Professionals responding to human trafficking frequently work within complex institutional systems that attempt to address severe exploitation while navigating legal mandates, funding constraints, and fragmented service networks. Practitioner distress in helping professions is often discussed through frameworks such as burnout, compassion fatigue, and secondary traumatic stress; however, these models may not fully capture the ethical tensions experienced by social workers and advocates working with trafficking survivors. This presentation introduces moral injury as a conceptual framework for understanding the ethical dissonance that can arise in anti-trafficking practice when professionals recognize what ethical practice requires but are constrained by institutional policies, limited resources, or systemic barriers. Drawing from interdisciplinary scholarship and social work practice environments, the presentation will explore how moral injury differs from traditional occupational stress models. Particular attention will be given to structural conditions within trafficking response systems—including limited housing options, legal barriers, service eligibility restrictions, and documentation requirements—that may create ethical strain for practitioners advocating for survivors. Recognizing moral injury within anti-trafficking practice has important implications for social work education, supervision, and organizational leadership. Integrating discussions of ethical dissonance into training, strengthening supportive supervision, and encouraging institutional accountability may help protect practitioner wellbeing while promoting more ethical and survivor-centered responses to trafficking.
Trigger Warning: This presentation contains information (written, spoken, or visual) that may be triggering or (re)traumatizing to attendees.
Dr. Kimberly Hogan is a Clinical Associate Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Social Work. Her scholarship focuses on human trafficking, survivor-centered services, and program evaluation. She collaborates internationally with agencies advancing prevention, advocacy, and systems change for trafficking survivors.