Psychological coercion is a subtle yet extremely powerful control tactic used by the traffickers to keep their victims subjugated. This coercion can take many forms and is all the more effective because it doesn’t leave any physical evidence. Unfortunately, this often makes coercion very hard to prove because the only evidence may be the victim’s word. Despite the lack of physical injury, psychological coercion is very damaging to the victim and may often leave them severely traumatized.

Coercive tactics used by the traffickers may include:

• Threatening violence against family members or friends.

• Creating in the victim an irrational and exaggerated fear of CIS (former INS) or the police.

• Threatening them with deportation.

• Taking compromising pictures of the victims and threatening to expose them to the family.

• Forcing them to work to pay off a fabricated or exaggerated debt.

• Threatening to traffic their siblings and other family members.

• Convincing them that no one will believe their story even if they do go for help.

• Convincing them that the U.S. justice system is corrupt and will not help them.

• Telling them that they are crazy, lazy or ungrateful.

• Creating a sense of dependency (similar to the Stockholm syndrome) on the trafficker.

The traffickers are often from the same community as their victims and are therefore able to exploit the knowledge of their shared culture to coerce victims. They create an alternate reality of misinformation, shame and fear and use the victim’s lack of knowledge of the English language and U.S. systems to their advantage. Some of these tactics are so effective that the victims actually believe that the trafficker is doing them a favor by giving them even the most basic things. Thus they may even feel guilty about testifying against their traffickers.