Why is it Hard to Recognize Human Trafficking?

How to Recognize Human Trafficking- Be Aware
Recognizing someone who is being trafficked is hard. Why? Because it is happening everywhere, right under your nose. In Kansas, the symbol for a trafficking victim is a cloverleaf.  Like cloverleafs, they can be found if one knows what to look for. The first step is to be aware, to look at everyone around you in literally every setting. Because victims are everywhere.  Grocery stores, schools, coffee shops, gas stations. They are daughters, moms, sisters, aunts, even grandmas. They are hidden in plain sight.

How to Recognize Victims 
Some of the trafficking survivors who have come through Homestead have been obvious ones.  Girls who have aged out of foster care. Women who dance in clubs. Women in poverty who are at high risk. Those who have low self esteem, are vulnerable, who have had hard upbringings.  Those who experienced sexual abuse and other childhood trauma. These follow the statistics of those who are at risk for trafficking. But many of the women have not fit into traditional or statistical norms for those at risk for trafficking. Many were regular moms, wives, middle class members of society, church attenders, soccer moms. Some started with an addiction that led them to the streets. Some started with an online relationship. Some were trafficked by a boyfriend.



How Human Trafficking Happens
Some women find themselves in human trafficking in less obvious ways and it can happen in all demographics and any neighborhood.

• Nelly was a model student, in the orchestra, good grades, and a supportive family.  Her unresolved pain led her into a rebellious crowd. Her body was traded for a drug debt her boyfriend owed.  She started using drugs then broke the law.
• Anna was in a domestic violence situation with her children’s father.  He abused her then invited his friends to do so also. And to rape her. She fled to the streets the prostituted to survive.
• Lisa fled to the streets in shame from her addiction to alcohol.  There she was introduced to drugs. Prostitution was how she survived and a result of her shame cycle.  
• Cara started stealing from a convenience store to feed her children after moving to another state where she knew no one.  She learned of a strip club down the street so started dancing.  She could make $50 a night stripping or $400 turning tricks.  
• Amanda suffered from postpartum depression which led to self medicating through alcohol and meaningless sex. This led to addiction to sex and drugs which led to harder drugs.  She turned tricks to meet the addiction, all while hiding it from her husband
• Effie fell into drugs in her own home after being introduced to them by a friend.  She learned about escorting on the internet. She dressed up and went out with her “friends” that were really “dates”, hiding the truth from her family the whole time.  
• Tonya participated in phone and internet sex from Craig’s list never actually meeting in person with her traffickers.  
• 13 year old Katelyn found an app on her phone where she could meet men who paid attention to her and bought her things. Slowly, they groomed her into sex trafficking. 
  
  

You may have noticed that none of the above stories involved a girl or woman being kidnapped by someone she didn’t know and taken to a foreign country and sold for slave acts. That’s what many people have thought human trafficking- sex trafficking- involves. But it’s more complicated than that and understanding can help shine a light on these situations, recognize when it may be happening, and allow you to help stop it.



What to do if You Think Someone Might be a Victim of Human Trafficking

If you have information about a trafficking situation, here are some tips from the National Human Trafficking Hotline:

• Call the National Human Trafficking Hotline toll-free hotline at 1-888-373-7888: Anti-Trafficking Hotline Advocates are available 24/7 to take reports of potential human trafficking. 
• Text the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 233733. Message and data rates may apply.
• Chat the National Human Trafficking Hotline: www.humantraffickinghotline.org/chat
• Submit a tip online through the anonymous online reporting form below. However, please note that if the situation is urgent or occurred within the last 24 hours we would encourage you to call, text or chat.

The information you provide will be reviewed by the Trafficking Hotline. All reports are confidential and you may remain anonymous. Interpreters are available via phone call only. Learn more about the Hotline's approach and policies regarding reporting trafficking situations to law enforcement.

Report missing children or child pornography to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) at 1-800-THE-LOST (843-5678) or through their Cybertipline.



Fight Human Trafficking with The Homestead
Join us in the fight against human trafficking simply by subscribing to our emails. 

Read more here: 

• What is Sex Trafficking? 
• How The Homestead Helps Women by Providing Residential Transitional Care