Pimps and groomers are seeking one thing; to isolate the victim. If they can isolate in body and mind, they can effectively control them. Once control is in place the personhood of the victim is gone and they become property. Property that exists to make the owner some money. The pimps don’t want family or friends coming after their property and they don’t want the girl to run away from them. Isolation takes these options out of the picture.
Pimps do all sorts of things to isolate their victims. They will move their victims to a different, unfamiliar city. The pimp already has all the information they need to isolate geographically because of all the information gained in the grooming process. A new city will increase the likelihood of disorientation and make it harder for the victim to escape. This is the pimps desire.
If the groomer is good at their game, the victims will run willingly into the arms of their new family, not realizing the toxic nature. It will appear as if the move is the victim’s idea. This is why you won’t see a fogged-up window with the word “help” in it. If they are moved into the life through grooming, the move appears willing, not knowing the evil intentions of their captures. This is one reason why modern-day slavery is hard to spot. It looks like the victim is willing.
Pimps may also isolate by moving their victims ever few days or couple of weeks, so they don’t get comfortable in one place. They will have the girl work a track that will run through multiple cities so the girl will never feel stable and secure. She can never plan her escape route or know where to find beneficial services. This keeps the girl dependent on her pimp. He alone knows where the girls is and where she comes from. This isolation tactic has been proven to keep the girls confused and in the control of the pimp.
A pimp doesn’t have to move geographically to isolate. They can also use coercion. An example of this is: One groomer pretended to by a boyfriend and had sex with his girlfriend. Unknown to her, he filmed and took pictures using hidden cameras. He then used these pictures to tell her how dirty she is. He said that if she didn’t do what he asked he would mail the pictures and video to everyone she knew: her mom, dad, brother, priest, teachers, coaches, etc. This is coercion; holding these pictures over her head and forcing her to do the unthinkable. Coercion can isolate just as well as moving locations.
Isolation of the mind is a difficult thing for me to imagine. The pimp uses all sorts of phycological tactics to keep the victim isolated. Using words that put down and condemn the girls is one way this might work. If you are always being called; “dirty,” “nasty,” “hoe,” “slut,” “skank,” “bitch” and all sorts of other nasty words, you will start to believe them. This will isolate you mentally. In reading books by pimps, they would often use derogatory words to refer to their girls, never a name just a description of what they do in the life. They would say things like “Bitch, your only good for one thing, get your ass out on the track and make me my scratch.” This is constant and unrelenting. The pimps use sentences like these to keep the girls in their stables. Isolating them. Soon the girls just resign to their fate and be what they are called until one day they’ve had enough.
This is why hope is so important. We need to instill hope in our youth. You can’t steal hope. Even if hope is beat down and almost gone, a little flicker of hope can help those trapped in horrible situations get out. We want to shine the light of hope into darkness so that the darkness will not win out. Hope is a beautiful treasure, and it can be taught to others.
My wife wrote this about hope. This is for her a prayer and a plea for others to share and give hope to others. “This! This is the type of hope I have for my sisters at Peoria Home and the ones who are still out on the streets, ‘The kind of hope that creates a willingness to position oneself in a hopeless place and be a witness, that allows one to believe in a better future, even in the face of abusive power. THAT KIND OF HOPE MAKES ONE STRONG.’ This quote is from Bryan Stevenson’s, Just Mercy, it’s a powerful read, but not for the faint of heart. Please join me in prayer as we help spread hope and light in the darkness”
Good people don’t isolate their friends. They include them. A friend is invited in, never forced. A friend uses their gifts to be beneficial to the community but is never used. We get to be good friends who offer love and hope, friends who speak into one another’s life and include each other. Let us be these kinds of friends. I hope for a community that can value each other’s differences and see them as beneficial rather than threatening. That we can grow and be better because of friendship.
Once the isolation is successful, the transition to the life is all but complete. Now they are turned out.
#TeamMitchellBoys is raising awareness this month and also fund for Peoria Home. Peoria Home is just one place where we can put our deepening understanding to practice.