Transitioning Times

“Human trafficking” is a phrase that often conjures images of frightened, undocumented women who have been brought to the United States while fleeing a war zone. Over the past few years, the phrase has also been connected with (now debunked) stories of well-dressed businessmen attempting to snatch young girls from their families in the middle of a crowded shopping mall. Even for those who acknowledge the prevalence of human trafficking in every city in America, few immediately associate human trafficking with the real source of most of its victims: our nation’s broken child welfare system. Roughly 98% of survivors of sex trafficking have been involved with Child Welfare services, and 75% have been in foster care.  In 2013, a nationwide operation rescued trafficking victims from across the United States, 60% of which were foster care youth who had run from care or who had aged out of the system. When we think of human trafficking, we must think of our nation’s most vulner...

Recently, I’ve learned about a strong connection between foster care and human trafficking that I had never really thought about before. Children who are in the system are being trafficked, sometimes by foster care parents and sometimes by others outside the home. To traffickers, these children are seen as unwanted, disposable kids, which make them a good target. They’ve often already experienced abuse, and they’re less likely to have someone come after them if they go missing.  According to “T,” (Withelma Ortiz Walker Pettigrew) a young activist who was in foster care from birth to age 18 and trafficked for 7 of those years, many foster care parents care more about the paycheck and make that known to the children in their homes. With this mentality, children quickly become used to the idea that their worth is limited, and they are only good for someone else’s monetary gain (Saar, 2014). “T” states, “The most stable relationship I had while in foster care was with my pimp and his ...