Debunking 10 Common Myths About Sex Trafficking
By Gillian Hughes
January is Human Trafficking Awareness Month. Since 1998, San Francisco SafeHouse has worked to support and empower survivors of sex trafficking by providing individualized care, supportive services, safe housing, and community education.
Human trafficking thrives in silence and misunderstanding. By learning the realities, rather than relying on stereotypes, we are better equipped to recognize exploitation, support survivors, and advocate for meaningful solutions.
Myth #1: Sex trafficking is always, or usually, a violent crime.
This is one of the most common myths about human trafficking that continues to perpetuate in the common media, with many people believing sex trafficking always involves kidnapping or violence. In reality, traffickers mostly rely on coercion, manipulation, fraud, or threats. This does not mean that most survivors haven’t experienced violence, as we know they regularly do, but for many, it is not what forces them into the initial trafficking situation.
Myth #2: People who are being trafficked are physically locked in or held against their will, making them unable to leave.
While this is sometimes the case, many stay in trafficking situations because:
They lack the necessities to get out, such as safe housing, transportation, money, food, or clothing
They are afraid for their safety if they leave
They don’t realize they are in a trafficking situation because they have been manipulated
Myth #3: Everyone is equally vulnerable to becoming victims of sex trafficking.
While it can happen to anyone, the same way anyone can be a victim of a crime, people with overlapping vulnerabilities and marginalizations are at a particularly higher risk of experiencing exploitation.
Evidence shows that women experiencing homelessness are at a particularly high risk of experiencing sex trafficking. Additionally, LGBTQ+ individuals, women and girls, survivors of previous abuse, living in poverty, and people of color are more likely to experience sex trafficking.
Generational trauma, historic oppression, systematic discrimination, and inequitable societal factors all create community-wide vulnerabilities that create a risk of exploitation.
Myth #4: Human trafficking involves the crossing of borders.
Human trafficking is often confused with human smuggling, which involves illegal border crossings. While human trafficking can involve crossing borders, it does not require movement whatsoever, and many situations happen entirely in one community.
Myth #5: All commercial sex is sex trafficking.
Commercial sex involving a minor is always trafficking. Adult commercial sex is trafficking only when force, fraud, or coercion is involved. Sex workers can actually be important allies in identifying sex trafficking victims who are being controlled and mistreated.
Myth #6: Traffickers always target victims that they don’t know.
In many cases, traffickers can be romantic partners, spouses, or family members, including parents. Traffickers rely heavily on coercion and manipulation, and many cases of trafficking involve people who already have a close relationship.
Myth #7: Only women and girls can be survivors of sex trafficking.
While women and girls make up a larger percentage of sex trafficking survivors, with women accounting for 71% of the global population of survivors (Global Estimates, 2017), men and boys, specifically LGBTQ+, are also particularly vulnerable to sex trafficking.
Myth #8: If somebody initially consented to a commercial sex, then it is not considered trafficking because they should have “known better.”
Initial consent to commercial sex before acts of force, fraud, or coercion is not relevant to the crime, nor is payment. This myth perpetuates a culture of victim-blaming and is harmful for survivors.
Myth #9: All human trafficking involves sex.
While San Francisco SafeHouse primarily focuses on supporting and raising awareness for sex trafficking, labor trafficking is just as important an issue. Labor trafficking involves the use of force, fraud, or coercion to get another person to provide labor. Many survivors who come to SafeHouse actually have overlapping experiences of both sex and labor trafficking.
Myth #10: Locking up and punishing individual traffickers will stop and prevent human trafficking.
As long as societies continue to leave people with unmet needs, there will always be a risk that these unmet needs will be exploited by somebody else trying to make a profit. While punishing individual crimes is one part of the solution, ending human trafficking requires addressing the systemic conditions that allow exploitation to take hold. When communities invest in systems and organizations that meet people’s basic needs, those needs are far less likely to be leveraged for harm.
Sources and Additional Resources
Global estimates of modern slavery [electronic resource]: forced labour and forced Marriage, International Labour Office, Walk Free Foundation, and International Organization for Migration (2017)
The Human Trafficking Hotline https://humantraffickinghotline.org/en/human-trafficking/myths-facts
