Invisible Chains: Understanding Coercive Control and its Effects on Survivors of Sex Trafficking
Marissa Kokkoros | September 19 | 1:45-2:45 pm
Topic: Direct Service, Programming | Knowledge Level: Intermediate
Coercive control is a cornerstone of sex trafficking. It entraps survivors in the vicious cycle of abuse and keeps them under the trafficker’s power - even though the door is “wide open” for them to leave. Understanding coercive control and its deep impacts on survivors is key to understanding the nuances of sex trafficking and supporting survivors in a transformative way. Using an intersectional feminist approach that is trauma-informed and survivor-centric, Marissa will explore coercive control in the context of sex trafficking. This knowledge is a feature of Aura Freedom's award-winning human trafficking prevention work and their ground-breaking online Human Trafficking Info Hub. Through various examples, Marissa will examine the many forms that coercive control takes, as well as the different control tactics used by traffickers and how they affect survivors when accessing services. Pulling from her own experience supporting survivors, as well as from Aura Freedom’s survivor-informed curricula, Marissa will share how to provide trauma-informed survivor support that acknowledges, considers, and understands coercive control. She will examine the criminalization of survivors as a form of coercive control, and stress the importance of employing the UN Non-Punishment Principle in the anti-trafficking movement. Attendees will gain frontline strategies and grassroots community knowledge to inform their work, support survivors in a good way, and ultimately prevent human trafficking. Most importantly, attendees will learn how to flip the script from “Why don’t they just leave?” to truly understanding coercive control.
Presentation Objectives:
• Provide insight into the complexities and nuances of sex trafficking by exploring coercive control and its intense effects on survivors
• Present frontline survivor support strategies for successful human trafficking prevention rooted in human rights, intersectional feminism, equity, and empowerment
• Highlight transformative, trauma-informed service provision to prevent re-exploitation and disrupt cycles of intergenerational trafficking
• Examine the criminalization of sex trafficking survivors as a form of Coercive Control, and the importance of the UN Non-Punishment Principle in the anti-trafficking movement