Tune into this week’s episode of #SpeakingfortheSilenced!

You are listening to Speaking for the Silenced podcast with your host(s) Jacqueline Sun.

In this episode of Speaking for the Silenced, we will be discussing one the most pervasive forms of human trafficking, which is sex trafficking. This crime reportedly makes up 79% of human trafficking instances all across the world. Virtually everyone knows or has heard of it, yet sex trafficking is still not given enough attention in mainstream media.

• Definition of sex trafficking is the use of force, fraud or coercion to cause a commercial sex act with an adult or cause a minor to commit a commercial sex act.

Includes prostitution, pornography, and sexual performance exchanged for any item of value.

• May occur at brothels, clubs, hotels, and other night-time locations to sell their services
• As of 2019, the National Ceter for Missing and Exploited Children has estimated thatn1/6 runaways were likely sex trafficking victims
• Sex trafficking victims are both genders, although a majority are women and girls
• Sexual assault among males is given much less attention

• Common misconception that sex trafficking only occurs in “shady dealings”; this is untrue
• By establishing trust early on and a degree of intimacy, the traffickers can exploit this later
• Prositution is often looked down upon but can often overlap with sex trafficking
• Many of these women have their appointments arranged for them by men known as pimps, who are individual traffickers
• However, not all sex work is sex trafficking. 
• In general, the stigma that exists around sex work has caused many of the workers to fear going to law enforcement 
• Contributes greatly to the insidious nature of human trafficking

• The best thing the average person could do is learn to recognize the signs of sex trafficking
• Unstable living conditions
• Imbalanced power dynamics with the employer
• Abuse, threats, or clear signs of manipulation