How Criminals Think: Human Trafficking Part 2
Signs of trafficking in your area
Yesterday I established how brutal human trafficking is because the more libertarian impulse is to see sex work as a “victimless crime” and that tends to minimize the trafficking aspect. Today I want to go over signs that there is trafficking in your area.
Today I’m going to provide sort of checklists to spot trafficking victims, tomorrow I’m going to go more in depth about the kinds of groups involved. But here I want to point out that
Women can and will be involved in trafficking
family members will traffic kids (especially drug users)
some trafficking victims will actually still be participating in normal life like school etc.
So to begin with here’s a list of signs from DHS that an individual you see is being trafficked:
Does the person appear disconnected from family, friends, community organizations, or houses of worship?
Has a child stopped attending school?
Has the person had a sudden or dramatic change in behavior?
Is a juvenile engaged in commercial sex acts?
Is the person disoriented or confused, or showing signs of mental or physical abuse?
Does the person have bruises in various stages of healing?
Is the person fearful, timid, or submissive?
Does the person show signs of having been denied food, water, sleep, or medical care?
Is the person often in the company of someone to whom he or she defers? Or someone who seems to be in control of the situation, e.g., where they go or who they talk to?
Does the person appear to be coached on what to say?
Is the person living in unsuitable conditions?
Does the person lack personal possessions and appear not to have a stable living situation?
Does the person have freedom of movement? Can the person freely leave where they live? Are there unreasonable security measures?
Obviously number four shouldn’t need to be said, but here we are.
This similar but more comprehensive list is from the Nevada AG office:
Appearing malnourished
Showing signs of physical injuries and abuse
Avoiding eye contact, social interaction, and authority figures/law enforcement
Seeming to adhere to scripted or rehearsed responses in social interaction
Lacking official identification documents
Appearing destitute/lacking personal possessions
Working excessively long hours
Living at place of employment
Checking into hotels/motels with older males, and referring to those males as boyfriend or “daddy,” which is often street slang for pimp
Poor physical or dental health
Tattoos/ branding on the neck and/or lower back
Untreated sexually transmitted diseases
Small children serving in a family restaurant
Security measures that appear to keep people inside an establishment - barbed wire inside of a fence, bars covering the insides of windows
Not allowing people to go into public alone, or speak for themselves
The most likely groups traffickers will prey on will be:
drug addicts or homeless
runaways
illegal immigrants
children from unstable homes
the children of habitual drug users
However there are cases of “normal” people who are kidnapped and forced into prostitution all the time - these tend to be slight women who are alone.
There is also a theory that LGBT members are more likely to be trafficked but any study that says that lumps together MTF transgenders with transvestite prostitutes and doesn’t control for drug use. There is no data suggesting gay men and lesbians' are more likely to be trafficked than straight men and women with the same risk factors.
While counter-intuitive, trafficking sees upticks during bad economic times. it’s natural to think as things get more expensive ‘johns’ will give up on cheap thrills but … it’s the opposite actually. There aren’t many studies but buyers of sex also tend to be high risk individuals with drug/alcohol problems, criminal ties etc.
For our purposes as preppers we need to prepare for the eventuality that prescription addicts running low on money will either be trafficked or will traffick others. You need to be aware of if your area has an increase in trafficking so you can prepare to protect your family.