The indictment of hip-hop star Sean “Diddy” Combs alleges he manipulated women to participate in sexual activity, even using narcotics and other tactics to control them.
Sex trafficking happens all over the country -- including here in Connecticut.
"Our cultural narrative is that it's happening somewhere else, but the reality is that it's happening in Connecticut,” Amy Hayashida of The Underground New England said.
The Underground New England is an organization in Connecticut providing support for survivors of human trafficking.
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Hayashida said signs of sex trafficking in someone you know could be disappearing, sudden mood changes and severe anxiety. She said there's often an overlap between substance use, homelessness, and trafficking as well.
“If they don't seem to be in control of their money, if somebody else seems to be in control of their earnings, or if they are showing up with really expensive items that seem kind of incongruent with what's seen of them before,” Hayashida said.
State data shows there have been 20 arrests for charges of sex trafficking from 2020 to 2023.
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The National Human Trafficking Hotline said there were 63 victims identified in Connecticut in 2023 - 28 of whom were adults.
"The problem is, not everyone calls the hotline. So of our clients, only a fraction of them ever called the hotline. Some of them, the police called us. Some of them were at the hospital and the hospital called us,” Hayashida said.
This underrepresentation is vastly different from the state data showing child sex trafficking, with 303 reports in 2023.
“One thing that's changed is, especially with the pandemic, you've seen really an increase in online trafficking that was already happening pre pandemic,” Hayashida said.
While online trafficking ticks up, one thing Hayashida said is the same is society’s confused image of trafficking. She said it's not just celebrities; it's oftentimes one local person exploiting two or three others.
The National Sex Trafficking hotline is 1-888-373-7888. Some other resources for support in Connecticut include the state’s Human Anti Trafficking Response Team.
