“Is it sex trafficking? No, not if everybody wants to be there.” 🤦🏽♂️
The words of Diddy's lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, reveal the greatest challenge of the modern anti-trafficking movement:
Coercion as a means of control.
Most of society still operates off the myth and misconception that trafficking requires force. The kind of harmful stereotypes reinforced by media like The Sound of Freedom.
Coercion is the toughest part of trafficking to understand—and even harder to prove.
Here's why. It’s not about physical chains; it's about emotional and psychological ones.
Survivors have been leading this conversation for years, but not everyone is listening or learning.
Traffickers master tactics for control that do not involve force or restraint:
✖ Manipulation and brainwashing
✖ Threats of reputational harm
✖ Image-based blackmail
✖ Drug-based coercion
📊 Taking drug-based coercion alone, the data back this up.
Our team examined 1,462 federal prosecutions of human trafficking cases filed between 2000 and 2017, and we found 12% of cases make explicit mention of “drug,” “controlled substance” or “narcotic.” In another study, a Maine-based service provider reported that a prior addiction created a vulnerability that led to being trafficked for 66% of its clients.
And those numbers just explore one form of coercion...
That’s why it can take years to unravel these cases, especially when the rich and powerful are involved. Our justice system struggles to understand why victims don't just walk away.
The Diddy case isn’t about celebrities or tabloid-worthy headlines.
👉🏽 It's about how deeply engrained coercive and exploitative behavior has become in our culture.
👉🏽 It is about advocating for a justice system (including juries -- which reflect all of us) that understands the complexity of consent.
👉🏽 And it's about ensuring our system doesn't exist to protect the wealthy and powerful.
There's a lot of noise surrounding the case.
❓Was Diddy an informant?
❓Why is this coming out now?
❓Who else was at his infamous parties?
I'll let our court system parse the complex allegations and timeline. I hope they render the justice that victims and survivors deserve.
But amid the questions and media furor, one thing is clear:
We still do not get it.
#HumanTrafficking #SexTrafficking #Justice #Coercion #Consent #Advocacy
Image is the court sketch of Sean "Diddy" Combs in federal appeals court Wednesday, Sept 18., presided over by Judge Andrew Carter. Copyright Christine Cornell.
