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Sex trafficking is a pervasive human rights issue, with global estimates of up to 27.6 million people trafficked at a given time (US Department of State, 2021). The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated vulnerability to trafficking due to high unemployment (UNODC, 2021). Also, traffickers targeted youth, via social media, who were vulnerable due to increased isolation (UNODC, 2021). Experiences with sex trafficking leads to deleterious consequences on a survivor's health and quality of life, including physical and mental harm and prolonged, complex trauma (Le, 2017; Okecha et al., 2018; Oram, 2012). Recovery from sex trafficking is a complex process; scant evidence illustrates best practices for supporting that recovery. This study aimed to examine the recovery of survivors of sex trafficking from the perspectives of advocates who provide case management to the survivors. It was part of a larger project centering survivor perspectives on recovery.
Methods:
The paradigm that informed the design of this study was pragmatic (Ramanadhan et al., 2021). Pragmatism asserts that researchers should use methods that work best for the problem under investigation. Using purposive sampling, we conducted five focus groups with 27 advocates recruited in collaboration with a survivor-serving organization. For data analysis, we used Consensual Qualitative Analysis (Hill & Knox, 2021). The first step involved individually reading through verbatim transcripts, then two trained research team members coded each transcript independently by capturing the core ideas within participant responses via a summary for each unique idea. To finalize the analysis, the two coders met for a consensus process on each transcript, which entailed comparing and discussing each coding decision and agreeing on the final codes and how they support the final categories.
Results:
The findings fell into four primary categories: 1) signs of healing or recovery, 2) common elements in healing, 3) supporting survivors, and 4) stages of healing or recovery. Signs of recovery included acknowledging the experience, accepting the harm, trusting others, showing stability, identifying safe relationships, and focusing on the future. Common elements in healing consisted of acknowledging self-worth, developing healthy boundaries, realizing relapse is bound to happen, and the uniqueness of each individual's recovery journey. Supporting survivors involved recognizing you cannot fix them, being genuine, and showing empathy and consistency. Stages of recovery were conceptualized as walking alongside survivors as they recover.
Conclusions/Implications:
Research implications include providing contextual details to inform the study of recovery. This work would involve interviewing survivors, centering their perspectives, and comparing their lived experiences with data from advocates. As a hard-to-reach population, survivor perspectives are largely absent in the literature. Data from both projects could be used to develop a measure of recovery from experiences with sex trafficking. Practice implications consisted of a) learning to identify, acknowledge, and support signs of recovery and b) modeling and teaching mutually empathic and empowering relationship skills. Relationship skills should consist of i) identifying supportive relationships, ii) setting boundaries, iii) demonstrating and building trust, and iv) being genuine.