Publication Date:
February 7, 2023
The Look Beneath the Campaign Image Library can be used in human trafficking public awareness and outreach material. The images can be customized for your community by including your own logo, using your own images, or selecting an alternate photo from our free library of images.
Keep the following guidelines in mind when creating/using images in human trafficking public awareness and outreach campaigns.
Images should:
- Be person-centered and promote an accurate understanding of human trafficking. Images can draw connections in the audience’s mind that are both intended and unintended. They project an understanding of what a person experiencing human trafficking may look like. If all sex trafficking campaigns depict children being exploited, for instance, audiences may not realize that adults can experience sex trafficking.
- Represent the diverse spectrum people who experience human trafficking — people of all races, ethnicities, abilities, ages, and genders. Gender representation should be diverse (for example, not only women and people who are transgender or non-binary experiencing sex trafficking and men experiencing labor trafficking).
- Respect the safety, dignity, and autonomy of survivors.
Avoid images that:
- Display physical abuse. These types of images can be dehumanizing or objectifying and depict people merely as objects of violence. They can also be re-traumatizing to audience members who may have experienced a crime.
- Reinforce misconceptions about human trafficking. Human trafficking is a complex crime that takes many forms. Images that only rely on the most violent examples, like those depicting people experiencing trafficking in chains, behind bars, or in handcuffs, can promote the common misperception that people who experience trafficking must be physically restrained and ignore other forms of force, fraud, and coercion that can be used for exploitation.
- Sensationalize the issue for shock value to draw the audience’s attention. Examples of these types of images of women experiencing sexual violence, highly dramatic kidnapping scenes, or children sobbing.
- Show inequity with status in images (for example, person experiencing trafficking is a person of color and the doctor is White; person who is homeless is shown as a person of color).
- Depict survivors without their informed consent.
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