Trafficking Survivors Research Articles

Implementation Challenges of T Visa Eligibility for Human Trafficking Survivors: A Role for Social Work.

The passage of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA) and subsequent creation of a residency process for nonresident survivors of human trafficking (the T Visa) are notable milestones in the United States' effort to address the problem of human trafficking and provide essential supports to trafficking survivors. However, current implementation of the statute's eligibility criteria for accessing entitlements and protections contributes to a potential for retraumatization, further traumatization, and other continued harms to survivors. The present article explores the structural and conceptual limitations of current T Visa policy and of recent annual policy guidance materials as important contributors to these policy implementation problems. Resulting problems are identified as an ambiguity of definitions and thresholds, a narrow conceptualization of victimhood, and the contradictory relationship between protection and prosecution. This article then utilizes a trauma-informed social policy framework to identify multisystemic action steps for social workers to address these limitations and improve the T Visa process for trafficking survivors. These actions steps provide an essential road map for closing the gap between the policy goals of the TVPA and its current implementation.

The Haven Clinic: The Planning and Implementation of a Medical Home for Child Trafficking Survivors.

The authors describe the planning and implementation of a survivor-informed medical home for child trafficking survivors. Key partnerships necessary for establishing clinical infrastructure are highlighted. The trauma-informed clinical practices are described in detail. An overview of next steps for evaluation of this clinical program is provided.

‘No Income, Temporary Visa, and Too Many Triggers’: Barriers in accommodating survivors of human trafficking and slavery in Australia

Access to stable housing has a significant effect on the wellbeing of survivors of human trafficking and modern slavery. Safe and sustainable accommodation provides a crucial foundation for survivors beginning their recovery; however, it is often very difficult to source for support services assisting them. This paper presents the findings of research that analysed the eligibility, suitability, availability, and accessibility of short-term accommodation and long-term housing options to better understand the barriers to accommodating survivors in Australia. It demonstrates that survivors were not eligible for many options due to their immigration status or lack of income. Within the limited options, there is a shortage of suitable accommodation due to the absence of survivor-specific services, and due to rules and requirements imposed by accommodation providers that are not supportive of survivors’ unique needs. These include restrictions on survivors’ freedom of movement, on the use of alcohol and other drugs, and on accommodating men, children, and extended family, as well as requirements related to engaging in activities. These barriers negatively impact survivors’ recovery and may lead to homelessness whilst increasing the risk of re-trafficking or other harm. Collaboration and coordination between actors within anti-slavery and housing policy spheres is urgently required to mitigate these barriers and prevent such harms.

Rescue, Rehabilitation and Reintegration of female survivors of human trafficking in Northern Tanzania

Rescue, Rehabilitation and Reintegration of female survivors of human trafficking in Northern Tanzania

“I Needed People to Tell Me No:” Exploring How Participation in a Human Trafficking Specialty Docket Affects Survivors’ of Sex Trafficking Experiences of Trauma Bonding

Little research has examined survivors’ experiences in human trafficking specialty docket courts, particularly related to their trauma bonds. This CBPR phenomenological study sought to fill this gaps by asking: What are the experiences of trauma bonded survivors of sex trafficking in a human trafficking specialty docket? The sample consisted of 19 female survivors of sex trafficking who were all participants in or graduates of a human trafficking specialty docket. Three themes emerged from the data: (a) love and support, (b) views on change, and (c) depends on the individual. These findings contain significant implications for practice and future research.

Survivors of Commercial Sexual Exploitation Involved in the Justice System: Mental Health Outcomes, HIV/STI Risks, and Perceived Needs to Exit Exploitation and Facilitate Recovery

This exploratory retrospective study analyzes the emotional and mental processes, risk behavior for HIV/STIs, and needed services to exit commercial sexual exploitation. Participants were court-referred to the local survivor-led program, Freedom from Exploitation, in southern California. Data were collected (N = 168) using an intake assessment form for a period of five years (2015–2020). Two groups were identified in the data, self-identified survivors of sex trafficking (SST) and non-self-identified survivors of sex trafficking (NSST). Bivariate and multivariate logistic regressions examined the associations of HIV/STI risks and emotional and mental processes with these two subgroups. Findings demonstrated that both groups experienced gender-based violence and similar emotional and mental processes as well as HIV/STIs risks. However, in adjusted models, the SST group had three times the odds of experiencing abuse by a sex buyer when asked to use a condom and eight times the odds of feeling hopeless or desperate and experiencing nightmares/flashbacks among other negative mental health outcomes. Both SST and NSST said they needed assistance to obtain legal services and complete a high school equivalency credential, among other services. Findings may be used by social service and law enforcement agencies to better assist survivors of sex trafficking and similar groups in supporting their rehabilitation and protection.

Addressing a Gap in Medical School Training: Identifying and Caring for Human Trafficking Survivors Using Trauma-Informed Care.

Human trafficking (HT) is a substantial public health problem, and health care workers are uniquely positioned to help identify and care for survivors. Despite this fact, few medical schools incorporate HT training using trauma-informed care (TIC) principles into their curricula. We developed a training session to educate medical students on recognizing HT red flags and providing TIC to HT survivors. One hundred twenty-seven fourth-year medical students at Rush Medical College attended a 2-hour session consisting of didactic lectures by expert speakers and participated in a group discussion guided by a clinical vignette. Students completed anonymous pre- and postsession surveys that assessed comfort levels in detecting HT red flags and providing TIC. We used a paired t test to compare pre- and postsession survey responses. Ninety-five pre- and postsession surveys were matched with unique identifiers and used for analysis. The results demonstrated significant improvement in all the metrics assessed. This training significantly improved medical students' comfort in identifying and caring for HT survivors, addressing an especially important gap in medical school education. This training can be implemented at other institutions to further improve awareness and efforts in identifying and caring for HT survivors while avoiding retraumatization.

"He Loves Me Hard and Then He Abuses Me Hard": How Service Providers Define and Explain Trauma Bonds Among Sex Trafficking Survivors.

There is a dearth of research on trauma bonding among victims of sex trafficking. This study aims to fill this gap by seeking to understand how service providers working with survivors of sex trafficking conceptualize and observe trauma bonding in their clients. This qualitative study involved interviews with 10 participants. Purposeful sampling was employed among licensed social workers or counselors. Two themes emerged: defining trauma bonding (with four subthemes: embracing intensity, power imbalance, distortion of love, and inescapability) and the development of trauma bonds (with three subthemes: universality, gendered, and grooming). These findings provide much-needed insight into the complexities of trauma bonding.

“Everything From That Era Was Kind of a Blur”: Improving Humanitarian Immigration Systems’ Resilience in the Wake of the NTA Memo

ABSTRACT This study sought to explore the impact of the 2018 U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services policy memorandum generally referred to as the “NTA Memo” on the humanitarian immigration system in the United States. Key informant interviews were conducted with “policy agents” including immigration attorneys and social service providers who worked with trafficking survivors pursuing T nonimmigrant status (T Visas) in the Upper Midwest. Results of thematic analysis suggest that the NTA Memo effectively wore down the humanitarian immigration system while it was in place, and now that it has been lifted, distrust among policy agents remains, imperiling gains of the anti-human trafficking movement in encouraging survivors to come forward to report their traffickers and seek protections. Writing denied applicant confidentiality protections into law to protect the information of survivors of trafficking and other crimes and strengthening humanitarian immigration system infrastructure would begin to mend the harm caused by the NTA Memo and its contemporary anti-immigrant policies. Strengthening protections for immigrant survivors of crime is in line with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development goal 16: promoting just, peaceful, and inclusive societies.

“You come up from the ashes, and you’re like a phoenix.” Survivors of sex trafficking define resilience

The study of resilience has largely relied on definitions and conceptualizations of resilience produced by academia, with little of the knowledge produced being grounded in the experience and perspectives of those outside academia. The voices of marginalized and stressed populations are particularly rarely integrated into sanctioned institutional discourses of knowledge, reproducing inequality where these institutions have influence. Specifically, little research has explored the ways in which survivors of sex trafficking define and conceptualize resilience. Thus, academic inquiry into survivor resilience may risk missing what is important to survivors themselves regarding the issue. Using thematic analysis, this study explored survivors’ responses to the question “What does ‘resilience’ mean to you?”, which resulted in five themes: resilience as (1) resistance, (2) transition, (3) a sustained force over time, (4) transformation, and (5) resources. Participants defined resilience as being primarily a person-centered phenomenon, rather than a process-centered phenomenon, that was the output of their inherent and enduring personal power to survive or overcome and adversity, and to shape their lives in preferred ways despite adversity. Differing from academic definitions of resilience in several significant ways, participants conceptualized resilience as being promoted by external resources and opportunities but existent even in the absence of such resource and opportunities. Findings suggest that for resilience inquiry to resonate with survivors, it must first acknowledge the inherent power of survivors.

Child Trafficking Continues to Thrive, A Better Coordination Needed to Combat it

Child trafficking is in fact a demand-driven problem. There are industries which run on the nimble fingers of children. The Bangle industry is one such industry among many others. Traffickers target the most vulnerable children. The offence of trafficking spans two or more two states. It makes prosecution of the traffickers difficult. The kind of energy, synergy, time and money required is hard to arrange as survivors of child trafficking belong to marginalised sections of society. The survivors do not go back to the place of rescue where they were trafficked, engaged and exploited. This results in traffickers committing the offence of child trafficking with impunity. India does not have a victim-centric comprehensive legislation on human trafficking to combat it. There is no dedicated working mechanism to combat human trafficking that works well. Anti-Human Trafficking Units across the country have remained on the papers. The Conviction rate in the crime of human trafficking is 1.5%, according to the National Crime Records Bureau 2021.

“Flexibility and Consistency”: Qualitative Insights on Valuable Skills for Providers Working with Survivors of Child Sex Trafficking

ABSTRACT Purpose The commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) is the commercial exchange of sex or sexual acts by an individual under the age of 18. Though many programs aim to serve youth who are (potential) victims of CSEC, it remains unclear what strategies and techniques are most helpful in engaging this population in treatment. Love146 is an anti-trafficking program with an established treatment specific for CSEC-impacted youth. This exploratory study sought to better understand the strategies and techniques that Love146 social workers, administrators, and staff use to facilitate engagement and healing among the children and youth they serve. Method A total of 14 administrative and clinical staff at Love146 participated in 4 focus groups that were digitally recorded, transcribed verbatim, and coded using a content analysis approach. Results Three distinct themes emerged, including the importance of using a trauma-informed approach, trustworthiness, and persistence. Discussion There are many strategies and techniques that may aid service providers and administrators in engaging youth who have been impacted by CSEC.A full exploration into qualitative results, including implications for policy, practice, and research are provided.

Labor Recruitment and Human Trafficking: Analysis of a Global Trafficking Survivor Database

Over the past decade, third-party labor recruiters who facilitate employment for migrant workers across low- and middle-income countries have often been considered by the counter-trafficking community as one of the main entry points into human trafficking. In response, anti-trafficking prevention programs have increasingly focused on addressing exploitative recruitment in migrants’ origin countries. Such programs may advocate for increased regulation of migration, greater enforcement actions against unlicensed recruiters, stricter ethical codes of conduct for recruiters and employers, and more pre-departure information about recruitment for migrants. Yet, there remains limited research about the relationship between prospective migrants, recruiters, and human trafficking, and the relative importance of third-party recruitment in the trafficking process. This Research Note draws on the world's largest database of individual victims of trafficking cases, the International Organization for Migration's (IOM) Global Victim of Trafficking Database (VoTD), to examine the role and characteristics of recruitment of trafficked victims. The VoTD contains information on nearly 50,000 trafficking victims who were registered for assistance from 2002 to June 2018. Our analysis shows that 94 percent of trafficked victims were recruited, in a broad sense (i.e., not only by third-party intermediaries). Additionally, the data presented here suggest that the relationship between recruitment and trafficking is complex and that forced labor is embedded within the wider structural issues around low-wage labor migration that lead to exploitative work conditions. Interventions to address human trafficking will benefit from strategies that target systemic issues constraining or harming low-wage labor. Further, these findings highlight the value of large-scale administrative datasets in migration research.

NEGATIVE IMPLICATIONS OF CRIMINAL ACTION FOR FEMALE CHILD TRAFFICKING VICTIMS IN INDONESIA

Girls are a group that is highly susceptible to the human trafficking crime. Even so, there were still very few researches on this crime from the victim's perspective. This research aims to identify various negative implications caused by human trafficking crime based on the victim's perspective through a victimological approach. The method used in this research is a qualitative method with a normative juridical approach. The data used in this research is primary data obtained from several informants, these are Health Extension Officer Kusuma Bongas and several victims who were survivors of human trafficking, through in-depth interviews and observations. According to the research findings, human trafficking is a serious crime that has a wide-ranging take effect across multiple sectors. In addition to social effects, human trafficking has negative legal consequences as well as it leads to various criminal offenses such as prostitution, the physical, sexual, and psychological exploitation of children, violations of labor laws, and other crimes. For the victims of this crime, there is still potential for unfairness and legal ambiguity due to the law's imperfect implementation in this subject. Therefore, it is important to improve the judiciary system, specifically the fair and strict laws against the human trafficking crime, in order to provide victims safeguards and have a deterrent impact on offenders.

Resident Physician Education in the Human Trafficking Medical Safe Haven.

Human trafficking is a widespread public health problem across the United States. In recognition of the incredible need among victims and survivors of human trafficking for longitudinal, trauma-informed care, the Medical Safe Haven (MSH) was developed in 2016 through the Dignity Health Family Medicine Residency Program in Sacramento, California, and subsequently expanded to 2 other Dignity Health residency program sites. The MSH program included 3 sessions of trafficking-specific curriculum for resident physicians to prepare them to provide care for MSH patients. The current study aimed to evaluate resident physician learner confidence after participating in the MSH curriculum along with perceptions of the MSH program as a whole upon their graduation. The study was a retrospective, preassessment/postassessment design. Resident physicians completed surveys that assessed learner confidence after each of the 3 training sessions, utilizing Likert scale items. Third-year resident physicians also completed a survey that included scaled and open-ended questions. Paired t-tests were used to evaluate the data in addition to content analysis for the open-ended questions. There were significant increases in learner confidence after the training sessions on all items measured, including identifying and caring for victims and survivors of trafficking. Third-year residents responded that the MSH program helped them to more effectively communicate and care for victims and survivors and many planned to take the trauma-informed care model to their future practices. While generalizability of the study was limited due to the retrospective design, the MSH program was found to have a meaningful impact on the resident physicians who participated in the training.

Atypical jobs in psychology: Provision of cross-cultural safe-house services for survivors of human trafficking in Finland.

This article outlines my career as a counseling psychologist trained in integrated behavioral health care and trauma treatment prior to becoming a self-employed consultant for Samaria, a Finnish non-governmental organization (NGO), engaged in aftercare activities for individuals identified as victims of human trafficking. I became interested in working with victims of human trafficking after hearing a leader of Project Rescue, an international antitrafficking organization, speak at the church I attend. Particularly, I developed a specific interest in providing intensive and on-the-job training to employees and volunteers of these programs in an effort to promote longitudinal consistency in the provision of service, improve staff self-care practices, and reduce caregiver attrition in a field where compassionate and competent care is emotionally draining and time-intensive. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

How to Maintain Mental Health as a Professional Working with Survivors of Human Trafficking and Conflict-Related Sexual Violence

This practitioner's submission focuses on the mental health of professionals working with survivors of human trafficking and conflict-related sexual violence. As a professional, being a witness to details of interpersonal atrocities can cause psychological problems, like emotional exhaustion, burn-out, secondary traumatization or compassion fatigue. In order to be able to continue to work effectively and facilitate healing to survivors, it is crucial that professionals maintain their own mental health. Maintaining mental health is always important and even more challenging while working in conflict areas, such as Ukraine. Some specific challenges of staying mentally healthy for professionals working with survivors of human trafficking and conflict-related sexual violence are being highlighted in this article, accompanied with some suggestions on how to tackle those challenges.

Building a specialized model of care for youth involved in sex trafficking in child welfare: A systematic review and interviews with experts-by-experience

BackgroundSex trafficking of youth involved in the child welfare system is a critical global issue; however, there are limited counter-trafficking programs designed to specifically meet the needs of this population. ObjectiveThe present study aimed to identify components essential to building a model of care for youth involved in sex trafficking in child welfare. The specific goals of this investigation were to: 1) systematically review the literature for programs implemented with child-welfare involved youth at risk of or involved in sex trafficking, and 2) examine convergent and divergent evidence through interviews with experts-by-experience (i.e., survivors and child welfare personnel). Participants and setting13 child welfare workers and 6 survivors of sex trafficking. MethodsSystematic review identified articles that included programs and interventions for youth involved in sex trafficking in child welfare. Interviews with experts-by-experience were analysed through reflexive thematic analysis. Content analysis was used to examine convergent and divergent evidence between the two noted methods of inquiry (systematic review and interviews with experts). ResultsFindings from the systematic review support a model of care comprised of two overarching components: 1) wraparound supports, and 2) trained caregivers and supported foster homes. Thematic analyses also revealed that experts thought that an appropriate model of care would require child welfare agencies to take a preventative stance, such as conducting early coordinated risk assessments on all youth in care. Convergent with the literature, experts noted the need for enhanced wraparound supports and specific training for caregivers and service providers. ConclusionsComponents essential to building a model of care for youth at risk of or involved in sex trafficking in child welfare were extracted and discussed based on the evidence gathered.

A Qualitative Analysis of Sex Trafficking Survivor-Advocates’ Barriers to Exiting “The Life”

Despite the recent expansion of sex trafficking awareness, prevention, and aftercare services, knowledge about sex trafficking remains limited by the systemic exclusion of survivors’ voices and strengths from sex trafficking epistemology. Notably, little research examines sex trafficking survivors’ experiences, their critiques of the counter-trafficking movement, nor their recommendations for how the counter-trafficking movement could be improved to better meet survivors’ needs. In this qualitative study, we adhered to an Intersectional-Standpoint Methodology (ISM) to explore sex trafficking survivors’ perceptions of the counter-trafficking movement and their barriers to sex trafficking exit. The results of this study suggest that survivors encounter numerous barriers to sex trafficking exit, including internal barriers, social barriers, and systemic-institutional barriers. Results point towards recommendations for improving service delivery systems by building upon sex trafficking survivors’ strengths and resilience and by reducing their many barriers to exit. By implementing these recommendations, counter-trafficking advocates at all levels of practice can increase sex trafficking survivors’ access to effective, survivor-informed aftercare services.

Medical School Sex Trafficking Curriculum: A Student-Driven Approach

ABSTRACT Human trafficking is a pervasive public health problem with increasing national demands for physician awareness and education. The medical school space offers a variety of opportunities for implementation of a foundational curriculum for understanding and responding to survivors of human trafficking. This manuscript demonstrates a student-driven medical school curriculum on sex trafficking integrated into complementary core coursework on topics such as intimate partner violence, adverse childhood experiences, and sexual history taking. This helps to circumvent the need for substantial time and space for new material and minimizes monetary costs. This student-driven curriculum utilizes foundational national training standards with an emphasis on trauma-informed care and prioritization of specific community needs. Survey results showan association with improved aggregate student knowledge, physician skills, and attitudes, however, assessment of the effectiveness of course material was limited. Our aim is to further support the development and implementation of similar curriculums across medical schools.