News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
A Livingston man was arrested with a child after a human trafficking investigation at a hotel in Springfield, Tennessee.
Community Coalition Against Human Trafficking Community Educator Rana Zakaria said rural parts of Tennessee can be high risk areas because of geographic isolation and less job opportunities. However, Zakaria said abduction is not the most common way human trafficking begins.
“Most common way, especially for a child to be trafficked is not through abduction or kidnapping, and for the over whelming majority in the cases we see it actually starts at home or with someone that they trust,” Zakaria said. “We definitely see this type of trafficking, familial trafficking in the rural areas where there’s a lot of drug addiction and poverty.”
Zakaria said traffickers view what they do as the “perfect crime” because it is extremely profitable with a low risk of being caught. Zakaria said in a majority of cases human trafficking is multi-generational within the family.
“If mom is a trafficker that means she was trafficked and most likely her mother trafficked her,” Zakaria said. “It becomes very normalized, so if we come in once we have suspected human trafficking of a child and we try to ask that child indirectly if they’ve been trafficked. Obviously we’re not going to say, ‘have you been trafficked?’ they’re not going to identify.”
The other close connection that can lead to human trafficking is intimate partner trafficking. Which Zakaria said comes with its own challenges in helping victims realize what a trafficker is doing to them.
“There is a huge sense of loyalty to their trafficker, we talk about trauma bonds, we talk about Stockholm Syndrome,” Zakaria said. “They develop positive feelings towards their abuser, the trafficker, they might not necessarily like the abuse but they love that person and they’re not going to leave that person.”
Zakaria said signs to look out for are changes in school attendance and personality, and disconnect. Zakaria said if someone suspects human trafficking, to “go with your gut” and reach out to authorities.
