Behind Closed Doors: Human Trafficking and Domestic Violence

Intimate partner violence, which is also referred to as domestic violence, is a form of gender-based violence that can involve multiple forms of abuse and harm. It encompasses coercive control, physical abuse, sexual violence, and/or economic abuse caused by a current or former intimate partner or spouse. 

Domestic abuse can also be the context in which individuals are trafficked. The relationship between intimate partner violence and trafficking can be bidirectional: victims of intimate partner violence may fall under the control of a trafficker while attempting to escape intimate partner violence or, on the other hand, victims of trafficking may unknowingly end up with an abusive intimate partner offering refuge when trying to escape trafficking. These two abusive and exploitative circumstances can also occur simultaneously.

Common myths about human trafficking say that victims and traffickers are usually strangers and that victims are kidnapped. In reality, human trafficking, particularly sex trafficking, often occurs within the context of intimate partner relationships, with traffickers and abusive intimate partners being the same person. As one activist and lawyer said, “sex trafficking is often an extreme form of intimate partner violence in which traffickers are pimps and batterers rolled into one.”

Based on data from over 10,000 trafficking cases reported to the U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline in 2021, the Polaris Project reported that:

• Among victims with a known recruiter type, intimate partners were the second-most common recruiters of human trafficking, following family members/caregivers.
• Intimate partners were the top-reported recruiter for sex and labor trafficking and the second-most reported recruiter for sex trafficking.
  
• Intimate partner/marriage proposition was one of the top 3 recruitment tactics.
• The top recruitment location was internet dating sites.

How does domestic violence lead to trafficking?

The Predatory Helpfulness framework, based on a U.S. sample of sex trafficking survivors and later updated by researchers Kenney and Raghavan with a more geographically and ethnically diverse sample of survivors, offers a way to understand how domestic violence can lead to trafficking. Traffickers often form superficial relationships with intended victims, often leading to a “romance” that encompasses both intimate partner violence and trafficking.

Phase 1: Grooming

Traffickers often begin by identifying a potential victim’s unique vulnerabilities and use them to build what seems like a caring, supportive relationship. 

At this stage, there’s usually no obvious coercion or threat, but instead the appearance of helpfulness and a promise of a better future. Tactics that can be used in this stage include: 

• Love-bombing
• Financial assistance/dependence building
• Emotional support
• Drugs and alcohol

In Kenney and Raghavan’s 2024 study, 68% of participants reported that traffickers used the grooming tactic of love-bombing, underscoring its frequent use.

When love-bombing, traffickers initiate a superficial romantic relationship with a potential victim by showering them with over-the-top gifts and compliments, giving them a lot of attention, or simply making them feel special, valued, and as though they are truly dating. Traffickers usually pursue victims intensely in this stage, to the point that victims feel the relationship is a “dream come true.” 

One survivor described this stage as follows: “He would shower me with gifts, bring me out places I normally didn’t go, made me feel like the number one, like he wanted the wife and house situation.” 

Victims often become dependent on traffickers in this stage.

Phase 2: Recruitment

Once dependency is established, the trafficker moves into the recruitment stage. The transition from grooming to recruitment is often described as a “flip moment,” when traffickers shift from giving to taking. In the recruitment stage, traffickers begin to exploit victims for their own gain, demanding payment. 

Common recruitment tactics that have been reported across geographically and demographically diverse samples include:

• Coercive control (such as surveillance, microregulation, manipulation, exploitation, intimidation, and isolation from others) to control the emotional attachment of the relationship, convincing the victim to engage in commercial sex
  
• Physical restraint/force, including the use of violence, sexual assault, restraint, kidnapping, and forced drug use to compel victims to engage in commercial sex
• Sexual services as repayment for debt, when traffickers initially provided financial support, housing, transportation, or drugs without mentioning cost, and later demanded reimbursement from victims they knew lacked the means to pay

The attachments that often characterize abusive trafficking relationships have been described as “trauma-coerced attachment” (also referred to a trauma bond), which “involves a powerful emotional dependency on the abusive partner and a shift in world- and self- view, which can result in feelings of gratitude or loyalty toward the abuser and denial or minimization of the coercion and abuse.” 

This can help explain dynamics in relationships involving both intimate partner violence and trafficking. In the context of sex trafficking, trauma-coerced attachment is thought to exist on a continuum, ranging from no attachment, to mild or moderate attachment, to severe attachment, which can include idealization of the trafficker.

Who is vulnerable to trafficking through intimate partner violence?

Barriers to leaving abusive relationships

When an abusive intimate partnership leads to trafficking, the romantic attachment to the trafficker can make it difficult to leave, as survivors may feel they are in love.

Trauma bonds, often used to describe relationships in both intimate partner violence and sex trafficking contexts where a relationship precedes the trafficking, can lead victims to seek comfort from the very person who abused them. The following example illustrates a woman with a severe trauma-coerced attachment to her trafficker:

Traffickers may have also isolated victims, leaving them without a safe place to go. They may have possession of their target’s money or other important possessions, or have made threats against their loved ones to prevent victims from escaping.

What can we do about trafficking and domestic violence?

Experts have offered several solutions for ways that we can prevent the cycle of intimate partner violence and trafficking, both as individuals and as a society.

1. Screen for trafficking in cases of intimate partner violence.

Professionals should be trained to screen for trafficking when signs of intimate partner violence are present. Survivors report that abusive relationships can mask broader patterns of coercion and exploitation consistent with trafficking. Domestic violence shelters should receive specialised training in supporting trafficking survivors, since existing services may not adequately address the complex trauma of those who have experienced both IPV and trafficking (see the Human Trafficking Toolkit for Domestic and Sexual Violence Agencies).

2. Use screening tools to identify grooming tactics

Clinicians and legal professionals can use tools such as the 12-Question Predatory Helpfulness Screener to recognise grooming and recruitment tactics, which can inform both treatment planning and legal strategy.

3. Improve legal responses and recognition

Many human trafficking survivors hesitate to contact law enforcement when trying to leave a trafficker. Legal professionals — police, lawyers, judges — should receive education and training to recognize that trafficking by an intimate partner is common. Otherwise, victims in these circumstances may be misidentified as solely intimate partner violence victims. Courts may also criminalize victims for “prostitution” without recognizing the coercive context. Leidholdt recounts several cases where judges chastised women for prostitution offences, unaware that they were actually trafficked:

“The criminal court judge chastised Kenya as she stood beside her defense attorney at arraignment. ‘You have 24 prostitution convictions. You’re a beautiful young woman. Can’t you see that your bad choices are ruining your life!’ Little did the judge know that the attorney representing Kenya was hired by the pimp who had brutally enslaved her. Kenya did what the attorney directed, pled guilty, and walked out of the courtroom, back into the clutches of her trafficker.”

4. Provide safe exit pathways

Access to safe housing options, financial assistance, and free therapeutic services — such as those provided to trafficking survivors at The Exodus Road’s Freedom Home — can empower survivors to escape their traffickers by removing barriers like financial dependence, lack of shelter, and having no other form of connection.

Ordinary people can be a part of offering those safe exit pathways too. In addition to donating to support the financial needs of survivors, you can keep your eyes open in your own community to see where there might be signs of trafficking hiding in seemingly romantic relationships. If you see suspicious amounts of control in a friend’s relationship, you can contact the Domest Violence Hotline in the U.S. at 1-800-799-7233 or the Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888.