Did you know that most human trafficking situations mimic the family structure?
Traffickers create a fake feeling of family to further deceive and manipulate their victims into feeling that they are a wanted and needed "member of the family."
“For example, typically young women or girls are employed as babysitters and housekeepers in domestic servitude cases and may assume a family member role...Pimps can also serve a parental role for U.S. victims of trafficking, even to the point of referring to the pimp as daddy, family-based domestic servitude." Busch-Armendariz, N., Nsonwu, M., & Cook Heffron, L. (2009, October). Understanding Human Trafficking: Development of Typologies of Traffickers PHASE II.
Traffickers are skilled manipulators who strategically know how to lure, hook, and capture a victim to exploit later.
In fact, "the most common way to recruit trafficking victims is not kidnapping, but LOVE.” (emphasis are mine) - Former U.S. Ambassador Luis CdeBaca, United States Ambassador-at-Large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons
The truth is that human trafficking can happen to anyone.
And the majority of victims are American citizens being recruited and victimized on our soil.
I've met male and female survivors trafficked at age five by family members; a man trafficked in his youth by a well-loved female coach, and a woman who was recruited and trafficked in her 50s by a member of an infamous motorcycle gang.
All are Americans who were unjustly trafficked right here in our very own neighborhoods.
It really can happen to anyone.
Unlike traditional slavery, where enslaved people were physically bound and chained, those enslaved today by human trafficking are walking around seemingly liberated and "free," making it nearly impossible to perceive the invisible psychological chains that bind them to their captors.
Why anyone?
Because we all have vulnerabilities and we've all experienced trauma to some extent.
Although every survivor's experience is unique, the combination of vulnerabilities, risk factors, and unhealed trauma makes individuals susceptible to human trafficking.
However, the most common thread that ran deep for most of the survivors I've met and from testimonies I've come across is that there was a breakdown in their family.
A breakdown in the family means a traumatic disconnect in the relationship between the child and their parent.
In other words, they were missing a solid, intimate, loving connection with at least one parent - a key to building resilience in children from adverse childhood experiences.
This lack of connection translated as trauma for that child and, if left unhealed, made them further susceptible and vulnerable to traffickers.
Unstable familial foundations create stressed cracks that heavily impact the children, which traffickers exploit to no end as the opportunists they are.
If children are not receiving what they need at home, they will go elsewhere to look for it.
And predators/traffickers will be more than happy to pick up the slack from parents.
Who do you want to teach your children?
Will it be you, as the parent, or the streets?
Hands-down, the best preventive and protective factor is creating a solid foundation at home by being a parent your children can trust, feel safe with, and be loved unconditionally.
A survivor of sex trafficking put it simply, "Basically, it boils down to creating a supportive, comfortable, happy, healthy environment for children to thrive and be themselves in."
It's not an easy journey, but it's the number one factor in building resilient, confident kids who can face any challenge.
Together, let's raise a generation equipped to see through deception, speak up for justice, and lead with integrity.
Remember, what we do at home ripples out into the culture.
Your role as a parent is irreplaceable.
Let's save our kids and build a safer, stronger future that they will thrive in.