"Victims have undergone extremely traumatic
physical, emotional and sexual abuse and manipulation.
Traffickers take time to get to know their victims, so the
process of manipulating them is seamless and hard to understand."
Challenges
The level of treatment for victims requires a highly coordinated multidisciplinary approach including doctors, case managers, social workers and therapists, among others. As a result, it is not usually possible for rescued DMST victims to successfully return directly home to family without transitional treatment and transformational treatment. Lack of facilities has resulted in many rescued victims being kept in jails or in lock-down juvenile facilities without treatment. Without treatment to address the complex issues and prepare them to return home, often they will run away or escape and return back to the world of trafficking.
Lacking Basic Needs
| Medical Conditions
| Psychological Conditions
|
Symptoms
Difficulty falling or staying asleep
Irritability
Depression and Hopelessness
Substance Abuse
Suicidal Thoughts and Feelings
Flashbacks
Feeling emotionally numb
Anger Outbursts
Intrusive, upsetting memories of traumatic events
Co-morbid Disorders
The following disorders have been noted to often precede, follow, or emerge concurrently with PTSD*:
- Major Depressive Disorder
- Substance Related Disorders
- Panic Disorder
- Agoraphobia
- Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
- Generalized Anxiety Disorder
- Social Phobia
- Specific Phobia
- Bipolar Disorder
*Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
Victims have undergone extremely traumatic physical, emotional and sexual abuse and manipulation. Traffickers take time to get to know their victims, so that the process of manipulating them is seamless and hard to understand. Victims often don't understand the extent to which this is happening until it is too late and they have no choice but to comply. Paired with the dismal conditions in which they've been living, victims can experience severe PTSD or DESNOS — “Disorders of Extreme Stress Not Otherwise Specified”
Symtpoms of PTSD and DESNOS include but are not limited to:
Anger Outbursts
Irritability
Depression and Hopelessness
Suicidal Thoughts and Feelings
Substance Abuse
Intrusive, upsetting memories of traumatic event
Flashbacks
Feeling emotionally numb
Difficulty falling or staying asleep
Sources:
The National Report On Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking: America's Prostituted Children
Linda A. Smith, Samantha Healy Vardaman, Melissa Snow of Shared Hope International
Chapter 5: Identification of Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Victims and Trauma Bonds (PDF Link)
Dina Smith, Director of Programs, SAGE Project; San Francisco, CA
"Case Management of Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Victims" from the 2011 South Texas Anti-Trafficking Conference March 1, 2011
There are only 300 treatment beds in the U.S. with the care required to adequately treat victims. We've already said that Victims come in the form of:
- Runaways,
- Throwaways and
- Abused Children*
*A Huge Portion of Abused children are in the Foster Care System, including
Foster Home
Residential Facilities
Shelters
Relative Placements
The Transition Process
The transition process includes removing the victim from a trafficking lifecycle into a non-trafficked lifestyle. This process can be especially difficult not only because of the trauma they have experienced, but also because their levels of normalcy are different compared to a non-trafficked person. One girl told of how being sold for sex was the norm and something she tolerated, however, when it came to being hit by her trafficker that was where she drew the line.
Other victims who are being trafficked are often used to living without a parent’s rules, so once they are rescued and sent back home, it’s hard for them to adjust to the rules set by their parents. Traffickers will manipulate and deceive their victims into thinking they love them, so despite the fact that they are being controlled by their trafficker, the victim will see their control as love and affection and wanting to care for them, while on the opposite side they see their parent’s “control” as unloving and mean.
This is why it is so important to provide treatment to the victim in order to ensure that they are successfully able to recover from from the trauma they experienced, as well as successfully transition them from the life of trafficking to a non-trafficked lifecycle.
Treatment
Our ultimate goal is to be a catalyst in the development of a facility to provide safe shelter and restoration for victims of DMST, (under-age American victims of sex-trafficking.) Currently one of the most pressing gaps in dealing with the aftermath of this crime is available facilities with staff trained and dedicated to serving this specific kind of victim.
"Current data suggests that on average, it takes five to seven years from start to open the doors for this type of specialized facility for victims of human trafficking. Organizations seeking to open this kind of specialized care facility find many unique challenges and dilemmas which must be overcome."
Everything we have learned about Human Trafficking in America is this issue cannot be solved exclusively by local thinking. Human Traffickers are nomadic. They move around the nation frequently to avoid detection and prosecution. A national macro strategy needs to be developed which can be integrated into state and local strategies to mitigate this complex issue.
“If you were to ask 100 rescued victims of child sex-trafficking where they see themselves in 10 years, just about all of them would say they won't be alive then. Sadly, the average victim of child sex-trafficking is an American girl aged 12 to 14 with an average lifespan, after enslavement, of 7 years.
Source: info taken from FYP website
Up to 98 percent of Victims are in need of Basic Amenities for Survival The National Institute of Justice reported that 96-98% of domestic minor sex trafficking victims are in need of basic shelter.Though many states have implemented legislative changes, there is still a lot to be done to better understand victim needs in terms of shelter and after care. Shared Hope International States: “Victims of domestic minor sex trafficking are frequently processed as juvenile delinquents or adult prostitutes. Prostituted juveniles are trained by their trafficker/pimp to lie to authorities and are provided with excellent fraudulent identification resulting in their registration in the arrest records as an adult… Due to the unique trauma bonding that occurs between a victim and her trafficker, these children often run from juvenile facilities right back to the person that exploited them.” Source: Family Research Council (Link) |
Health Care Workers are Front-Line in Early Detection of Human Trafficking Victims Human Traffickers are nomadic and move frequently around the nation. Minors who are trafficked frequently suffer with injuries from violence and abuse. They also have a high rate of sexually transmitted disease and other issues. Most commonly, they would be taken to an emergency medical clinic. It is important for health care providers to recognize the signs that lead to identification of victims. The Human Trafficking Summit included a series of 4 discussion panels, including doctors, nurses, law enforcement, social services and other experts in the health care field. In addition, a human trafficking survivor, Linda*, bravely shared her story of being trafficked starting at the age of 6, though it was difficult to recount many of the details. Linda’s mother, who was the adult trafficking her, arranged for Linda to be married at age 13 to another Trafficker. She gave birth to 2 children before the age 15. Linda related to us that as a child, she was too scared to speak up, but was always hoping someone would question her situation and recognize the signs. There were many missed opportunities to question her unusual health care needs. She was taken to clinics during multiple pregnancies beginning at age 11. She also noted that her last time in school was the 6th grade. As a child being trafficked around the country she felt abandoned and always wondered whyschool officials never came looking for her. Linda felt she had several clear signs that should have been recognized as "red-flags" by a healthcare and law enforcement professionals in the position to rescue her from her traumatized life. She emphasized the importance of listening to victims and their stories when given a chance, and asking them questions that might get them to open up about their experience. Many panelists recounted how often health care professionals recognize "red-flags" but have concerns if some questions might be considered off-limits' and violation of privacy for a young patient. Professor Patricia Crane of the UT Medical Branch in Galveston pointed out that any question which can impact the type of referral, treatment plan or discharge plan is not only relevant but absolutely necessary. This applies to social workers, case managers and health care providers. One of the most important things we can do to combat human trafficking in the United States is spread awareness among those that have the power to help. Statistics show that 1 in 3 domestic minor victims of human trafficking will come into contact with a health care worker. Including health care workers in the fight against trafficking is a very positive strategy because they are in a position to notify law enforcement while a child is in their custody. Finding new ways to identify victims is an important part of combating this crime. Currently, less than one-half of one percent of victims of child sex-trafficking are rescued according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Training health care professionals to be front line identifiers is a major positive step. Source: Leticia Van De Putte (Link) San Antonio KSAT 12 News (Link) |
Victims of Child Sex-Trafficking are Typically Arrested Instead of Rescued There are so many things wrong with the crime of Child Sex-Trafficking. American girls in the U.S. are typically victimized and enslaved into Sex-Trafficking at age 12 to 14, have a life expectancy of 7 years. But, what happens when these children are recovered is a sad state of our current system of laws, and victim services. The U.S. is a nation with about 300,000 victims per year of this crime, and there are less than 300 beds in the entire nation with treatment for these victims. Victims, when rescued, have many complex and interconnected problems such as brain washing, Stockholm Syndrome, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Anxiety Disorders, STD’s, and a multitude of other medical, nutritional and behavioral issues. The level of treatment requires a highly coordinated multidisciplinary approach which includes doctors, nurses, case managers social workers, and therapists among others. Most victims have a high degree of flight risk to return back to their pimp. They are not capable of returning home without months, sometimes years of treatment, therapy to address the self-destructive pattern that has been ingrained in them.Because treatment facilities don't exist, often rescue means incarceration without treatment. Because some states laws have not yet been modified to recognize them as a victim, many are prosecuted for prostitution. Source: The Daily Beast (Link) |
Learn About Trafficking Issues in America "American
children are being forced and manipulated into Human Trafficking at an
alarming rate. The U.S. Dept. of Justice estimates our nation has over
100,000 new victims each year which targets
children from all socio-economic backgrounds as young as 9 yrs old.
This crime occurs all over our nation in both large urban areas and
small rural areas. Minors are coerced, mostly through violence, to work
in child pornography, strip clubs and brothels by The
aftermath of this crime leaves behind a trail of victims with severe
trauma and a host of psychological and medical issues. These issues
make it impossible to return a victim back to their home without
treatment. Most are brainwashed, have multiple chemical and behavioral Source: Freedom Youth Project (Link) |
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