Beyond policy change and improving access to resources for victims, Clinical Professor Annalisa Enrile believes that curbing rates of sex trafficking requires a reexamination of the social norms that allow it to proliferate.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) reports that approximately 40.3 million people are victims of modern-day slavery. Of those, it is estimated that some 16 million are exploited for labor, while nearly 5 million are exploited for sex.

In recognition of National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, Annalisa Enrile, clinical professor and vice chair of the Department of Social Change and Innovation at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, explores the risk factors and possible interventions for sex trafficking across the globe. Enrile shared her perceptions of how transformative collaboration can help end human trafficking at the Intersect LA Summit on Jan. 9, where private and public sector leaders in industries ranging from social work and health care to education and policy came together to address issues surrounding youth exploitation.

Analyzing the risk factors behind the steady increase in sex trafficking

According to Enrile, some statistics report that 100,000 children in the United States are commercially sexually exploited every year. While trafficking occurs across social classes, ethnic groups and regions, certain factors may increase a child’s risk. For example, runaways and children who are part of the foster care system tend to be at an elevated risk.

What’s more, women and girls are at a disproportionately high risk for exploitation. Globally, women and girls account for 71 percent of total slavery victims. Of sex trafficking victims, more than 99 percent are women and girls.

“Though many people have a preconceived notion of children being kidnapped and transported to a foreign country, trafficking doesn’t usually happen that way,” Enrile said. In reality, girls and young women often fall victim to what is known as “Romeo pimping”—a situation in which a predatory pimp psychologically manipulates his victims into believing he is in love with them, often showering them with gifts and money so that he can gain their trust before exploiting them.

Enrile also points to the gray area between “sugaring” — a relationship in which an older “sugar daddy” funds a young woman or girl (a “sugar baby”) — and trafficking. “These kinds of relationships almost always come with transactions surrounding sex,” reported Enrile, who has done research in this area. Due to the uneven balance of power in these relationships, sugaring can easily give way to exploitation and even prostitution. “There is a fine line between what is ‘legal’ and what is not — but the exploitation is the same.”

The driving force of the sex trafficking industry

While predatory traffickers are the ones exploiting girls and women on a grand scale, Enrile is interested in confronting the less scrutinized but more pervasive agents of the sex trafficking industry: those soliciting paid sex. “The more demand increases for commercial sex, the more supply rises to meet that demand,” she said.

Enrile believes that this disturbing trend is fueled in part by the normalization of transactional relationships. “People have come to believe it’s normal, for instance, for a man to expect a sexual reward in return for taking a woman on a date. These kinds of beliefs are dangerous because they create murky territory in which sexual exploitation becomes the status quo,” Enrile said. 

With this normalization of transactional sex, an alarming trend has emerged among victims of the sex trafficking industry: today, the average age at which a person becomes involved in the sex trade has dropped to just 13 years old in the United States and 9 years old in Asia. At the same time, the age at which solicitors seek out commercial sex is also dropping.

“If we do not create effective solutions to curb demand among solicitors just as we do to intervene among traffickers, we will not be able to really stop the problem,” Enrile said.

Creating solutions to reduce human trafficking

Despite efforts to dispel such notions, many people still hold the belief that women who engage in prostitution have made a choice and can leave the industry at any time. In fact, many women who enter the sex trade do so against their will, or are disenfranchised and powerless. According to recent studies, as many as 90 percent of women in the sex trade were sexually abused as children. 

Enrile proposes an economic solution to what she sees as an economic problem: “My hope is to see more initiatives that provide job opportunities or avenues of financial assistance for women involved in the sex trade. A strong foundation of financial independence creates less opportunity for exploitation.”

Truly eliminating the problem, however, requires addressing the fundamental force behind the trafficking industry: those who solicit and purchase sex or labor. Enrile proposes harsher punishments for solicitors, including legal sex offender registration requirements and mandatory jail time. Furthermore, Enrile believes that innovative collaborations between various sectors, such as child welfare and law enforcement officials, are at the crux of a long-term solution. “These collaborations will give us the ability to create more impact, bring solutions to scale and disrupt the status quo,” she said.

Above all, Enrile wants to upend the social norms that enable systematic exploitation of sexual trafficking victims. “I want us to shift the conversation from, ‘How can we serve these victims?’ to ‘How can we stop people from normalizing the commercial exploitation of people for sex?’”

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