The team found that Austria and the United States both use victim-centered approaches in anti-trafficking policy, but their legal and enforcement systems differ. Austria’s Criminal Code targets trafficking for multiple forms of exploitation and provides psychosocial and legal victim supports, backed by international conventions and National Action Plans for multi-agency cooperation. In the US, laws—like those in New Jersey—punish both sexual and labor trafficking with severe penalties, offer affirmative defenses and temporary visas, and require cross-sector partnerships and training. Both nations struggle with data collection due to reporting gaps and definitional inconsistencies. Austria’s protections are systematic in legal proceedings, while the US is more advanced in training and survivor participation.

Despite differences, both prioritize victim welfare, acknowledge survivors’ complex situations, and continually adapt policies through collaboration, aiming to address the complexities of human trafficking effectively.

“Knowing what people understand about trafficking and, more importantly, what they don’t understand is an essential part of the antitrafficking movement,” said Dr. Daniela Peterka-Benton, Academic Director of the Global Center on Human Trafficking. “The most significant space for assessing this is naturally the online space,” Peterka-Benton said.

Already, the partnership has produced significant results. In the first collaborative study between the two centers, a report on the dramatic increase in human trafficking misinformation on the X (formerly Twitter) was assessed. This surge occurred after Elon Musk boosted content supporting the debunked “#pizzagate” conspiracy. Foundational to the QAnon movement, Pizzagate references the belief that elites are kidnapping and trafficking children in a D.C. pizzeria. Utilizing the tools of the Strategic Communication Center, a 9,501.5% spike in Pizzagate posts was identified after Musk’s remarks. Working with the Global Center on Human Trafficking, this misinformation was contextualized to show how such false stories hinder needed support to help the real victims of human trafficking.

Particularly noteworthy about this initial partnership is that it was prominently featured in a . Additional media outlets have also linked and shared the study results from this partnership indicating that such a collaboration has immense potential to study and affect discourse about human trafficking.

“It’s an incredible start,” Peterka-Benton said, “especially as part of our work to create the first ever Human Trafficking Misinformation Network to study and share the dangerous misinformation that’s out there about trafficking.”

The study was conducted by the Joetta Di Bella and Fred C. Sautter III Center for Strategic Communication and the Global Center on Human Trafficking.

Highlights from the study on ‘Pizzagate’ on X include:

• A 9,501.5% spike in Pizzagate posts on the X platform in the period after Musk’s boosting of the conspiracy
• 375,140 posts using the term Pizzagate
• 81,536,652 total impressions generated by original posts referencing Pizzagate

Google Trends Analysis showed a similar increase in online search activity related to Pizzagate. The most liked, viewed and retweeted posts consistently supported the baseless Pizzagate conspiracy.

“The Pizzagate conspiracy is an example of the sensational and fictitious presentation of human trafficking that makes solving the real problem of human trafficking so much more difficult,” said Daniela Peterka-Benton, academic director of the Global Center on Human Trafficking and coordinator of the Trafficking Misinformation Network.

“Particularly concerning is that the Pizzagate conspiracy is foundational to QAnon. The QAnon conspiracy is based on a number of antisemitic tropes and elevating it online in the current context seems to be particularly irresponsible,” said Bond Benton, associate professor of Public Relations in the School of Communication and Media at ����vlog.

The full study, “Everything Old is Q Again,” was conducted by Benton and Peterka-Benton from the Joetta Di Bella and Fred C. Sautter III Center for Strategic Communication, located within the School of Communication and Media, and the Global Center on Human Trafficking, respectively.

For media inquiries, contact the Media Relations team at ����vlog.

Link to podcast:

This panel will feature recognized researchers along with those affected by the QAnon conspiracy theory. By exploring QAnon, we can understand its effects.

Participants:

Bond Benton, Associate Professor, School of Communication

Daniela Peterka-Benton, Associate Professor Justice Studies, Academic Director Global Center on Human Trafficking

Caitlin Touratzidis, Advocate who lost friend to QAnon

April 21st, 2022 4:00-5:00 p.m.

UN 3007 or Online

Link to register:

There’s an entire population in this country that is so extremely vulnerable to exploitation, and one I’ve personally had the opportunity to work alongside. I’ve met a handful of survivors who had disabilities before they were exploited, and every one of them stated that their disabilities are what made them vulnerable to traffickers, and it’s bolstered my deep desire to bring light to this topic.

“Children with disabilities, in particular, have a higher risk of being abused or neglected. According to the United States Department of Health and Human Services, 11 percent of all child abuse victims in 2009 had a physical, cognitive, and/or behavioral disability, and children with disabilities are almost two times more likely to be physically or sexually abuse or neglected than children without disabilities.” Risk and Prevention of Maltreatment of Children with Disabilities, http://www.childwelfare.gov

When we take into consideration the rate at which children with disabilities are being abused, and financially exploited, we can’t help but wonder what the silent numbers are that show the rate at which children, and adults with disabilities, are being trafficked or sexually exploited. People with disabilities are often isolated into communities with other people with disabilities, and without strong advocates, they’re at high risk of being taken advantage of. Traffickers will often look to find the most vulnerable, and who better than some of the most invisible members of our society? Many people, not just evil people, often see people with disabilities as less than human, and undeserving of protection and rights. Individuals with disabilities are still fighting every single day for the same rights and protections those of us without disabilities have known our whole lives, from our very own government. Traffickers will look for those who they can most easily exploit, and with little consequence. People with disabilities are more likely to be sexually assaulted, and far less likely to report the abuse, most likely due to lack of access and support.

I once worked alongside a survivor, who among many disabilities and illnesses, utilized a wheelchair. The survivor had been with their trafficker for a very long time, and not only was he exploiting the survivor sexually, he was also stealing their disability benefits, which he’d muscled the survivor’s parents into signing over to him. After escaping the trafficker, we couldn’t figure out why and how he kept finding them, despite our diligence to relocate them over and over, even going as far as moving them to multiple different states. After weeks of desperate maneuvers, one person working alongside them discovered a tracking device attached to the wheelchair that this survivor needed. The trafficker was so invested in keeping this person in their grips, that he’d secured a device to keep them from leaving him.

Almost all survivors leave their bondage with mental disabilities, and the hurdle they face in tackling their trauma is exponential. Each survivor faces a lifetime of therapy and healing, and that only happens with the right support networks and resources. Imagine facing that journey with an existing disability! The survivors are looking at not only healing, but doing so because they were able to self-identify, or as a survivor of sexual exploitation. If they’re capable of communicating their trauma, and they’re able to receive assistance, there’s still an impossible task of finding the right providers, those who have been properly trained in trafficking trauma, and working alongside their other disabilities. They’re looking at a lifetime of work, and they have to consent to the entire process, which is difficult enough for neurotypical and able-bodied individuals. It’s heartbreaking to consider.

When we think of the most vulnerable amongst us, we often default to children, and we’re absolutely correct, they are some of our most vulnerable. But I urge you to also consider individuals with disabilities, because they have been forgotten for far too long, and as long as we continue to ignore them, traffickers will continue to default to exploiting them because no one is paying attention. We can come together and make this a bigger issue than we give our attention to and only then can we expect to see change.

Written by: Liz Kimbel
Survivor Leader
Co-Founder of Karana Rising

To learn more about why persons with disabilities are targeted, and how being trafficked may lead to disabilities in survivors about check out the Global Center on Human Trafficking’s , and follow us if you’d like to see more informative content on human trafficking.

Dr. Daniela Peterka-Benton, associate professor of Justice Studies at MSU, has a PhD in Sociology with a specialization in Criminology from the University of Vienna, Austria. Her research interests center around transnational crimes such as human trafficking, human smuggling, arms trafficking, and right-wing terrorism and extremism. Prior to her focusing on a full-time academic career, Daniela Peterka-Benton worked for the U.S. State Department’s Office of Diplomatic Security at the U.S. Embassy in Vienna, Austria.

Dr. Peterka-Benton led the development of a Certificate Program in Human Trafficking at ����vlog which will be launched in Fall 2022. The primary mission of this certificate is to provide students with a comprehensive and critical understanding of global human trafficking, including extent, causes, impact, perpetrators, victims, and responses. Participants will also gain an understanding of sexual offenses and offenders from a multidisciplinary perspective relevant to the human trafficking context.

In her new role, Dr. Peterka-Benton will focus on the further development of educational opportunities related to human trafficking for survivors, students, and professionals. She will also focus on coordinating research grant applications on campus to support the research mission of the Global Center on Human Trafficking. She will also lead the exploration to create a new international journal focusing on human trafficking that brings together cutting-edge research and practice. Furthering the multi-disciplinary approach of the Global Center on Human Trafficking, Dr. Peterka-Benton will act as a key link between the Center and faculty on campus.

For more information about the Certificate Program in Human Trafficking, please contact Daniela at peterkabentd@mail.montclair.edu