When it comes to finding solutions to end sex trafficking and exploitation, researchers have found survivors are uniquely equipped to help develop policies, advocate, engage with the public, or collaborate with governments to improve legislation and programming (Lockyer, 2020). Further research notes that through the adoption of survivor-led initiatives, organizations can better support survivors of trafficking (Deer & Baumgartner, 2019). However, despite this knowledge, research, policy, and services within the anti-trafficking movement continue to be led primarily by non-profit organizations and other stakeholders, leaving out those with lived experience (Lockyer, 2020). This may explain why despite all levels of government allocating millions of dollars to “fight human trafficking,” efforts so far have been largely ineffective at combating trafficking. Recognizing the need for greater survivor leadership within the anti-trafficking movement, this presentation will provide an overview of a survivor-led vocational skills program developed by Project iRISE. The iRISE Survivor Leadership program was designed and administered by survivors of trafficking. The psychosocial program model uses a strength-based approach to provide trauma-informed skill training that combines experiential education, socio-emotional learning, leadership development, and upskilling for employment. This presentation will provide an in-depth overview of the Survivor Leadership program, including the challenges faced by the survivor team, findings from the program evaluation, earlier success, the final impact of the program in the community, and considerations for survivor-led programming.

Presentation Objectives:

· Discuss the problematic nature of current survivor engagement in the anti-trafficking movement

· Provide an overview of the Project iRISE Survivor Leadership program

· Discuss the benefits and challenges of the iRISE program and outline some of the lessons learned

· Provide recommendations for how organizations can implement their own survivor leadership training

Read More

Children with developmental disabilities are ostracized from peer groups at early stages of childhood development. "Normal" children will single out those viewed as different. Brenna Wallace was bullied in elementary school all the way to high school. Brenna was expelled from high school by a principal who also bullied students. All throughout school, Brenna was viewed as different, leading to a variety of concerning behaviors: violence, excessive use of imagination ("lying" others would say), and an obsessive need to feel loved and accepted. During this period, due to Brenna's disability, her mother wound up abusing her physically, mentally, and emotionally. Brenna, angry, frustrated, and alone at the age of 17, sought out relationships that made her feel accepted. Due to Brenna's vulnerabilities, she wound up in a personal sex slave relationship at the age of 19. Brenna was pimped, used, and was to be sold at the time of her escape. Brenna met her trafficker, through another disabled youth. Brenna's trafficker used the promise of a true family, love, and acceptance in order to expand Brenna's boundaries. Brenna would have sex for money, be used to bring in other females, and do whatever was asked of her. Brenna's life of trafficking ended by her own self-awakening through a real friendship. She has been free for 10 years. At the end of this presentation, attendee’s will be able to identify signs of abuse in neurodivergent populations, know what questions to ask and how to ask them, and how to help these people.

Presentation Objectives:

· Expose how vulnerable people with developmental disabilities are to trafficking

· Show through personal experience how people with autism are affected by trafficking

· Demonstrate how traffickers can target people with developmental disabilities

Read More

Current prostitution and anti-trafficking legislation in the U.S. does not account for the complexities faced by the majority of people in the sex industry (McCracken, 2019). Force and coercion exist, and yet placing individuals in the boxes created by prostitution and trafficking legislation (i.e., victim, criminal, trafficker, prostitute) exacerbates violence against individuals and subverts justice (Weitzer, 2010). The researchers ask how current prostitution and anti-trafficking laws impact consenting sex workers and victims of trafficking. In this session, they will present their analysis of interviews with 60 individuals who have engaged in adult consensual sex work and identity as victims of trafficking and/or have been convicted of trafficking. Centering their voices, they explore how their experiences confront and contradict the legal, political, and medial representations of trafficking and prostitution. The researchers find the majority of people involved in this study faced arrest for prostitution and trafficking when they were not exploiting others but rather victims of exploitation and/or were working with other consenting sex workers to keep themselves safe and free from exploitation and violence. The presenters show how the criminalization of prostitution impacts both individuals engaged in consensual sex work and victims of trafficking. They conclude that city, court, and state legislators must introduce legislation that creates amnesty for sex workers so they can report violence, coercion, exploitation, and/or trafficking against themselves or others without fear of arrest. Finally, the presenters recommend adult consensual prostitution be decriminalized so that consenting sex workers and victims of trafficking are not made more vulnerable due to prostitution arrests and convictions.

Presentation Objectives:

· Explain the differences between adult consensual sex work and exploitation/ trafficking in the sex industry

· Provide an in-depth understanding of how victims of sex trafficking can be caught in the criminalization net of sex trafficking charges and convictions

· Discuss how the intersections of violence, exploitation, and the criminal legal system impact the lives of individuals in the sex industry (both by choice and force)

· Describe the various aspects of carceral and punitive prostitution legislation

Read More

Concerns surrounding the Toronto Police Services (TPS) handling of missing persons occasioned the 2021 Independent Civilian Review into Missing Persons Investigations. This published 151 recommendations for improving police response to missing persons. Accordingly, the TPS Missing and Missed Implementation Team (MMIT) emerged to address these recommendations. One recommendation was establishing partnerships with researchers to generate evidence-informed practice and policy. While such partnerships are not new, they have not always generated anticipated outcomes. Historically, they have failed at the point of trust—the key to any successful collaboration. Nevertheless, MMIT formed valuable partnerships with academics, Elliott and Ferguson, specializing in missing persons and victimology. Together, the team led a study exploring the connection between missing persons and victimization to enhance police risk assessment. Informed by the study findings, the Review, and victimological theory, the team then developed a Response Assessment Tool that, monumentally, comprises evidence-informed vulnerability factors linked to missing persons, including human trafficking, 2SLGBTQIA+ identities, sex work, and beyond. This presentation outlines this Tool, detailing how it induces consistent and equitable policing, especially for vulnerable and marginalized groups. It focuses explicitly on how this Tool improves police response and case outcomes for missing persons linked to human trafficking, including the alliance between the MMIT and TPS Human Trafficking Unit’s Children at Risk of Exploitation (CARE). Attendees will leave this presentation armed with insights to improve policing with evidence-informed strategies, forge police-academic partnerships considering this positive representation, and advance scholarship on the areas needing attention regarding missing persons and human trafficking.

Presentation Objectives:

· Provide an overview of current international research on missing persons and human trafficking

· Explain the team members’ research project that explored the connection between missing persons and human trafficking in Canada and its key findings

· Demonstrate how the police-academic partnerships led to the translation of research findings into police practice and policy

· Outline how the police-academic partnerships led to the development of a police response tool that streamlines, enhances, and standardizes police handling of these cases and improves case outcomes

Read More

Occupational therapy emerged amid war and trauma, establishing itself as a credible healthcare profession by providing effective mental health treatment to those in need (AOTA, 2017; Goodwin University, 2021). Today, occupational therapy has grown to expand its reach to virtually any setting in which people occupy their time. The effects of human trafficking on physical, emotional, psychological, and cognitive functioning result in an array of dysfunction that can be addressed through interdisciplinary care, including occupational therapy. However, human trafficking education and training for occupational therapists is sparce. This course has been developed to bridge the gap between human trafficking education and training, and occupational therapy theory and practice. This presentation will cover aspects of the development of this course, course content in relation to occupational therapy and human trafficking, the future of occupational therapy in combatting human trafficking, and more. This course provides those within the occupational therapy profession discipline-specific content concerning human trafficking. This course is intensive; however, has been designed for occupational therapy personnel of all levels (students, practitioners, educators, researchers, etc.), as well as those who may be interested in a career in occupational therapy. Attendees of this presentation will gain insight into the various roles the profession has in combatting human trafficking, with a focus on the education and training of current and future occupational therapy personnel.

Presentation Objectives:

· Discuss occupational therapy’s role in combatting human trafficking

· Promote the importance of human trafficking education and training for occupational therapists

· Provide an overview of a course development plan for human trafficking education and training at the collegiate level

Read More

As a victim-serving nonprofit, it is important that victim-centered best practices carry over to our social media awareness efforts. In this workshop, participants will learn how to create trauma-sensitive social media campaigns that respect ethical storytelling and victim-informed best practices and how sensualized social media campaigns can lead to inaccurate education of juvenile sex trafficking. As a result, community members and multidisciplinary partners can misinterpret the realities of juvenile sex trafficking which can lead to prolonged victimization of youth. This workshop provides accessible creation tools, teaches collaborative social media campaigns, and incorporates examples from modalities such as nonprofit organizations and nonprofit leaders. The best practices described in this session elevate lived experience(s) through evidence-based research and survivor-informed studies including Rebecca Bender and Jessa Dillow Crisp.

Presentation Objectives:

· Explain how to create trauma-sensitive social media campaigns that respect ethical storytelling and victim-informed best practices

· Explain how to incorporate trauma sensitivity and victim-informed care into your nonprofit’s social media strategy by eliminating sensualized social media campaigns

· Increase accountability with attendees through trauma-sensitive, victim-informed social media awareness efforts

Read More

In 2020, Israel adopted the Nordic model to reduce prostitution by criminalizing the purchase of sex, expanding services for wo/men in prostitution, and educating the public on prostitution's harms. The main objective of this research is to assess the impact of the law on sex buyers' behavior and attitudes. A 2021 panel survey targeted 5,437 men in Israel. The data will serve as a baseline for a 2023 survey, assessing the impact of the law. 506 men (9%) reported paying for sex during the last 5 years. 7% reported paying for sex in 2019, and only 5% in 2020, the year the law went into effect. This decrease was also caused by COVID-19 lockdowns. Among men who bought sex in the last 5 years, 45% reported not being affected by the law, 21% had not heard of it, 9% had stopped buying sex due to the law and 25% were doing so less, more discreetly or abroad. 40% of sex buyers reported having quit buying sex, 37% are considering quitting or undecided. Only 23% intend to continue. Half of all sex buyers had not told another person that they had bought sex. Findings indicate that the law is beginning to reduce use of prostitution. Increased efforts to raise awareness of the law among sex buyers are necessary. High rates of ambivalence and shame among sex buyers indicate the high potential of the law and education to reduce the use of prostitution.

Presentation Objectives:

· Provide a brief background on the Israeli law based on the Nordic model of criminalizing prostitution consumption

· Provide an overview of the study purpose and methodology

· Present selected findings, particularly those relevant to assessing impact of the law

· Describe the implications and recommendations for increasing the law's impact

Read More

One of the greatest challenges limiting the impact of human trafficking research is the availability of data collected in a consistent manner required to support analysis. While many organizations have information on the people they serve, they differ in what information is collected, how it is formatted, and the security procedures used to protect this highly sensitive information. This presentation provides a standardized process for collection and securing data on victims and survivors (e.g., Devers & Frankel, 2000; National Institutes of Health). Designed by expert data scientists specifically for human trafficking research, the process enables data to be shared with organizations, academic teams, and agencies engaged in human trafficking research. Adoption of this process supports collecting data safely, securely protecting identity, and empowering greater use of advanced analytics in human trafficking research. The presentation describes what data to collect, how to format it for maximum value to researchers, and best practices for data privacy, security, and ethical use. Attendees will gain an understanding of the process for collecting data that can be used in scientific studies, along with a detailed set of instructions for collecting, compiling, securing, and sharing data with other researchers.

Presentation Objectives:

· Present a scientific data protocol for standardized collection of human trafficking data in a manner that can be shared with researchers

· Provide a format for archiving the data and suggestions on spreadsheet software often used for this purpose

· Describe best practices for data privacy, security, and principles of ethical use of sensitive data

· Provide examples of research now in progress that will benefit from the use of a standard data process

Read More

Healthcare providers report little confidence in their ability to identify and respond appropriately to the needs of individuals impacted by sex trafficking (ST) (Beck et al., 2015). Several national healthcare associations recommend training and institutional guidelines to improve institutional responses, but more research is needed to understand survivors’ perspectives on their health care needs and barriers to accessing quality care (Armstrong & Greenbaum, 2019). Focus groups of women currently and formerly impacted by ST were conducted to better understand their health care experiences and how health care delivery and systems could be improved. Adult women were recruited with the support of six community service agencies that serve victims and survivors of ST. A total of 27 women participated in 5 focus groups. Thematic analysis was employed to describe data from transcripts within and across focus groups. Focus group participants provided a rich discussion of barriers to health care during and after victimization by traffickers and actions healthcare organizations could take to improve access to quality care and identification of patients impacted by ST. Themes underscored the need for comprehensive and collocated services that address the changing needs of survivors across the lifespan, important elements of provider education and training to promote identification and engagement of patients at risk for ST, and initiatives to promote patient physical and emotional safety during health care visits. The presentation will highlight relevant literature outlining policies and best practices to address the barriers to health care identified in focus groups.

Presentation Objectives:

· Provide an overview of the study, including objectives, methodology, and results

· Describe the implications of survivors’ perspectives to healthcare policy and practice

· Discuss key action areas and specific improvements healthcare providers and organizations can take

Read More