The Trafficker
A trafficker can act as many things; he or she (yes, although the majority of human trafficking victims are women, they traffick people too, and can even go on to traffick others) can be the person shipping the persons from place to place, selling the people to differnet "establishments" or exploiting the person via sexual or forced labor for themselves. Traffickers can be anybody can "...include those who recruit, transport, harbor, obtain, and exploit victims, often using force, threats, lies, or other physical and psychological methods of control " ( "The Traffickers") but they are not to be confused with smugglers. Traffickers use different tactics in order to get their victims; they lure them with the opportuinty of working abroad, kidnap them, force them to perform acts against their (the victims will) as a debt, promise the victim a better life or even get them to go with them by forming a relationship based on love to get them to trust them. But the terror doesn't end there- traffickers, especially sex traffickers, will exploit the trafficked in various ways. Sex traffickers will use a variety of ways to 'condition'their victims, including subjecting them to starvation, rape, gang rape, physical abuse, beating, confinement, threats of violence toward the victim and victim’s family, forced drug use, and shame" ( Skinner). These tactics can often cause physical an psychological pain to the victim, while putting the trafficker in a position in which they hold power over someone. In doing this, the behavior of the trafficker not only dehumanizes the victim and affect them negatively, but it can also (and usually does) do the same to the traffickers.
The Trafficked
The trafficked are the victims that, as said above, are lured by the traffickers into the human trafficking trade, and are usually sold in some kind of role which exploits them. Sometimes the people that are selling the victims off can be close family or friends, either under coercion or the need or want for money (Skinner). Traffickers will ship them with in or out of the borders of the country they are in, and sometimes they even ship them in containers, like they are livestock or luggage. The dehumanization continues as the victims take their journey to their final destinations- the are sexually and physically abused, insulted and beat up. Then when they get to where the traffickers sold them, they are usually made to perform sexual and/or physical acts against their will, over and over again. As stated above, the physical pain caused by both the traffickers and customers can cause numerous psychological effects in the victim. Because many of the victims are forced into sex slavery or labor at a relatively young age, they lose the ability and will to fight back and resist. They can also experince stress and pain from the constant sexual or physical activity (Craw). If the victim is a sex slave, they can suffer from trauma, depression and shame. Many times the victims become suicidal and have no hope of one day being free. Because of the condition in which the victims are transported and "live" in, they contract diseases, such as sexually transmitted diseases ( the sex slavery trade actually adds to the epidemic of HIV/ AIDS (Craw)). If the victims are ever freed, they often times have a very difficult time merging back into society due to the constant trauma they experienced in captivity.