Commercial Sexual Exploitation (CSE) includes prostitution, escorting, sex work, and human trafficking, all of which strip away a person’s agency and exploit their vulnerability. Childhood trauma, food and housing insecurity, and interpersonal violence create openings for exploitation—a system rooted in coercion, violence, and manipulation. 

While federal law recognizes all minors in the sex trade as trafficking victims, many states allow youth to be prosecuted for prostitution, creating a dual victim-perpetrator status. In states like Tennessee, where child trafficking is understood to be the trafficker’s fault, many of these trafficked minors go on to become trafficked adults, trapped in the same cycles of exploitation. The protections and understanding extended to them as minors often vanish the moment they turn 18, leaving them labeled as criminals rather than survivors, despite nothing changing in the traumas or circumstances that lead them into exploitation - only the passage of time. 

Trafficking happens in all communities—urban and rural—and is often perpetrated by people the victim knows, such as relatives, partners, or authority figures. While international kidnapping rings exist, familial and community-based exploitation is far more common. 

In Tennessee, the average age of youth entering trafficking is 12–14. Women and girls of color are disproportionately represented, with systemic inequality, economic hardship, and social isolation placing marginalized individuals at higher risk. 

Traffickers exploit vulnerabilities to gain control, often by building trust or dependency through promises of love, protection, or basic needs. Over time, they escalate control through manipulation, threats, or violence, leaving victims trapped. 

Key risk factors include: 

• Poverty: Traffickers prey on economic instability, offering false opportunities or leveraging financial need. 
• Addiction: Substance dependency is frequently exploited to maintain control over victims. 
• Marginalization: Social inequities isolate individuals, increasing vulnerability and susceptibility. 

Entering the sex trade may have been her way to cope and survive after a life of abuse, neglect, and homelessness. 

Entering the sex trade may be a way to cope with abuse, neglect, or homelessness, but it perpetuates harm. Consent cannot be true consent when it is bartered, traded, or purchased. Survivors deserve better than trafficking as the only means to escape systemic and generational challenges. 

For many girls and women who are trafficked, sexual exploitation and substance use are inextricably bound together with trauma. The cycle of dependency between prostitution and drug use is rooted in using drugs to cope with the trauma of engaging in prostitution, or engaging in prostitution to have access to drugs - often needed as a coping mechanism for other types of trauma. Regardless of the entry point, each factor accelerates the other, creating a vicious cycle that is difficult to escape.    

Escaping the sex trade often requires multiple attempts, with survivors facing barriers such as: 

• Lack of education or skills, due to entering the trade young. 
• Little job history outside of exploitation. 
• Isolation from supportive relationships. 

With stable housing, trauma-informed care, and economic opportunities, survivors can begin the journey toward healing and freedom.