By Katlin Swisher
Sixteen cases of human trafficking were reported in West Virginia in 2017, according to the National Human Trafficking Hotline, a hotline serving victims and survivors. This statistic seems low, even for a state with a population of 1.8 million.
While West Virginia does have a significantly lower number of cases reported than neighboring states with major metropolitan areas like Maryland, Ohio and Pennsylvania, there is no reason why the rate in West Virginia would be lower per capita than other states, according to Mike Stuart, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia. He believes human trafficking is underreported in the Mountain State, and there are many possible explanations.
“While anyone can be a victim of sex trafficking, populations that are particularly vulnerable—kids in drug-affected or abusive homes, kids with experience in the foster care or juvenile justice systems and teens and adults who are addicted to drugs—are often also populations that are less likely to self-report to law enforcement about being a victim of human trafficking,” he says. “Many victims also may not view themselves as victims. They may view their trafficker as a boyfriend, or the victim may have been trafficked by a family member and the trafficking may have seemed like normal behavior to them. Other victims may be unlikely to report trafficking due to distrust of law enforcement or authority figures or as a result of trauma bonding with their trafficker.”
Defining the Crime
To better understand how underreporting of this type of crime can happen, it’s important to understand what this crime is. Human trafficking occurs when one individual requires another to provide labor, services or commercial sex.
“The compulsion aspect is the key to trafficking—victims of trafficking are being forced by another to engage in labor, services or commercial sex,” says Stuart. “Under federal law, that compulsion is broadly defined as the use of force, fraud or coercion to compel another to engage in certain activities.”
There are two types of human trafficking under federal law: labor and sex trafficking.
Labor trafficking involves non-sexual work that is compelled by force, fraud and/or coercion. Polaris, a leader in the global fight to end modern slavery, recently published “Typology of Modern Slavery,” a report that lists all settings and industries in which victims have been identified. These included construction, agriculture, manufacturing, restaurant and food service, massage, health and beauty, forestry, domestic service and entertainment, among others.
Sex trafficking, on the other hand, includes any commercial sexual activity involving a minor under the age of 18 or commercial sexual activity with anyone, minor or adult, if the commercial sexual activity is the result of force, fraud or coercion.
“Force, fraud and coercion involve many things beyond physical violence,” says Stuart. “Some examples could include a trafficker withholding heroin or opioids to force the victim to go through painful withdrawal if they don’t do as they are told, threatening to post nude pictures of the victim online or distribute to friends and classmates or luring a minor to run away to meet the trafficker with false promises of a job or a romantic relationship.”
Any commercial sexual activity involving a minor is considered sex trafficking under federal law, and, unfortunately, minors can be particularly vulnerable to trafficking.
“Minors can be trafficked by strangers they have met online, by acquaintances or by members of their own family,” Stuart explains. “The younger the child, the more likely it is that they are being trafficked by a family member.”
Understanding the Impacts
Because adults and older teenagers who are victims of sex trafficking are subjected to force, fraud and coercion, they are more likely to be subjected to violence, sexual assault and drug use. Victims of trafficking, both minors and adults, are also at an increased risk of depression, suicide attempts and death resulting from either violence or overdose.
According to Patrick Kerr, Ph.D., associate professor of behavior medicine and psychiatry at West Virginia University and chair of the West Virginia Human Trafficking Taskforce’s Human Trafficking Activity Monitoring Committee, human trafficking affects people across a broad age range. While globally most people who are trafficked are adults, children can become victims as well, which can have lifelong effects.
“Trafficking children for either labor or sex has a horrific impact on all aspects of development—socially, physically, emotionally and cognitively,” says Kerr. “Those children remain at risk of being exploited via trafficking and other forms of exploitation as adults. People who have been trafficked are at risk of being re-trafficked even after exiting trafficking if they aren’t able to find a way to meet their basic needs in a sustainable way.”
Adults who are trafficked may also have children who are directly impacted by the trafficking situation.
“In the case of women or girls who are trafficked, these may be children who are the result of rape by the trafficker or, in the case of sex trafficking, by those who purchase them for sex,” says Kerr. “Traffickers also commonly threaten to, and actually do, harm the children of people they are trafficking as a way to coerce the victim to continue working.”
Identifying the Causes
In general, human trafficking is rooted in exploitation.
“Traffickers seek to profit from the exploitation of vulnerable individuals. This applies to labor and sex trafficking,” says Stuart. “The form of the profiting can vary. Some are trafficking to support their own drug habits, but many are simply fueled by greed and seeking to make money off the compelled services and labor of others.”
In West Virginia, the opioid epidemic also contributes to human trafficking.
“The opioid crisis is fueling human trafficking in the region, and as the crisis continues, we will likely also see human trafficking continue to grow in West Virginia,” says Stuart. “Drug addicted adults leave their children more vulnerable to traffickers. Drug addicted teens and adults are themselves at a greater risk of falling into the hands of traffickers who lure them in with promises of supporting their drug habits, and the need to support a drug habit can also drive individuals to themselves become traffickers.”
To better understand human trafficking in West Virginia, Kerr is conducting a six-year study of human trafficking’s prevalence in the state called the Mountain State Human Trafficking Mapping Project.
“It’s important to know the scope of modern slavery in our state, how prevalent it is and what types of slavery are occurring so we know how to best direct our resources to eradicate it,” he says. “Accurate estimates also allow us to know if we are making a change with any efforts to reduce trafficking.”
Addressing the Problem
To address human trafficking in the Mountain State, the West Virginia Human Trafficking Taskforce, co-chaired by the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the Southern and Northern districts of West Virginia, is developing methods to obtain more accurate reporting numbers and centralized data on the human trafficking rates and trends.
“Sex trafficking generally appears to be the more common type of human trafficking within the state, and that is driven by two different factors—the opioid crisis and the increase in the number of children in foster care,” says Stuart.
Law enforcement most frequently discovers familial human trafficking, or the selling of a family member in exchange for money, drugs or other items of value.
“Familial human trafficking is particularly difficult to uncover due to the closed nature of the family unit,” explains Stuart. “The opioid crisis has also led to a dramatic increase in the foster youth population in the state, and minors in the foster care system are at an increased risk of becoming victims of trafficking. The localized nature of familial sex trafficking and its association with the opioid crisis lead to it occurring throughout the state.”
Other types of trafficking are frequently connected to cities or other areas located along major highways.
“Any location in the state with a high transient population, ranging from low-income migrant workers to areas that have large numbers of out-of state businessmen, is also likely to see a higher rate of trafficking,” he says.
Recognizing the Signs
The task force is working to raise awareness throughout the state as to what human trafficking is and how to recognize the signs of trafficking.
Risk factors, especially for minors, include history of abuse, neglect, and trauma; low self-esteem; minimal social support; and runaway and homeless youth. Those who run away from foster care are particularly vulnerable to sex trafficking.
“Particularly with minors, if you notice concerning behavior and are a trusted adult in that child’s life, simply asking if the minor is okay can provide them with the opening they need to feel safe disclosing about trafficking,” says Stuart.
The task force is also working to create a coordinated network of victim service providers throughout the state to assist those who are rescued from trafficking situations.
Putting an end to human trafficking in the Mountain State is possible, but it will require the commitment and effort of all West Virginians, from law enforcement officers to civilians.
“Great strides are being taken to identify and end human trafficking in West Virginia, but there is still more work to be done,” says Stuart. “One of the most important steps in combatting human trafficking is for residents of West Virginia to become educated on the risk factors for human trafficking and how to recognize the signs.”
