Human trafficking Exists in every community, in each city, throughout the united states, and all 195 countries.
What is Human Trafficking?
Human Trafficking is modern-day slavery and is the use of force, fraud or coercion to obtain some type of labor or commercial sex act. Specifally for sex trafficking, it is a multi-billion dollar industry that preys on exploiting women, children and even men for commercial sex.
Internationally, it is estimated there are between 20 million and 40 million people in modern slavery. Due to the hidden nature of sex trafficking, the exact number of victims will never truly be known.
U.S. Department of Health Services estimates 325,000 people are exploited through sex trafficking each year in the US. 71% of all sex trafficking victims are women and children.
Who are Traffickers?
Traffickers profit from the exploitation of their victims by compelling them to perform labor or to engage in commercial sex in every region of the United States and around the world.
The U.S. Department of State estimates there are 27.6 million victims worldwide at any time. Traffickers will prey on people regardless of age, race, socio-economic status, nationality, religion, and education. They can be strangers, known acquaintances, or family members.
How it happens
Abduction is typically the first answer that comes to mind when asked how individuals become victims of sex trafficking. While abduction cases are absolutely a part of the overall statistics for human trafficking, it is not the only way traffickers target their victims. Sadly, many traffickers target individuals who are vulnerable such as someone who has lower self esteem, has been through a recent breakup, comes from a traumatizing family situation, or simply too young to understand what is happening.
According to Polaris, a major resource on Human Trafficking, other significant risk factors include: recent migration or relocation, substance use, mental health concerns, involvement with the child welfare system and being a runaway or homeless youth. Often, traffickers identify and leverage their victims’ vulnerabilities in order to create dependency.
Eventually, through a variety of control tactics, whether physical, emotional, or mental (or all of them combined), victims become trapped in a vicious cycle and fear leaving due to psychological, fear, threats to themselves or family/friends, and shame.
The numbers
125%
The increase of online recruitment on Facebook
4.5 Million
People are being sexually exploited in 2023 in the U.S.
325,000+
women and children are forced into sexual slavery in the United States every year (according to USDHS)
42%
were brought into trafficking by a member of their own families
69%
were recruited by a potential or current employer
98%
of sex trafficking survivors in the U.S. had previous cases in child-welfare services
Recognizing human trafficking
- Evidence of being controlled either physically or psychologically.
- Inability to leave home or place of work.
- Inability to speak for oneself or share one’s own information.
- Information is provided by someone accompanying the individual,
- Loss of control of one’s own identification documents (ID or passport),
- Have few or no personal possessions.
- Loss of sense of time or space, not knowing where they are.
The above information came directly from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.