Why Don’t Human Trafficking Victims Just Leave?

Afia, originally from New Jersey, is a rising second-year student at Bowdoin College in Maine. She is currently undeclared, but interested in pursuing an Asian Studies and Government and Legal Studies double major. As a Japanese language student and a budding writer, Afia is no stranger to the power of words, so she is interested in using them to communicate and educate people on important issues. Some of Afia’s favorite hobbies include cooking (especially oatmeal), watching anime, listening to music, and watching random shows on Youtube.

A common misconception about human trafficking is that victims are always chained or tied up to keep them from escaping. This misconception, stemming from Hollywood’s often dramatized depictions of human trafficking, is a misrepresentation of real human trafficking, in which physical restraint is extremely rare.

So, if human trafficking victims are not physically trapped, why don’t they leave? Such a question, at its nature, is seemingly unsuspecting, as we might think it is human nature (or even a survival instinct) to remove oneself from a dangerous situation.

In order to understand how difficult it is for victims of human trafficking to run away or seek help, we must evaluate the most common internal and external pressures and factors that victims face. These factors can often be so intense that they paralyze victims from speaking up.

Misconceptions and Misunderstandings:

Thanks to false portrayals of human trafficking by the news and entertainment industry, many people do not realize that they are victims of human trafficking. Kimberly Bitz, a survivor who was trafficked by her boyfriend, commented in an interview with Stop Modern Day Slavery, “I think a lot of people have misconceptions when it comes to human trafficking. I’m sure we have all seen the movie Taken, where the father comes after the men who had taken his daughter while she was traveling with her friend. And while this situation does happen, most of the time, it looks completely different. I used to think that, in order to be trafficked, it had to look like I was kidnapped. But that wasn’t my story at all. I was in a relationship.”

Rebecca, another survivor of human trafficking, told Stop Modern Day Slavery, “The strange part of this event in my life is from that point on, I thought I engaged in prostitution. I considered myself a prostitute, and it fiercely and mercilessly attacked my self-worth and any value I held towards myself… It wasn’t until I was in my early 40s after a suicide attempt that I was told by my therapist that what I experienced was not prostitution. It was the first time I heard the phrase “‘sex trafficking.’”

Belief that Trafficking Must Involve Violence and Physical Abuse:

While human trafficking can indeed involve violence, it is more commonplace for traffickers to resort to fraud or coercion through psychological acts of “tricking, defrauding, manipulating or threatening.” With such a narrow view shown of the extent to which human trafficking occurs, it is no surprise that many victims do not leave or speak out since they have been socially conditioned to think that they are not victims if they have not been kidnapped or violently abused.

Gender and Sexuality Norms:

Society’s gender norms and views on sexuality further complicate which victims do or do not speak up. There is a common belief that only girls and women, not boys and men, can be sex trafficked.

According to Covenant House Toronto, “Gender stereotypes tell us ‘real men’ are supposed to be strong, and being a victim implies that one is weak… Males may experience denial and shame in identifying as a victim and reaching out for help.”

While worldwide, it is estimated that 75% of human trafficking victims are female, a 2016 study commissioned by the Department of Justice found that boys make up about 36 percent of children trafficked for sex in the United States. Another study by the National Coalition for the Homeless has revealed that 58.7 percent of LGBTQ+ homeless youth experience sexual exploitation—a percentage much higher than the 33.4 percent of non-LGBTQ+ homeless youth who are sexually exploited. Many men and boys who are sex trafficked do not speak up for fear of being perceived as gay or weak.

ECPAT-USA noted that it is often difficult to identify male victims due to the “lack of screening and intake by law enforcement and social services agencies rooted in the belief that boys are not victims of CSE [Commercial Sexual Exploitation].” For example, Jose Alfaro, sex trafficking survivor, explains in his interview with Stop Modern Day Slavery that “The police came to [my 36-year-old trafficker’s] apartment and not once asked for my ID or my age. [My trafficker] and I looked very different in age and race. The signs were always there; people never asked because they knew I was gay and turned a blind eye.”

The lack of screenings is also a problem that women face as well, as, according to Jessica Emerson, Esq., Director of the Human Trafficking Prevention Project at the University of Baltimore School of Law, “screening procedures vary significantly based on the specific state or police department…[some] law enforcement agencies who screen effectively, [some] law enforcement agencies who screen ineffectively, and [some] law enforcement agencies that don’t screen.” To compound this, when victims do ask for help, they are sometimes met with “difference or disdain, interrogation-style interviews, and even a complete failure to inquire if they have been victims of trafficking,” from workers in the justice system.

Lack of Education on Labor Trafficking:

Another popular myth that the media has construed is the idea that all human trafficking is solely sex-based and involves physical violence. This could not be farther from the truth, as bonded labor, forced labor, and child labor trafficking are actually more prevalent than sex trafficking: “17% of trafficking survivors in the world have been trafficked for sexual exploitation, while 74% have been trafficked for forced labor and services.” A victim being trafficked for labor might not think they are being trafficked since they are not experiencing any sexual exploitation, and therefore might not reach out for help.

Need for Survival:

Many victims of human trafficking rely on their traffickers for access to basic necessities, such as a place to live or access to food and water. While there are shelters for survivors of human trafficking and abuse, victims might not know they exist. In some cases, a survivor might get turned away from a shelter if it is full and be forced to return to their trafficker.

Government Policies on Human Trafficking:

Many human trafficking survivors have revealed that government policies on human trafficking played a key role in whether or not to ask for help. Many victims believe that they will not receive criminal record relief from any crimes that their traffickers forced them to commit— a policy that varies from state to state. Without criminal record relief, survivors face challenges reintegrating into society, namely through housing and employment restrictions.

For women especially, there is a great worry that they will be charged with prostitution, since society often wrongly misconstrues sex trafficking with prostitution.

Psychological Restraints:

In order to discuss the internal factors that prohibit a victim from leaving their human trafficker, Now, we must understand that human trafficking “…is achieved through…fraud,” which can be defined as “broken promise[s] to “a better life, a safe place to live, or a loving relationship with a new girlfriend or boyfriend.” Fraud lays the foundation for a trauma bond, more commonly known as Stockholm syndrome.

Often, the aforesaid promises are made to those who already have emotional and mental struggles or who have experienced physical or sexual abuse. Youth, including runaways and homeless members of the LGBTQ+ community, are at a high risk for being trafficked and being trapped within vicious cycles of financial instability, since they see their trafficker as the provider of a home and other basic needs. Chris Bates says that when he was being trafficked, he thought that his traffickers were his friends, since they “offered friendship, transportation, and a sense of security.” Jose similarly attests to the fact that traffickers are skilled manipulators, “[My trafficker] began grooming me by offering me money, a home, and schooling. He knew exactly what to say to get me to go with him, based on what I needed. I was mentally trapped. I had nowhere else to go, and he knew this.”

By providing the service of being a “protector” and providing a victim with rewards (wants and needs) as well as punishments, victims may bond strongly, emotionally, or even romantically, to their traffickers. At this biological level, this is no surprise, as this attachment occurs due to the fact that our brain’s “logic center” shuts down when we experience trauma. With these instances of trauma repeatedly occurring over a period of time, victims “becom[e] numb and disconnected from themselves.” Unfortunately, it gets to a point that victims crave the “intensity,familiarity, and routine,” provided by their traffickers. The perpetrators also pair fraud and its associated trauma with coercion, which includes threats to a victim’s survival, the livelihood of a victim’s family, as well as purposeful isolation, threatening, and exhaustion of the victim. This is what pushes them to interpret traffickers’ actions as “helpful” or “kind,” which further attaches them to the perpetrator.

External and internal factors that affect a victim’s ability “to just leave” human trafficking are not separate; they are very intertwined. Even for the victims who are able to leave trafficking, there are aftereffects, the most pressing being that “[their] feelings of love remained,” and “love is why [they] do not prosecute traffickers.” This proves that even after leaving, human trafficking impacts victims so greatly that the emotional and mental impacts of what they experienced have not left their psyches.