Entrapment and Enmeshment Schemes Used by Sex Traffickers

Abstract

Emerging research suggests that sex traffickers/pimps control the majority of trafficked girls in the United States. The youthfulness of these victims and their lack of psychosocial maturity severely diminish their ability to detect exploitative motives or withstand manipulation of traffickers. A review of 43 cases of sexually exploited girls involving non-relative traffickers and 10 semi-structured interviews with social service providers revealed numerous scripts and schemes used by sex traffickers to entrap and entangle victims including boyfriend/lover scripts, ruses involving debt bondage, friendship or faux-family scripts, threats of forced abortion or to take away children, and coerced co-offending. These findings inform potential prevention efforts and highlight the need for multi-systemic, victim-centered approaches to intervention.

Keywords

sex trafficking commercial sexual exploitation prostitution trauma bonding

Nature of the Problem

Preventing and combating juvenile sex trafficking (JST) are among the most vexing problems currently facing child welfare and law enforcement professionals (Halter, 2010; Mitchell, Finkelhor, & Wolak, 2010). Despite high levels of governmental action, genuine public concern, and intense media attention on the topic of sex trafficking, there exists a vacuum of information regarding this crime, its victims, and best practices for protecting victims and successfully prosecuting traffickers (Finckenauer & Schrock, 2003; Parker & Skrmetti, 2013; Reid, 2010; Saewyc & Edinburgh, 2010). In an effort to explain the dynamics of sex trafficking, a number of scholars have educed parallels and similarities between victim–perpetrator dynamics in cases of intimate partner violence with those in sex trafficking (Bullard, 2011; Farley, 2003; Kennedy, Klein, Bristowe, Cooper, & Yuille, 2007; Stark & Hodgson, 2003), noting that in both the victim is isolated from outside support and controlled physically and emotionally. Both batterers and traffickers gain control over victims via social isolation, terrify victims through the use of physical and sexual violence, control victims’ money and work, and produce pornography to blackmail and shame victims (Stark & Hodgson, 2003).

Supporting these comparisons across types of exploitive relationships, emerging research has suggested that traffickers often use recruiters to spy out needy youth by frequenting their typical locations and control the majority of prostituted girls in the United States (Albanese, 2007; Gray, 2005; Vieth & Ragland, 2005). Initially, sex traffickers or pimps may present themselves as empathetic and compassionate boyfriends who offer to help minors escape from an abusive home or from harsh living conditions on the streets (Anderson, Coyle, Johnson, & Denner, 2014; Parker & Skrmetti, 2013). A maltreated minor can easily be seduced by the trafficker’s fraudulent promise of the love, safety, and attention (Dorias & Corriveau, 2009; Hanna, 2002; Reid & Jones, 2011). The majority of research regarding risk factors for victimization in JST has underscored the vulnerability of exploited girls, noting that many have experienced child sexual abuse, physical abuse, and abandonment (e.g., Estes & Weiner, 2005; Reid, 2012, 2014; Reid & Piquero, 2014; Tyler, Hoyt, Whitbeck, & Cauce, 2001). The colluding effects of a childhood marred by neglect and/or abuse coupled with the calculated exploitative methods of sex traffickers facilitate the creation of an emotional connection, or trauma bonding, between the traumatized minor and the exploitive trafficker (Parker & Skrmetti, 2013; Reid, Haskell, Dillahunt-Aspillaga, & Thor, 2013). Dutton and Painter (1993) hypothesized that two conditions are necessary for victim–abuser trauma bonding to occur: (a) a severe power imbalance causing the victim to feel increasingly helpless and vulnerable and (b) intermittent abuse that alternates with positive or neutral interactions. As a result of these conditions, trauma bonding develops when the abuser instills terror in the victim as well as gratitude for being allowed to live (Dutton & Painter, 1993; James, 1994).

The young age of these victims and their commensurate lack of psychosocial maturity cast doubt on their ability to detect exploitative motives or withstand manipulation of sex traffickers or recruiters (Gardner & Steinberg, 2005). Due to inexperience and naiveté, minors are especially susceptible to sexual coercion and entrapment in JST (Estes & Weiner, 2005). Hanna (2002) emphasized that adolescent girls are particularly vulnerable to such exploitation due to societal norms, by which adolescent boys and men usually take the sexual initiative and young females’ insecurity and sexual inexperience may lead them into disparaging sexual arrangements. Other researchers report that gang members malevolently use promises of love and of a better life to seduce young girls and then persuade these vulnerable youth to earn money for the gang via prostitution (Dorias & Corriveau, 2009). Gang members have coined a term for this manipulative recruitment technique, dubbing it love bombing (Dorias & Corriveau, 2009). Annitto (2011) quoted a convicted sex trafficker as stating that “with young girls, you promise them heaven, and they’ll follow you to hell” (p. 14). Inevitably, sex traffickers/pimps use girls’ dependency on them to coerce them into prostitution (Albanese, 2007; Anderson et al., 2014; Kennedy et al., 2007; Parker & Skrmetti, 2013; Priebe & Suhr, 2005; Raphael, Reichert, & Powers, 2010). Far different from the “pretty woman” myth of prostitution, numerous researchers have documented that once a minor is entrapped a grooming process called “seasoning” produces trauma bonding to the sex trafficker/pimp (Herman, 1992, p. 7, see also Dalla, 2006; Farley, 2003; Parker & Skrmetti, 2013).

In studies focused on other types of sex offenders, such as serial sex offenders and child molesters, researchers have examined grooming processes and deconstructed crime scripts used by offenders for the purpose of informing prevention strategies (Beauregard, Proulx, Rossmo, Leclerc, & Allaire, 2007; Leclerc, Wortley, & Smallbone, 2011). With application to sex trafficking, Brayley, Cockbain, and Laycock (2011) documented patterns in the crime scripts and grooming processes used by child sex traffickers in the United Kingdom by reviewing 25 police case files of internal or domestic child sex trafficking involving 36 victims. The grooming techniques used by child sex traffickers in the United Kingdom to recruit and entrap girls included flattering, building trust by filling the role of boyfriend, normalizing sex by exposing girls to pornographic material, isolating girls from other sources of social support, disorienting girls by giving them drugs and alcohol or by moving them from place to place, and intimidating girls through the use of psychological and physical abuse (Brayley et al., 2011).

Beyond the need for greater comprehension of how traffickers initially recruit or entrap minors in sex trafficking, little information currently exists regarding how sex traffickers keep minors enmeshed in sex trafficking despite opportunities or attempts to exit. Social service providers and law enforcement personnel report that trafficked girls will commonly try to escape from custody at the first opportunity and return to the trafficker exploiting them (Geist, 2012; Reid, 2010, 2013). Trafficked youth’s dysfunctional attachment to traffickers hinders identification of victims, impedes prosecution of traffickers by ensuring that victims will not cooperate with law enforcement, and perpetuates exploitation (Reid, 2010, 2013).

In light of the need for greater understanding of this crime, its victims, and best practices for protecting victims and successfully prosecuting traffickers, the purpose of the current research was (a) to advance understanding of the tactics employed by sex traffickers to recruit or initially entrap U.S. minors, (b) to identify tactics of sex traffickers and/or specific circumstances that facilitate prolonged or repeat exploitation and prevent youth from exiting, and (c) to apply the crime script approach to JST to inform prevention. An anticipated benefit of this study is the collection of empirically based knowledge to inform prevention education materials for at-risk youth that expose the tactics used by traffickers to entrap young victims thereby countering perilous myths propagated by popular culture glamorizing the pimp/ho relationship (Anderson et al., 2014; Parker & Skrmetti, 2013).

Method

Study Design and Data Collection

An exploratory multi-case study design using purposive sampling with cross validation was used for this study (Patton, 2002). Replication within case study design is generally used to provide a more reliable and meaningful theoretical framework of a particular phenomenon (Patton, 2002; Yin, 1989). For the current study, the use of multi-case research design was expected to reveal core patterns in the relationship dynamics of traffickers and victims, and yet also capture variation due to individual differences (Patton, 2002). By examining many individual cases, both patterns and variations could be uncovered in the entrapment strategies used by sex traffickers and sex traffickers’ tactics and specific circumstances that facilitate long-term exploitation.

Similar to the study by Brayley et al. (2011), the primary data for this study were drawn from the review of case files of trafficked girls gathered from social service agencies providing case management and counseling to trafficked female youth located in two large metropolitan areas in Florida. In addition, to provide validation and additional insight into the data found in the case files, service providers with in-depth knowledge of the documented cases were interviewed regarding the entrapment strategies used by sex traffickers and sex traffickers’ tactics and specific circumstances facilitating long-term exploitation (see Appendix). The interviews lasted from 45 to 90 minutes. The review of the case files and interviews were conducted between July 2012 and May 2013. The protocols of the study were approved by the Institutional Review Board of the University of South Florida and the University of Massachusetts Lowell.

Case records of trafficked girls included de-identified information from psychosocial assessments, records of intake interviews completed by the participating agencies, law enforcement or guardian report of circumstances surrounding the trafficking exploitation, and results of psychological testing completed by the youth. In addition, study data were collected from social service providers with direct and extensive experience assisting trafficked youth. The purposive sampling of case records of trafficked youth ensured several key research and ethical prerequisites. Purposive sampling is frequently used when the probability of selection for all members of a population is unknowable, such as with homeless youth (Hagan & McCarthy, 1997). Most importantly, information regarding the characteristics of the relationship between youth and sex traffickers had been previously collected. By interviewing social service providers engaged in assisting these youth and reviewing case records, the information needed to answer the key research questions was gathered without any additional risk to the youth.

Analysis of Case File and Interview Data

All of the data from the case files and interviews related to the circumstances surrounding youth initial entrapment in trafficking, the tactics of sex traffickers, and youth explanation of their situation and relationship with the trafficker were reviewed, coded, and synthesized. To facilitate this analytic process, this study utilized template analysis (TA), a systematic method for thematically analyzing qualitative data collected based on the clustering of responses among a priori designated and/or data-driven templates (King, 1998). Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel were used to support the coding and organization of the study data (Leahy, 2004; Taylor-Powell & Renner, 2003). This software is widely used and provided the most efficient and convenient way to synthesize the data. Along with the analysis of the interview and case file data, the demographic information contained in the case files were assessed using SPSS to gain greater understanding of the characteristics of the study sample.

The categorization of the data began with a priori themes based on common features of trauma bonding in exploitative relationships underscoring trafficker promises and provisions as well as trafficker intimidation and coercive tactics. The data from the case files were synthesized first and the data collected from the semi-structured interviews with social service providers were used to add to or validate the case file data. If these data were encompassed by the a priori themes, they were so coded. If not, new themes were created or existing themes were modified. A final data-derived template was used to categorize and frame the study findings, providing data-based evidence for any interpretations or conclusions (King, 1998). In addition, the frequency of the reporting of specific sex trafficking tactics or circumstances were rated as few (i.e., reported in at least 1-2 cases and in at least 1-2 interviews), some (reported in at least 3-9 cases and in 3-5 interviews), many (reported in 10 or more cases and in 6 or more interviews).

Results

Sample Demographics

The full sample of cases files contained information regarding 79 female youth who were minors at the time of their initial exploitation in sex trafficking and who received social services between 2007 and 2012 from three agencies located in two metropolitan areas in Florida. Descriptive statistics drawn from the full sample and from the subsamples of cases based on the availability and type of trafficker data are provided in Table 1. For the full sample of 79 girls, initial JST occurred when the girls were between the ages of 4 and 17 years old (M = 14.25; SD = 2.41). No significant differences were found between the average age of initial exploitation for the full sample and the study subsample with reported information regarding non-relative traffickers (see Table 1). Although not a primary focus of the current study, it is important to note that the average age of those trafficked by family members was younger (M = 11.85; SD = 4.12) than the average age of initial exploitation in JST of the full sample. The range of ages at initial exploitation of those exploited by non-relative traffickers was narrower (range = 11-17 years) in comparison with the full sample (range = 4-17 years) and in comparison with the smaller subset of youth who were trafficked by family members (range = 4-16 years). The median age at initial exploitation in JST for the full sample and the subsample of girls trafficked by non-relative traffickers was 15 years, whereas the median age for those trafficked by family members was 13 years. Fifteen years of age was the most commonly reported age of initial JST in the full sample and all subsamples. The race/ethnic distribution of the full sample was 43% African American, 32% Hispanic, 13% Caucasian, 9% Haitian, and 4% of other races/ethnicities. The race/ethnic distribution was similar for the study subsamples (see Table 1).

Table 1.

Descriptive Statistics of Study Sample and Subsamples.

Demographics	M (SD)/%
Age at initial exploitation
Full study sample (N = 79)	14.25 (2.41)
Subsample with data on trafficker (n = 61)	14.13 (2.59)
Subsample with data on non-relative trafficker (n = 43)	14.67 (1.48)
Race/ethnicity
Full sample	African American–43%
	Hispanic–32%
	Caucasian–13%
	Haitian–9%
	Other–4%
Subsample with data on trafficker	African American–43%
	Hispanic–36%
	Caucasian–13%
	Haitian–3%
	Other–5%
Subsample with data on non-relative trafficker	African American–43%
	Hispanic–34%
	Caucasian–14%
	Haitian–7%
	Other–2%
Age of trafficker
Full sample	—
Subsample with data on trafficker	25.13 (8.46)
Subsample with data on non-relative trafficker	24.81 (8.56)
Gender of trafficker
Full sample	—
Subsample with data on trafficker	Male–67%
Subsample with data on trafficker	Female–33%
Subsample with data on non-relative trafficker	Male–79%
Subsample with data on non-relative trafficker	Female–21%

Of those cases with information available regarding the gender of the traffickers (n = 61), 67% reported the gender of the trafficker as male, whereas 33% were female. When considering only non-relative traffickers (n = 43), the percentage of male traffickers was slightly higher (79% vs. 67%). Reported ages of traffickers ranged from 15 to 45 years (M = 25.13; SD = 8.46). The reported ages of traffickers within the subsample including only non-relative traffickers were slightly younger (M = 24.81; SD = 8.56). Three of the traffickers were reported to be minors and all three juvenile traffickers were non-relative traffickers. One 15-year-old girl-trafficker was considered a girlfriend by a 15-year-old trafficked girl. Two 16-year-old boy-traffickers were described as boyfriends by two 14-year-old trafficked girls. Overall, the types of relationships between trafficked girls and non-relative traffickers were distributed as 28% stranger, 28% boyfriend, 10% girlfriend, 29% relative, 3% drug dealer, and 2% employer. The categories of “boyfriend” and “girlfriend” indicate that the trafficked girl considered the trafficker to be a boyfriend or girlfriend before initially being exploited in JST. The category of “stranger” was selected for traffickers who were not considered a boyfriend or girlfriend by the exploited girl at the time of the initial exploitation. In addition, those categorized as strangers did not have any other type of relationship with the victim prior to exploitation such as employer, drug dealer, and so on. When considering the kinds of relationships reported by the girls who were exploited by relatives, mothers were most commonly reported, followed by male cousins, uncles, and fathers.

Based on the review of the case files, it was determined that not all case files contained detailed information regarding the entrapment strategies used by sex traffickers and sex traffickers’ tactics or specific circumstances facilitating long-term exploitation. As noted, 18 cases were facilitated by family members or caregivers and in these cases the interactions between trafficker and victim were qualitatively different from cases involving non-family traffickers, particularly when examining trafficker coercive tactics. Therefore, the results reported in this study were drawn from the 43 cases of youth with detailed information on their exploitation by traffickers who were not family members. While 43 cases included information regarding initial entrapment in sex trafficking involving non-relative traffickers, not all youth experienced prolonged exploitation. Therefore, a smaller number of cases (n = 25) included information regarding sex traffickers’ tactics and specific circumstances facilitating long-term exploitation.

Entrapment in Sex Trafficking

As noted, 43 case files contained specific information related to the study’s key research questions regarding youth entrapment in sex trafficking. All of the interviews with social service providers contained detailed information related to youth entrapment. Tactics resembling the coercive and controlling techniques commonly observed in other types of exploitative relationships such as intimate partner violence were used by sex traffickers to recruit youth and to enmesh them in trafficking. Entrapment schemes with specific examples and the observed frequency of the employment of each scheme within the case files and reported in the interviews are displayed in Table 2.

Table 2.

Entrapment Schemes of Sex Traffickers.

Entrapment schemes	Examples of trafficker schemes	Frequency^a
Flatter or romance	Show lots of love, sweet talk Show off wealth by taking on dates to nicer restaurants, taking youth to amusement parks, or giving youth luxuries or attention that they have never had	Many Many
Become ally/build trust	Help run away from home or group home Help avoid police/authorities Provide place to stay Provide drugs	Many Many Many Some
Normalize sex	Talk/joke about sex/prostitution, ask about sexual experiences Have sex with and take sexually explicit pictures of girl Expose to pornography Recruit new girls by using girlfriends thereby normalizing new experience	Many Many Some Many
Isolate	Take to another city or out of state Control cell phone and social media use	Many Many
Abduct and drug	Give drugs, abduct, hold hostage in drug house	Some
“Bait and switch”	Give youth large sum of money without obligation, then return days later demanding repayment and threatened to kill girls and their families if not repaid Helped youth run away/travel then withheld food and cell phone and threaten if she does not cooperate Abandoned U.S. unaccompanied foreign minor provided shelter by boss (store keeper) only if youth agreed to prostitute	Few Some Few
Prey on intellectually disabled youth	Pick up on street, at bus stopYouth unaware of exploitation, unable to distinguish boyfriend from john	Many
Persuaded by “boyfriend/gang”	Persuaded by boyfriend/gang member	Some

Frequency coded: Many (10+ reports, 6+ interviews); Some (3-9 reports, 3-5 interviews); Few (1-2 cases, 1-2 interview).

Romancing and spending money

Romancing, buying gifts, and spending money on young adolescent girls were common methods used by sex traffickers to persuade them to engage in prostitution. Several girls described being in love with their traffickers or feeling as if they were a family. For example, the case file of one 17-year-old girl reported that this youth did not want to testify against her trafficker because she loved him. When the youth was asked what her trafficker does to make her feel loved, she reported that “he talks sweet to her and takes her out on dates.” Another girl in foster care reported that

she would run away from her foster care placement to bars to meet her boyfriend (trafficker) and johns [i.e., buyers of sex] because she liked the attention and money. She had many ‘boyfriends’ including one older man who would take her to get her nails and hair done in exchange for sex but she did not realize this was prostitution or that it was dangerous until later.

Another 13-year-old girl reported “being in the life since age 11” and that “she and her trafficker worked as a team or like a family and helped each other.”

Built dependence and/or trust by helping them

Youth reported that traffickers gained their trust by taking care of them or helping them out of a difficult situation. One youth reported that “she was homeless and has been living in a shelter with her pimp since she was 15 years old.” Another adolescent in foster care reported that “she was forced to have sex for her pimp because she needed him to take her places and needed a place to live.” A 15-year-old living at a local hotel denied having a pimp but admitted that she “exchanges sex for money to pay this guy who got her the hotel room.” A 17-year-old with a 4-year-old child reported that her trafficker is “her best friend” who is 2 years older than her and that she is “in the life because she wants to provide clothes and personal items for herself and her son.” Another girl reported that “she was brought into the life by her friend in order to get money or drugs.” A 16-year-old was being pressured daily by her abusive and mentally ill father to help earn money for the family and “her friend told her that she could earn money as an escort . . . she had sex with older men for a pimp who let her keep a percentage of the money.” Others reported that traffickers picked them up after they ran away from home or from foster care placement. Traffickers provided protection for them from violence by staying in an adjacent hotel room when they had sex with johns.

Normalized/glamorized engaging in prostitution

Traffickers encouraged and normalized engaging in prostitution. A key way this normalization seemed to occur was through traffickers’ use of peers to recruit peers. Many girls reported that they were initially brought to a trafficker or recruited by a girlfriend. One 16-year-old whose trafficker was another female adolescent reported that “her friend asked her about all of her previous boyfriends and sexual experiences and then talked about setting up dates for her as if they were going to go on a double date together.” However, these double dates involved meeting with strangers and getting paid for sex. Another foreign-born youth in foster care with no friends or family

reported that another girl who resided at the same foster home approached her and asked her if she wanted friends and wanted to make money. She did not know what she was getting herself into and gradually adapted to the environment.

One girl (possible recruiter) reported that she had been “addicted to meth since 14 years of age. She brought her new best friend . . . to score drugs and they gave blow jobs to 15-25 strange men one after the other. Her friend was assaulted by the men.” Another youth described how her boyfriend, who eventually became her trafficker, “joked with her one evening about how many calls she would get in an hour if she posted a picture of herself on an internet site.” The next day “he asked her if she was serious about trying that.” Pornographic photos of the trafficked adolescents were reportedly collected during numerous police stings, evidence that traffickers were not only prostituting youth but also exploiting youth by creating pornography. Finally, traffickers glorified the benefits of selling sex by telling youth that being paid for sex was evidence of their worth and a smart way to make money, with comments like “other girls are stupid and get used by having sex for free but you are better than that. You are special and beautiful—men should pay to be with you.”

Isolated

Cases included information regarding traffickers taking girls to other cities and states. One victim of gang-related sexual exploitation, “ran away with her boyfriend to another friend’s house where she met an older man (pimp) with whom she traveled to (various cities)”. Another 13-year-old met her trafficker in one state and ran with him to another state for 3 months before being picked up in a police sting operation. Traffickers also isolated youth by controlling their access to cell phones and social media.

Abducted and/or drugged

One youth reported that

she skipped school when she was 14 years old due to the death of her father and met an older male who invited her to his house. There she drank alcohol with several men who raped her, after which she was taken to another house and raped.

Another 15-year-old reported that she ran away when she was 13 years old and was “picked up by a pimp who took her to [city 300 miles from her home], forced her to prostitute, and kept all of the money.” Another youth (age unknown) in 11th grade was reportedly “found in the streets with little clothing” after she was picked up “from a bus stop by a man, beaten, driven to downtown area and forced to have sex with men for money.” Another Hispanic youth was “kidnapped in Michigan and taken to Mexico, prostituted, and sexually assaulted by the trafficker. She was in Mexico for 5 months and broke free.” Another case involved a 16-year-old who was “kidnapped, sexually assaulted, and kept hostage by unknown males for several days.”

Coerced by financial con/debt bondage

One youth reported that her trafficker posted her pictures on the internet and then demanded payment for all of the related expenses. Three younger adolescent girls ran away together and were given a very large sum of money

by a male who told them they did not have to pay him back; the male returned days later and asked for his money. When the girls told him they did not have the money, he told them that they had to work it off. When they did not produce, he became physical and threatened to kill them and their families.

Recruited by “boyfriend/girlfriend” gang member

Two of the three cases involving juvenile traffickers (one female and one male) were associated with gang activity. One 14-year-old ran away with her boyfriend (16-year-old gang member) who “told her to go to another house where she was raped, taken from there to another home where she was given Xanax and raped (the kidnapping lasted for several days.)” A 15-year-old girl was the primary trafficker of another 15-year-old girl whom she met and encouraged to run away after placement in a group home for abused children. The girl-trafficker exploited the victim with the assistance of her 18-year-old boyfriend who was a known gang member. Another female youth who is a gang member (age unknown) in ninth grade reported “an older black male took her to a house in . . . for one week and she was gang raped (forced to give oral sex to many boys).”

Manipulation due to intellectual disability

Fourteen cases involved youth with substantial intellectual challenges and the circumstances surrounding the entrapment and enmeshment in sex trafficking of these youth were markedly different from cases of sex trafficking of other youth. These youth were commonly targeted and picked up by sex traffickers when leaving home or while waiting for the school bus. One 15-year-old girl with an intellectual disability was reported to have been sexually exploited by more than 400 men. This girl was unaware and not able to understand that there was a difference between a boyfriend and a john.

Enmeshment in Sex Trafficking

Twenty-five cases contained information regarding youth enmeshment in sex trafficking. All of the interviews with social service providers provided detailed information related to youth prolonged enmeshment in JST. Table 3 includes specific examples of each enmeshment scheme documented in the case files and reported in the study interviews as well as the relative frequency of its use by traffickers with youth in this sample.

Table 3.

Enmeshment Tactics of Sex Traffickers.

Enmeshment schemes	Examples of trafficker schemes	Frequency^a
Shame/blackmail	Convince that no one else will have her now, can do nothing else Post photos on internet (without consent)Blackmail with photos, threaten to show family	Many Many Some
Obligation	Convince that they rescued her from worse Loyalty becomes utmost virtue “don’t want to be a snitch”	Some Many
Make complicit in crime	Recruitment of girlfriends Force to assist with “business” or other crimes (i.e., shoplifting lingerie for photos) Force to assist in controlling/abusing other girls	Many Some Some
Pregnancy/child	Pregnancy/child with trafficker or other	Many
Isolate	Carry/take cell phone, change number/Facebook password Hold against will (in home with cameras, motion sensors, and alarms that alert the trafficker’s cell phone, or lock up)	Many Some
Financial control	Keep all or most of money, control possessions	Many
Intimidate	Threaten to take/harm child, sell baby, put up for adoption Force to watch rapes of others and threaten rape Show weapons, threaten at gun point Threaten with potential of arrest, to kick out, to abandon, to return to foster care Threaten to kill them or family members Routinely beat and rape (by trafficker) Get pregnant, beat until miscarry, or force abortion Threatened by gangInjure—shot, tattooed, burned	Some Many Many Many Some Many Few Few Many
Provide hope, connection, and faux family	Hold out promise of return to former “success” or being the best girl again Convince they are “the special one”No one else can understand you/me/us and what we have been through	Some Many Many

Frequency coded: Many (10+ reports, 6+ interviews); Some (3-9 reports, 3-5 interviews); Few (1-2 cases, 1-2 interview).

Shame and blackmail

Numerous youth reported that traffickers would demean them and make statements such as “What else are you going to do? Work at McDonald’s?” Some youth reported feelings of shame and low self-worth. Several youth stated that sexually explicit photos were posted online by traffickers without their consent. Others worried about their family members seeing these photos or finding out about their arrests for prostitution. One youth stated that johns’ evaluations of her services were posted online on a website dedicated to johns’ evaluations of prostitutes. Also, if the residence was equipped with security cameras in the bedrooms, traffickers would watch the victims having sex with johns. While the traffickers stated that their purpose in watching them was to protect them from violence by the john, the victims reported this experience as humiliating and demeaning.

Obligation

One 13-year-old youth claimed that the trafficker “never abused her and she feels bad for getting him arrested.” When asked what she lost through JST, she replied “my friend because I got him arrested.” One 17-year-old youth stated “that she is scared of him, doesn’t want to go back to prostitution but loves him and doesn’t want to testify against him.” Ratting out or snitching on a trafficker becomes the ultimate act of betrayal.

Make complicit in crime

Victims described being compelled to shoplift, for example, stealing lingerie needed to take sexually explicit photos to post online. One youth reported shoplifting lingerie because she was hungry. She had not been given any food (although others had food to eat) and she was told she could not eat until she earned money. Another commonly reported occurrence was victims being forced to physically help and watch the trafficker beat and rape other girls to avoid being beaten or raped themselves.

Control by threatening pregnancy/child

Twelve girls exploited by non-relative traffickers reported a pregnancy and 9 girls reported having at least 1 child. Several instances of traffickers using children or pregnancy to control victims were described. A 17-year-old reported that her pimp uses their “baby to prostitute her.” Another youth reported that her pimp “wanted to get her pregnant and was restricting her from getting the morning after pill.” Traffickers wanted to get girls pregnant for several reasons. Some johns will reportedly pay more for sex with pregnant girls due to sexual fetishes. And once a girl was pregnant, she would become more compliant out of fear of losing her child from a beating. Traffickers would threaten abortion, selling the baby, or giving the child up for adoption if the youth did not comply. Reports were also given of traffickers keeping the trafficked girls from seeing their child until they had earned their “quota” (i.e., a set sum of money) for the day.

Isolate

Controlling communication with others was one way that traffickers kept victims isolated, that is, “pimp changes phone numbers” or “changes passwords” on social media. Traffickers also kept and/or checked victims’ cell phones for calls or messages. Trafficking victims reported that traffickers did this to make sure they were not earning money on the side or refusing or not responding to johns’ solicitations for sex. In addition, several youth mentioned staying in residences with security cameras inside and outside the residence that were used to watch them, making sure they were where they were supposed to be or to observe their interaction with johns. Several victims mentioned that the homes where they lived had alarm/security systems installed that immediately alerted the trafficker if they tried to leave the house without permission. In this way, the trafficker kept them confined without locking the doors or barring the windows.

Financially control

Numerous cases included girls’ statements affirming that traffickers/pimps “kept all the money” or “pimp takes care of her basic daily needs while she prostitutes and turns all of the money over to him.” Not all youth explicating reported that the trafficker kept all money; several reported that earning money kept them in “the life,” noting that they could earn US$500/day in one particular city and US$1000/day in a different city. Youth with children highlighted the pull of money and potential earnings more often than those without children.

Intimidate

One youth was described in a report from law enforcement as having been “raped repeatedly and had scars all over her body.” One 15-year-old girl stated that she was “routinely assaulted both physically and sexually by pimp” and “pimp threatens to kill her when he gets out” [of prison]. Another homeless 17-year-old youth with no family in the United States reported that “pimp would threaten to kick her out of the home and leave her on the streets if she did not work.”

Provide hope, connection, and faux family

Several youth who reported their traffickers as “very abusive” also reported that they “loved their pimps.” One 17-year-old youth reported “that she is scared of him, doesn’t want to go back to prostitution but loves him and doesn’t want to testify against him.” Another victim reported that her trafficker would say things like, “you and I are the only ones who understand each other and what we have been through.” Even traffickers with numerous victims working for them at one time were skilled at making each victim feel particularly special and irreplaceable. While some youth described those they worked with as a “team” or a “family,” others described competition and jealousy between victims that perpetuated suspicion and distrust of each other, with the trafficker identified as the only person they could trust.

Discussion

The results of this study are similar to findings report by Brayley et al. (2011) regarding the grooming techniques of child sex traffickers in the United Kingdom. Sex traffickers used familiar scripts to entrap youth including flattering or romancing the youth, building trust, normalizing sex and selling sex, isolating the youth from all other forms of support, intimidation, and disorienting the youth by moving them to unfamiliar places. Unique from Brayley et al. (2011), through this study it was found that sex traffickers entrapped youth by becoming their ally against authority figures and caregivers, intimidating girls by threatening to end a pregnancy or take a child, and by making the youth a “co-conspirator” with them in their criminal operation. Less commonly observed were “bait and switch” financial entrapment schemes. The manipulation and sexual exploitation of intellectually disabled youth by sex traffickers was also a critical finding of this study.

As researchers have previously noted, these entrapment and enmeshment tactics used by sex traffickers shared several commonalities with exploitive tactics of batterers such as controlling victims through violence, shame, and intimidation (Stark & Hodgson, 2003). Moreover, it is interesting to note that the exploitive tactics used by sex traffickers resemble grooming and entrapment scripts commonly implemented by serial sex offenders and child molesters. Serial sex offenders often use manipulative tactics including romance, seduction, and/or tricks to create opportunity for sexual assault (Beauregard et al., 2007). Child molesters also utilize various ploys to gain their victim’s trust and gradually desensitize the victim to sexual contact (Leclerc, Proulx, & Beauregard, 2009). Money, gifts, drugs, alcohol, and pornography may be used by sex offenders to decrease victim resistance and inhibitions (Beauregard et al., 2007; Reid, Beauregard, Fedina, & Frith, 2014). Similar to the sex traffickers in this study, other types of sex offenders disorient victims by transporting them to unfamiliar places where they are more vulnerable to assault (Beauregard et al., 2007).

These findings regarding the tactics of sex traffickers can be used to inform prevention efforts. For example, one potential prevention strategy arising from the study findings may involve arranging regular supervision and/or installing surveillance cameras at school bus stops or other public areas where youth congregate to prevent the recruitment or exploitation of vulnerable girls, particularly intellectually disabled youth, by sex traffickers. In addition, training for caregivers, social service providers, and juvenile justice professionals engaged with or caring for highly vulnerable youth is needed to increase awareness of the risk and common entrapment strategies used by sex traffickers (Geist, 2012; Reid, 2010, 2013). Most importantly, exposing sex traffickers’ grooming tactics by crafting empirically informed psychoeducational curriculum for classes or small groups could prevent the manipulation of adolescents in sexually exploitive relationships, thereby preventing the devastating physical and emotional consequences. Teaching youth, particularly high-risk young girls, how to distinguish between unhealthy and healthy relationships may provide them with the knowledge and skills they need to withstand the manipulation of a sex trafficker. One alternative method for disseminating JST prevention education that has been widely used to prevent dating violence and domestic violence may also be applied to prevent victimization in JST. Specifically, online self-screening relationship quizzes could promote awareness of the early warning signs for exploitation in sex trafficking and connect youth to available services (Cutter-Wilson & Richmond, 2011).

The study findings related to youth enmeshment in sex trafficking can be used to inform intervention and generate avenues of assistance that may benefit youth exploited by sex traffickers. Detected routes of enmeshment or prolonged exploitation in sex trafficking include sex trafficker intimidation, distress regarding pregnancy and/or caring for children, coercion into co-offending with sex trafficker, and the creation of a faux family. These offender tactics and victim circumstances within JST closely parallel previously observed offender–victim dynamics within intimate partner violence, child abuse, hostage situations, and cults resulting in victims developing paradoxically strong emotional attachments to their abusers or captors (Reid et al., 2013). Such enmeshment schemes produce multi-faceted obstacles to escaping and exiting sex trafficking. Notably, the two conditions deemed necessary for trauma bonding to occur—a marked power imbalance, in which the victim increasingly feels powerless, helpless, and vulnerable, and intermittent abuse that alternates with positive or neutral interactions (Dutton & Painter, 1993)—were evident in the majority of cases of JST reviewed in this study. Therefore, the existence of trauma bonding and its lingering impact on victims of JST should not be overlooked when responding to and providing mental health treatment (Carnes, 1997; Herman, 1992). Such grooming behavior can produce intense loyalty driven by terror, creating what appears to the untrained as a willing victim (Herman, 1992). Reluctance to separate from a trafficker and repeated or prolonged exploitation may indicate the existence of a trauma bond.

Furthermore, the study findings closely align with prior research reporting multiple obstacles such as lack of education and job skills, mental health issues or drug addiction, and trafficking/pimp intimidation that obstruct those striving to exit street prostitution with few succeeding despite making numerous attempts (Baker, Dalla, & Williamson, 2010; Dalla, 2006). This study highlights the need for multi-layered, systemic intervention for sexually exploited youth that includes the provision of mental health, medical, social, legal, and vocational services. For example, solely offering mental health services while failing to offer legal protection from prosecution for crimes committed as a result of being trafficked as provided by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA; 2000) hinders victim identification, deters victim cooperation with law enforcement, and facilitates continued exploitation (Geist, 2012; Parker & Skrmetti, 2013; Reid, 2013; Reid & Jones, 2011).

Relatedly, several policy implications directly stem from the study findings. Too often victims of JST who are discovered by law enforcement continue to be arrested for prostitution resulting in the minor being further marginalized from potential sources of support (Halter, 2010; Reid, 2010). To prevent further alienation, several states have passed Safe Harbor laws that are designed to protect trafficked youth from legal prosecution and psychosocial detriments related to detention in juvenile justice facilities (Shared Hope International, 2012). However, Safe Harbor laws enacted by some states provide victims with protection from prosecution only if the victim aids law enforcement in the investigation and prosecution of the sex trafficker (Reid & Jones, 2011; Shared Hope International, 2012). Consideration of the entrapment and enmeshment tactics used by the traffickers in this study provide ample justification for adolescent victims’ fear and reluctance to assist law enforcement and testify against their traffickers. Moreover, this added prerequisite for protection from prosecution as a victim of sex trafficking is not consistent with the provisions of the TVPA (2000) that guarantees victim status and the associated benefits to all minors who are victims of sex trafficking regardless of whether or not they assist law enforcement with the prosecution of their trafficker. Policies, consistent with the TVPA (2000), that provide protection from arrest and prosecution to all victims of JST are needed in all U.S. states.

While this study offers detailed information regarding entrapment and enmeshment strategies used by sex traffickers, several limitations of the study should be noted. The case files and interviews with social service providers only contained information regarding sex trafficking of female victims limiting the generalizability of the findings. Future research efforts should include investigation of the dynamics of sex trafficking and sex trafficker scripts used with male youth. In addition, the sample utilized for the study was comprised of sex trafficking cases discovered or detected by law enforcement, social service providers, or caregivers. Therefore, the tactics of sex traffickers examined by this study occurred in detected cases and they may differ in some way from the tactics and dynamics used in sex trafficking cases which are not detected or reported.

In closing, considering the psychological and legal complexities of this crime committed against a vulnerable segment of the population, the findings of this study based on the examination of scripts used by sex traffickers provide crucial knowledge regarding the entrapment and enmeshment in sex trafficking of girls. The application of the script approach to sex traffickers’ crime strategies proved useful in adding to our understanding of both the routes of initial entrapment and the processes that sustain enmeshment of minors in sex trafficking. Similar to the dynamics operating in other types of exploitive relationships, sex traffickers used boyfriend/lover scripts, ruses involving debt bondage, friendship or faux-family scripts, threats of forced abortion or to take away children, and coerced co-offending to entrap and enmesh minors in sex trafficking. Difficulties arise from these dynamics such as the unwillingness or inability of victims to self-identify, victim fear of further violence from the sex trafficker if they cooperate with authorities or try to leave, and victim confusion regarding their own complicity in the crime committed against them. These findings inform potential prevention efforts and highlight the critical need for victim-centered, multi-systemic approach to intervention with trafficked youth.

Footnotes

Appendix

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research project was supported by the American Psychology-Law Society Early Career Professional Grant.

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