William James College’s Human Trafficking Research Hub Publishes Major Study on the Roles of Attachment Patterns and Trauma-Coerced Bonding in Commercial Sex

William James College’s (WJC’s) Human Trafficking Research Hub (HTRH), a community of scholars, clinicians, and survivors, has published The Roles of Adult Attachment and Complex Trauma in Sex Trafficking-Related Coercive Bonding: Entry, Entrapment, and the Challenges of Exiting in Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy. To view this open access publication, please visit this link. 

The work represents extensive collaboration both within WJC and with external community partners. The research team consisted of 19 members, 13 of whom have a WJC affiliation. Team members have affiliations with three WJC departments, Counseling and Behavioral Health, Clinical Psychology, and Organizational and Leadership Psychology, and include students, faculty, and alums. The research was funded by William James College’s Faculty Seed Grant and the Manuscript Development Award, Wisdom Lotus Foundation, International Psychoanalytic Association, Ready.Inspire.Act (RIA, Inc.), and the MetroWest Health Foundation.

The results of the study – which both document traffickers’ use of coercion techniques and point to paths of healing for victims – are expected to inform legal and clinical practice. Professor Paola M. Contreras, PsyD, Director of the Human Trafficking Research Hub, said, “The 45 participants of this study, who we thank profoundly, provided us with knowledge about how the commercial sex environment can turn coercive. Our findings discuss the struggles that those trafficked in commercial sex encounter. Yet, what stood out most were the participants’ strengths in the face of adversity. Providers sometimes have negative views and reactions to people who leave and go back to a trafficker. However, the HTRH team observed that those who tried to leave, often multiple times (in this study largely people with a secure attachment pattern), had many strengths that helped them finally exit over time.”

For more information about the Hub, its work, and its people, visit our website.

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