Wheel of Risk Digging Deeper: Healthy Relationships (Part 1 of 4 )  

It all starts behind closed doors, hushed secrets, and hidden realities in a place we call home. It is the place where you should feel welcomed, heard, and safe. Too often, that is not the case. Home becomes a frightening world. A place of abuse, neglect, loss, and parental abandonment due to illness, addiction, or other circumstances. These wounds, or what is called Adverse Childhood Experiences, compile on top of one another changing the way a child views the world and their role in it. It is like you are given a new pair of glasses, instead of seeing the world as safe and supportive, it becomes a place that is conditional, transactional. One where abuse, manipulation and control are seen as normal behavior (Hopper, 2017, p. 162). These vulnerabilities are just one factor in how someone can become trapped in an exploitative relationship, with someone inside, or outside, of their biological family. 

In fact,

Why are these percentages so high? And how does abuse make these individuals vulnerable? A not so easy answer is that many family structures don’t know how to handle disclosure of abuse by a child. The natural inclination is to cover up the stain, hide it under a façade, and pretend like it didn’t happen. When that action is taken, it denies the pain and horror that the child has faced and minimizes the impact it has on their development (Sanders, 2015). 

That is how abuse gets normalized, and it makes it so hard for children to see that what is happening to them is wrong. 

“…histories of trauma in childhood in the form of some type or combination of abuse and maltreatment, or neglect, heighten the vulnerabilities of children and youth to exploitation and often cause individuals to fail to recognize their experience as exploitative.” (Franchino-Olsen, 2019; p. 106). 

Therefore, addressing and dealing with childhood abuse, neglect and abandonment is key in fighting exploitation and human trafficking. We must address the roots of what makes individuals vulnerable, and it starts in our own homes and how we react to children who disclose episodes of mistreatment to us. The first rule always is to LISTEN and BELIEVE them, they may not be clear as to the details because what happened to them is outside of their developmental understanding but take them seriously. Secondly, REPORT it to the child welfare authorities. This is a hard step, and must be acknowledged as traumatizing for the child to go through. Thirdly, AFFIRM their pain. Don’t minimize or deny. Listen when they need you to listen, validate, and reflect back to them what you hear. It goes a long way when you feel like someone is in your corner fighting for you and empowering you to reclaim the voice that you already possessed, but was silenced. This is where change starts, not just for children who are abused but also for individuals who have been exploited, when we re-create safe spaces where trauma is recognized and okay to exist and process. 

References: 

• Corey, Elisabeth. (2021). “My Story.” Accessed August 17, 2021. 	https://beatingtrauma.com/my-story/. 

• Franchino-Olsen, Hannabeth. (2019). “Vulnerabilities Relevant for Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children/Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking: A Systemic Review of Risk 	Factors.” Trauma, Violence & Abuse (22:1). 99-111. DOI: 10.117/1524838018821956. 

• Hopper, E. (2017). Polyvictimization and Developmental Trauma Adaptations in Sex Trafficked Youth. Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma, 10(2), 161–	173. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40653-016-0114-z

• Sanders, Savannah J. (2015). Sex Trafficking Prevention: A trauma-informed approach for parents and professionals. Scottsdale, AZ: Unhooked Books. 

• Wilson, Bincy. “Running a Gauntlet: A Review of Victimization and Violence in the Pre-Entry, Post-Entry, and Peri-/post-Exit Periods of Commercial Sexual Exploitation.” Psychological trauma: theory, research, practice, and policy. 6.5 (2014): 494–504.