© 2015 by Women Of Renowned Distinction Recovery Center
(per their website) In 1984, staff at the Domestic Abuse Intervention Project (DAIP) began developing curricula for groups for men who batter and victims of domestic violence. We wanted a way to describe battering for victims, offenders, practitioners in the criminal justice system and the general public.Over several months, we convened focus groups of women who had been battered. We listened to heart-wrenching stories of violence, terror and survival. After listening to these stories and asking questions, we documented the most common abusive behaviors or tactics that were used against these women. The tactics chosen for the wheel were those that were most universally experienced by battered women. (click image on left to learn more)
...At night I was never alone, walking down pimp city road.
I was only 12 years old.
Walking up and down what we call the stroll.
See, to him it did not matter if I was cold or if I was hungry,
All he cared about was me bringing in that money.
Let me let you in on something I find real funny:
That sex trafficking is a nonviolent felony....
excerpt from "Finish Line" a poem written by Ruth,
a sex trafficking survivor who has since become a brilliant poet and spoken word artist. (read more...)
Domestic & Sexual violence intersections with Trafficking. Power and control exist in domestic and sexual violence as well as trafficking. Similarly, victims are subject to physical, sexual, emotional, psychological and economic abuse as well as isolation. Like sexual abusers, traffickers are also known to victims, including family or partners. Family members, often adults or older individuals, may compel their relatives to engage in commercial sex, forced labor or involuntary servitude. The abuser utilizes existing power dynamics and vulnerabilities to exploit the family member.
Sex traffickers target vulnerable women, girls and boys and then execute a psychological and physical grooming process aimed at transitioning them to a dependent role. Using violence, substance abuse, false promises and manipulation, traffickers then abuse the dependency and soon have physical and mental control over their victims.
See a breakdown below of the initial stages through exploitation of a sex trafficking victim.
The "Promise"
(also known as Honeymoon, Courting)
When victims are first brought in, there is a honeymoon period. During the phase, pimps or the second wave victims continue the façade they may have started in the dream job, second wave, or new boyfriend traps. They buy the victims expensive clothes and take them to nice apartments, essentially reinforcing to the victims that they have found a once in a lifetime opportunity. This also keeps the victims quiet for a little while. By the time the victims realize the truth, they are often in a country/or location they do not know or speak the language, their travel documents or identification is “held on to” by the trafficker, and they have built a level of trust with the people who become their captors, a bond that is difficult to break. In this way, victims display many signs of Stockholm Syndrome. Pimps manipulate their victims beginning with false love and false affection. In the case of relational traffickers, warmth, gifts, compliments, and sexual and physical intimacy lasts just long enough to appeal the victim.
As the promise phase evolves, Traffickers/Pimps gradually opens the next phase with explaining to the victim they are now in obligation. The trafficker/pimp requires repayment for travel, clothing, housing, food etc. In the case of interpersonal, the victim is told she needs to do this to prove love, loyalty, feed addictions etc.
The "Breaking"
(also known as Seasoning)
Once the trafficker is confident he has the trust of a victim, he deviates and seasoning begins. The victim is unsuspecting, and vulnerable. The physical thrashings with hands, fists, bats, chains, belts, hangers and any other weapon available. This supplements emotional abuse of direct insults, and threats. Mental abuse is used to entirely surrender the victim to the trafficker/pimp. They teach victims how to walk, talk, what to wear, when to sleep. Victims are withheld food, water and any other necessity until necessary. The personal belongings ae often burned, including identification, to separate the girl/woman from any life she once knew. Survivors report they were burned with cigarettes, lighters, and even appliances. In this stage, sexual conditioning begins. Women and young girls are forced to view pornography to teach sex acts and set up expectations. Sexual assaults frequently occur, often in groups. Girls/women are gang raped, molested, and sexually brutalized. Victims are confined at all times, often locked in rooms, closets, trunks of cars, warehouses, basements, storage spaces. This happens to impart isolation, hopelessness and fear. They are regularly moved to new locations to further detach, and dominate.
The "Life"
The Daily Life of Violence and Assault –
Sex trafficking is all about the profit and this phase is the goal for traffickers. To maximize return and profit, traffickers try to keep victims in this phase for as long as possible. Victims of street prostitution are particularly vulnerable to violence and assault from "johns." Although victims of sex trafficking in street prostitution are commonly monitored by a controller or “pimp”, the controller is often less visible and therefore more difficult for police to investigate. Typically, individuals victimized by this network are also trained to lie to police and service providers about the existence of a pimp, and they may present themselves as independently in prostitution. Prices and Daily/Nightly quotas have been set, and the victim is aware of expectations. Although statistics show higher records of underage minors as sex trafficking victims; women are vulnerable to traffickers well into twenties and even thirties. However, the younger the victim, the more profitable they are to traffickers. Consequently, as a victim ages from child to late adolescent, they become less attractive to pedophiles. The average life expectancy of a child sex trafficking victim is seven (7) years, if not rescued.
"I was first forced into prostitution when I was 11 years old by a 28-year-old man. I am not an exception. The man who trafficked me sold so many girls my age, his house was called "Daddy Day Care." All day, other girls and I sat with our laptops, posting pictures and answering ads on Craigslist. He made $1,500 a night selling my body, dragging me to Los Angeles, Houston, Little Rock -- and one trip to Las Vegas in the trunk of a car. I am 17 now, and my childhood memories aren't of my family, going to middle school, or dancing at the prom. They are of making my own arrangements on Craigslist to be sold for sex, and answering as many ads as possible for fear of beatings and ice water baths.” -------an open letter from MC to Craigslist