January is Human Trafficking Prevention Month
And STAR offers the trainings our communities need to better understand how to end this billion dollar industry
Human Trafficking is the second largest and fastest growing industry in the world.
Over 150 billion dollars per year are generated — globally — by human trafficking. The International Labour Organization estimates that there are 40.3 million victims of human trafficking globally and
- 81% of them are trapped in forced labor.
- 25% of them are children.
- 75% are women and girls.
What is human trafficking?
At STAR, we often utilize the continuum of sexual violence as part of our trainings, which recognizes human trafficking, specifically for sexual purposes, as most violent along the continuum.
Human trafficking is a crime; a trafficker is someone who by force, fraud and/or coercion controls another individual for the purpose of engaging in commercial sex acts or soliciting labor or services against their will.
Human trafficking is nonconsensual.
Victims of trafficking are violated, robbed of choice, and may experience a multitude impacts as a result of their experiences. Some of these impacts include: traumatization; fear; shame; powerlessness; helplessness; depression; confusion; and/or lack of safety.
STAR identifies individual, institutional, and community root causes for sexually violent behaviors, which includes human trafficking.
Individuals who lack understanding about healthy sexuality and sexual violence have
- unhealthy and/or harmful ways of coping with negative emotions
- believe they are entitled to sex and/or another person’s body
- disregard consent or others’ boundaries in interactions
- exploit the vulnerability of others
- lack empathy for others
- question or challenge survivors’ accounts of violence and blame them for what happen perpetuate sexual violence
Institutions that do not have comprehensive systems to address sexual violence
- lack policies and processes to hold perpetrators accountable
- lack policies and processes to support survivors of sexual violence
Communities that do not teach people about sex, sexuality and healthy relationships
- view sex as taboo and shameful
- justify violent sexuality
- blame victims for the violence committed against them
- do not challenge oppression and power imbalances
- tolerate sexual entitlement and boundary-violating behaviors as normal
- treat weakness and vulnerability as worse than committing violence
- accept the use of dominance, power, control, and violence to achieve objectives
Having an awareness of these root causes allows us to reflect internally and acknowledge areas where we may unwittingly permit or perpetuate sexual violence.
Armed with this knowledge, we can change our behaviors. We should never underestimate the power of believing survivors and advocating on their behalf. There are numerous resources that provide information more specific to human trafficking, such as red flags, how to help, and strategies for prevention.
By supporting STAR you can help us bring awareness to our communities.
