January is Human Trafficking Prevention Month, and Arizona State University is offering a free virtual training series designed to help people better understand human trafficking and how to recognize it in their own communities.
The workshops are hosted through ASU’s Office of Sex Trafficking Intervention Research, also known as STIR, with experts sharing research-backed strategies for prevention and reporting.
“Human trafficking happens every day in every city, every town,” Dominique Roe-Sepowitz, ASU STIR Director, said.
ASU STIR says the goal of the seminar series is to bring the crime out of the shadows and empower the public with clear information on what trafficking looks like and how to respond if they suspect it.
“Hopefully, once you've learned about it, you can see what it is in our community. And if you see it, you know what to do and how to report it,” Roe-Sepowitz, STIR Director, said.
The training includes six workshops covering a range of topics, including labor trafficking, exploitation in strip clubs, identifying victims in jails and prisons, and understanding sex buyer behaviors.
“We did a study looking at the first time a sex buyer purchased sex, and how we can intervene? How can we change the hearts and minds of people who buy sex?” Roe-Sepowitz said.
The series also explores emerging research on something known as “sugaring,” which Roe-Sepowitz says can sometimes involve coercion and exploitation.
“That’s a way that a younger woman, generally, a person who doesn't have a lot of money and a lot of resources, finds and is connected by a website to an older man who has money. And that coercive relationship begins,” Roe-Sepowitz said.
“So we're just evolving in our knowledge about that sugaring,” she added.
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Another part of the seminar looks at STIR’s incubator program, which helps train people interested in launching nonprofits focused on helping trafficking victims and preventing exploitation.
“We've mentored a number of agencies who are open and robust,” Roe-Sepowitz said.
Roe-Sepowitz says Arizona has several unique factors that can make trafficking easier to hide in plain sight.
“Our community in certain areas allows a congregation of people that are outside, that are prostituting or buying sex driving around,” Roe-Sepowitz said.
“We have a lot of money here in Arizona. We have weather that is usually conducive to street prostitution. We have lots of conferences and conventions and sports that bring men and money to our community,” she added.
Roe-Sepowitz says the public can play a major role by learning how trafficking works, recognizing warning signs, and knowing who to contact for help.
“It is invisible. It is silent. It is hard to see until once you see it, you can't unsee it,” Roe-Sepowitz said.
The Arizona Human Trafficking Hotline is 1-877-429-8477.
ASU says there are five more trainings scheduled this month, and registration is required through Eventbrite.
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