This presentation focuses on a much under-studied aspect of sex trafficking: the survival strategies and resources used during trafficking. Data comprised 75 interviews with 44 survivors who were asked to define ‘resilience’ during trafficking, and to share their experiences of resilience during trafficking. Dr. Knight worked with a community co-researcher to conduct a thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) of these definitions and stories, present the themes to participants in subsequent interviews, and integrate their input into the results. Participants mainly defined ‘resilience’ during trafficking as ‘survival’, i.e., not giving up or committing suicide, and doing whatever it takes to continue surviving. The themes organized the processes and resources for survival into five clusters: (1) Surviving and hoping: Just surviving, inner voice of hope, refusing to die, deciding to survive, dreams or goals, curiosity, good memories; (2) Managing trauma: Dissociation, drugs and/or alcohol, self-harm; (3) Spiritual experiences: Encounters with God/spiritual beings, faith/spirituality; (4) Resistance: Staying kind, refusing to believe traffickers’ messages, negotiating with traffickers/clients, creating small moments of safety/rest, attempting/planning escape, obtaining services, and (5) Having people who matter: family members, traffickers, friends. The results highlight survivors’ strengths and wisdom and provide direction for service provision to survivors still being trafficked. For instance, outreach efforts could include talking with survivors about dreams and goals, acknowledging and honoring their ability to survive, and providing them with resources to help other individuals being trafficked. The presentation concludes with survivors’ recommendations for integrating this knowledge into trafficking discourse, practice, and for further research.
Trigger Warning: This presentation contains information (written, spoken, or visual) that may be triggering or (re)traumatizing to attendees.
Logan Knight is an assistant professor at the School of Social Welfare, University of Kansas. As a survivor-researcher-advocate, she seeks to promote socially just, inclusive, and equitable research with survivors. Logan’s research interests include resilience and posttraumatic growth, and community-based and spiritual interventions for human trafficking.