Name: Mabel

Social Justice Group: Human Trafficking

Date of Fieldwork: November 17, 2018

Name of Organization: SafeHorizon

Person (people) with whom I met and their job titles: Noelle Fries, Manager Of Training And Community Outreach

Type of Fieldwork: Interview

What I did:

We went to the SafeHorizon office in Brooklyn, and we interviewed the manager of training, Noelle Fries. She told us how she and her Mandarin-speaking colleague train people to work with trafficked women. SafeHorizon’s safe house only takes on foreign women, and they have only one house.

What I learned:

I learned that there are three methods used to lure victims into a trafficking situation: force (physical force or threats about the victim’s or the victim’s family’s well being), fraud (trickery/faking nice), or coercion (passive aggressive persuasion, often involving threats).

What I learned about Social Justice “work” and/or Civil and Human rights “work” from this fieldwork:

I learned that it is hard for trafficked women to get justice. I don’t know exactly why, but pimps are usually able to escape charges or get out of punishment. This doesn’t make sense, and needs to stop.