by Kim Merrikin
January is National Human Trafficking Awareness Month. As we join the many voices raising awareness this month, we want to take some time to offer some clarity around the language we use, and help correct some common misconceptions.
Two major misconceptions that we face often at REST are that human trafficking is an overseas problem—and that for trafficking to happen, a person needs to be moved across an international or state border. Neither of these ideas is accurate. Human trafficking is a global issue impacting nearly every community—both abroad and here in our cities and towns in the United States.
“Human trafficking” is an umbrella term that includes both labor and sex trafficking. At the heart of all forms of trafficking is the exploitation of a human being for someone else’s gain. Every day at REST, we primarily (although not exclusively) focus on serving victims and survivors of the sex trade and sex trafficking.
Here is a quick primer on sex trafficking ⤵️
And here are some definitions:
Human trafficking, as defined by the United States Department of Justice (and is commonly accepted around the world), “is a crime that involves exploiting a person for labor, services, or commercial sex.” As you can see in the definition, “human trafficking” is something of an umbrella term for the two distinct types of trafficking in persons (as opposed to drugs, weapons, or other illegal goods): labor trafficking, and sex trafficking.
Labor trafficking, or “forced labor” is defined as such: The recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery. An example of labor trafficking might be an employer offering to help someone immigrate with the promise of a job, but when they arrive at their new home their employer takes/withholds their legal documents, and forces them to work for lower wages, or without wages at all, or in a context that does not meet the previously agreed upon terms.
Sex trafficking has a similar definition but adds some age nuance: Sex trafficking occurs when in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or wherein which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age.
A commercial sex act is defined by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA) as “Any sex act on account of which anything of value is given to or received by any person.” (A “sex act” could mean sexual intercourse, or “an act performed with another for sexual gratification” according to Merriam-Webster.) “Anything of value” is broad, and could mean money, a place to stay, food, clothes and accessories, drugs or substances, and countless other things.
There are individuals who have experienced labor or sex trafficking—and individuals who have experienced both. Since REST was founded, we have been serving victims and survivors of sex trafficking. Just this year, we adapted one of our programs, the REST House, to also serve individuals who have experienced only labor trafficking.
How does this influence our work at REST?
Since 2009, REST has been serving victims and survivors of sex trafficking, but our name is “Real Escape from the Sex Trade” instead of “Real Escape from Sex Trafficking”. Why? This is an important linguistic nuance. “Sex Trade” and “sexual exploitation” are defined a little more broadly than “sex trafficking”, to include individuals who haven’t necessarily been trafficked, but who have engaged in commercial sex acts. These broader terms can include things like engaging in prostitution, stripping/exotic dancing, performing in pornography, operating a phone sex hotline or webcam, or working as a bikini barista—whether the acts are induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or they’re for survival (to pay bills, get a place to stay), or they’re entirely volitional.
At REST, we serve anyone who has engaged in the sex trade or has experienced sex trafficking, regardless of age, gender identity, or how they self-identify with their own engagement in the sex trade.
It is worth noting that victims and survivors of trafficking may not identify as a victim or a survivor—so using broader language like ”sex trade” can be helpful to honor people who have experienced the sex trade by not imposing a label on them. One may identify prostitution, stripping or working at a bikini barista stand as “sex work”, another may not. (“Sex work” is typically used to describe consensual and volitional commercial sex acts—though it’s also worth noting that studies indicate that up to 90% of women engaged in the sex trade would choose something else—if they felt like they had a choice, and 80–95% report having been under the control of a pimp or trafficker at some point. Read more stats in our latest Annual Report.)
Language matters. And how someone who has been sexually exploited chooses to identify may change as they grow in understanding the manipulation, trauma, and trauma bonding they’ve experienced. It takes time and healing to be able to choose how to identify—and it’s important to honor that journey as we walk alongside survivors, however they identify at the time.