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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2021 Jan 1.
Published in final edited form as: J Hum Traffick. 2019 Jun 2;6(1):1–29. doi: 10.1080/23322705.2018.1501257

Table 6.

Barriers to victimization disclosure.

Barrier Exemplary quote
Victims: Fears of Abuser’s Threats ‘I have pictures of you that I can’, you know, inappropriate [ones], very visual pictures. And, I can always go and hurt you’ you know? This trafficker didn’t know about my family, but one of my… my first trafficker did. And, later down the road, he ended up finding me, and I had to pay a debt.
Traffickers: Control at healthcare settings I’m just filling out the paperwork and I’m waiting until I get called. And mmm he’s going to go in with me [trafficker]. And I told him, ‘I don’t think they are going to let you go in there’, you know? And he was like, ‘Well, OK. We are going to figure that out. I’m not going to leave you out of my sight.’ Like, you know, ‘what do they [traffickers] think you are going to do? Go in there with the doctor and never come out?’ you know. And I was really nervous. I was like, ‘Oh wow’… you know what I mean? No type of privacy or anything. He’s on edge all the time, you know?
Providers: Lack of privacy Well, they [clinic staff] did say it was confidential and stuff like that [but] there was people around. There were patients and stuff..We were all in the same room in the back. And they would grab one and take them into the procedure room, and put them back in the other room. Nothing was confidential.
Providers: Lack of empathy and missing red flags The other nurse [second nurse] was waking me up at 1 o’clock in the morning; like, ‘If you are not going to be here [checked-in], you need to leave.’ I am like, ‘Yeah, the other nurse told me it was OK. I need a couple of hours of sleep like. I know I’ve been here for four hours. Look, I am gonna leave in the morning.’ She was like, ‘Well, this is not a place for you to sleep.’ She was like, ‘You need to leave!’ She called security. Had security come and kicked me out.
Providers: Asking the police to interfere Their first instinct was to call the police, and I was like, ‘That should be your last thing.’ …I was like, ‘That may just get me in more trouble.