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YOU'RE HERE BECAUSE
YOU SAW A MESSAGE
IN THE SKY.
BUT THERE'S SO MUCH YOU DON'T SEE.
Traffickers recruit women and young girls by messaging
them in private.
So The Jensen Project made their messages
as public as possible.
The messages you saw in the sky are the same ones women and young girls receive in their DMs every day from traffickers.
Online platforms have transformed sex trafficking, providing a hidden place for traffickers to target potential victims.
Keep scrolling to learn how to spot
the stages and stop the cycle.
LURING
Stage01
What is it?
In the first stage of sex trafficking recruitment, the primary goal of traffickers is to gain the trust of their potential targets. This is a trafficker’s opportunity to mine the target for personal information and vulnerabilities, which they can use as coercion and blackmail later on.
What it looks like?
They’ll slide into DMs with compliments, making the target feel
special. While romancing the target, the trafficker is also assessing
them – seeing what boundaries can be pushed.
GROOMING
Stage02
What is it?
In the second stage, traffickers are setting out to make their targets
fall in love with them – manufacturing a bond that they can manipulate.
What it looks like?
This bonding is done through emotional messaging and grand
gestures, ranging from promises of gifts to showering the target
with affection. This stage is to ensure the young woman is dependant
on the trafficker for love, emotional support and validation.
COERCION
Stage03
What is it?
With an emotional dependency secured, traffickers
will begin to push their targets to sexual acts.
What it looks like?
Traffickers will reward their targets for agreeing with affection,
creating a link between sex trafficking and love from the trafficker.
If the target doesn’t conform, they’ll pull away: communicating
more coldly and less frequently until the target agrees.
Stage04
EXPLOITATION
What is it?
The final stage of recruitment marks a breaking of a target’s
spirit, forcing them fully into a life of sex trafficking.
What it looks like? Traffickers will leverage the personal information they’ve gathered from their targets, using blackmail to force the target to commit to sexual acts. They’ll threaten to tell the target’s friends and family what they’ve done, isolating them from any external support system.
We are
The Jensen
Project
and our goal is to end sexual violence on a united front. Now that you know how to spot the stages of trafficking, we can stop the cycle. Join us in the fight.
Need help?
If you or someone you know have been approached by someone you think might be a trafficker, are currently being trafficked, or are a survivor of sex trafficking, visit The National Human Trafficking Hotline for resources that can help you.
1 (888) 373-7888
SMS Text: 233733
(Text "HELP" or "INFO")
The Jensen Project is proud to partner with The National Center on Sexual Exploitation. NCOSE works to address sexual exploitation in all its forms, including sex trafficking which is strongly tied to child sexual abuse, image-based sexual abuse, and prostitution.
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