Boys don’t get trafficked, right?
While females report trafficking in higher numbers, there is a high demand to pay for sex with boys and men in our society, and many males are being trafficked.
An insightful and very sad study was published in 2022 about the experience of boys who were trafficked as minors. The study laid the groundwork that boys are at the greatest risk for severe live-streamed sexual assault and torture. When child sexual abuse material (CSAM) is distributed of boys, it’s typically created by family members, and many boys are trafficked by their mothers (64.5%).
Mothers can and often are traffickers with familial trafficking.
Females can be sex abusers and are sex buyers.
The boys also disclosed abuse and trafficking scenarios that many people often dismiss as “too crazy to be true”, but in fact, are gut wrenchingly true. One man described being taken “camping” by his dad, when in reality it was a boy swap.
"My father would take me on 'camping trips' but these were actually 'boy swap' events with other pedophiles. That gave him the freedom to abuse multiple other boys while the other men in attendance had the freedom to abuse me however they wished.... Once the weekend event was concluded I was washed with bleach, reclothed and brought back home.”
Other men disclosed that when they had behavioral issues due to their trauma, it was often dismissed and minimized by professionals.
"After a violent trafficking rape by a ‘client’ (child sex offender) Colin reported being brought to the emergency room by his trafficker with visible cuts and bruises. His non-familial trafficker explained that Colin was accident prone, when Colin disclosed to the doctor that he needed help, the doctor told the trafficker and returned him to the custody of the trafficker."
All of the participants were first sexually abused and exploited by family members and then trafficked either by family members or other traffickers. They disclosed horrors from being forced to dress and act like females during sex acts, to being part of ritualistic abuse, to being abused in pedophile rings, to being sold in brothels, to having their abuse filmed and live-streamed.
Even though the number of participants in the study was small, the implications are huge. Boys are being harmed, abused, and trafficked in extremely violent ways. The problem is much greater than society gives credence too and there are almost no resources for male victims in the United States.
What can we do? To begin, the fact that boys are being trafficked needs to be on our radar. As we go through our days and take notice of things that seem off, we have to acknowledge boys are being exploited just like girls are.
Here is a link to the article for more detailed information- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2022.105849