Episode Details

Sex trafficking examples often involve children being kidnapped and taken across national borders. But what if the most common sex trafficking examples are closer to home?

A husband filming his wife in the shower without her knowledge or consent, and selling the video online.

A boyfriend coercing his seventeen-year-old girlfriend for photos.

A man prostituting his long-time partner, then gaslighting her into feeling guilt and shame so that she feels unable to escape or press charges.

All trafficking includes emotional abuse. To see if you’re experiencing emotional abuse, take our free emotional abuse quiz.

What Does A Trafficking Example Look Like?

It’s a depraved trap of psychological, emotional, sexual, and physical coercion and abuse. It’s the disempowerment of women and children. And it’s all around us. There are countless trafficking examples.

Dr. Stephany Powell from NCOSE is on The FREE Betrayal Trauma Recovery Podcast with Anne Blythe M.Ed. to cover when a husband is the perpetrator. And give trafficking examples.

If you discover your husband is participating in trafficking by using pornography, attend a BTR.ORG Group Session today.

Trafficking: Force, Fraud, Coercion

Coercion can include:

• Threats (subtle or overt)
• Gaslighting
• Blame-shifting
• Manipulation
• Emotional withholding
• Financial abuse
• Spiritual abuse
• Blackmail
• Abusive persistence

Transcript: Real Life Trafficking Examples

Anne: I have Dr. Stephanie Powell on today’s episode. She is Vice President and Director of Law Enforcement Training and Survivor Services at the National Center on Sexual Exploitation. Dr. Powell gained insight into exploitation and trafficking through her 30 years with the Los Angeles Police Department, coupled with her passion for education and her heart for community.

She’s an incredible leader who uses her considerable skills and insight to educate the community about the complex and often misunderstood world of trafficking. And to create positive change for victims. She’s a powerful speaker, tenacious educator, advocate for change, and one of the premier experts in this field. She’s been featured on CNN, HLN, and local media in the Los Angeles area. We will be talking about trafficking examples. Welcome, Dr. Powell.

Dr. Powell: Yes, thank you so much for having me.

Anne: On social media, we saw a post from Fight the New Drug, where you talked about how trafficking is not only when victims are held against their will, and a lot of people don’t understand that. So can you start with the definition of trafficking?

Dr. Powell: Well, when we talk about trafficking, it needs to be understood that when you’re under the age of 18, and someone has used you for commercial s**, that by age alone, you’re automatically considered a victim of trafficking.

In a court of law, if you’re over 18 years of age, you have to prove fraud or coercion. I think what happens oftentimes is that people only think of trafficking victims with the force and the fraud, because sometimes that coercion piece is a little hard to understand because people go, well, why didn’t they just leave?

Emotional Bonds In Trafficking

Dr. Powell: What needs to be understood is that there is an emotional bond that one may have with their trafficker. So that emotional bond may b