Know the Signs of Human Trafficking
Human Trafficker
Grooming Signs
Human traffickers use any tool available to them to connect with potential victims. Contrary to popular belief, these predators rarely kidnap victims, but rather employ psychological manipulation to get what they want. The following are some of the signs of grooming for human trafficking employed by traffickers.
#1 The Hunt Begins
Targeting a Victim
Human traffickers use any tools available to them to make a connection to potential victims, such as social media, video gaming consoles, and chat rooms.
#2 Scouting Victims
Ideal Characteristics
The traffickers often search for specific characteristics that make a victim the most vulnerable. This includes emotional neediness, low self-confidence, and economic stress.
#3 Manipulation
Gaining Trust
While looking for the role they can play in a victim’s life, traffickers work to obtain trust from the victim through casual conversations over weeks and sometimes over months. Traffickers also send their current victims to interact with potential victims in order to gain trust. These girls essentially act as scouts for the trafficker.
#4 Dependency
Filling a Need
The traffickers utilize the information they gathered to fill a role in the victim’s life. Through gifts, love, friendship, drugs, or alcohol, traffickers force the victims into a dependent relationship.
#5 Trapping the Victim
Forced Isolation
With their new role in the victim’s life, traffickers wedge themselves between the victim and those closest to them–their friends and family.
#6 Abusive Behavior
Maintain Control
The traffickers claim a service they offered must be repaid (providing drugs, alcohol, car rides, or cell phones, for instance). They typically demand sex as payment. Then, through threats, violence, fear, or blackmail, the traffickers maintain full control over the victim.
The Four Stages of Grooming
The ultimate goal of a human trafficker is to gain access and the trust of a potential victim. Sometimes this takes place over weeks or months. ⠀
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The UK nonprofit organization Barnardo’s created a model called the ‘Grooming Line,’ which identifies the different tactics a perpetrator may use to groom someone. ⠀
Recognizing grooming behaviors early can mean averting potential disaster. It is paramount that the public, and parents and guardians in particular, remain educated not only on the tools and apps children are using every day, but also on how to recognize grooming behaviors and safely navigate the internet.
To learn about how to recognize the signs of human trafficking, click here.
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