental Conditions That Enable Trafficking” and “Business Models of Human Trafficking Most Visible to Local Government Staff.”) Suggestion: Convene a multi-departmental team to apply existing processes, policies, and procedures to the challenge that relates to trafficking, in order to develop strategies of prevention or intervention.
• If your community is working to address any wicked problem (e.g. , homelessness, food scarcity, substance abuse, success in school), know that you are also working to prevent trafficking.  Suggestion: Take time out in those existing work groups to consider the issue through the lens of human trafficking. For example, is there a particular way that the local homeless population is being manipulated? (See sidebar, “Vulnerabilities = Opportunities for Traffickers.”)

SIDEBAR: ONLINE RESOURCES FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENTS*

• Public Management Bulletin #12: “Human Trafficking in North Carolina: Strategies for Local Government Officials.” This bulletin covers ways in which human trafficking can be viewed through the lens of local government. The bulletin begins with a discussion of the basics—what human trafficking is, how it operates, and where it tends to turn up—followed by an examination of human trafficking as a local government concern. The author concludes the bulletin by outlining six strategies that local government leaders can take to address human trafficking in their communities.
• Public Management Bulletin #15: “Exploring the Intersections between Local Governments and Human Trafficking: The Local Government Focus Group Project.” This bulletin focuses on the business models traffickers use to manage their human trafficking enterprises and reports on focus group discussions with local government officials to determine how greater awareness of these models and their various signs within the community might be incorporated into their daily work.
• Public Management Bulletin #16: “Labor Trafficking—What Local Governments Need to Know.” This bulletin focuses on what labor trafficking is and how it shows up in North Carolina.

* from the School of Government, UNC-Chapel Hill, available at www.sog.unc.edu.

While the concept of human trafficking is overwhelming to most of us, there are specific steps any community can take to begin to address the issue. Once local government staff members learn about the indicators of trafficking, they tend to respond in the same way as other professional groups: “We’ve been seeing the signs all along, but we didn’t know that it was trafficking.”

The responsibilities of local government staff put them in homes, businesses, and public spaces on a regular basis. They also tend to be people who care about, and are connected to, their communities. Given that trafficking often operates in plain sight, local government staff offer untapped potential for noticing its indicators.

As Terra Greene observes, “Human trafficking is a very real humanitarian issue, which requires acute awareness and courage to actively contribute to the solution.” Remember: Human traffickers only need local governments to do one thing—nothing. Hopefully, these examples and insights from local government managers in North Carolina can inspire other cities and counties to begin their own efforts to stop human trafficking.

1 “The Typology of Modern Slavery: Defining Sex and Labor Trafficking in the United States” at https://polarisproject.org/typology

2 For a discussion, see PMB No. 15, June 2018, “Exploring the Intersections Between Local Government and Human Trafficking: The Local Government Focus Group Project,” available at www.sog.unc.edu

3 Media reported that law enforcement used the observations of a health inspector to build the investigation in the Jupiter, Florida, illicit massage parlor case, in early 2019.

4 One indicator of trafficking is that a third party takes and controls access to the identification documents of victims. Traveling sales crews are a business model that traffickers employ.

5 https://www.ncdps.gov/Our-Organization/Law-Enforcement/State-Highway-Patrol/NC-GangNET NC GangNET is a database that has a web-based capability of allowing certified users to enter and/or view information on gang suspects and members that have been validated as such using standardized criteria.

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Tonya spent night after night in different hotel rooms, with different men, all at the command of someone she once trusted. She was held against her will, beaten and made to feel like she had no other option at the time, all by the man she thought she loved.

She felt she deserved it. Tonya felt she couldn’t escape. Afraid and confused, she thought the emotional and physical abuse she endured was her own doing. 

Tonya (a pseudonym) was a victim of human trafficking. “He made me feel like I was doing it because I loved him, and in the end, we’d have a really good [financial] reward,” Tonya said.

When Tonya was 13, she met Eddie (a pseudonym) at the apartment she was living in with her mother in the Dallas, Texas, area. His estranged wife was the property manager. Tonya was classmates with Eddie’s stepdaughter, so the two would often see each other at the apartment and in the local grocery store. It was there that the two first exchanged numbers.

“It was a casual relationship at first. You could see there was a mutual connection. I thought he was cute,” Tonya recalled. “I could tell he was really flirtatious with me. We would talk and flirt a lot, but it was not much more than that until we met again when I was 15.”

Things began to change one night when Tonya ran into Eddie at a bar. The two reconnected, the flirting picked up where it left off and Tonya went home with Eddie that night. Tonya was a runaway at the time, so she eventually moved in with Eddie and the two began a relationship.

It was a “normal” arrangement at first. Tonya would cook, clean and look after Eddie’s kids from time to time. However, it was when the two were at a party filled with alcohol and drugs that the relationship took a turn.

“He approached me and told me in so many words, ‘I want you to have sex with this guy for money,’” Tonya said. “I was very uncomfortable and I kept saying no, I didn’t want to do it. He kept telling me, ‘If you love me, you’ll do this. It’s just one thing. Just try it.’”

After nearly 30 more minutes of constant pressure, Tonya agreed to have sex with the man. What she thought would be a one-time thing became an everyday routine for the next few weeks. Night after night and bar after bar, Tonya would go out with Eddie while he advertised her to potential “suitors.” Tonya thought she loved him. She felt she could deal with the physical toll the trafficking took on her body. It turned out that the hardest part to deal with was the emotional and psychological effects. 

“Being able to sleep with that many people and live with myself and get up every day and keep doing it and just lying there being helpless was so hard,” Tonya said.

Help eventually came for Tonya in the form of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Special Agent Keith Owens. The Grand Prairie, Texas police department had received a tip about Eddie’s crimes and passed the case on to HSI Dallas. Owens and his team took over, moved in and arrested Eddie. 

Eddie pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 12 years in prison on May 29, 2015. During the sentencing hearing, Tonya had to testify. Having to hear and see the man who trafficked her was difficult, especially not knowing what the outcome would be and whether he would be convicted. 

“Telling people publicly about what I’d been through made me feel more ashamed because I’d never told anyone or was open about it,” Tonya said. “Keith and [HSI Dallas special agent] Allison [Schaefer] were the only two people I’ve really told everything to.”

Tonya feels her life is a little better now. She doesn’t think or talk about what she’s been through and doesn’t want people to know that was once a part of her life. Her focus is on moving forward.

“I want to finish getting my GED and go to community college, take on journalism, go to college and study political science and pre-law,” she said. “I just want to live a normal life, accept my past and not run from it.”

Eventually, Tonya knows that she will have to talk about her experience again. If she has kids one day, she wants to be able to tell them what their mother went through. She wants them to know what to look out for and how to avoid going through something as awful as she did.

Until then, she passes along her words of encouragement to anyone who may be experiencing what she did. She wants any victims out there to know they are not alone.

“You’re worth something. You’re very important to someone,” Tonya said. “No matter what he says, it’s not true. You’re worth something.”

Part 1: The Beginning

It was just supposed to be something to make money, but it quickly turned into much more than she ever imagined. In part one, Tonya (a pseudonym) reveals how she initially became a victim of human trafficking.

Part 2: An Emotional Toll

Dealing with the physical toll the trafficking took on her body was “easy.” It turned out that the hardest part to deal with was the psychological effects. In part two, Tonya discusses the emotional toll of being a victim of human trafficking.

Part 3: A Painful Relief

Although she was ultimately able to “escape” from her trafficker, the experience of being a victim of human trafficking still haunted Tonya. In part three, she talks about the lingering pain that existed even after her ordeal was over.  

Part 4: You Deserved It

Like many victims of human trafficking, Tonya felt that she deserved it. In part four, Tonya explains how she and many victims like her feel that way.

Part 5: Knowing What To Look For

What can be done to prevent human trafficking? How can potential victims protect themselves from perpetrators? In the final segment, Tonya discusses what potential victims should look out for, and what law enforcement officials need to do to combat human trafficking.

National Human Trafficking and Slavery Prevention Month

The month of January has been designated by the White House as National Human Trafficking and Slavery Prevention Month. Millions of women, men and children around the world are subjected to forced labor, domestic servitude, or the sex trade at the hands of human traffickers. A form of modern-day slavery, the inhumane practice of human trafficking takes place here in the United States as well.

Human trafficking is one of the most heinous crimes investigated by ICE. In its worst manifestation, human trafficking is akin to modern-day slavery. They are forced into prostitution, involuntary labor and other forms of servitude to repay debts – often incurred during entry into the United States.

ICE recognizes that severe consequences of human trafficking continue even after the perpetrators have been arrested and held accountable. ICE’s Victim Assistance Program helps coordinate services to help human trafficking victims, such as crisis intervention, counseling and emotional support.

In their own words

Disclaimer: The following passages contain first-person accounts from victims of sex trafficking. Names have been altered to protect their identities. Homeland Security Investigations worked in collaboration with the FBI on their case.

“I was 17 around when I met ‘Robert.’ It started off with me and my friend meeting him for social purposes. It just went on for about nine months and we were living in different hotels the entire time and I don’t even remember how many men there were. I was a runaway and wasn’t living anywhere stable, so since I was underage most of the time, I sort of needed him in order to get hotels and move around.

I had already been a prostitute since I was 15 and I think I just didn’t even know what was right or wrong and how I should be treated. Towards the end, he held me against my will in a hostage situation and forced me to prostitute and took all the money and just beat me severely.

The last time I saw him, he was just beating me until he was absolutely tired. I was covered in bruises, my face was completely disfigured and it’s causing me issue with my back to this day because of the way he was beating me and torturing me. That was probably the worst. There was a client in the room and he was having an issue with something I couldn’t do because I was all beat up. I didn’t want to do it anymore. I didn’t want to do anything. He wanted the money back. When Robert and him were talking I ran out of the room and somehow was able to run faster than him.

I didn’t tell anyone. I kept it to myself until I got a call from the FBI that he’d been arrested for something else and asked would I talk. Having to go face everything and realize how serious everything was. For the longest time I didn’t even think it was that serious.

At the trial, it felt empowering to look at him the entire time. I’m sure it drove him crazy. He can never touch me but he had to look at me and listen and it made me feel good.

I had to learn that if I don’t at least have some kind of love and value for myself, no one ever will. My advice to other girls would be to let people help you. It’s not your fault and that you didn’t deserve it. It’s OK to be hurt about it because a lot of people will act like it never happened, because that’s what I was going to do too.

– “Laura” 21

“I was 15 at the time and was a runaway. ‘Tom’ wanted to be a pimp, so I would be in his room in his apartment and he would not let me go out for anything. He tried to intimidate me by threatening to beat me up if I tried to leave. I was scared of him so I wouldn’t leave. He would drop me off at a hotel while he went to work.

It lasted from March until June or July. Sometimes it would be every day, sometimes he would say, ‘not today, but tomorrow.’ Out of the week, maybe 4-5 times a week, I was with different men.

I just felt like that it was my fault and I deserved it and nobody would ever believe me or try to help me, so I just let them control how I thought about myself. They were always verbally abusive and putting you down and it got to the point that I actually started believing it. Just letting someone control your own freedom take over just what you do. I couldn’t leave the room. It was like ‘wow, I’m letting someone make me feel so scared.’

I never called the police because I felt it was my fault. I felt at the time like I had to stay. One day the FBI ended up coming to my house and contacted me because my name came up in their investigation.

You have to know your self-worth. It’s OK to ask for help. They don’t know they are a victim. They feel like it’s their fault. We are victims. You can have the worst past, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a successful future.”

– “April” 18

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Human trafficking and violence: Findings from the largest global dataset of trafficking survivors

Heidi stöckl.

a The Institute for Medical Information Processing, Biometry, and Epidemiology, Medical Faculty, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany

Camilla Fabbri

b Gender Violence & Health Centre, Department of Global Health and Development, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom

c Migrant Protection and Assistance Division International Organization for Migration, Geneva, Switzerland

Claire Galez-Davis

Naomi grant.

d The Freedom Fund, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom

e Institute for Global Health, University College London, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom

Cathy Zimmerman

Human trafficking is a recognized human rights violation, and a public health and global development issue. Violence is often a hallmark of human trafficking. This study aims to describe documented cases of violence amongst persons identified as victims of trafficking, examine associated factors throughout the trafficking cycle and explore prevalence of abuse in different labour sectors.

Methods and findings

The IOM Victim of Trafficking Database (VoTD) is the largest database on human trafficking worldwide. This database is actively used across all IOM regional and country missions as a standardized anti-trafficking case-management tool. This analysis utilized the cases of 10,369 trafficked victims in the VoTD who had information on violence.

The prevalence of reported violence during human trafficking included: 54% physical and/or sexual violence; 50% physical violence; and 15% sexual violence, with 25% of women reporting sexual violence. Experiences of physical and sexual violence amongst trafficked victims were significantly higher amongst women and girls (AOR 2.48 (CI: 2.01,3.06)), individuals in sexual exploitation (AOR 2.08 (CI: 1.22,3.54)) and those experiencing other forms of abuse and deprivation, such as threats (AOR 2.89 (CI: 2.10,3.98)) and forced use of alcohol and drugs (AOR 2.37 (CI: 1.08,5.21)). Abuse was significantly lower amongst individuals trafficked internationally (AOR 0.36 (CI: 0.19,0.68)) and those using forged documents (AOR 0.64 (CI: 0.44,0.93)). Violence was frequently associated with trafficking into manufacturing, agriculture and begging (> 55%).

Conclusions

An analysis of the world's largest data set on trafficking victims indicates that violence is indeed prevalent and gendered. While these results show that trafficking-related violence is common, findings suggest there are patterns of violence, which highlights that post-trafficking services must address the specific support needs of different survivors.

1. Introduction

Human trafficking is a recognized human rights violation, and a public health and global development issue. Target 8.7 of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals calls for states to take immediate and effective measures to eradicate trafficking, forced labour and modern slavery ( Griggs et al., 2013 ).

Human trafficking has been defined by the United Nations’ Palermo Protocol as a process that involves the recruitment and movement of people-by force, coercion, or deception—for the purpose of exploitation ( United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime 2000 ).

Estimating the scale of human trafficking is difficult, due to the hidden nature of this crime and challenges associated with the definition. As a result, available estimates are contested ( Jahic and Finckenauer, 2005 ). According to data on identified victims of trafficking from the Counter-Trafficking Data Collaborative ( International Organization for Migration 2019 ), nearly half of the victims report being trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation, while 39% report forced labour, and the most common sectors of work included: domestic work (30%), construction (16%), agriculture (10%) and manufacturing (9%). Women and girls account for almost all those trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation, and 71% of those report violence ( International Organization for Migration 2019 ; International Labour Organization 2017 ; UNODC 2018 ).

Current data confirm that prevalence of violence is high amongst survivors, although few studies have investigated causal mechanisms related to violence in labour and sexual exploitation ( Kiss et al., 2015 ; Oram et al., 2012 ; Stöckl et al., 2017 ; Ottisova et al., 2016 ). Victims often report experiences of emotional, physical and sexual abuse throughout the various stages of the human trafficking cycle, from recruitment through travel and destination points, to release and reintegration ( Ottisova et al., 2016 ). Currently, evidence is scarce on the patterns of violence across different types of trafficking, despite its importance for more tailored assistance to survivors once they are in a position to receive post-trafficking support.

This study aims to close this evidence gap by describing documented cases of violence amongst trafficking survivors and describe associated factors, drawing on the largest global database to date, the IOM's Victim of Trafficking Database (VoTD).

2.1. Data source

The IOM VoTD is the largest database on human trafficking worldwide. Actively used across all IOM regional and country missions, VoTD is a standardized anti-trafficking case-management tool that monitors assistance for victims of trafficking. In certain contexts, IOM identifies victims at transit centres or following their escape, while in other settings IOM mainly provides immediate assistance following referral by another organization or long-term reintegration assistance. This routinely collected data includes information on various aspects of victims’ experiences, including background characteristics, entry into the trafficking process, movement within and across borders, sectors of exploitation, experiences of abuse, and activities or work at destination.

The primary purpose of IOM's VoTD is to support assistance to trafficked victims, not to collect survey data. It does not represent a standardized survey tool or research programme, and therefore, the quality and completeness of the data vary substantially between registered individuals. IOM case workers often enter data retrospectively and its quality may therefore be affected by large caseloads on staff working with limited resources. In addition, the VoTD sample may be biased by the regional distribution of IOM's missions and by the local focus on certain types of trafficking. For example, in the past, women were a near-exclusive target of IOM's assistance programs due to a focus on sexual exploitation. However, over time, the identification of trafficking victims has increasingly included individuals subjected to forced labour. Nevertheless, in the countries where IOM provides direct assistance to victims of trafficking, VoTD data are broadly representative of the identified victim population in that country and are still the most representative data with the widest global coverage on human trafficking.

Between 2002 and mid-2018, the VoTD registered 49,032 victims of trafficking, with nearly complete records for 26,067 records which provide information on whether individuals reported being exploited, with exploitation other than sexual and labour exploitation, such as organ trafficking or forced marriage accounting for less than five percent of the overall dataset. A bivariate analysis to identify patterns in the distribution of missing data found that missing values spanned across all variables of the data and no specific pattern regarding countries of exploitation or origin emerged that could explain the source of missing data.

2.2. Theory

This study relied on an adapted version of the Zimmerman et al. (2011) theoretical framework on human trafficking and health that comprises four basic stages: recruitment; travel and transit; exploitation; and the reintegration or integration stages; with sub-stages for some trafficked people who become caught up in detention or re-trafficking stages. The modified framework in Fig. 1 displays the three stages of the human trafficking process: recruitment, travel and transit and exploitation and displays the factors associated with experiences of violence during the trafficking process.

Stages of human trafficking adapted from Zimmerman et al. (2011) , incorporating variable coding.

2.3. Measures

The VoTD dataset includes survivors’ responses about whether they experienced physical or sexual violence during any stage of the trafficking process. Information available on trafficked persons’ pre-departure characteristics, risk factors at transit and exploitation stage are outlined in Fig. 1 with their respective coding. Reports on exploitation only include the last form of exploitation a victim of trafficking experienced. It is however possible to report more than one type of exploitation for the most recent situation.

The research team made a substantial effort to code and clean the data, working closely with IOM's data management team. IOM's database refers to the VoTD cases as ‘victims’ as IOM caseworkers follow the Palermo Protocol in their determination and this is the language of the Protocol, recognising the debates around the terminology victims versus survivors ( International Organization for Migration 2014 ). The secondary data analysis of the IOM VoTD data received ethical approval from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine ethical review board.

2.4. Data analysis

To estimate the prevalence of physical or sexual violence or both, as reported by trafficked victims in the VoTD, the analysis was restricted to the 10,369 victims with data available on experiences of physical and/or sexual violence. In total, 94 countries of exploitation were reported, covering the whole globe, including high-, middle- and low-income countries. Descriptive statistics highlight the characteristics of trafficked victims in total and by gender. Associations with physical and/or sexual violence have been calculated using unadjusted odds ratios. Only variables with a significant association with reports of physical and/or sexual violence in the unadjusted odds ratios were included into a staged logistic regression model. The staged logistic regression model aimed to show whether characteristics at pre-departure only or pre-departure and transit remain significantly associated with experiences of physical and/or sexual violence during human trafficking. A separate bivariate analysis was conducted between reported experiences of violence and sectors of exploitation due to the low number of responses for sectors of exploitation. In both the bivariate and multivariate logistic regressions, a p-value below 0.05 is taken to indicate significance.

Of the 10,369 trafficked victims included in this analysis, 89% were adults, of whom 54% were female. The prevalence of reported violence during human trafficking is high: 54% reported physical and/or sexual violence, 50% reported physical violence, and 15% sexual violence. Table 1 shows that more female victims report physical (54% versus 45%) and sexual (25% versus 2%) violence than men, both overall and amongst minors. amongst minors, 52% of girls reported physical violence and 27% sexual violence, compared to 39% and 8%, respectively amongst boys.

Prevalence of violence amongst victims of exploitation.

Pre-departure characteristics, displayed in Table 2 , show that most trafficked persons were in their twenties and thirties, and 17% were minors. amongst all VoTD cases, 75% self-identified as poor before their trafficking experience and 16% as very poor. Records show that 39% were married before they were trafficked. Of the total sample, 40% had achieved a secondary education. The majority reported that they were recruited into the trafficking process (79%), crossed an international border (92%) and were trafficked with others (75%). Forged documents were used in the trafficking process by 10% of trafficked persons. Most victims reported forced labour, 56% of whom were male. Of the 33% who were trafficked into sexual exploitation, 98% were female. Six percent reported they were trafficked into both labour and sexual exploitation. Victims reported a variety of abuses while trafficked, with 60% indicating they were subjected to threats against themselves or their family, 79% were deceived, 76% were denied movement, food or medical attention, 4% were given alcohol and/or drugs, 60% had documents confiscated and 35% reported situations of debt bondage.

Characteristics of trafficked persons at different stages of the trafficking stages for victims.

Exponentiated coefficients; 95% confidence intervals in brackets

Physical and/or sexual violence was significantly associated with being female, young age and self-reported high socio-economic status. More specifically, individuals between ages 18 and 24 are significantly more likely to report violence than those aged 25 to 34 and individuals aged 35 to 49 are less likely to report violence than those aged 25 to 34. Victims reporting their socio-economic status as well-off compared to poor before departure, were significantly more likely to report abuse during their trafficking experience. Crossing one border and using forged documents were all significantly associated with fewer reports of violence during the trafficking experience, while being in sexual exploitation and reporting any other forms of control or abuse during the exploitation stage increased the likelihood of violence reports.

Considering all pre-departure characteristics together, controlling for each other, being female and higher socio-economic status remained significantly associated with reports of physical and/or sexual violence (Model 1, Table 3 ), although only being female remained significant once transit and exploitation factors were taken into account. Controlling for other factors at the transit and exploitation stage, using forged documents remained significantly associated with fewer reports of violence as did most forms of abuses at the exploitation stage such as threats and being forced to take drugs and alcohol. Being in sexual exploitation or both sexual and labour exploitation versus labour alone also remained significant.

Association between trafficking characteristics and physical and/or sexual violence.

Exponentiated coefficients; 95% confidence intervals in brackets. * p < 0.05 ** p < 0.01 *** p < 0.001.

Availability of data on sectors of exploitation was limited. The separate analysis on the prevalence of physical and/or sexual violence in Table 4 displays high reports of violence from those trafficked into sexual exploitation, domestic work, manufacturing, agriculture and begging. Sexual violence was most often reported by victims trafficked into domestic work and the hospitality sector.

Prevalence of violence amongst victims of exploitation by activity sector.

“The opinions expressed in the article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout the report do not imply expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of IOM concerning legal status of any country, territory, city or area, or of its authorities, or concerning its frontiers or boundaries.”

4. Discussion

Our analysis of the world's largest trafficking victim data set indicates that physical and sexual violence is indeed prevalent in cases of human trafficking, as 52% of the trafficking cases included reports of physical and/or sexual violence. It is noteworthy that nearly half (48%) of survivors did not report violence, indicating that human trafficking does not necessariliy have to involve physical or sexual violence. It is important to recall that 60% of survivors reported being subjected to threats to themselves or their family, a potential explanation for the lack of reports of phyiscal and/or sexual violence. Our analyses also suggest that trafficking-related violence is gendered, as higher levels of abuse were reported by female survivors and in sectors in which women and girls are commonly exploited: sex work and domestic work. It is also noteworthy that sexual violence is an issue amongst trafficked men below the age of 18, indicating the importance of investigating human trafficking by both gender and age and by sector of exploitation.

The prevalence of physical and/or sexual violence found in this study corresponds with the prevalence range reported in a 2016 systematic review, which found rates between 12% to 96% ( Oram et al., 2012 ) and in Kiss et al's 2014 three-country survey of male, female and child trafficking survivors in post-trafficking services in the Mekong. In Kiss et al., 48% reported physical and/or sexual violence, with women reporting higher rates of sexual violence than men ( Kiss et al., 2015 ).

Findings also indicated several contradictions related to common generalisations related to vulnerability to trafficking, which often suggest that the poorest and least educated are at greatest risk of trafficking  ( Passos et al., 2020 ). However, our analysis indicated that 40% of those who were trafficked had a secondary education and only 16% self-identified as very poor. Interestingly, when considering who was most at risk of abuse during trafficking, victims who were younger, between ages 18–24, seemed to experience higher levels of violence, perhaps indicating that those who were more mature were more compliant.

Our study also offers new insights about violence that occurs before individuals arrive at the destination of exploitation. Our study highlights that physical or sexual violence is also associated with factors at the recruitment and transit stage of the trafficking process, such as socio-economic status, crossing international borders and the use of forged documents. The latter contradicts current assumptions that are applied in trafficking awareness and training activities, which warn prospective migrants about international trafficking and against the use of forged documents ( Kiss et al., 2019 ). There are a number of possible explanations for this finding on forged documents. First, it is possible that having used forged documents gives traffickers the ability to threaten their victims with arrest or imprisonment because of their illegal status versus using physical abuse. The study found that internal trafficking was associated with a higher prevalence of violence. To interpret this, it is necessary to consider the general population or work-related prevalence of violence in countries from where the victims originate. If their countries of origin have higher levels of violence, this may make individuals less likely to report what they might consider to be minor workplace abuses ( Paasche et al., 2018 ). Similarly, violence in sex work and domestic work may have been related to socially normative abuse patterns and general prevalence of violence in these sectors and locations to which individuals were trafficked ( Kaur-Gill and Dutta, 2020 ). For abuse in situations of commercial sexual exploitation, a sector in which violence was reportedly most prevalent ( Platt et al., 2018 ), victims were likely to have been subjected to abuses by traffickers (e.g., pimps, managers, brothel owners) and clients at levels relative to general levels of abuse in that sector in that location. Likewise, women trafficked into domestic work, would have been exposed to violence from members of the household, a behaviour that is rarely condemned or punished in countries where trafficking into domestic work is common.

It is also possible that the levels of violence experienced by trafficked persons are proportional to the degree of control the exploiter feels he needs to exert over the victim. In that sense, trafficking victims who have more resources or capabilities to leave an exploitative situation may be the ones who experience higher levels of violence. For example, people with greater economic resources may have a greater ability to leave and may also have a social network that can support their exit process. Sexual exploitation may take a higher degree of coercion over victims, which would make threats and violence a useful tactic to keep them in the situation.

The VoTD is a unique dataset on human trafficking. However, it is useful to recognise that the VoTD is a case-management database and not systematically collected survey data. Data is limited to single-item assessments rather than validated instruments to capture complex situations and experiences and often entered retrospectively by caseworkers. For example, socio-economic background was self-assessed through four options only and recruitment through a single question. It is for this reasons that we did not include emotional abuse into our measurement of violence – given the lack of internationally agreed definitions of emotional abuse, we could not be certain that case workers recognize and enter all experiences of emotional abuse uniformly across the globe. Furthermore, the VoTD is cross-sectional in nature and does not allow to infer causality with respect to the factors associated with experiences of violence during the trafficking process. The VoTD is not representative of the overall population of trafficking victims, as it only captures individuals who have been identified as trafficked and who were in contact with post-trafficking services.

Despite these limitations, the analysis highlights the importance of large-scale administrative datasets in future international human trafficking research to complement in-depth qualitative studies. Our analysis suggests the urgent need for clearer and more consistent use of definitions, tools, and measures in human trafficking research, particularly related to socio-economic background, what is meant by ‘recruitment’ and ‘emotional abuse’. In particular, there is a need for international standards and guidance for recording and processing administrative data on human trafficking for research purposes. Prospective donors must also recognize that record-keeping is part of care cost, and support it through grant-making. This will allow frontline organizations to invest in information management systems, staff training, and record keeping policies and protocols. If frontline agencies are to provide data for research purposes, beyond those which are necessary for delivering protection services for victims, additional resources should be considered.

Our study reiterates the importance of psychological outcomes resulting from violence in cases of human trafficking, which has been identified in many other site-specific studies ( Ottisova et al., 2016 ). Yet, despite these common findings, and the world's commitment to eradicate human trafficking in the Sustainable Development Goal 8.7, to date, there has been extremely little evidence to identify what types of post-trafficking support works for whom in which settings. For instance, there have been few robust experimental studies to determine what helps different individuals in different contexts grapple with the psychological aftermath of human trafficking, even amidst growing number of post-trafficking reintegration programs and policies ( Okech et al., 2018 ; Rafferty, 2021 ). Given the increasing amount of case data from many programs working with survivors, organisations will have to produce more systematically collected case data to ensure findings are relevant and useful for future post-trafficking psychological support for distress and disorders, such as PTSD and depression.

Furthermore, the data indicate that abuses may occur throughout the trafficking cycle, which suggests that victim-sensitive policy responses to human trafficking are required at places of origin, transit and, particularly at destination, when different forms of violence often go undetected. Our findings also underline the need for post-trafficking policies and services that recognise the variation in trafficking experiences, particularly the health implications of abuse for many survivors. Ultimately, because of the global magnitude of human trafficking and the prevalence of abuse in cases of trafficking, human trafficking needs to be treated as a public health concern ( Kiss and Zimmerman, 2019 ). Moreover, because survivors’ experiences of violence varied amongst men, women and children and across settings, it will be important to design services that meet individuals’ varying needs, designing context specific interventions ( Kiss and Zimmerman, 2019 ; Greenbaum et al., 2017 ).

5. Conclusion

This study offers substantial new insights on the patterns of physical and/or sexual violence amongst trafficking survivors. By highlighting the linkages between violence and associated factors at different stages of the trafficking process, our findings emphasise the importance of understanding the entire human trafficking process so that intervention planning can more accurately assess opportunities to prevent trafficking-related harm, improve assessments of survivor service needs, and increase well-targeted survivor-centred care. Ultimately, while these results suggest patterns can be observed, they also show that trafficking is a wide-ranging and far-reaching crime that requires responses that are well-developed based on individuals’ different experiences.

The study was funded by a Freedom Fund grant to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the International Organization for Migration.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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'I was trafficked, raped, and left for my abusers to find'

• Published 27 September 2022

Two years ago, Isobel, a British woman in her early 20s, went to the police and told them how a gang of men had sexually exploited her.

Warning: This story contains descriptions of violence and sexual violence

For the previous four years the gang had relentlessly trafficked her across England, driving her to towns and cities where she was raped hundreds of times in takeaways, warehouses and in empty flats, by men who paid her abusers. The gang of men, of Pakistani heritage, subjected her to extreme violence and regularly poured petrol over her, threatening to kill her if she disclosed the abuse.

Isobel, not her real name, went to the police after seeing news that a grooming gang in another part of the country had been jailed. She says after reporting what happened, however, nobody got in touch with her for three weeks. When a police officer finally did contact her, Isobel says she felt victim-blamed and was asked why she was still in contact with her abusers.

Isobel was keen to see her perpetrators prosecuted, but says when she asked police how they were going to keep her safe - by providing a safehouse during their investigation - no plan was put in place. The gang knew where she lived and despite being temporarily free, she lived in fear.

The police also failed to refer Isobel to the National Referral Mechanism (NRM), a government framework that provides victims of modern slavery - including sexual exploitation victims - with vital support to rebuild their lives, including access to safehouses, counselling, financial support and legal aid.

Last year, British nationals were the most common nationality referred to the NRM - 31% of potential victims who were referred in 2021 were British nationals. Of those referred to the NRM because of sexual exploitation, the BBC's File on 4 found there were 462 British girls and women in 2021 - compared with 46 non-British nationals.

But Robyn Phillips, director of operations at the Human Trafficking Foundation, says there is a perception that trafficking has to cross international borders - and it is access to safehouses that British victims find most difficult to secure.

'Let down'

The gang discovered Isobel was talking to the police and began sending her threatening messages. Isobel told the police, but when no safeguarding measures were put in place, she withdrew from the investigation and the case was dropped. She was forced back into a life of exploitation by the gang and she became pregnant. 

Isobel told her abusers she was expecting a baby, but says as one of them was the likely father, they were fearful that DNA evidence would identify them. She says the gang punched her in the stomach telling her: "I'm gonna beat it out of you - it'll be the devil child."

Isobel suffered a miscarriage and went to a Sexual Assault Centre, where she was finally referred to the NRM. She was also introduced to Jess Phillips, Labour's shadow minister for domestic violence and safeguarding, who thought Isobel's case was "so horrifying" that she went to meet her.

After talking to the MP, Isobel decided to go back to the police and try and get support from the NRM to rebuild her life. But it wasn't easy. "I asked my National Referral Mechanism worker about legal aid," says Isobel. "She started to be angry and was like 'you don't need that legal advice, because you're not an immigrant'."

The National Referral Mechanism

• The National Referral Mechanism (NRM) is a Home Office framework for identifying and referring potential victims of modern slavery and ensuring they receive the appropriate support
• A person who is suspected to be a victim is referred to the NRM from a first responder agency, which can be police forces, immigration authorities, the National Crime Agency, local authorities or charities such as the Salvation Army, NSPCC or Barnardo's
• Once a referral is made, it is assessed and someone who is believed to have been a victim of trafficking or modern slavery is first given a reasonable grounds decision and can access support before being given a conclusive grounds decision, where it is accepted they were a victim

Ms Phillips says the NRM was originally designed for victims from abroad and there is a failure to provide services for "this kind of active exploitation".

"There's victim-blaming at lots of different levels, whether that's police, whether that is the sort of service provision that's meant to sit around exploitation and trafficking, and in [Isobel's] case, it has just failed her at every point," she says.

A year after she had been referred to the NRM, Isobel still hadn't received the help she was entitled to. The police investigation, which had resumed after her miscarriage, fell apart after officers failed again to put safeguarding measures in place. Now at her most vulnerable, her abusers turned up at her home again and drove her to a town where she was raped by a group of men.

She called the police and her NRW worker, who got in touch with the Salvation Army, which runs the government's modern slavery support contract. Isobel says the Salvation Army offered her a safehouse but was told she had to give up her phone. Initially she refused to do so, and she says when she called back to say she had changed her mind she was told it was too late.

Emilie Martin, from the Salvation Army, says it is not common practice for someone to be asked to give up their mobile phone, but where it does happen the individual will be issued with a replacement. She says the NRM also "provides the same needs for individuals who are British nationals and those who aren't".

The Home Office said it is "committed to tackling modern slavery and helping victims recover" and expects "police forces to investigate cases of sexual exploitation, pursue perpetrators and support victims".

The National Police Chiefs Council said a dedicated national team has been set up to improve the response to modern slavery across all police forces and ensure the "ruthless criminals behind these offences are brought to justice".

But Maggie Oliver, a former Greater Manchester Police detective, who exposed the Rochdale grooming scandal - which resulted in nine men being convicted of sex trafficking 10 years ago - says British victims of sexual exploitation in the UK are viewed differently to those being trafficked into the country.

She says authorities fail to understand that victims need protection wherever they come from. "If it happened to my daughter, I would think very, very carefully about whether I involved the police, because I think the damage victims suffer is often made ten times worse by the authorities that let them down."

Isobel's future remains unclear. She says she's constantly checking over her shoulder to see if there's anyone following her and that while she would like to see her abusers jailed, she's "got no trust in the police because they've literally just failed me from day one".

More than anything, she says she just wants to be safe.

If you have been affected by any of the issues in this article, you can find services that can help on BBC Action Line .

Listen to File on 4's Isobel's Story on BBC Radio 4 at 20:00 on Tuesday 27 September, or on BBC Sounds .

Clarification October 5: This article was edited to clarify the statistics on the percentage of British nationals referred to the NRM.

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10 Case Studies in Human Trafficking

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Full guide here . العربية

Below we profile 10 stories of trafficking and forced labor common throughout the countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council region, which includes the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman.

Domestic Workers: Trafficking and Unscrupulous Recruitment

Indian Women Duped by Recruiters.  Indian women are regularly trafficked through the United Arab Emirates and forced to work as domestic workers in other countries in the GCC, where they are not registered with their embassies and can be subject to appalling working conditions. Here’s a similar story .

Domestic Workers For Sale in Oman.   Domestic workers are being traded illegally by expatriate agents in an Omani town for less than $4,000. This is an example of how women are trafficked across GCC borders to bypass recruitment regulations for domestic workers.

Traded and Sold on Twitter.   Sponsors hoping to avoid paying for a ticket to send their domestic worker home, or hoping to make a profit from relinquishing her visa to another sponsor, find a thriving market online. Prospective employers looking to avoid high recruitment costs are their buyers, and the language used in these transactions underscores the slavery-like nature of this visa trade.

Nepalese Migrant Workers Stranded.   Twenty Nepalese citizens were stranded in Qatar after their new sponsor attempted to force work terms they hadn’t agreed to, and denied them access to their passports. This is an example of how workers can become victims of forced labor after arriving in the country, and how sponsorship laws make it difficult for workers to escape these conditions.

No Reprieve for Victims of Saudi Financial Crisis.   Hundreds of workers were stranded in Saudi Arabia after the collapse of construction giant Saudi Oger and other companies. Many had gone months without pay and were forced to work in labor camps.

Stranded Expat Pleads for Help .  Even with reforms to the sponsorship system, migrant workers remain extremely dependent on their sponsors. If a sponsor fails to renew a worker’s visa, it is most often the worker who is criminalized and becomes “illegal.” With many embassies unable to manage the volume of cases they receive, migrants can be stranded for years.

Debts and False Promises

Where Goats are King and Men Suffer.  Men come to Kuwait on domestic worker visas believing they will be drivers, but end up working as shepherds and farmers in distant desert towns and in bleak conditions.

Ugandan Migrants Stranded in Abu Dhabi Bakery.  Workers often pay steep recruitment fees in exchange for the promise of a high salary and decent work. Even where laws have been implemented to protect against contract substitution, the pay and conditions they receive once in the destination country can be very different from the terms they agreed to. Sponsorship laws, bureaucratic obstacles and recruitment debt make it difficult for migrant workers to leave work.

No Way Out: Exit Permits and Confiscated Passports

Indian Doctor Stuck in Saudi.  Migrant workers are especially vulnerable to abusive or negligent sponsors in countries that require sponsors to issue exit permits for migrant workers to leave, whether for vacation or upon completing a work contract. In this case, a sick migrant worker was refused exit by his sponsor over a year ago and had been trying to return to India since.

Lebanon’s Migrant Workers Under Pressure. Passport confiscation is illegal in the Gulf, Jordan and Lebanon, but remains a common practice with lax punishment. Without access to their passports, migrants cannot leave the country or, where sponsorship laws permit, even find another job.

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Case Studies News & Analysis

Being an investigative journalist in the Middle East and North Africa was immensely challenging in 2022, thanks to the dramatic decline in press freedom in places once considered safer for journalists such as North Africa, the lack of human and financial resources, and the inability to access data and public information in most Arab countries.

Some of the most notable stories in German-language journalism this year revealed that many good guys in public life were, as it turned out, not so good. The following stories examine public figures from sports, the media, and far-right networks, and also show how big players — such as sportswear behemoth Nike, the fintech company Wirecard, or multinational energy giant RWE — behave when they think nobody’s watching. 

Human Trafficking Online: Cases and Patterns

In order to better understand patterns related to human trafficking online, this section offers a review of a set of U.S. federal cases involving human trafficking via online channels, beginning with an overview of some of the applicable domestic laws related to trafficking. The following is only a sampling of U.S laws relevant to this complex issue.

Relevant Trafficking Laws

At the federal level, numerous domestic laws might be applied to human trafficking cases. Sex trafficking was criminalized by 18 U.S.C. §1591, which makes it illegal to recruit, entice, provide, harbor, maintain, or transport a person or to benefit from involvement in causing the person to engage in a commercial sex act, knowing that force, fraud, or coercion was used or that the person was under the age of 18. Sex traffickers also may face charges under other federal statutes applicable to sex trafficking, such as 18 U.S.C. § 2423(a), prohibiting transportation of a minor with intent that the individual engage in criminal sexual activity. On the labor trafficking side, 18 U.S.C. §§1589-1590 make it illegal to knowingly provide or obtain the labor of a person by certain means, such as force or threats of force, or to traffic a person for labor or services by means of force, coercion, or fraud for the purpose of subjecting the person to slavery, involuntary servitude, debt bondage, or peonage.

Federal laws addressing human trafficking apply across the country; state laws addressing trafficking also exist, but vary in terms of definitions, penalties, and enforcement priorities. While most states have recognized and criminalized sex trafficking, 1 many have only recently done so, and with significant variations in penalties imposed on perpetrators. According to the State Department’s 2011 TIP Report , “While state prosecutions continue to increase, one study found that less than 10% of state and local law enforcement agencies surveyed had protocols or policies on human trafficking.” 2

The above laws address the criminalization of a trafficker’s conduct, but a trafficked victim can potentially face criminal charges, depending on whether the applicable law offers the victim protection. For example, under federal law, a 16-year-old engaged in commercial sex acts is a trafficking victim, regardless of whether the minor appears to have participated willingly in said acts, because the law presumes that an underage victim cannot provide legal consent. However, the protections available to trafficking victims vary between states, and minor victims of sex trafficking can face prostitution charges in some state courts. 3

In April 2010, New York became the first state to pass legislation addressing this issue, with the Safe Harbor for Exploited Children Act. 4 The act prohibits the prosecution of minors for prostitution. Several states would subsequently pass similar legislation. 5

Evidence From Federal Cases

Fiscal year 2010 saw the greatest number of U.S. federal human trafficking prosecutions initiated in a single year. According to the 2011 TIP Report , “Collectively federal law enforcement charged 181 individuals, and obtained 141 convictions in 103 human trafficking prosecutions (32 labor trafficking and 71 sex trafficking).” 6 The average prison sentence was 11.8 years, with prison terms ranging from 3 months to 54 years. 7 The Internet and online tools played roles in a number of these cases.

A scan of recent legal cases involving human trafficking and online technologies provides insights regarding details about the uses of technology by traffickers. 8 The primary sources for details of trafficking investigations were press releases from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Department of Justice, and U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. A search of press releases from these organizations using a combination of terms including “sex trafficking,” “forced labor,” “labor trafficking,” “human trafficking,” “minor,” “prostitution,” “online,” “advertisement,” and “Internet” produced a set of cases that were manually reviewed for relevance, with results limited to cases involving either a guilty plea or a conviction. The search did not produce any cases involving labor trafficking and online technologies; all of the results reviewed were related to sex trafficking. The following is based on a self-selected sample of 27 federal trafficking cases since 2009 involving the use of social networking sites or online classified advertisements to facilitate trafficking. A search of legal databases, using keywords including “sex trafficking,” “labor trafficking,” “human trafficking,” “minor,” “website,” “online,” and “Internet”—as well as searches for convictions under 18 U.S.C. §§ 1590-1591 9 —produced examples illustrating the use of the Internet to facilitate trafficking.

The cases collected do not indicate the totality of trafficking cases involving social networking sites and online classifieds but rather serve to demonstrate some of the ways in which technology is used to facilitate trafficking and the patterns that begin to emerge across cases.

Labor Trafficking and Technology

In the course of this study, researchers did not discover evidence of traffickers utilizing the Internet to facilitate labor trafficking, perhaps due to the circumstances typically surrounding this form of trafficking. Research suggests that victims often are recruited from impoverished regions and typically learn about opportunities via word of mouth. Once recruited, workers may be isolated, without access to technology. “Most of the victims we’re seeing are from underdeveloped countries,” said Anna Park, regional attorney for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), Los Angeles District Office. “In the cases we’ve had,” she noted, the use of technology “is very unlikely.” 10

Employment discrimination laws have become instrumental in the fight against labor trafficking. 11 Park was involved in a case brought by the Los Angeles District Office of the EEOC against Trans Bay Steel, 12 in which the EEOC filed a class national-origin discrimination action on behalf of a group of Thai welders who were trafficked and forced into labor. Initially recruited by an agency to work as high-skilled welders and provided with legitimate visas, the workers were subsequently “held against their will, had their passports confiscated, had their movements restricted, and were forced to work without pay all in violation of Title VII. Additionally, some workers were confined to cramped apartments without any electricity, water, or gas.” 13

What we have seen are temporary contracting agencies bringing in workers through legitimate means under the auspices of luring people with the promise of work so that they can lead a better life. However, the victims are charged exorbitant fees that the workers can never pay because, oftentimes, they are never paid for their work. This fee is used to subjugate and exploit the workers, forcing them to tolerate and endure intolerable situations. 14

According to Park, most of the targeted communities are agrarian, and people typically learn about job opportunities from neighbors and members of their communities. Newspapers in languages targeting a monolithic group (e.g., Thai newspapers) also may advertise positions that turn out to be labor trafficking, particularly in light of the fact that many of the employment agencies involved in trafficking are otherwise legitimate and likely advertise. In the event that these community newspapers move online, there may be an opportunity to evaluate how online classifieds may be used for labor trafficking.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Atlanta offered a similar assessment of technology in the context of labor trafficking, noting that labor traffickers do not use much technology and that such uses tend to be limited to pay-as-you-go cellphones. 15 However, as rural communities gain access to the Internet, there will be a need to study the benefits of online technologies as well as their potential use as tools of manipulation, depicting a false reality designed to lure persons away from their homes and into forced labor. 16

The lack of examples of online communication with respect to labor trafficking might also stem from the nature of the messages communicated by traffickers—namely employment opportunities and promises of fair wages. Unlike sex traffickers, who advertise using language that signals the nature of the available services (e.g., using terms such as “young”), labor traffickers rely on deceit, making compelling false promises. The challenge is to decipher which job advertisements will result in labor trafficking once the laborer responds to the advertisement and arrives for work. Unless the recruiters, employers, or other details of their advertisements have already been identified for trafficking abuses, it is immensely difficult to design studies wherein observing online communications alone will reveal disingenuous intentions. The unique features of the labor trafficking system make it particularly challenging to track through Internet tools and technologies at this time.

Sex Trafficking and Technology

Although easier to track than labor trafficking, determining instances of sex trafficking online poses its own complications. In particular, distinctions between advertisements of trafficking victims as opposed to sex workers who do not fall within the legal definitions of trafficking can be limited and blurred. Focusing on some of the most vulnerable victims of trafficking, this report directs its research and technological solutions toward detecting minors advertised for commercial sexual services. Under the TVPA, all minors engaged in commercial sex acts are treated as victims of trafficking. 17 Although advertisements frequently misrepresent the age of victims, certain keywords meant to serve as signals for the purchasers who drive the demand for sex with minors make detection a possibility. Although the signals and terms change frequently, the nature of advertising a minor’s sexual services to purchasers with particular age and characteristic preferences makes it possible to detect common themes across online classified ads.

Focusing on the set of cases in which the Internet is used by sex traffickers, certain patterns begin to emerge: (1) Online classified sites are used to post advertisements of victims, (2) social networking sites are used in the recruitment of victims, (3) investigations may begin with a picture of what appears to be an underage girl in an online classified ad, and (4) a number of victims have been identified as runaways.

The Internet was used to advertise the sexual services of victims in all of the cases reviewed. For example, Byron Thompson, who pled guilty to sex trafficking in Maryland in July 2009, created Craigslist and Backpage postings advertising the sexual services of his victims, who were featured in photographs in the ads. 18 In January 2011, Clint Wilson pled guilty to sex trafficking in a Texas federal court. Wilson posted ads on Backpage, offering commercial sex services by his minor victim, who was featured in the ads. 19 A Florida federal jury found Tyrone Townsend guilty of sex trafficking in February 2011. Among the evidence collected by investigators were 28 Internet ads and a Garmin GPS seized from Townsend’s vehicle. Using the GPS, investigators were able to establish locations of several customers in the Jacksonville area. 20

In a case filed in the Southern District of New York, United States v. Daniel Marino, et al., 14 members and associates of the Gambino organized crime family pled guilty to various federal charges, including sex trafficking and sex trafficking of a minor. 21 Several of the defendants operated a prostitution business, through which they exploited young women and girls for commercial sex. The business was advertised on Craigslist and other websites. 22

While Craigslist was the most frequently referenced website in the cases reviewed, the “Adult Services” section of the site has since closed. “The source now is Backpage,” noted the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Atlanta, “aside from underground and quasi-underground chat rooms.” 23

Describing the challenges of reviewing online classified ads in search of trafficking activity, the office added: “It’s not easy to quantify or to identify someone who is using code words. You would have to weed through, in theory, a hundred ads before you get the one.” 24 The task of manually sorting through myriad advertisements is a strain on often-limited law-enforcement resources. Without some technological solutions to narrow the pool of potential advertisements, the task of manually reviewing these ads exceeds the limits of what investigators can reasonably expect to achieve.

Beyond advertising sexual services, traffickers also use the Internet to interact with potential victims. In four of the cases reviewed, traffickers used social media as a recruiting tool. In June 2010, Dwayne Lawson was sentenced to 210 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to sex trafficking of children. The investigation began when Los Angeles police arrested a teenage girl for prostitution. Investigators learned that the girl was a runaway working for Lawson, who initially “contacted the girl in the fall of 2008 on Myspace.com and, after promising to make her a ‘star,’ gave her a bus ticket from Florida to Las Vegas, Nevada.” 25

A common starting point for investigators is the appearance of the victim in photos used by sex traffickers to advertise. According to public records, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Atlanta said, agents frequently review pictures in online classified ads, noting when a girl seems younger than her advertised age. Agents may then undertake investigations based on a picture that appears to feature an underage girl.

In August 2010, Lawrence Pruitt and Marvin Harris were sentenced to 10 years and four years, respectively, in federal prison for sex trafficking of a minor. Agents investigating the possible prostitution of underage girls arrested the pair at an Atlanta-area hotel, where investigators found the victim, a 17-year-old “whose photographs the agents had previously seen on an Internet website advertising erotic services. The FBI believed that the victim, whose advertisement listed her age as 19, was a juvenile.” 26

The investigation of Thelonious Reed, sentenced in June 2009 on charges related to sex trafficking, began when an agent discovered an ad for a young woman in the Erotic Services section of Craigslist. The ad, in which a young woman appeared topless, described the woman as 19 years old. Believing her to be younger, the agent set up a meeting posing as a client. Upon arrival, the 18-year-old victim revealed that she was trafficked for sex by Reed, who lured her by describing himself as a modeling agent. 27

However, investigating based upon a photo is not without complications, as in some cases a fake or doctored image may be used to advertise the victim’s services. “That makes it even harder to peel back the layers and get to the trafficked female,” noted the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Atlanta. 28

In several of the cases reviewed, investigators discovered the victims were runaways. 29 This finding corresponds to the 2011 U.S. Trafficking in Persons Report, “U.S. citizen child victims [of sex trafficking] are often runaways, troubled, and homeless youth.” 30 In May 2010, Ezekiel Alon Hampton of Tacoma, Washington, was sentenced to 13 years in prison for counts involving sex trafficking. The investigation began when the police department contacted a young runaway about a reported assault and discovered that the 14-year-old girl was being trafficked, along with several other young women. The girl, who had recently left Hampton, explained that he made the girls advertise their sexual services on Craigslist. All of the victims turned out to be runaways, and Hampton provided them with housing, food, and drugs. 31

In October 2010, Sterling Terrance Hospedales, a former Army sergeant, was sentenced to 11 years for sex trafficking and attempted sex trafficking of a child. The investigation began in Lakewood, Washington, when local police received reports of a young runaway posting ads selling sexual services on Craigslist. Investigators located and interviewed the juvenile, who led them to Hospedales. Investigators also discovered another juvenile victimized by Hospedales. The second juvenile had met him on Myspace. Hospedales paid for her plane ticket and, within a week, posted photos of her on Craigslist advertising sexual services. In a memo, prosecutors emphasized that Hospedales had targeted susceptible juveniles, “Hospedales intentionally sought out emotionally damaged, vulnerable victims—runaways who had no support system whatsoever and no idea of how to be in a normal, functioning relationship.” 32

The Human Trafficking Rescue Project conducted a sting operation in March 2009 targeting individuals attempting to engage in sex with prostituted children. 33 Ads were posted on Craigslist describing children available for sex; however, no children were actually involved in the operation. Richard Oflyng, a Kansas truck driver who responded to an ad describing “little girls,” was arrested after making an appointment to have sex with an 11-year-old girl. Oflyng pled guilty and was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for attempted sex trafficking. 34

“This sentence serves as a warning,” said Gilbert Trill, assistant special agent, ICE Office of Investigations, Kansas City. “Some child predators mistakenly believe the anonymity of cyberspace shields them from scrutiny. In fact, their use of the Internet gives us new tools in our efforts to investigate this insidious behavior.” 35

At the prosecution stage, a broad reading of the interstate commerce element of §1591(a)(1) 36 allows prosecutors to bring a potentially wider range of sex trafficking cases involving online activity under federal trafficking laws, as illustrated in the recent Eleventh Circuit decision in United States v. Timothy Myers . The defendants, who were charged with trafficking two girls under the age of 18 for sex, placed advertisements featuring their victims on Craigslist and Backpage. Testimony from Craigslist’s customer service manager revealed that “the data for its websites was stored on servers in Arizona and California and that Craigslist payments end up in the company accounts in California, where the company is based.” 37

The court concluded that the interstate commerce element of the statute was satisfied, by virtue of the movement of monies through accounts and information through servers in various states. 38 With many social networking and online classified sites maintaining servers in multiple states, decisions such as United States v. Myers could allow a greater number of prosecutors to bring sex trafficking cases involving online activity in federal courts, allowing victims to benefit from the protections offered under the TVPA.

Case Study: Craigslist Under Fire

Due in part to increasing reports citing Craigslist’s role in trafficking and sexual exploitation, in September 2010, the website shut down its Adult Services section in all U.S. cities. By December, the company closed the Adult Services sections of the website worldwide.

Since 2007, Craigslist has been criticized for its role in facilitating prostitution and sexual exploitation via its Adult Services (formerly Erotic Services) sections. 39 In November 2008, Craigslist began charging users of its U.S. sites a $5 credit card fee for adult ads, requiring a phone number to verify the identity of the user and to help police better track the postings to the actual users. 40 In May 2009, the company renamed its Erotic Services section Adult Services. 41 The change in policy included a fee increase to $10 and the hiring of attorneys to manually filter ads. 42 Craigslist reported that it would continue cooperating with law enforcement to crack down on ads selling sex. 43

But a number of politicians, advocates, and law-enforcement officials were not persuaded. “I believe Craigslist acted irresponsibly when it unilaterally decided to keep the profits from [sex ad] posts,” said Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal. 44 Yet when Craigslist attempted to donate monies to a nonprofit group, the Advocates for Human Rights, the unsolicited contribution was rejected. 45 Along with 17 other state attorneys general, Blumenthal in 2010 sent a letter to Craigslist demanding the removal of the Adult Services section. 46

In March 2009, Illinois Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart, filed a suit in the Northern District of Illinois against Craigslist, alleging, “Missing children, runaways, abused women and women trafficked in from foreign countries are routinely forced to have sex with strangers because they’re being pimped on Craigslist.” 47 Craigslist asserted that §230(c)(1) of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 protected it from liability for the distribution of third-party content. The court agreed that §230(c)(1) applied and granted Craigslist’s motion for judgment on the pleadings. 48

As the campaign against Craigslist continued to gain momentum, a research study commissioned by the Women’s Funding Network, conducted by the Schapiro Group, reported numbers related to the trafficking of minors via online classified ads. The report was cited in congressional hearings, despite the fact that aspects of the methodology were not rigorous.

On September 15, 2010, the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security conducted a hearing on domestic minor sex trafficking and specifically H.R. 5575, the Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Deterrence and Victims Support Act of 2010. 49 The subcommittee expressed particular concern that advertisements for sex trafficking appeared online on Internet sites such as Craigslist. 50

U.S. Representative Jackie Speier (D-CA) stated, “The activity taking place on myredbook.com, eros.com and Backpage is equally as horrific…These sites are facilitating crimes.” 51

During the hearing, William Powell, director of customer service and law enforcement relations for Craigslist, highlighted the company’s steps to address concerns that a subset of ads represented suspected cases of trafficking. “I have personally been told many times by law-enforcement agents that Craigslist is by far the most responsive Internet company that they deal with,” Powell said. 52 He continued:

We participate actively in the cyber tip line program administered by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, and ads that meet NCMEC’s reporting guidelines are reported immediately. Moreover, we have been advised by NCMEC that we are the only such participant making direct reports among countless other venues that carry adult service ads. We have assisted sweeps, anti trafficking sweeps by the FBI and have been credited by agents with helping make those sweeps successful. We have engineered special tools to facilitate the work of NCMEC and law enforcement. These include creation of multiple special search interfaces that facilitate the search for missing children across all Craigslist sites. 53

In his testimony, Powell announced that Craigslist had permanently closed its Adult Services section in the United States, with no plans to reopen the section. 54 By December 2010, Craigslist closed all Adult Services sections worldwide.

The Craigslist case is striking because of (1) the lack of credible empirical research and aggregate data on trafficking and online technologies informing the debate, (2) the lack of more cooperative cross-sector partnerships and coordination, and (3) a missed opportunity to explore more creative solutions to the problem of trafficking online.

• At the end of the reporting period, only three states had yet to enact anti-trafficking laws: West Virginia, Wyoming, and Massachusetts. In Massachusetts, anti-trafficking legislation had passed but had yet to be signed into law. ^
• U.S. Department of State, Trafficking in Persons Report , June 2011, 373. ^
• Carrie Baker, “Jailing Girls for Men’s Crimes,” Ms. Magazine, December 8, 2010, http://www.msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2010/12/08/jailing-girls-for-mens-crimes/ . One such example is the case of 13-year-old B.W., who was arrested in Texas for offering to perform an illegal sex act on an undercover officer, booked as an adult, and convicted, despite a state law that persons under 14 cannot consent to sex. The Texas Supreme Court reversed the decision on appeal, noting, “Children are the victims, not the perpetrators, of child prostitution.” In the Matter of B.W ., 313 S.W.3d 818, 826 (Tex. 2010). ^
• Safe Harbor for Exploited Children N.Y. SOC. SERV. LAW § 447-a (McKinney 2008) ^
• For example, see An Act Providing a Safe Harbor for Exploited Children CONN. PUB. ACT 10-115. ^
• “These numbers do not reflect prosecutions of cases involving the commercial sexual exploitation of children that were brought under statutes other than the TVPA’s sex trafficking provision.… Traffickers were also prosecuted under a myriad of state laws, but no comprehensive data is available on state prosecutions and convictions.” U.S. Department of State, Trafficking in Persons Report , June 2011, 373. ^
• Several sources were used to gather evidence of trafficking cases involving social media and online classified ads. Searches were limited to federal trafficking cases, as researching state cases of trafficking poses a particular challenge, namely accounting for the range of criminal charges that could apply to trafficking cases, which vary by state. ^
• Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000, 18 U.S.C. § 1590 (October 28, 2000), addresses “trafficking with respect to peonage, slavery, involuntary servitude, or forced labor,” and 18 U.S.C. § 1591 addresses “sex trafficking of children or by force, fraud, or coercion.” ^
• Anna Park, regional attorney for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, telephone interview by CCLP research staff, March 7, 2011. ^
• U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), “Employment Discrimination Laws ‘New Frontier’ in War Against Human Labor,” press release, January 19, 2011, http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/1-19-11.cfm . ^
• EEOC, “EEOC Resolves Slavery and Human Trafficking Suit Against Trans Bay Steel for an Estimated $1 Million,” press release, December 8, 2006, http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/archive/12-8-06.html . EEOC v. Trans Bay was resolved in December 2006, with the parties reaching a settlement providing compensation and monetary relief to the Thai workers. ^
• EEOC Meeting, Human Trafficking and Forced Labor , January 19, 2011, http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/meetings/1-19-11/park.cfm (written testimony of Anna Park, EEOC regional attorney). ^
• U.S. Attorney’s Office in Atlanta, telephone interview by CCLP research staff, March 14, 2011. ^
• As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton noted upon the release of the 2011 TIP Report , “Because of the ease of transportation and the global communications that can reach deep into villages with promises and pictures of what a better life might be, we now see that more human beings are exploited than before.” Hillary Rodham Clinton, “Remarks on the Release of the 2011 Trafficking in Persons Report ,” June 27, 2011, U.S. Department of State, http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2011/06/167156.htm . ^
• Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000, 22 U.S.C. § 7102 (October 28, 2000). ^
• U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, “Maryland man pleads guilty in sex trafficking conspiracy involving 3 minor girls,” news release, July 16, 2009, http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/0907/090716baltimore.htm . ^
• U.S. Department of Justice, United States Attorney James T. Jacks, North District of Texas, “Dallas Felon Admits to Sex Trafficking a Minor and Possessing an Assault Rifle,” press release, January 18, 2011, http://www.justice.gov/usao/txn/PressRel11/wilson_clint_ple_pr.html . ^
• Federal Bureau of Investigation, Jacksonville Division, “Jury Finds New York Man Guilty of Sex Trafficking Women by Force, Threats of Force, and Fraud,” press release, February 17, 2011, http://www.fbi.gov/jacksonville/press-releases/2011/ja021711.htm . For another example, see U.S. v. Fuertes , 2011 WL 607391 (11 th Cir., Feb. 22, 2011) at *3, in which the defendant advertised the sexual services of his underage victim on Backpage. ^
• Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office, “Last of 14 Gambino Crime Family Members and Associates Plead Guilty to Racketeering, Murder Conspiracy, Extortion, Sex Trafficking, and Other Crimes,” press release, January 10, 2011, http://www.fbi.gov/newyork/press-releases/2011/last-of-14-gambino-crime-family-members-and-associates-plead-guilty-to-racketeering-murder-conspiracy-extortion-sex-trafficking-and-other-crimes/ . ^
• Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office, “Nine Gambino Crime Family Members Sentenced in Manhattan Federal Court for Racketeering, Murder Conspiracy, Extortion, Sex Trafficking, and Other Crimes,” press release, May 12, 2011, http://www.fbi.gov/newyork/press-releases/2011/nine-gambino-crime-family-members-sentenced-in-manhattan-federal-court-for-racketeering-murder-conspiracy-extortion-sex-trafficking-and-other-crimes . Preet Bahara, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, “said the sex trafficking reflected perhaps ‘a new low for the Gambino family.’” Benjamin Weiser, “Charges Called ‘New Low’ for Gambinos,” New York Times , April 20, 2010, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/21/nyregion/21extort.html . ^
• Federal Bureau of Investigation, Los Angeles Division, “Man Pleads Guilty and Is Sentenced to 17½ Years in Federal Prison for Sex Trafficking of Minors,” press release, June 10, 2010, http://www.fbi.gov/losangeles/press-releases/2010/la061010.htm . ^
• Federal Bureau of Investigation, Atlanta Division, “Pair Indicted, Appear in Court for Sex Trafficking of a Minor,” press release, April 16, 2009, http://www.fbi.gov/atlanta/press-releases/2009/at041609.htm . For details of sentencing, see Kimathi Lewis, “Arrests made in child sex crimes as agencies join forces,” Examiner.com, August 6, 2010, http://www.examiner.com/crime-in-atlanta/arrests-made-child-sex-crimes-as-agencies-join-forces . ^
• Federal Bureau of Investigation, Atlanta Division, “Pimp Who Claimed to Be a Modeling Agent Sentenced to Prison,” press release, June 4, 2009, http://www.fbi.gov/atlanta/press-releases/2009/atl060409.htm . ^
• Retired LAPD Detective Keith Haight described Los Angeles as “the runaway capital of the world.” “Starting out young in the world’s oldest profession: children prostitutes in L.A.,” Pat Morrison, Southern California Public Radio , October 21, 2010, http://www.scpr.org/programs/patt-morrison/2010/10/21/starting-out-young-in-the-worlds-oldest-profession/ . ^
• U.S. Department of State, Trafficking in Persons Report , June 2011, 372. ^
• Federal Bureau of Investigation, Seattle, “Tacoma Felon Sentenced to 13 Years in Prison for Sex Trafficking Offenses,” Department of Justice press release, May 11, 2010, http://www.fbi.gov/seattle/press-releases/2010/se051110.htm . ^
• Federal Bureau of Investigation, Seattle, “Army Sergeant Sentenced to 11 Years in Prison for Sex Trafficking Juveniles,” Department of Justice press release, October 26, 2010, http://seattle.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel10/se102610a.htmDomestic Minor Sex Trafficking: Hearings on H.R. 5575, Before the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security, 111 th Cong. 154 (2010). ^
• “Human Rescue Trafficking Project,” U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri, last accessed June 27, 2011, http://www.justice.gov/usao/mow/programs/humantrafficking.html . The Human Trafficking Rescue Project (HTRP) was launched in 2006. This federal taskforce is comprised of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Department of Labor, and two local Missouri police departments. ^
• U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, “Kansas man gets 15 years in prison for attempted sex trafficking of a child,” news release, December 1, 2009, https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/0912/ 091201kansascity.htm. ^
• “The Human Trafficking Rescue Project conducted a sting operation [in March 2009] which targeted local customers who solicit pimps to engage in commercial sex acts with children. The ‘children’ were advertised online at Craig’s List [sic]; no real children were actually involved in the sting.” Ibid . ^
• Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000, 18 U.S.C. § 1591(a)(1) (October 28, 2000), reads “(a) Whoever knowingly—(1) in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce , or within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States, recruits, entices, harbors, transports, provides, obtains, or maintains by any means a person” (emphasis added). ^
• United States v. Myers , 2011 WL 2391306 (11 th Cir., June 15, 2011), at *6. ^
• Ibid . at *8. ^
• While Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster made it clear that “[w]e do not want illegal activity on the site,” he explained that it was nearly impossible for its small staff to audit the millions of postings. Bruce Lambert, “As Prostitutes Turn to Craigslist, Law Takes Notice,” New York Times , September 5, 2007, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/05/nyregion/05craigslist.html?_r=1 . Craigslist also maintained that it was exempt from any legal obligation to address the advertisements under its site, citing §230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, which states, “No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.” Communications Decency Act of 1996, 47 U.S.C. §230 (1998). ^
• As Elizabeth McDougall, counsel to Craigslist on online safety, security, and abuse issues, noted, “[I]n terms of voluntary action by craigslist, when craigslist implemented these measures, credit card verification and phone verification, a lot of that started to migrate over to the therapeutic services category on craigslist, and voluntarily craigslist implemented these same measures there.” Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking: Hearings on H.R. 5575, Before the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security , 111 th Cong. 175 (2010) (testimony of Elizabeth McDougall). ^
• Brad Stone, “Under Pressure, Craigslist to Remove ‘Erotic’ Ads,” New York Times , May 13, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/14/technology/companies/14craigslist.html . ^
• Evan Hansen, “Censored! Craigslist Adult Services Blocked in U.S.,” Wired.com , September 4, 2010, https://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/09/censored-craigslist-adult-services-blocked-in-u-s/ . ^
• Melissa Gira Grant, “The Craigslist Sex Panic,” Slate, May 27, 2009, http://www.slate.com/id/2219167/ ; Alan Duke, “Official: Craigslist to replace ‘blatant Internet brothel’,” CNN , May 13, 2009, http://articles.cnn.com/2009-05-13/tech/craigslist.sex.ads_1_blatant-internet-brothel-craigslist-ceo-jim-buckmaster-blumenthal?_s=PM:TECH . “Misuse of Craigslist for criminal purposes is utterly unacceptable, and Craigslist will continue to work with its partners in law enforcement and at nongovernmental organizations until it is eliminated,” said Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster. Brad Stone, “Sex Ads Seen Adding Revenue to Craigslist,” New York Times , April 25, 2010,  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/26/technology/26craigslist.html?pagewanted=1 . ^
• Brad Stone, “Sex Ads Seen Adding Revenue to Craigslist,” New York Times, April 25, 2010, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/26/technology/26craigslist.html?pagewanted=1 . ^
• The Advocates for Human Rights, “Human Rights Organization Declines Craigslist Grant,” press release, May 4, 2010, http://www.theadvocatesforhumanrights.org/human_rights_organization_declines_craigslist_grant.html . ^
• Richard Blumenthal, Attorney General of Connecticut, et al., letter to Jim Buckmaster, CEO and Craig Newmark, Founder, Craigslist, RE: Adult Services Section of Craigslist, August 24, 2010, http://www.oag.state.va.us/Media%20and%20News%20Releases/News_Releases/Cuccinelli/Craigslist%20Sign%20On%20-%20FINAL.pdf . In an example of action pertaining to Backpage, a group of 45 state attorneys general sent a letter to Samuel Fifer, counsel for Backpage.com, “concerning the company’s facilitation of sexual exploitation of children, and prostitution.” The letter included a request for more information about the company’s policies and practices. George Jepson, Attorney General of Connecticut, et. al, letter to Samuel Fifer, counsel, Backpage.com, August 31, 2011, http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/239593/backpage-letter.pdf . ^
• The Associated Press, “Illinois Sheriff Sues Craigslist,” New York Times , March 5, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/06/us/06brfs-SHERIFFSUESC_BRF.html . ^
• Dart v. Craigslist, Inc. , 665 F. Supp. 2d 961 (N.D. Ill. 2009); Editorial, “A Win for Internet Speech,” The New York Times , October 26, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/27/opinion/27tue3.html?_r=2&th. In a more recent case brought against an online classified site for its alleged role in trafficking online, a 15-year-old sex trafficking victim sued Village Voice Media, claiming that §230 of the Communications Decency Act does not apply. Complaint for Damages, M.A. v. Village Voice Media Holdings, LLC. , Case 4:10-cv-01740 (E. Dist. Mo. Sept. 16, 2010).On August 15, 2011, U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas Mummert dismissed the case, stating, “Plaintiff artfully and eloquently attempts to phrase her allegations to avoid the reach of §230. Those allegations, however, do not distinguish the complained-of actions of Backpage from any other website that posted content that led to an innocent person’s injury. Congress has declared such websites to be immune from suits arising from such injuries. It is for Congress to change the policy that gave rise to such immunity.” M.A v. Village Voice Media Holdings, LLC., No. 4:2010cv01740, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 90588 (E. Dist. Mo. August 15, 2011), at *48-49. ^
• Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking: Hearings on H.R. 5575, Before the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security , 111 th Cong. (2010). On the eve of the hearing, 100 anti-trafficking organizations and experts sent a letter to Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist, and Jim Buckmaster, CEO of Craigslist, calling for the closure of the Adult Services sections of the site worldwide. Mark Logan, executive director, Polaris Project, letter to Craig Newmark and Jim Buckmaster, “Craigslist Must Complete the Job,” September 14, 2011, http://www.polarisproject.org/media-center/press-releases/307-craigslist-must-complete-the-job-september-14-2010 . ^
• That same month, Craigslist removed the adult sections in U.S. cities due to pressure by federal lawmakers, anti-trafficking groups, and the media. The section was first blocked on September 3, 2010 and replaced with a black label with the word “censored,” which was later removed. CNN Wire Staff, “Adult services censored on Craigslist,” CNN, September 4, 2010, http://articles.cnn.com/2010-09-04/justice/craigslist.censored_1_prostitution-ads-craigslist-ceo-jim-buckmaster-founder-craig-newmark?_s=PM:CRIME . ^
• Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking: Hearings on H.R. 5575, Before the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security , 111 th Cong. 10 (2010) (statement of Rep. Jackie Speier). ^
• Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking: Hearings on H.R. 5575, Before the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security , 111 th Cong. 169 (2010) (testimony of William Clinton Powell). ^
• Powell also stated, “Those who formerly posted ads in the adult services category will now have to advertise elsewhere, and in fact, there is evidence that this process began immediately.” Ibid . ^

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Towards a more evidence-informed approach to tackling human trafficking and exploitation

UCL’s world-leading Security and Crime Science (SCS) researchers are helping build a stronger evidence-base to assist policymakers, crime-prevention professionals and civil society.

28 April 2022

Research from UCL Security and Crime Sciences (SCS) has provided new evidence to improve responses to human trafficking and exploitation, tackling many myths that surround these complex crimes. 

The need for nuance 

Dr Ella Cockbain and Professor Kate Bowers analysed many thousands of cases of people trafficked in the UK (identified via the UK’s National Referral Mechanism system - the NRM). They found substantial and significant differences between key trafficking ‘types’ (sexual exploitation, domestic servitude and other labour exploitation), emphasising the need for more nuanced, disaggregated responses. 

Amid an overwhelming focus on sex trafficking, Dr Cockbain and Professor Bowers’ systematic review of the evidence base on labour trafficking in Europe identified fundamental knowledge gaps around this complex phenomenon and the effectiveness (or not) of responses to it.  

Elsewhere, Dr Cockbain conducted research with Barnardo’s and NatCen Social Research into sexual exploitation involving boys and young men in the UK. The UCL-led part of the study found that almost 1 in 3 of those affected were male and almost 1 in 5 from ethnic minority backgrounds: groups who are all too often overlooked amid the dominant focus on white female victims. Statistical analyses also showed major differences between male and female service-users, highlighting disparities in responses and the need for a more nuanced and inclusive approach.  

Challenging stereotypes & misinformation 

Dr Cockbain’s study of British trafficking for child sexual exploitation (CSE) (including now infamous cases in Rochdale, Derby and Telford) revealed the opportunity factors, social structures, and group dynamics involved in these crimes. Her work with Dr Waqas Tufail (Leeds Beckett University), delved deeper into ‘Muslim grooming gangs’ narrative associated with CSE and how it can undermine effective child protection. 

SCS research has shown that the ‘Asian/Muslim grooming gangs’ narrative around CSE is inaccurate and corrosive, decentring victims, and empowering racism and violence. Dr Cockbain has challenged stereotypes and misinformation through traditional news and social media, and prominent journalists, politicians and campaigners have recognised her efforts in counteracting these narratives. Testament to the courage involved, the work has also met with negative responses from far-right figures and groups who rely on these harmful narratives for recruitment and mobilisation. 

Informing policy and practice 

As co-chair of the UK’s Modern Slavery Strategy and Implementation Group (MSSIG), Dr Cockbain has introduced SCS findings to Government, devolved administrations, statutory agencies and NGOs. She has promoted more evidence-based working and encouraged the Home Office to produce more carefully-considered interventions and pay attention to potentially harmful consequences for already marginalised groups.  

Dr Cockbain’s contributions to inquiries into trafficking, labour abuse and child exploitation have helped to highlight the complexity and diversity of human trafficking and exploitation. Her knowledge of the ‘organised networks’ involved in CSE further helped to uncover institutional failings through the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. Meanwhile, the Home Office’s research into ‘group-based child sexual exploitation’ repeatedly highlighted SCS findings, including how social networks can facilitate abuse, the role of criminal opportunism, the diversity of victims, and the dangers of racialising abuse. 

Dr Cockbain’s work with Professor Bowers on human trafficking as identified through the UK’s NRM system saw her invited to offer advice on reforms to the NRM system and to national policing strategy and data collection. She is credited with contributing to markedly stronger policing data on ‘modern slavery’.  

SCS research on crime scripting of human trafficking/CSE led to the adoption of this practical technique, first in Devon & Cornwall and then across the UK. This development has in turn reportedly strengthened the police’s strategic and tactical responses, leading to harm reduction and both national and international police analysis awards.  

Research synopsis 

Towards a more evidence-informed approach to tackling human trafficking and exploitation 

There are major evidence gaps around many fundamental issues related to human trafficking and exploitation (aka ‘modern slavery’) and myths and misconceptions abound. UCL’s world-leading Security and Crime Science (SCS) researchers are changing this situation, helping build a stronger evidence-base to assist policymakers, crime-prevention professionals and civil society. Research collaborations with the National Crime Agency and others have helped to dispel myths and misinformation associated with ‘modern slavery’, paving the way for better professional practice and more informed policy, media coverage and public discourse.  

• Dr Ella Cockbain's academic profile  
• Professor Kate Bowers' academic profile  
• UCL Department of Security and Crime Sciences  
• UCL Faculty of Engineering Sciences  
• UCL Faculty of Engineering Sciences  REF 21
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India: From Darjeeling to Delhi - story of a young girl who was trafficked

MARG - Mankind in Action for Rural Growth is a non governmental organization based in Darjeeling, West Bengal. This region in the north-eastern part of India is vulnerable to human trafficking. Many young girls and women are trafficked to Delhi, Maharashtra, Haryana and Punjab for prostitution and forced marriages. West Bengal has also emerged as a hub for agents and traffickers sending women and children to the Middle East as forced labour. Lack of awareness, paucity of work opportunities and frequent natural disasters push women and children into the hands of traffickers.

Tina, too, was easily lured by a trafficker with false promises of work in a big city. Nirnay believes that Tina's case is one of the few success stories where law enforcement agencies, community organizations and civil society were able to rescue a girl that was trafficked. He says: " Today 21 people are behind bars in this case. However, we are not always this fortunate. In most cases by the time we are able to track the location of the girl, she has already been sold several times and we have lost all track of her."

Repatriation and reintegration of the survivor into the community is another huge challenge. Survivors are faced with stigma and are often not welcomed back into their own homes. In most cases they prefer not to go back to their villages. In Tina's case, too, she did not want to go back to her village and instead wanted to stay in Delhi and study.

Nirnay says: "Tina insisted on staying in Delhi and so we arranged for her to relocate to a state run shelter home in Delhi. She is now studying and her favourite subject is Maths. When I came down to Delhi last time, I met her. I asked her what she wanted to do when she grows up and she told me that she wanted to work with MARG. She said that she would never want any girl to go through what she had to."

The Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India has taken a number of measures to prevent and counter human trafficking in the country. These include the setting up of 225 specialized anti human trafficking units across the country, sensitization programmes for police and training of prosecutors. To know more about services available in India for victims of human trafficking, read UNODC's latest Country Assessment: Current Status of Victim Service Providers and Criminal Justice Actors in India on anti human trafficking.

* Names changed to protect identity.

Click here to know more about MARG

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The Case for Qualitative Designs in Human Trafficking Research

• First Online: 31 August 2023

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• Mary de Chesnay 3  

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This chapter describes the use of qualitative research designs and methods in expanding the knowledge base about human trafficking. An overview of the designs is presented, and the usual methods of data collection are described. Relevant disciplines were examined for recent theses and dissertations that relate to the topic. A few studies were selected for a brief description in order to give readers a sense of what is being studied in their own fields. Qualitative studies have merit on their own—that is, they are sufficient to tell a story without planning further study on the topic with that sample. Qualitative studies can also be the foundation for building theory. Human trafficking is such a complex phenomenon that both types of qualitative research are needed even as the search continues for best practices in prevention and intervention through quantitative designs.

• Phenomenology
• Ethnography
• Life history
• Grounded theory

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de Chesnay, M. (2023). The Case for Qualitative Designs in Human Trafficking Research. In: de Chesnay, M., Sabella, D. (eds) Human Trafficking: A Global Health Emergency. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-33875-5_29

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Here’s What to Know About the Sex Trafficking Case Against Jeffrey Epstein

J effrey Epstein, the wealthy financier previously convicted as a sex offender, was arrested July 6 on sex trafficking and conspiracy charges over allegations that he paid girls as young as 14 for sex and used them to recruit other young girls between 2002 and 2005.

A criminal indictment unsealed July 8 in Manhattan federal court claims Epstein sexually exploited dozens of minor girls starting in 2002. Epstein is said to have abused girls in his homes in both New York and Palm Beach, Fla. At both locations, Epstein recruited victims to give him “massages” that quickly turned sexual, prosecutors said. Epstein paid his victims hundreds of dollars in cash, according to the indictment.

Epstein, 66, allegedly sought out minors and was aware that many of his victims were under 18 because “in some instances, minor victims expressly told him their age,” prosecutors wrote.

“Moreover, and in order to maintain and increase his supply of victims, Epstein also paid certain of his victims to recruit additional girls to be similarly abused by Epstein,” prosecutors wrote in the indictment. “In this way, Epstein created a vast network of underage victims for him to sexually exploit in locations including New York and Palm Beach.”

Epstein pleaded not guilty to the charges of sex trafficking and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking on July 8. He faces a maximum prison sentence of 45 years if convicted.

“The alleged behavior shocks the conscience,” said Geoffrey Berman, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, during a press conference on July 8 in which he detailed the allegations against Epstein. The Public Corruption Unit of U.S. Attorney’s Office is handling the case, with assistance from the FBI and the human trafficking officials from the U.S. Attorney’s office.

The arrest comes as Epstein recently received increased scrutiny surrounding a lenient plea deal he struck in 2008 after being accused of sexually abusing underage girls that allowed him to avoid federal prosecution.

Here’s what to know about the sex crimes case against Epstein.

Who is Jeffrey Epstein?

After starting out as a math teacher at Dalton School in New York City, Epstein worked at investment bank Bear Stearns for six years until he opened his own firm, J. Epstein and Co., in 1982 to manage funds for very wealthy clients.

Epstein’s wealth and the source of his money became difficult to track after he opened his own firm. But it went far—Epstein owns properties in Palm Beach; Stanley, N.M. and Paris, along with a private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands, prosecutors said. And then there’s his $77 million New York City mansion, which is the largest townhouse in Manhattan, according to the New York Times . J. Epstein and Co.’s offered services to people with assets of more than $1 billion.

He has conducted his business from the island of St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands for tax reasons and has owned the island Little St. James for more than 20 years.

What are the new allegations against Epstein?

The Miami Herald , which in November published a deep investigative report into how Epstein avoided federal prosecution in 2008, reports that the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan was investigating Epstein for months prior to unsealing the indictment. According to the Herald , the indictment included new victims and witnesses who came forward in the last several months to speak with officials in New York.

Now, Epstein faces one count of sex trafficking and one count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking. The current case focuses on victims who were allegedly abused in his New York mansion and Palm Beach estate and looks at his allegedly predatory behavior over the four-year period between 2002 and 2005. An attorney for Epstein did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Prosecutors alleged in the indictment that Epstein would lure girls to both properties under the guise that they would provide him “massages,” that would “become increasingly sexual in nature.”

Epstein is accused of paying girls hundreds of dollars after the sexual encounters and creating a network where minors were always available to him by paying his victims to recruit other girls. According to the indictment, Epstein’s employees also scheduled the sexual encounters and recruited girls.

“This allowed Epstein to create an ever-expanding web of new victims,” Berman told reporters on July 8.

Federal agents recovered “nude photographs of what appeared to be underage girls” when they executed a search warrant at Epstein’s mansion in New York on July 6, Berman said.

On July 10, a woman not previously included in the indictments against Epstein, said he raped her when she was 15 in an interview with NBC’s Today show .

Jennifer Araoz, now 32, said a woman brought her to Epstein’s house several times when she was 14, where Epstein would pay her $300 after each visit, which involved general conversations about her life and what her goals were. Araoz said she eventually went to Epstein’s house on her own––and things changed. Like many other women who have accused Epstein of sexually abusing them, Araoz said he asked her to strip down to her underwear and give him massages.

In 2002, Araoz said, Epstein ordered her to remove her underwear and grabbed her. “He raped me, forcefully raped me,” she told Today . “He knew exactly what he was doing.”

On July 16, Brad Edwards, an attorney representing some of Epstein’s accusers, alleged that Epstein also had “improper sexual contact” with female visitors to his office during a previous 13-month jail sentence, when he was granted work-release privileges and allowed to work from his office during the day.

“He was in his office most of the day, and what I can tell you is he had visitors, female visitors,” Edwards said at a press conference on July 16. “I don’t know that any of them were underage. And the female visitors were there not for business and engaged in very similar conduct to that which was described in the Palm Beach police report. It was sexual in nature.”

An attorney for Epstein did not respond to TIME’s request for comment on the allegations from Araoz or Edwards.

Who are Epstein’s famous connections?

Epstein’s arrest has brought his many high-level connections into scrutiny. Epstein counts many famous figures in his social circle, including President Donald Trump—who once referred to him as a “terrific guy” — Prince Andrew and former President Bill Clinton, who took trips on his private jet.

Trump told New York magazine in 2002 that Epstein was “a lot of fun to be with.”

“It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side,” he said.

On July 17, NBC News’ TODAY released newly unearthed video footage from 1992 that shows Trump welcoming Epstein into his Mar-a-Lago estate. The two men laugh and point as they appear to discuss the women dancing in front of them at a party. In another clip, Trump is shown dancing with several women — at one point, grabbing a woman by the waist, pulling her toward him and patting her buttocks.

Video dating back more than 25 years gives us a look at the relationship between President Trump and accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. The clip shows both of them together at a party in 1992, @stephgosk reports. pic.twitter.com/6Jm8ii2Rj9 — TODAY (@TODAYshow) July 17, 2019

Trump and Clinton have defended themselves since the new allegations against Epstein broke—and denied knowing anything about his crimes.

“I had a falling out with him a long time ago,” Trump told reporters on July 9. He described Epstein as a “fixture of Palm Beach.” “I don’t think I’ve spoken to him for 15 years. I was not a fan of his.”

Clinton, who praised Epstein as a “committed philanthropist” through a spokesperson in the 2002 New York story, denied knowing anything about his criminal behavior in a statement on July 8.

Clinton “knows nothing about the terrible crimes Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty to in Florida some years ago, or those with which he has been recently charged in New York,” spokesperson Angel Ureña said in a statement. Ureña said Clinton took four trips on Epstein’s private jet, including one to Europe, one to Asia and two to Africa.

Statement on Jeffrey Epstein. pic.twitter.com/98ha9YYd1l — Angel Ureña (@angelurena) July 8, 2019

Epstein also reportedly has links to Prince Andrew, Queen Elizabeth’s second-oldest son, and the two have been previously photographed together. A royal spokesperson did not immediately return TIME’s request for comment on their connection.

The spotlight is also falling on Les Wexner, head of L Brands corporation, which is the parent company of Victoria’s Secret. Epstein’s money management firm handled Wexner’s finances for years, and the two built a close relationship, Bloomberg reports . A spokesperson for Wexner told TIME that he severed ties with Epstein nearly 12 years ago.

Trump’s former Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta has also come under scrutiny for the way he handled Epstein’s plea deal negotiations as the U.S. Attorney in South Florida in 2008. Acosta resigned as Labor Secretary on July 12, following calls from top Democrats for him to step down after Epstein was arrested.

Acosta defended himself in a news conference on July 10, saying that his office took over the case after the Palm Beach state attorney’s office “was ready to let Epstein walk free.” The day before, he issued tweets calling the crimes Epstein is accused of “horrific.”

“No jail time, nothing,” he said of the state attorney’s office. “Prosecutors in my former office found this to be completely unacceptable, and they became involved.”

Acosta said his office decided to reach an agreement with Epstein in the hopes of avoiding trial, which he said would be a “roll of the dice.”

“The goal here was straightforward. Put Epstein behind bars, ensure he was registered as a sexual offender, provide victims with the means to seek restitution, and protect the public by putting them on notice that a sexual predator was in their midst,” Acosta told reporters.

But critics cited the Herald report that authorities had compiled a 53-page indictment that laid out allegations that could have resulted in a lengthy prison term.

Epstein says he’s not a billionaire

In a single-page financial disclosure filed by Epstein’s lawyers on July 15, the money manager said he is not a billionaire, despite widespread reports to the contrary.

But he’s still very wealthy. Epstein’s net worth is more than $559 million, according to the disclosure made to Federal District Judge Richard M. Berman. In court, Berman cautioned that the disclosure was unverified and unaudited.

As of June 30, 2019, Epstein has about $56 million in cash and about $14 million in bonds. Epstein’s stocks are worth about $112 million and he has about $195 million in hedge funds and private equity, according to the disclosure document.

Epstein’s properties, which span from New Mexico to France, are also listed in the document. While prosecutors have said his New York City mansion is valued at $77 million, the property’s estimated worth is around $55 million, according to the Epstein’s filing, which says values come from a June 1, 2019 property tax bill. Epstein’s property in Palm Beach is worth about $12 million.

His remaining properties are valued as follows: $17 million for a New Mexico ranch, $8 million for a property near the Arc de Triomphe in Paris and $85 million for property in the U.S. Virgin Islands––which reportedly includes the entirety of Little St. James Island.

Will Epstein make bail?

U.S. District Judge Richard Berman said he needed more time to decide whether Epstein would be granted bail during a hearing on July 15.

At the bail hearing, prosecutors argued that Epstein should remain in jail until he’s tried on the charges that he sexually abused dozens of underage girls, saying that he is a flight risk and a threat to his accusers.

In addition, prosecutors said that investigators who raided Epstein’s New York mansion discovered an expired passport with his photograph and a fake name, along with “piles of cash” and “dozens of diamonds,” according to the Associated Press .

Two women who said they were abused by Epstein testified at the hearing, urging the judge not to grant him bail, warning that he is a safety risk. One of those women, Courtney Wild, who accused Epstein of sexually abusing her when she was 14, also spoke during Edwards’ press conference on July 16.

“If you’re a victim of Jeffrey Epstein, then you know what I know: He will never stop sexually abusing children until he’s in jail,” she said. “As long as the victims speak up, he isn’t going to get away this time.”

Last week, prosecutors told Berman that several more women had come forward to claim that Epstein abused them when they were underage. Prosecutors also said Epstein had paid two people, including one former employee, a sum of $350,000 in what they believe to be an attempt to influence them. The payments came in the last year, they said.

Attorneys for Epstein said their client should be allowed to remain at his Manhattan residence while awaiting trail, under electronic monitoring, at the bail hearing. They argued Epstein had not committed further crimes since he made his guilty plea in 2008 and said they would file a motion to dismiss the case.

Berman said he would likely announce his decision on Epstein’s bail on July 18.

When was Epstein first accused of sexual misconduct?

Epstein was first accused of sexual misconduct in 2005, when a woman told Palm Beach police that she believed he had molested her 14-year-old stepdaughter, according to a 2007 New York magazine report . The girl’s story was similar to allegations that would later pour out against Epstein—she told police that she was recruited to give Epstein a massage and that he sexually abused her during that encounter. In April of 2005, police began a probe at Epstein’s home and found a telephone message for Epstein with the girl’s name on it. They also found other names and phone numbers of other girls in Epstein’s trash.

Over the next year, police tried to bring charges of multiple counts of unlawful sex acts with a minor against Epstein and two of his assistants, according to a Miami Herald timeline of Epstein’s case. The state attorney for Palm Beach, Barry Krischer, referred the case to a grand jury, the Herald reports. In July of 2006, the FBI began a federal investigation into Epstein and started interviewing potential victims and witnesses that November.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office wrote a 53-page indictment in 2007, while Epstein’s legal team negotiated a plea deal.

How did Epstein strike a plea deal in 2008?

Epstein’s arrest comes a little more than a decade after he struck a plea deal that allowed him to plead guilty to lesser state charges after he was accused of sexually abusing dozens of girls at his Palm Beach home.

By avoiding federal prosecution, Epstein was sentenced to just 18 months in prison after he pled guilty on two counts of soliciting prostitution from a minor. Of that sentence, Epstein served only 13 months and was allowed to spend six days a week at an office for 12 hours a day under a work-release privilege. He was also required to register as a sex offender and reach financial settlements with the dozens of victims who came forward in the case.

The now-infamous deal was overseen by Alexander Acosta, Trump’s former Secretary of Labor, whose actions on the case were detailed in a Miami Herald series last year. Earlier this year, U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra of Florida said he is considering invalidating the deal, noting that Epstein’s victims should have been consulted about it under federal law. Acosta resigned from his post on July 12, amid criticism over his handling of Epstein’s case.

Because Epstein’s prior guilty plea involved state crimes, the current case can avoid double jeopardy because it involves federal crimes, the Associated Press reports . Epstein’s lawyers argued in court that the new charges would involve allegations that were brought up in the Florida case.

Acosta, who has been criticized for how he handled the case, has defended himself, saying the plea deal was appropriate at the time. The White House said earlier this year that it would look into how he oversaw the deal.

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Assisting Survivors of Human Trafficking: Multicultural Case Studies

 Author: Laura Shipler Chico

 Year Published: 2017

 Link to Resource:

This book uses fictional case vignettes  based on true stories and on real dilemmas faced in the field. They highlight the obstacles to successfully identifying victims and getting to the truth in interviews. They illustrate the hidden reasons many victims stay in abusive situations, though their chains might not be tangible or easily understood by an outsider. The case studies explore the pitfalls and challenges to designing and implementing culturally competent interventions that do not re-victimize or re-traumatize survivors. They grapple with the additional challenges of working through an interpreter and collaborating effectively across sectors to prosecute traffickers and protect victims.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL REPORT