Houston Republic

The Strategic Plan developed by the Texas Human Trafficking Prevention Coordinating Council emphasizes Prevent as the second of five pillars that will be used to help combat human trafficking by the council and other partners. 

"The phrase 'human trafficking prevention' is often used by advocates and policymakers to describe any effort aimed at addressing the crime, including education, victim identification and law enforcement activities," the plan states. "While we recognize that efforts to respond after victimization have the capacity to prevent further exploitation, in order to end human trafficking, these efforts must be complemented by primary prevention strategies that seek to stop victimization before it occurs."

This is where the Prevent Pillar comes in. Not only is this pillar going to focus on response efforts after victimization has occurred, but it will implement programs and services designed to prevent victimization from occurring. This can be done by reducing the susceptibility to exploitation of vulnerable populations, according to the plan. 

The Prevent Pillar has seven strategies, the Strategic Plan states. 

The first strategy is to asses the prevention landscape. 

This can be done by looking at efforts that don't solely focus on human trafficking such as stakeholders for other forms of violence, including child abuse, sexual assault and intimate partner violence. These stakeholders will be able to bring forward their strategies to offer more services to fight human trafficking. 

The second strategy is to develop a statewide prevention framework and guidelines, according to the plan. 

Collaboration of partners depends on being able to establish a framework that highlights each stakeholders unique discipline. In other words, this strategy will be making sure all stakeholders have the knowledge and skills to combat human trafficking by creating guidelines for programs such as prevention education and other programs educating on violence prevention. 

The third strategy is to enhance the community's awareness of human trafficking. All communities that have a better understanding of human trafficking and the different forms it can take will be better prepared to identify and prevent it, according to the plan. Providing awareness resources to the public will help prevent human trafficking. 

Identifying and addressing the risk and protection factors of human trafficking is the fourth strategy of the second pillar, the plan states. Being able to identify the likelihood that someone could be victimized can help prevent human trafficking from taking place. 

The most vulnerable populations to human trafficking are immigrants, victims of physical and sexual abuse, runaways and children in foster care, people with juvenile or criminal history and impoverished people such as the hungry, poor and in debt, the Strategic Plan states. 

The fifth strategy to the Prevent Pillar is reducing the vulnerabilities. 

Three ways to reduce the vulnerabilities are by educating vulnerable populations on the risks of exploitation, increasing economic opportunities for the vulnerable populations and encouraging healthy and supportive relationships for these populations, the plan states. 

Utilizing school-based prevention education is the sixth strategy of the pillar. 

Implementing prevention education in schools is a key to educating everyone, not just vulnerable populations, on human trafficking and how to prevent it, the plan said. Giving youth knowledge of human trafficking will help them stay safe and reduce their chance of becoming a victim. 

The last strategy of the Prevent Pillar is reducing the demand, because without the demand, the illegal human trafficking industry wouldn't be able to exist. The most effective way to reduce demand is my investigating and prosecuting the buyers. 

"Without demand, human trafficking would cease to exist," the Strategic Plan said. "Efforts to address sex trafficking, specifically by focusing on demand, are gaining traction across the country. Without buyers, there would be no business for traffickers and no incentive to manipulate a supply of victims."