By Matthew Smith
Last month, a pair of Amber Alerts led to multiple human trafficking arrests in North Carolina.
The abducted children, both 15-year-old girls, originally messaged their captors online. Although the kidnappings were unrelated, the two cases highlight the dangers of human trafficking.
Dean Duncan, a research professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Social Work, is the lead investigator for Project NO REST. Funded originally by a 2014 federal grant from the U.S. Children’s Bureau, the project increases awareness of human trafficking affecting children and youth, especially those involved in the child welfare system in North Carolina.
The project’s goals have been to reduce the number of youths trafficked and improve outcomes for those who have been trafficked.
The project brings together government agencies, organizations and interested parties to develop a comprehensive and coordinated plan that addresses human trafficking among youth.
Along with Duncan, the project team includes UNC School of Social Work Research Associate Professor C. Joy Stewart as well as representatives from the N.C. Division of Social Services and the N.C. Coalition Against Sexual Assault (NCCASA). The project received additional funding from the Governor’s Crime Commission. With those funds, faculty from the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media and the School of Government joined the project team along with additional researchers and faculty members from the School of Social Work, as well as three doctoral students and several MSW students.
Duncan highlighted additional efforts that the state has taken over the past 20 years to reduce human trafficking, including the 2004 NCCASA meeting, the creation of the Recognition, Identification, Protection, Prosecution, Liberation, and Empowerment (RIPPLE) workgroup coalition focused on ending trafficking in the state, and the 2006 UNC Carolina Women’s Center’s international conference on sex trafficking, among other efforts.
We asked Duncan to share more about Project NO REST, the changing landscape of human trafficking, and ways that parents can protect their children from human trafficking. The following transcript has been edited for clarity and length.
How has Project NO REST pursued its goals to reduce human trafficking?
Project NO REST pursued four strategies drawn from the Federal Strategic Action Plan on Services for Victims of Human Trafficking in the United States 2013-2017 (President’s Interagency Task Force, 2014).
- The first strategy was to develop an integrated, coordinated system for providing services to youth victims of human trafficking who are involved in the child welfare system.
- The second was to expand and coordinate human trafficking-related research, data and evaluation relevant to youth victims of human trafficking with a particular focus on those who are involved in the North Carolina child welfare system.
- The third was to provide training and technical assistance to state and local agencies and organizations to increase victim identification, promote outreach, and expand the availability and accessibility of services to victims.
- The fourth strategy was to promote the use of effective, culturally appropriate, trauma-informed services to improve the short- and long-term health, safety and well-being of youth victims of human trafficking who are involved in the child welfare system. The plan addresses labor trafficking as well as the commercial sexual exploitation of children and youth.
Another development from the project was the creation of several short videos about trafficking. We use these in trainings we conduct for groups interested in learning about trafficking, child welfare workers, foster parents, law enforcement, and the public in general.
In addition to the videos developed for agricultural workers and for child welfare staff, we developed a training video on trafficking in illicit massage parlors. These videos are in English, Mandarin and Korean. Several law enforcement officers use these videos in interviewing trafficked workers at the massage parlors who do not speak English well to help them understand that they have been victimized by the traffickers. These videos have been used by law enforcement agencies in several states.
What does the landscape of human trafficking in North Carolina look like and how have you seen it change since the start of Project NO REST?
Efforts to combat human trafficking have continued to grow across the state. The landscape of human trafficking is changing in terms of the increased rate of online crime, our growing awareness of labor trafficking, and the decreasing frequency of in-person trafficking and solicitation, such as individuals who are trafficked walking or standing on the corners of certain streets or locations.
We are beginning to see trafficking as a public health issue as well as a human rights issue instead of a criminal issue. From 2012 to 17, total calls from North Carolina at the National Human Trafficking Hotline increased from 430 to 854 (42% increase); there was also a corresponding increase in the number of reports of human trafficking cases (22%).
We believe that Project NO REST (and other coordinated efforts across the state) has had a significant effect in raising awareness of human trafficking in North Carolina.
What are some of the signs of human trafficking?
Trafficking is not easy to spot. I recall reading something about trafficking survivors years ago that I frequently included in presentations I made. “What does a trafficking survivor look like? Like that young woman standing in line in front of you at the grocery store or that young man in the classroom with his hand up, ready to answer a teacher’s question.”
Human trafficking is one of the most difficult crimes to spot, because victims are ordinary people. However, there are signs that can help identify yourself and others as potential trafficking victims that we include on our website.
What are some of the main motivators of human trafficking?
Traffickers engage in trafficking for profit. For some traffickers, the motivation is power or control. Sometimes it is for drugs. There are several paths that draw individuals in to being sex trafficked. One common reason is that the trafficker draws the individual into a romantic relationship. Of the individuals served by the pilot sites I mentioned earlier, more than a third were romantic partners. Slightly more than one out of eight individuals served in our pilot sites was trafficked by a family member. A smaller number were trafficked by a gang member.
Individuals who are labor trafficked are drawn in for several reasons. Many of the young individuals who are trafficked are promised one thing and wind up with another. For example, some individuals who come to the United States to work as an Au Pair find out after they arrive that the living conditions or pay is not what was promised. Similarly, some individuals who come to the U.S. as agricultural workers may be given improper or forged visa documents, are provided substandard living arrangements, and are paid less than what was agreed to. Some of those workers have to buy food and other items from their employer at high prices.
Again, the motivation of the trafficker is to get something of value. The motivation of the individual who is trafficked is frequently a better life.
How have the internet and social media changed the landscape of human trafficking?
Social media in some respects has made it easier for traffickers to contact and recruit individuals who are subsequently trafficked. The trafficker can polish his or her approach to recruit individuals. He or she can promise the land of milk and honey and appeal to the target through flattery and respect. Social media communications may allow the trafficker to identify the hopes and desires of the individual who is to be trafficked and allow the development of descriptions and promises of how that individual’s hopes will be met.
What advice can you give parents when it comes to protecting their children from human trafficking?
One approach for parents is to work on communication with their children. The child needs to be able to make some choices and perhaps learn the consequences. The child needs to be able to make those choices but be encouraged to talk to their parents before taking steps — and checking boundaries — and to keep the parent informed about what he or she learned.
While you don’t want to scare your children, they need to learn that there are some very bad people in the world and that they may be approached by one or more of them. They need to know that some of those grandmotherly types are actually wolves.
Children also need to know that if they feel unsafe or if they get into trouble that you, the parent, will help them and won’t blame them for making a mistake.
