Protecting Sex Trafficking Victims Through Expungement and Vacatur Statutes: Will Virginia Join the Rest of the Nation?

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Ernie Walton
Keyword(s):  
Sex Trafficking ◽  
Trafficking Victims

Trauma Bonding Perspectives From Service Providers and Survivors of Sex Trafficking: A Scoping Review

2021 ◽  
pp. 152483802098554
Author(s):  
Kaitlin Casassa ◽  
Logan Knight ◽  
Cecilia Mengo
Keyword(s):  
Scoping Review ◽  
Sex Trafficking ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Western Country ◽  
Positive Interactions ◽  
Self Blame ◽  
Key Characteristics ◽  
Trafficking Victims ◽  
Trauma Bonding ◽  
Prior Trauma

A trauma bond is an emotional attachment between an abuser and victim. Trauma bonds in sex trafficking compel victims to submit to continued exploitation and protect the trafficker. This scoping review examines trauma bonds in sex trafficking situations, its conceptualizations, and key characteristics. Ten databases were searched using sex trafficking AND trauma bonding–related terms; sex trafficking AND Stockholm syndrome, attachment, coercion, and manipulation. Articles were included if they featured trauma bonding, were published in English after 2013, or featured sex trafficking victims or traffickers in a Western country. Fifteen articles were included. The features of trauma bonding identified in these articles were (1) imbalance of power that favors trafficker, (2) traffickers’ deliberate use of positive and negative interactions, (3) victim’s gratitude for positive interactions and self-blame for the negative, and (4) victim’s internalization of perpetrator’s view. We also identified four aspects related to trauma bonding: (1) prior trauma made victims vulnerable, (2) victim’s feelings of love remained even after exiting trafficking, (3) love is why victims do not prosecute traffickers, and (4) traffickers’ intentional cultivation of the trauma bond. No article indicated how trauma bonds could be severed and replaced with healthy attachments. These findings reveal the need for practitioners and law enforcement and criminal justice professionals to address trauma bonding in both trafficking and posttrafficking situations. The findings also represent potential targets for urgently needed interventions that promote the replacement of trauma bonds with healthy attachments.

scholarly journals "You Are Never Truly Free" Social Stigma in India and its Impact Upon Rehabilitation, Reintegration and Advocacy for Survivors of Sex Trafficking

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Sumu Diya Mukesh
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Human Trafficking ◽  
Gender Discrimination ◽  
Sex Trafficking ◽  
Social Stigma ◽  
Vulnerable Groups ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
Trafficking Victims

<p>This research examines how social stigmas related to sex work and sexual activity in India contribute to the creation of environments conducive to gender discrimination and the erosion of female rights. It seeks to understand, through the work of anti-trafficking staff and the lived experience of sex trafficking survivors in Kolkata, how this subsequently impacts survivors' ability to be successfully rehabilitated and reintegrated into their communities. Human trafficking directly limits the human rights and freedoms which development aims to facilitate and realise; it is fundamentally a development concern. Violations of human rights are a cause and a consequence of trafficking in persons, making their universal promotion and protection relevant to anti-trafficking. Females constitute 80 per cent of all sex trafficking victims, demonstrating that it is a significantly gendered crime. India is home to 40 per cent of the estimated global slave population, and operates as a destination, transit and origin country for all forms of human trafficking.   This research involved semi-structured interviews focused on experiences and understandings of social stigma with eight staff of the anti-trafficking NGO Sanlaap, one staff member of a partnering Government-run shelter home, and one focus group with eight sex trafficking survivors. Data were analysed thematically through concepts of human rights, social stigma, gender discrimination and vulnerability.  The results indicated that prioritising the protection and promotion of their human rights was integral to Sanlaap's success in rehabilitating and reintegrating survivors. This research, therefore, reinforces conceptual links between human rights violations and sex trafficking, and argues that preventative action needs to have a more central role in current anti-trafficking efforts. The results demonstrate that stigma is a manifestation of power, which enables the subordination and displacement of vulnerable groups, reinforces inequality and power imbalances, and continues to undermine survivor rights to reintegration. This study also highlights where there is a need to advance discourse about cultural rights and sexuality within anti-trafficking work in India, and to implement broader approaches to women's development as part of sex trafficking prevention strategies.</p>

Providing medical care for suspected human trafficking victims: Perceptions among a cohort of health care providers in Myanmar

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sybil Zachariah ◽  
Ashish Sharma ◽  
Corey B Bills ◽  
Htoo Ma (Tony) Ohn ◽  
Rebecca Walker
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Human Trafficking ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
Sex Trafficking ◽  
Healthcare Providers ◽  
Forced Labor ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Convenience Sample ◽  
Trafficking Victims

Abstract Background: Myanmar is a source country for men, women, and children who are subject to human trafficking and forced labor. Given that human trafficking and forced labor victims frequently experience physical and mental health concerns, healthcare practitioners have a unique opportunity to identify and assist victims. This study aims to understand the attitudes, perspectives, and levels of comfort for healthcare providers in caring for victims of human trafficking. It also seeks to understand the types of additional educational resources that could better equip medical personnel to improve care for survivors of human trafficking.Methods: A 20-question survey collected data anonymously from a convenience sample of healthcare providers that attended a one-day emergency care conference in Yangon, Myanmar.Results: While a significant number (70%) of medical professionals surveyed reported that they feel the problem of abuses for labor or sex in the community was "serious" or "very serious", a majority of them felt neutral or uncomfortable about identifying patients that are currently being abused in some way. Only 2% of respondents felt comfortable identifying victims of abuse. Over half of the healthcare workers surveyed indicated they would be interested in attending conferences, symposia, or lectures specific to human trafficking and receiving training in identifying victims and assisting victims of exploitation.Conclusions: Health care providers in Myanmar consider labor and sex trafficking as a significant problem in their community, but do not feel adequately trained to identify and help victims of exploitation. Given that even brief educational interventions can increase providers knowledge and self-reported recognition of human trafficking victims, there is a window of opportunity in Myanmar to provide training to currently practicing health providers.

Identifying best practices for “Safe Harbor” legislation to protect child sex trafficking victims: Decriminalization alone is not sufficient

2016 ◽  
Vol 51 ◽  
pp. 249-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth S. Barnert ◽  
Susan Abrams ◽  
Veronica F. Azzi ◽  
Gery Ryan ◽  
Robert Brook ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Best Practices ◽  
Sex Trafficking ◽  
Safe Harbor ◽  
Child Sex Trafficking ◽  
Trafficking Victims

Evaluation of a Tool to Identify Child Sex Trafficking Victims in Multiple Healthcare Settings

2018 ◽  
Vol 63 (6) ◽  
pp. 745-752 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Jordan Greenbaum ◽  
Michelle S. Livings ◽  
Betty S. Lai ◽  
Laurel Edinburgh ◽  
Peggy Baikie ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sex Trafficking ◽  
Healthcare Settings ◽  
Child Sex Trafficking ◽  
Trafficking Victims

scholarly journals "You Are Never Truly Free" Social Stigma in India and its Impact Upon Rehabilitation, Reintegration and Advocacy for Survivors of Sex Trafficking

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Sumu Diya Mukesh
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Human Trafficking ◽  
Gender Discrimination ◽  
Sex Trafficking ◽  
Social Stigma ◽  
Vulnerable Groups ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
Trafficking Victims

<p>This research examines how social stigmas related to sex work and sexual activity in India contribute to the creation of environments conducive to gender discrimination and the erosion of female rights. It seeks to understand, through the work of anti-trafficking staff and the lived experience of sex trafficking survivors in Kolkata, how this subsequently impacts survivors' ability to be successfully rehabilitated and reintegrated into their communities. Human trafficking directly limits the human rights and freedoms which development aims to facilitate and realise; it is fundamentally a development concern. Violations of human rights are a cause and a consequence of trafficking in persons, making their universal promotion and protection relevant to anti-trafficking. Females constitute 80 per cent of all sex trafficking victims, demonstrating that it is a significantly gendered crime. India is home to 40 per cent of the estimated global slave population, and operates as a destination, transit and origin country for all forms of human trafficking.   This research involved semi-structured interviews focused on experiences and understandings of social stigma with eight staff of the anti-trafficking NGO Sanlaap, one staff member of a partnering Government-run shelter home, and one focus group with eight sex trafficking survivors. Data were analysed thematically through concepts of human rights, social stigma, gender discrimination and vulnerability.  The results indicated that prioritising the protection and promotion of their human rights was integral to Sanlaap's success in rehabilitating and reintegrating survivors. This research, therefore, reinforces conceptual links between human rights violations and sex trafficking, and argues that preventative action needs to have a more central role in current anti-trafficking efforts. The results demonstrate that stigma is a manifestation of power, which enables the subordination and displacement of vulnerable groups, reinforces inequality and power imbalances, and continues to undermine survivor rights to reintegration. This study also highlights where there is a need to advance discourse about cultural rights and sexuality within anti-trafficking work in India, and to implement broader approaches to women's development as part of sex trafficking prevention strategies.</p>

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