Experts say many girls who are trafficked for sex or being groomed for trafficking still live at home with their families.
Sex trafficking often masks itself as a love relationship for a girl, though a deeply unhealthy one.
• She is “disengaging,” her grades are slipping and she is skipping school or missing her curfew
• She seems to have low self-esteem, and a strong need for approval
• She is being isolated or turned against family and friends
• She is changing her appearance
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• She changes her phone number, or carries more than one phone
• Her purse contains everything she would need for a “sleep out,” including spare shoes and a bra
• She avoids eye contact and is fearful, anxious, depressed, submissive, tense, or nervous/paranoid
• She is not allowed or able to speak for herself
• She is not receiving proper health care and may appear malnourished
• She shows signs of physical and/or sexual abuse, physical restraint, confinement, or torture
• She has few or no personal possessions including no official identification documents
• She has a lack of knowledge of her whereabouts or may not know what city she is in
• She has lost sense of time and may not know the date
• She has numerous inconsistencies in her story, seeming to adhere to scripted or rehearsed responses
• She has been branded with a tattoo
• She shows signs of substance abuse or addiction
