Learn about how the physiology of children plays a major role in human trafficking. Dr. Sandie Morgan and Dave Stachowiak discuss how the unique characteristics of children make them prime targets for traffickers. How the brain develops in children, decision making abilities, and effects of trauma all impact children and increase their vulnerability to being trafficked.

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Transcript

Dave [00:00:00] You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. This is episode number 4, recorded in May 2011. Welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. My name is Dave Stachowiak.

Sandie [00:00:29] And my name is Sandra Morgan.

Dave [00:00:31] And this is the show where we empower you to study the issues, be a voice, and make a difference in ending human trafficking, which amazingly ended at the exact same time the music did. Somehow the timing all worked out, Sandie.

Sandie [00:00:44] Great. Hey, let’s talk about human trafficking.

Dave [00:00:48] Alright, sounds good. So, with that, we are going to talk some more today, Sandie2, about kids and how kids are unfortunately very involved in the human trafficking issue. And last time we talked about just scratching the surface on how kids are involved in some of the issues surrounding how we think about kids who are involved with trafficking, some of the statistics, and some of the language that we use. And I know today you’d like us to jump in a little bit more to some of the, and I’m going to try and say this word right, physiology behind how this happens.

Sandie [00:01:28] OK. Yeah. Last week we had a chance to talk about the fact that we don’t have to prove force, fraud, or coercion when it’s a minor under the age of 18. And we defined the victimization of a child being sold for commercial sex acts as commercial sexual exploitation of children. We aren’t talking about kids who voluntarily become “prostitutes”. We want to move away from that kind of terminology. But helping us understand how a child thinks and their brain development is a critical part of seeing them as victims, not as perpetrators, because they may come across as very willing participants in the illicit sale of commercial sex. And so, some people would think that they need to be prosecuted as perpetrators, and not rescued as victims. So, understanding how they think is part of the process. So, let’s talk about that. I think one of the things to begin with is to understand that human beings are hard-wired to form relationships with caregivers. So, what did we talk about the risk factors with kids last week?

Dave [00:02:52] Well, one of the things you talked about was how kids become very vulnerable when they’re homeless. And there are economic factors, much like we talked about in the second episode too, about the business aspects, unfortunately, of trafficking. So, that’s one key area that I remember.

Sandie [00:03:08] So, if they’re homeless and they’re running away possibly from some sort of abuse in the place where they were supposed to be safe, then there’s a big void in the role that is supposed to be part of their lives as a child, of having a caregiver, a parent, a father, a mother, an aunt, a grandmother, someone who is out there to take care of them. And this is something they are looking for. That’s what we do, we want to have that kind of relationship. And according to child psychologists, we are hardwired to form relationships with caregivers. Now, that seems like, well, yeah, everybody knows that. But that’s a really important part of why kids are so vulnerable to being recruited by the perpetrators, the pimps, the traffickers.

Dave [00:03:56] Because they can play that role in their brain as far as what they think they need.

Sandie [00:04:05] Exactly. So, let’s go back to the story we talked about last week.

Dave [00:04:09] OK.

Sandie [00:04:10] This is not a real name. We’re just going to call her Anna. 14-year-old American kid who ended up in a group home because of being molested in her own home by her mother’s boyfriend. So, she doesn’t like the grou...