Ally

Someone who builds relationships based on trust, consistency, and accountability with marginalized individuals and/or groups of people.

Child Grooming

Befriending and establishing an emotional connection with a child and sometimes the family, to lower the child’s inhibitions, with the objective of sexual abuse. Often the grooming is performed in the hopes of trapping the minor into sex trafficking.

Child Sexual Abuse Material

Any material depicting child sexual abuse and other sexualized content involving children.

Child Sex Trafficking

The crime of recruiting, harbouring, transporting, obtaining, or providing a child for the purpose of sexual exploitation.  This often involves coercion (which includes force) fraud, and/or deception.

Online Child Sexual Exploitation

A crime committed by offenders who use technology or the internet to sexually exploit a child. It’s also commonly referred to as child pornography, but we advocate against this term because children cannot consent to participating in pornography.

Paedophile

Individuals with a predisposition or motivation to sexually engage with prepubescent children and who seek out children for sexual interaction.

Pimp Grooming

Befriending and establishing a relationship with a minor in the hopes of recruiting them into becoming a sex trafficker. This process involves the teaching of how to control the victim, abuse tactics and ways to earn money quickly.

Sexual Exploitation of Children

A crime that involves a child taking part in sexual activity in exchange for something (ie. cash, goods, in-kind favours, or even the promise of such) from another person or by the child her/himself.

Sexual Exploitation of Children in Travel and Tourism

A crime that happens when a child is sexually exploited by one or many people travelling outside of their city, province, geographic region, or country.

Sugar Daddy

An older male who provides a younger individual, often persons under 18, with gifts, money, shelter, clothes etc, in return for their company and/or sexual favours.

Trauma Bonding or Chains of Attachment

Occurs when a person develops positive feelings toward their trafficker and remains loyal to them.  Signs include showing gratitude for small acts of kindness shown by the trafficker, rationalizing violence by the trafficker, defending them, believing that only their trafficker loves them or cares for them, or that  only their trafficker can help them.

Lover Boy/ Romeo Scenario

The most common tactic used by pimps and traffickers in North America. This tactic relies on gaining the victim’s trust and love with gifts, affection, and lies about a fantasy life together. Once the trafficker has the young victim sold on the idea that they can “offer them the world”, they put them to work. Traffickers using this tactic use a mixture of threats, coercion, and emotional manipulation to make sure victims continue to service clients and don’t try to escape or seek help.

Intersectionality

Intersectionality is how social scientists explain what happens when someone experiences more than one factor of oppression at a time. Factors of oppression include race, gender, ability, sexuality, socioeconomic status, among other things. So an intersectional look at child sex trafficking would say that a young, gay, black, female would be more likely to be trafficked than an older, straight, white, women, because of her age, sexuality, and race. That’s because everytime another factor of oppression is added on to a person’s life the likelihood of being targeted for violence increases.  

Vulnerability

The state of being more at-risk or exposed to dangers or harm. Vulnerability can be physical, like being exposed to the elements, or emotional, being lost or in search of acceptance, that allows harm easier access to the individual.

Branding

A tactic traffickers sometimes use to show ownership of a victim; often a tattoo of the trafficker’s name or a gang symbol.

Toxic Masculinity

Toxic masculinity is a description of manhood that defines manhood by violence, sexual activity, and aggression. It’s the “cultural ideal” of manliness, where strength is everything while emotions are a weakness; where sexual activity is desired and a source of status, while supposedly “feminine” traits (like vulnerability or sensitivity) can reduce your status as “man”. This standard is problematic and likely plays a role in the actions and behaviours of all males involved in sexual exploitation. It also makes it more difficult for male victims to come forward and share their story.

Privilege

An unearned advantage that gives some individuals in society more than others. In Canada, those who experience the highest form of privilege are white, male, young, cis-gendered, straight, able-bodied, and from an upper or middle-class family. Any one of those areas of privilege that an individual holds gives them some aspect of privilege, making it possible for an individual to feel oppression and privilege at the same time.

Systemic Discrimination

Systemic discrimination describes a dynamic system that produces and maintains discrimination through individuals, instituations, and social norms. It cuts across major political, economic and social organizations in a society.

Manipulation

Manipulation is a type of social influence that aims to change the behavior or perception of others through indirect and deceptive tactics. This is often used in the recruitment process after a “grooming period”. The trafficker will ask the victim to do sexual things with them or others to “repay” them for the money that has been spent on them or to earn money for their future together. They may also tell the victim that the victim owes someone money and something bad will happen to them if they don’t do what the trafficker says/wants. 

Isolation

A trafficker may try to distance the victim from their friends and family, and make the victim feel like they are the only person who cares about them. This practice helps the trafficker assert control and continue to manipulate the victim.