Thumb, Pinky & Sex Trafficking?
Sex trafficking is often misunderstood in America. We may think of it as an “over there” problem, blame the kids, or have pictures from the movies in our head of people being thrown into cars and tires screeching as they’re kidnapped off the streets. Hold up your hand and we’ll use it to gain a clearer understanding of how trafficking most often happens. Wiggle your thumb! It represents kidnappings, an extreme way that trafficking happens. New Day’s very first girl was kidnapped walking home from school. Now wiggle your pinky - this is the other extreme. A teenager who’s already having sex and figures they can make some money, markets themselves and skips the middleman - this is self-trafficking, and New Day has seen this too. While these two extremes do happen, the vast majority of child sex trafficking happens in the middle. Traffickers use a tactic called, “grooming.” It’s methodical, intentional and it works.
“It is the most common way that people, adults and children, wind up in sex trafficking situations. Sex trafficking very rarely begins with a violent abduction, or with a stranger involved at all. It begins with someone the victim knows, and usually loves or trusts. Traffickers are experts at finding those moments when people are vulnerable, of working the angles, of manipulating reality and leveraging fears. While every situation is different, the overall grooming process usually involves the following steps: Targeting the victim, gaining trust, meeting needs, isolation, exploitation, maintaining control.”
