Demystifying human trafficking in Colorado

Napolitano explained that human trafficking goes beyond what most people see in mainstream media and social media. 

“I think one of the biggest myths and what we see on social media is that people are kidnapped by a stranger and taken into a situation that would be sex trafficking, when in fact that is almost never the case,” she said, adding that most victims are trafficked by someone familiar to them, which sometimes includes parents trafficking children. “Oftentimes it’s someone they know and love. So this ‘Stranger danger, white van marauding the neighborhoods gonna-snatch-up-your-kids' myth is really just that.” 

According to the U.S. Department of State, there is an average of 24.9 million trafficking victims worldwide at any given time. Statistics show that anyone of any race, age or gender can become a victim. Human trafficking is defined as a crime of exploitation; victims are pressured into providing labor — including sex as a form of labor — through the use of force, fraud or coercion. But trafficking also happens in many industries such as landscaping, hospitality and restaurants, construction, massage parlors, childcare, domestic work, factories and janitorial services. Many of these workplaces are in low wage industries with high turnover rates.

A threat to vulnerable populations

Napolitano added that most victims are recruited. 

“They are identified by the perpetrator or trafficker as being vulnerable and people are vulnerable for lots of reasons. They’re experiencing homelessness, they’re using drugs, they’re desperately looking for work,” Napolitano explained, saying that many victims had a traumatic childhood.  “They’re looking for love and inclusion, and a trafficker reaches in and offers that person the thing they need — that love, the bus ticket, the job, the housing — and kind of hooks them that way.”

Katlyn Pryshlak, the hotline and advocacy manager at the Laboratory to Combat Human Trafficking, adds that the hotline is so important because most trafficking victims have a difficult time reaching out.

“There's a lot of stigma and shame around the experience of being trafficked and losing control over your life," Pryshlak said, "so when a human trafficking survivor shows up at the hospital or school, they’re not going to be that person who’s saying ‘help!’” 

And that also makes many human trafficking cases difficult to prosecute in court, explained Napolitano, who said that only a few hundred cases have been prosecuted in Colorado over the last several years.

“Many of the people affected by these crimes are from marginalized communities, so they don’t feel comfortable, they don’t feel safe reporting the crimes," she said. "They don’t feel like they will be be loved or supported and in many cases they are criminalized because of crimes they were forced to commit as a result of their trafficking.”

Perpetrators of trafficking target and manipulate their victims, taking over their lives. If you suspect someone you know is in a trafficking situation, call Colorado’s Human Trafficking Hotline at 866-455-5075, or text 720-999-9724.

Brian Willie is the content production manager at Rocky Mountain PBS. You can contact him at brianwillie@rmpbs.org.

Dana Knowles is a multimedia journalist at Rocky Mountain PBS and can be reached at danaknowles@rmpbs.org.