Human Trafficking and Sex Work

Abstract

For over a decade, at three different agencies, I have practiced social work and case-management with survivors of human trafficking and sex workers. The first agency was a substance-abuse clinic for women in the Bronx where a number of clients were sex workers. The second was an immigrant services agency where I started one of the first human-trafficking service programs in the nation. My current position is at the Sex Workers Project of the Urban Justice Center (SWP), the only legal and social services program in the United States dedicated to those working in the sex industry, whether their involvement is coerced via trafficking, circumstantial, or chosen. SWP works with approximately 200 clients annually. Over half of them meet the legal definition of human trafficking. Clients are both United States and foreign born, youth and adults, and are widely diverse demographically. I will use the word “counselor” to denote anyone providing direct services and “client” to signify the person seeking services. I’m going to use the pronoun “she” throughout; however, clients seeking services are of all genders. Since we have been fortunate to be at the forefront of an emerging field of social work, my colleagues and I have been thoughtful about how to develop best practices in the field and have tried a variety of outreach methods, treatment tools, and overall approaches. We have found that a