Commercial Sexual Exploitation and Sex Trafficking
What is Commercial Sexual Exploitation?
Commercial sexual exploitation refers to any sexual activity that is traded or exchanged for something of value, or even the promise of something of value. This doesn’t just include money; it can be a place to stay, food, clothes, transportation, medications, illegal drugs, love, or anything else essential for survival.
It’s an umbrella term that encompasses activities such as pornography, web camming, bikini barista’s, stripping, exotic dancing, human trafficking, escorting, erotic massage, and street-level exploitation like prostitution. With the deceptive lure of money and even power, many of these actions are misunderstood or dismissed as choices made freely – but for countless individuals, they represent a lack of options rather than a genuine preference.
What is Sex Trafficking?
Sex trafficking is a form of human trafficking that involves the use of fraud, force, or coercion to persuade or compel victims to engage in commercial sex for the profit of the trafficker. Although victims are often transported across national borders, sex trafficking, under U.S. and international criminal law, need not involve cross-border movement. Sex trafficking is among the most common forms of human trafficking.
Local places associated with commercial sex, including strip clubs and massage parlors, can be popular spots for sex trafficking, owing to the marginal or illegal status of these venues. Additionally, places centered on transportation, including airports and truck stops, are common sites for sex trafficking and other forms of human trafficking.
Sex trafficking can affect people of all ages, races, and genders, but women and children are disproportionately affected. LGBTQ people, particularly young boys, are also disproportionately at risk.
- Traffickers use psychological coercion, manipulation, or threats against their victims
- Traffickers are often someone the victim knows and trusts
- Traffickers can be romantic partners, friends, families, or others who have a previously established relationship with the victim.
- Traffickers may have groomed victims into believing that they are willingly participating in commercial sex.
For more information, please see Human trafficking | Definition, Awareness, Tactics, Statistics, Types, Examples, & Facts | Britannica
Risk Factors for CSE or Sex Trafficking
Physical and Psychological Trauma: Chronic exposure to violence or neglect during childhood can undermine a person’s ability to establish healthy boundaries and trust.
- Child Sexual Abuse: Survivors of childhood sexual abuse are at a heightened risk of exploitation due to the long-lasting psychological impact of such trauma.
- Family Instability: Growing up in unstable or abusive households creates vulnerabilities that traffickers often exploit.
- Poverty and Housing Insecurity: Without stable housing or income, people are often forced into exploitative situations just to survive.
- Gaps in Social Services: Limited access to mental health care, addiction treatment, and support for survivors of abuse leave many without a safety net.
- Discrimination and Marginalization: LGBTQ+ individuals, people of color, and others facing systemic inequities are disproportionately affected.
- Barriers to Employment: Criminal records and lack of job opportunities force individuals into survival-based exploitation.
What Are the Barriers to Exiting?
Total reliance on the trafficker
- The trafficker provides and controls all needs such as love, food, money, shelter, etc.
- The victim may have an intense, often romantic attachment to the trafficker (trauma bond).
- For some victims, leaving the trafficker may mean returning to a life of poverty and instability. Employment options can be limited for victims in the “mainstream world” because they may lack education, work experience, etc.
Lack of Trust
- Victims often come to believe that the only person they can trust is the trafficker.
Hopelessness
- Victims battle with feelings of hopelessness connected to needing to start again without resources or support.
Stigma and discrimination
- Victims face judgment from service providers, friends and family and/or their community.
- This is internalized into shame and self-blame for their current situation.
Not seeing themselves as a victim
- A victim may not think or realize they need help due to the trauma bond they may form with the trafficker.
Previous and current trauma
- Victims may have experienced various forms of trauma throughout their lives, including poverty, neglect and abuse. That experience of trauma continues while they are being trafficked and can affect their worldview, the way they see themselves and their overall mental health.
Fear
- Fear of retaliation against themselves and/or family.
- Fear of not being believed by others.
- Fear of the unknown, including how to re-enter mainstream life.
Isolation
- Victims are often isolated from their social support network by the trafficker.
Lack of support
- Victims often don’t know where to go for help, or help isn’t available in their communities.
How We Can Help
If you or someone you know has been, or is being commercially sexually exploited or sex trafficked, help is available on our free, confidential, 24- hour hotline (888) 336-9591
You are not alone. Skagit DVSAS offers a safe, confidential, and judgment-free space for victims and survivors to share their stories and pursue healing. Our advocates are victim-centered, trauma-informed, and understand the dynamics that lead to CSE or sex trafficking, as well as the challenges in getting out. Our support and assistance to victims and survivors of CSE and sex trafficking is pressure-free and includes:
- crisis intervention and ongoing emotional support
- safety planning
- medical and legal advocacy
- information, options, and resources
- referral to other community resources
- support for family members and loved ones