Crime Reduction Toolkits

Trafficking of People

Supporting agency officers and staff

Emotional exhaustion or anxiety is a common response to listening to respondents’ personal histories of abuse and trauma.  Emotional responses may also include feelings of helplessness, or conversely, omnipotence and responsibility.  Staff may be unprepared for these feelings of distress and may need support in dealing with them.

Staff working with trafficked victims can benefit from special training or background information that includes:

• thorough discussion of the range of risks and safety procedures;
   

• basic introduction to issues around physical, sexual and psychological abuse, coercion and torture;
   

• basic concepts around gender and ethnic discrimination and inequality;
   

• issues related to sex work and prostitution, including appropriate local terminology.