What I Didn’t Know About Sex Trafficking
When I began working for Rescue America two years ago, I thought I knew what sex trafficking was. I’d never seen the movie Taken, but I knew the plot. I’d heard the stories on the news about young girls getting abducted and trafficked, and I read all of the “save our children” posts on Facebook throughout the summer of 2020. So I thought I was pretty much in the know.
As it turns out, I was under-informed. The issue of sex trafficking is far more complex and more common than I had ever imagined.
If you are in the same boat I was––stepping into broadening your understanding of what sex trafficking really is and learning what we can do about it––I hope this provides a good place to begin.
For starters, I didn’t know just how common sex trafficking was. When I learned that there are more sex trafficking points of sale across the United States than there are Starbucks, my eyes were opened wide. I drive past multiple Starbucks every day, at least ten just on my drive to the office, and sex trafficking fronts are more common than that. Clearly, this is a much bigger issue, affecting many more people than the general public is aware of.
Something else I quickly learned was though I initially thought that it was mainly youth who were sex trafficked, that is not the case. While minors most certainly make up a portion of sex trafficking survivors, the average age of the over 303 survivors Rescue America has served so far in 2022 is 33 years old. The youngest has been 18, and the oldest 60. Anyone can be forced, frauded, or coerced into commercial sexual activity, no matter their age.
I soon learned that sex trafficking at its core is an exploitation of vulnerability, and anyone can have a vulnerability. Survivors can come from any background, race, gender, socioeconomic class, and more, but most often it is the most vulnerable who are targeted: those who come from broken homes, were abused at a young age, have a misunderstanding of their value, have higher needs to get their basic necessities met, and the list goes on.
One of the hardest realities I learned is that it is very common for survivors of trafficking to be trafficked by someone they know. I had thought that sex trafficking happened when a trafficker kidnapped someone they didn’t know and locked them up in a room to be sold. While this can happen and is at times the case, it is much more common for a person to be trafficked by someone they have a personal relationship with, whether that be a family member, romantic partner, acquaintance, or employer.
Traffickers will groom their victims to build a relationship and gain their trust. They always identify the victim’s vulnerability––a want or a need that person has, whether that be longing to be loved, a desperate need for employment, financial insecurity, an addictive escape, etc.––and they make promises to meet that need or fill that gap. In the process, the trafficker slowly isolates their victims, bringing them to a point where the victim feels that their trafficker is the only and best option they have. Then the trafficker uses their victims for their own gain.
This can be a reason it is often hard for survivors to initially leave their situations. Because they were so highly manipulated in the grooming process, believing they were in a genuine relationship with their trafficker, it’s easy for them to believe the lies their traffickers fed them. Because of trauma bonds, they can come to believe that their trafficker truly loves them and is the only one who will be there for them. Because of what they’re often told, they can come to believe that they aren’t worth anything else, this is all there will ever be for them in life, and they will never be loved by anyone else.
While believing these lies can keep them in their situations, there are a variety of other factors that also act as barriers to exit, such as addictions, lifestyle, financial needs and more. For many survivors who desire a way out, they feel like they simply have no other options.
While I learned how sex trafficking happens, I quickly learned it comes in many different forms - pornography, illicit massage parlors, cantinas, escort services, street prostitution, hotel prostitution, and more.
One of my first projects on the job was to research the connection between pornography and sex trafficking, and what I learned made me want to yell the truth from the rooftops. While pornography has become increasingly more common and even promoted within our culture, what many people don’t know is that sex trafficking and the porn industry are highly intertwined; both industries benefit from the other. Traffickers often use force, fraud, or coercion to trap their victims into performing sex acts on film, profiting from pornography and uploading videos which porn sites then profit from. And even if a person did “choose” to work in the porn industry, they are often forced or coerced into performing acts they did not consent to.
Sex trafficking operates based on supply and demand, and pornography is often what fuels its demand. Studies show that the majority of sex buyers have struggled with a porn addiction, and many ended up buying sex because of the advertisements they saw on porn sites; this tells us that porn is a major contributor to driving men to purchase women for sex. When the demand for commercial sex increases and there are few “willing participants” to meet the demand, traffickers fill this gap by using force, fraud or coercion to subject their victims into engaging in commercial sexual activity.
In regards to illicit massage parlors, I didn’t know these exist all over town, or that through them, sex trafficking operates in plain sight. These trafficking fronts are often located in strip malls, and the women inside are coerced and forced to perform sexual services for whoever comes through the doors.
This is happening all over our cities, and my hope is that as more people learn and wake up to the truth, more people will get involved and fight for the freedom of those affected by this modern-day slavery.
In the end, what I didn’t know about sex trafficking is that though the truth of the matter can at first seem hopeless, there is really so much HOPE as we work to make a change.
There are so many ways to get involved and countless anti-trafficking organizations across the country who are doing incredible work in this fight. Through our partner organizations, I learned how important it is to not just serve survivors, but also focus on addressing the other side of the equation - the buyers. I learned how valuable it is to mobilize the church to join the fight against trafficking and be the hands and feet of Jesus to those exiting the life of sexual exploitation. I learned how emergency and long-term care programs really do transform lives, and how healing, restoration, and new life IS possible.
Through our volunteer opportunities, I learned how life-changing a simple phone call or leaving a voicemail in our Outreach Hubs can be - letting survivors know there IS a way out, and there are options for a new life. I saw how truly impactful answering the Rescue hotline is as a Hotline Advocate, getting to momentarily step into a survivor’s situation. Speaking hope and praying truth over them as they begin their healing journeys is such a tangible way to shine light into darkness. I was constantly encouraged by stories of our Exit Team members and Exit Companions getting to provide a friendly face, a listening ear, safe transportation and comforting necessities to survivors who just took the first brave steps to freedom.
Most importantly, I learned how seeking the Lord’s voice through it all is vital. By submitting to Him in the work He calls us to and partnering with Him through prayer, we can trust that He sees the big picture, and His love for each and every survivor far surpasses what we could ever understand.
He can heal the broken-hearted and turn lives around. He can take what was meant for evil and work it out for good. He is a God of redemption, He promises to rescue His flock, and we can trust Him through it all. We rejoice over the testimonies of the survivors we’ve served who have encountered His love and surrendered their lives to Him, finding freedom not just from exploitation, but true freedom for eternity.
If what you’ve learned sparks a passion for you to get involved, to help in this fight against sex trafficking and show love to survivors of sexual exploitation, don’t ignore that! Take what you’ve learned and share the truth with others, get involved with an anti-trafficking organization, be the voice, the hands, the feet of Jesus to those desperately longing for a way out of the darkness.
We’re in this together, until freedom reigns.
- Christine Jaeger
You can take action today by spreading the truth with the people you know; to equip yourself with the facts and stay up to date with rescue stories from the frontline, sign up here.
