Art Therapy Treatment with Sex Trafficking Survivors

Facilitating Empowerment, Recovery, and Hope

Mary K. Kometiani

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9781138602274
• eBook ISBN:
  9780429891465
• Topic: Psychologie
• Subtopic: Psychische Gesundheit in der Psychologie

This groundbreaking book introduces and researches art therapy as a creative and effective treatment for the sensitive and pertinent issue of human sex trafficking. Rich empirical examples and best practices are provided through the contributors' expertise and knowledge in the field of art therapy. Art therapy facilitates emotional catharsis, a personal sense of worth and empowerment through making choices; supports connection to others and the inner self; resolves trauma, grief, and shame; and provides hope for the future and recovery. This book explores art therapy interventions and outcomes through detailed case studies for sex trafficking survivors in the United States, India, and Nepal, and includes international recommendations for survivor treatment and recovery, as well as staff support programming. Professional helpers and learners from mental health, social services, medical care, and those who work with trafficking and sexual abuse survivors will benefit from this guide.

Part I
Foundation to Sex Trafficking and Art Therapy as Treatment

One
Introduction to the Destructive Pandemic of Sex Trafficking

Mary K. Kometiani

Human sex trafficking is a heinous global crime that continues to escalate in the 21st century at an alarming rate with shocking numbers. Formerly an unspeakable and unbelievable crime, trafficking now openly links people from areas and cultures all over the world and victimizes individuals in our own quiet neighborhoods. Young individuals are coerced from villages in third world countries as well as in affluent American suburbs. If the individuals survive (many of those who are sexually exploited are murdered or go missing) the oppressive effects of trafficking and exploitation are overwhelming and devastating to their lives, fracturing their personalities, and damaging all relationships and bonds within their scope.

Once ensnared, the individual’s sense of self, personal beliefs, and values are erased by the sex trafficker in a systematic way. Trafficked individuals are silenced, ignored, and treated so inhumanely that their human identity is stripped away; they begin to see and accept themselves as unworthy and low individuals who view the entire world as untrustworthy and unsafe. After undergoing consistent severe sadistic psychological and physical trauma, the trafficked individual is violated and damaged almost beyond comprehension and explanation. Due to the pervasive and powerful consequences of the complex trauma the individual has witnessed, endured, and, perhaps, accepted, many challenges of treating trafficking survivors occur in therapy. However, art therapy treatment has the innate potential to provide a valuable form of expression that is nonthreatening and empowering, letting survivors establish a renewed sense of worth and discover their voices again to regain a healthier and stronger sense of themselves. This book aims to explore art therapy as an effective treatment to survivors all over the world who are recovering from the vicious evils of being trafficked.

This introductory chapter will present relevant statistics regarding the growing issue of human trafficking. A thorough definition and the implications of sex trafficking will be introduced. This chapter establishes the book’s focus on three of the foremost areas for sex trafficking: the United States, Nepal, and India. This diverse trio of sites showcases the different aspects of sexual exploitation and how cultural and societal beliefs affect the occurrence of this crime. Other global troubles, such as poverty, political instability and war, natural disasters, family violence, and devalued status of women, also contribute to sex trafficking (Clawson, Layne, & Small, 2006). Lastly, an overview of the book is provided in this chapter.

For the purposes of this book, “victim” is restricted in use to describe a traumatized individual who has been sexually exploited because “survivor” is the preferred term in this field. Although in true trauma-informed practice, clients choose how to self-refer because they are not identified by their trauma exposure, the meaning of survivor implies a strong and resilient individual who endured the oppressive and horrendous experience of sex trafficking. Lastly, although this crime impacts all people and trafficking criminals can be anyone, women are sex trafficked in epic proportions, so the pronoun “she” may be used to represent survivor and the pronoun “he” may be used to denote the trafficker to simplify the reading in some chapters throughout the book.

Human Trafficking Current Research and Statistics

Human trafficking is modern-day slavery that involves every country in the world. A violation of human rights through exploitation and abuse, sex trafficking concerns all communities because this felonious social injustice endangers all. Regrettably, human trafficking has occurred since the Roman Empire (Litam, 2017), and now slavery prevails in every area of the world (International Labour Office & Walk Free Foundation, 2017). Human trafficking does not transpire from racial and ethnic differences; this exploitation happens as a result of destitution, vulnerability, and profits (Stotts & Ramey, 2009). With low risk and no prerequisite for investment required, sex traffickers regard and use individuals as inexpensive products that can be traded continually (Bales, 2007). The business of sexual exploitation is all about fiscal gains (Snow, 2018). This massive problem is defined simply through supply and demand:

1. Abundant resources of vulnerable youth ensure high profit and fuel an endless cycle of greed;
2. Due to the intense effects of trauma, survivors are hesitant to press criminal charges against traffickers, and some traffickers only suffer mildly with merciful sentences;
3. Unmet sexual desire from perpetrators and pedophiles guarantee high demand.

(Tverdova, 2011)

This modern form of slavery is an epic conundrum that exploits the vulnerable and poor while abundantly rewarding the voracious villains.

Due to the extensive proportions of human trafficking, it is challenging to accurately deliver statistics regarding this furtive crime that affects the unseen and disregarded (Miller-Perrin & Wurtele, 2017). Since many females have disappeared or been murdered, there is no way to deliver an accurate number of how many individuals are affected from this tragic crime (Crawford, 2017). However sexual exploitation is the most recognized form of human trafficking in the world (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2018). Recent estimates show that over 40 million people were entrapped in global slavery with 4.8 million in forced sexual exploitation and over 70% identified as females (International Labour Office & Walk Free Foundation, 2017). Referred to as the overlooked survivors of trafficking, males account for almost half of the total individuals victimized; however, sex trafficked males are often hidden, underreported, and unsupported by a severe lack of restoration programs (United States Department of State, 2017). The commercial sex industry is financially secure offering exploiters earnings of over US$30,000 per week and generating between almost US$40 million and US$290 million per city (Dank et al., 2014). Globally, commercial sex trafficking generates US$99 billion a year (International Labour Organization, 2014). Currently, sexual exploitation is a massive commercial enterprise that is expanding and prospering without providing necessary supportive services to its devastated survivors.

In contemporary society, the phenomenon of child sex trafficking should be regarded universally as taboo and unfathomable because this crime preys on the human species’ most vulnerable and innocent members. Yet sex trafficking is a very prevalent form of exploitation of youth under the age of 18, with 14–16 as the average age of entry into sex exploitation (Shared Hope International, 2017). One in four enslaved individuals are children, with recent calculations of over one million children who are sex trafficked (International Labour Office & Walk Free Foundation, 2017). Even more youth are at risk to be trafficked, and one in seven of reported runaways is likely to become exploited due to lack of protection (National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, 2017). Modern technology adds more danger, and online sexual exploitation is a growing international trend affecting thousands of youth (United States Department of State, 2017). The statistics of children being sold into sexual exploitation are extensive, and even more disturbing is the fact that children are sold into slavery by family members.

Definition and Implications of Human Trafficking

The first international agreement, the Palermo Protocol, defined human trafficking as the employment, transference, and concealing through methods of threatening, forcing, or compelling an individual through intimidation, imprisonment, and deception with the intent to control or exploit an individual through providing or obtaining benefit to attain the authorization of a person having power over another person (United Nations, 2000). An individual’s consent is not recognized within these defined means. Although the term trafficking suggests movement, exploited individuals do not have to be moved or transported. Modern-day exploitation occurs through many channels, including forced labor, domestic servitude, organ trafficking, child soldiering, and sex trafficking (United States Department of State, 2017).

Sex trafficking is exploitation, including prostitution and military prostitution (commercial sex for armed forces), stripping, pornography, sex shows, mail-order brides, and traveling for sex, also known as sex tourism (United States Department of Health and Human Services, n.d.). To clarify terminology, prostitution usually meets the definition of trafficking because most prostitutes do not have a choice; they were manipulated, and they do not choose sex work; many prostituted individuals are harassed, raped, tormented, and oppressed, therefore meeting the international definition of trafficking (Contreras & Farley, 2011). The majority of prostitutes have been coerced into prostitution; they have no other feasible alternative, or they are forced due to race/economic/sex inequality (Contreras & Farley, 2011).

When the exploitation of individuals under the age of 18 occurs, with/without force, intimidation, and deception, automatically, the youth are considered to be trafficked (United Nations, 2000). Young persons who are sexually exploited never made a choice; their lack of maturity and experience preclude valid judgment (Smith, 2018b). Commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC), the payment of anything valued given for a sex act, includes minor prostitution through sex slavery; sexually explicit photographs and videos; sexual performances, including erotic dancing; and sex tourism (Miller-Perrin & Wurtele, 2017). Domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST), the national term describing the sexual exploitation of youth, includes those who are still living in their homes, the homeless who engage in survival sex (exchanging sex for living necessities), and those who are transported to other areas (Institute of Medicine & National Research Council, 2013). Sex trafficking can occur in escort or massage services, brothels, peep shows, phone sex or live/online sex shows, pornography studios, strip clubs, or street prostitution.

Sex trafficked survivors’ situations vary markedly. Survivors are trafficked in a range of experiences, including complex organized crime rings as well as small family village shops (Williamson et al., 2012). While some individuals are lured in by false promises or manipulated through a relationship that leads to exploitation, others are forced into trafficking when sold by family members or a when a false marriage ends in slavery. Human traffickers use force as physical restraint or inflicting bodily harm as a way to acquire and sustain control; fraud through false promises of love, employment, or a better life to vulnerable individuals; and coercion as threats or harm to an individual through manipulation, identification confiscation, and blackmail to expose an individual to families or others (United States Department of Health and Human Services, 2019). These appalling and devious tactics, in addition to the numerous detrimental effects of being sexually exploited, will be further explained in Chapter 2.

Survivors are recruited in countries of origin and may be obscurely transferred to a final destination point where the demand, means, and opportunity for exploitation are higher; some countries are bidirectional, meaning they are both origins and destinations (Farr, 2004). Survivors might be involved in a trafficking situation for a few days to years because of trauma attachment, fear of reprisal for leaving, lack of resources, substance addiction, distrust of authorities, and/or threats of harm for their loved ones. Although human sex trafficking is a worldwide issue, the context and specifics of culture and society are extremely important in understanding the specific concerns of this systematic crime. This chapter presents an international focus on sex trafficking in three areas of the world, including eastern India, midwestern USA, and central Nepal.

Introduction to Global Trafficking Survivors

United States

Brandi came from a dysfunctional home and had a challenging upbringing. She never met her father, and her mother struggled with mental health issues and substance abuse. Brandi was put in foster care at a young age because she was severally sexually abused by a relative during her mother’s incarceration. Brandi struggled with feeling unloved and alone until she met an older man while she was in high school. Pretending to be her boyfriend, he provided presents and attention; this was the first time Brandi could remember feeling special and loved. When he asked her to move in with him, it didn’t take too long for her to agree. Brandi would have done anything for him, and when he suggested having sex with another man to help pay their bills, she did. Brandi wanted to be faithful to him as “he had been there for her” when she needed help the most. He started to send her to motels and to the streets to provide sexual services. Although she started to despise herself and her situation, after she gave birth to their daughter, she be...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• LIST OF FIGURES
• LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• PART I Foundation to Sex Trafficking and Art Therapy as Treatment
• PART II Populations Targeted by Sex Trafficking and the Role of Art Therapy in Recovery
• PART III Closure and Concluding Reflections for Advocates
• APPENDIX A: GLOSSARY
• APPENDIX B: RESOURCES
• APPENDIX C: REFLECTION QUESTIONS
• INDEX