Fact: Domestic Violence and Human Trafficking Often Happen to the Same Victim

We have quickly been flying through the Fall season, also the season football and awareness months. October is, was, Domestic Violence, established in 1995 when several organizations, including the Family Violence Prevention Fund and the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence united to raise awareness against this growing -and most often silenced- problem.

Why is a human trafficking organization talking about domestic violence? Human trafficking and domestic violence can occur on a continuum of violence, and the dynamics involved in human trafficking are frequently interwoven with those of domestic violence. This occurs mo Individuals who have suffered violence and discrimination in their countries of origin based on their sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, or dysfunctional family situations are often more likely to overlook the risks of unsafe migration, thus increasing their vulnerability to human trafficking. Traffickers also frequently exploit the already lowered self-esteem of trafficking victims who have experienced abusive family lives. Conversely, trafficking survivors are often vulnerable to future incidences of domestic violence.

The following are examples of cases where domestic violence and human trafficking can manifest together on the basis of the same set of facts:

1. Involuntary servitude in marriage: Cases where traffickers force their spouses to perform services and labor, such as domestic work, working at family businesses, or sex work. These traffickers may also physically and sexually abuse their spouses, as well as threaten them with immigration and legal consequences. 
2. Forced prostitution and sex work: Cases where individuals are recruited into sex trafficking by traffickers feigning love interest in them. The cases may involve fraudulent courtship, sexual assault, and then a distinct pattern of domestic violence to control or convince the victims to engage in sex work. 
3. Other forced labor: Cases where individuals are trafficked by other family members (besides in