Sex Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation – Men and Boys
Key Points:
- While the majority of people experiencing sex trafficking and sexual exploitation are women and girls, men and boys can and are also victims. The narrative should not just be of males as sex buyers, traffickers, and exploiters. They can also be victims of sex trafficking and sexual exploitation.
- When boys are experiencing sex trafficking and sexual exploitation, the trafficker and exploiter can be male or female. Yet, there is a growing trend of female traffickers/exploiters of males.
- Some risk factors that are specific to males are (not an exhaustive list):
- Lack of present male role model
- Fear of diminishing manhood
- Feeling of invincibility
- Need to serve as the “Man of the house”
- Need for hormone therapy
- Fear of being outed or weak
- Toxic norms around masculinity
- These are some of barriers that men and boys face if they want to disclose this situation of sex trafficking / sexual exploitation (not an exhaustive list):
- Misconception that males cannot be victims
- Being judged for their sexual identity – whether they identify as LGBTQ+ or fear the consequences of being perceived as such
- Lack of resources to help exit the trafficking situation and address their needs.
- Cultural and religious beliefs
Additional Resources:
- Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline: 1-833-900-1010 OR TEXT 233733
(The Hotline is operating 24 hours, 7 days a week)
More Information
Websites:
-
F.A.S.T. 101 is an organization keeping people informed on the latest around the issues of Human Trafficking:
F.A.S.T. 101 -
Giant Slayer collaborates to strengthen and support public health stakeholders in collaborative efforts to prevent violence against males through research, convening, public mobilization, advocacy and by co-creating transformative learning.
They acknowledge that violence can impact all people and enthusiastically endorse and support the critical work of agencies that respond to and seek to end violence across the gender spectrum. They see these agencies as partners and kindred organizations as we work to respond to and seek to end violence against boys and men:
Giant Slayer
- Empower Men is a project of the Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre that engages men and boys to prevent sexual exploitation and sex trafficking of women, girls and 2SLGBTQ + individuals. They mobilize individual men and communities through education, online engagement, law enforcement, support services and research to challenge the cultural norms of sexual exploitation. They believe that men can play a positive role in this work to promote the health and wellbeing of our communities.
Follow Empower Men on social media:
-
Human Trafficking Institute exists to decimate modern slavery at its source by empowering police and prosecutors to stop traffickers. Working inside criminal justice systems, the Institute provides the embedded experts, world-class training, investigative resources, and evidence-based research necessary to free victims:
Human Trafficking Institute
Videos:
-
A look inside the North Texas safe house for male sex trafficking victims, the first in the country. Male sex trafficking victims are often mislabeled as sexually promiscuous, but like female victims, the crime is often hidden within the world of prostitution:
Watch Video -
Unseen Victims - A short film presented by the U.S. Institute Against Human Trafficking:
Watch Video
Resources:
- Action for the Rights of Children - Critical Issues: Abuse and Exploitation
Read Here
Articles:
UNICEF - Research of the Sexual
Exploitation of Boys -Findings, ethical
considerations and methodological challenges
Read Here- "She was willing to send me there": Intrafamilial child sexual abuse, exploitation and trafficking of boys by Ena Lucia Mariaca Pacheco, Eduardo Andrés and Glenn Miles.
Read Here
