Crime of 'master manipulators': Most cases involve 'personal' situations involving family members, close associates
JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – Human trafficking occurs in homes, hotel rooms, massage parlors, brothels, restaurants, farm fields and online.
Women, children and men are all victimized.
They are exploited by family members, intimate partners, groomers, pimps, gangs or business owners, who may use coercion, economic manipulation, blackmail, emotional abuse, drugs, gifts, violence and threats to keep the victims entrapped.
It takes many forms, among them prostitution, sex in exchange for a place to live, child labor in sweatshops, debt bondage, forced criminality and organ harvesting.
Human Trafficking logo
The problem exists not only in seemingly lawless international regions and major cities, but also in small towns – such as Johnstown and neighboring communities.
More than 27 million people worldwide are estimated to be in human trafficking situations at any given time, according to the U.S. Department of State, although exact numbers are impossible to calculate given the shadowy nature of the situations.
The International Labour Organization and the Walk Free Foundation, in partnership with the International Organization for Migration, put the total around 40 million, including forced marriages, in a 2017 report.
The annual revenue from human trafficking has been estimated to be as high as $230 billion – more than four times the money generated by the National Football League, the National Hockey League, Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association combined in 2024.
In whatever form it takes and wherever it occurs, human trafficking is 'pure slavery,' said Douglas Lengenfelder, a staffer for state Sen. Cris Dush, R-Jefferson, one of Pennsylvania's leading anti-human trafficking crusaders.
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The National Human Trafficking Hotline identified 12 likely victims of human trafficking in Cambria County from 2015-2022. There were three in Somerset County.
'The individuals who think we have conquered slavery in this nation really do not understand the significance and the horror of human trafficking,' said Lengenfelder, an Air Force veteran and Republican former Cambria County commissioner.
'Exploited' relationships
A young woman on a gap-year holiday walks alone at night along the cobblestone streets of a beautiful European capital. A van pulls up. Two men quickly drag her into the vehicle. She resists, kicking, scratching, screaming. They overpower her. Bound and gagged, the woman is kidnapped, transported against her will to another country, sold and forced into prostitution.
That scenario does indeed happen. And it makes for a thrilling Hollywood movie plot.
But the majority of human trafficking – based on the 'Actions, Means, and Purpose,' or AMP, model – occurs in more personal and less sensationalized ways.
Adults groom boys and girls in video game chatrooms. Drug-addicted parents use their children's innocence as payment to their dealers. Restaurant owners underpay undocumented immigrants who cannot complain for fear of being deported. Men get romantically involved with vulnerable women, give gifts, provide what appears to be a stable environment and then manipulate them into providing sex work.
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At noon on a regular Monday last month, a website showed about 80 sex worker advertisements in the areas of Johnstown, Indiana and Altoona.
'With human trafficking, I think what surprises many people is how many victims actually know their trafficker,' said Jordan Pine, founder and CEO of Cumberland County-based Greenlight Operation, an anti-human trafficking organization.
'I think we do often think of the sensational stories or movies like 'Sound of Freedom' or 'Taken,' but in Pennsylvania it doesn't usually look that way, because if it did, police would be on high alert. We'd be looking for these individuals. What we have to keep in mind is that traffickers are master manipulators who are trying to make as much money as possible without getting noticed.'
The report 'Polaris Analysis of 2021 Data from the National Human Trafficking Hotline' outlined how human trafficking recruitment was often done by a family member or caregiver (33% of the time), an intimate partner (28%) or employer (22%). The type of exploiters were employers (43%), those with a familial relationship to the victim (26%) and intimate partners (22%).
'This shows us again that it's not always just stranger danger,' Pine said. 'Yes, that can happen. But, more often than not, a victim knows their traffickers, and that relationship is getting exploited.'
Vulnerability, 'coercion'
Human trafficking thrives online. 'Escorts' are advertised on websites. Predators also lurk, striking up chats with children playing video games or otherwise communicating online.
Douglas Lengenfelder
Douglas Lengenfelder, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and former Cambria County commissioner, speaks with The Tribune-Democrat in October 2020.
Lengenfelder said the prime 'hunting time' is between 9 p.m. and 2 a.m. He said that whenever a youngster is left unsupervised or unmonitored online, the parents have 'invited that predator to have private time with your child.'
He recommended some 'very easy, straightforward approaches' for prevention, such as giving children flip phones that can be used for calling or programmable Apple Watches instead of smartphones with internet access.
Lengenfelder said predators will act 'like hunting wolves' in a pack, each asking different questions until they form a combined profile, regarding home life, friends, likes and dislikes.
The traffickers, whether searching for children or adults, look for vulnerabilities to exploit – past unresolved trauma, mental illness, economic insecurity and, in many cases, drug and alcohol dependency.
'It can look different, but it's definitely some type of coercion or intimidation over the other person to get them to do these acts for the benefit of the trafficker, who is making a lot of money,' said former Cambria County District Attorney Kelly Callihan, who helped form the Cambria County Human Trafficking Response Team.
Kelly Callihan
Kelly Callihan
'They're usually providing the basic necessities that the victims need to survive, which is housing, food, whatever drug they're using. They pretty much tie them off from society and provide those basic needs, which keeps them in the cycle and it's very difficult for a victim to get out.'
Signs and risks
The red flags of human trafficking can be challenging to detect. What might be a cause for concern with one person might just be part of another person's regular personality.
'Victimization looks different for everybody,' said Victim Services' Jessica Piro, the Cambria County Human Trafficking Response Team's co-coordinator.
She said some common signs, though, are a person becoming withdrawn, fights with families, poor boundaries that lead to risky behavior, hypersexualization, chronic truancy from school or missing work, talk about a 'sugar daddy' or 'sugar mama,' use of multiple phones, sudden appearance of gifts and money, and medical problems.
Some communities can be at higher risk for being trafficked – runaway youth, LGBTQ+ children who have been in placement, homeless people, substance abusers and people with histories of trauma.
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