Human trafficking doesn’t happen overnight. It unfolds in carefully calculated steps, over time, with traffickers aiming to isolate, manipulate, and ultimately exploit their victims. To understand and prevent trafficking in our communities, we need to recognize how it begins and progresses. Below are the five key stages that traffickers use to lure and control their victims, as presented by Crisis Intervention Counsellor and human trafficking survivor, Karly Church.
Stage 1: Luring
The luring stage is where it starts. A trafficker enters a victim’s life, seemingly genuinely interested in getting to know who they are. They ask personal questions and pay attention to what is missing in their life, whether it’s stability, validation, affection, or material needs, and begin to fill that gap. This stage may feel like the start of a romantic relationship or friendship, but really, the trafficker is building a false sense of trust, and collecting information to later use against the victim.
Stage 2: Grooming and Gaming
This is “the honeymoon stage”: there are promises of a future, new clothes and other gifts, nights out, and in some cases, the trafficker may introduce drugs as part of the fun. All these elements create dependency in the victim, emotionally, physically, and financially. The trafficker becomes the centre of the victim’s world. In fact, 85% of human trafficking victims believe they’re in a romantic relationship with their trafficker.
Stage 3: Coercion and Manipulation
As the victim’s trust in their trafficker deepens, the trafficker starts to withdraw, toying with their emotions. They may offer victims ways to “get back in their good books”, whether that is complying in some way or performing sexual acts. The trafficker will then initiate affection or gifts once again, conditioning victims to associate compliance with rewards.
Stage 4: Exploitation
This is the point where the relationship shifts from manipulation to exploitation. By now, the victim feels trapped and broken down. They may be told they owe a debt for food, clothes or rent, and must participate in sex work to pay it off. The trafficker uses emotional abuse, threats to the victim or their family, and in some cases, physical violence to ensure the victim stays. By the time exploitation begins, many victims feel isolated, and like there’s no way out.
Stage 5: Recruitment
After enduring exploitation, some victims who prove themselves to be “trustworthy” to their traffickers are then coerced into recruiting others, befriending vulnerable individuals and teaching them how “great” life in this industry is. Traffickers start this process as a way for victims to reduce their own “workload” or receive special privileges. To those experiencing this sort of sexual exploitation and trauma, this may feel like a way to regain control after feeling powerless for so long. The psychological manipulation is deep: they may feel guilty, but also like they have no other choice.
Knowing the stages of human trafficking is an important piece of education, which leads to prevention. To learn more about the signs and stages of human trafficking, visit notinmycity.ca/learn/.
*All information in this blog is sourced from a presentation by Crisis Intervention Counsellor and human trafficking survivor, Karly Church. Photos taken from #NotInMyCity YouTube.
