​
NEED HELP? TEXT: BeFree (233733)
or call NATIONAL HUMAN TRAFFICKING HOTLINE: 888.3737.888
WHAT iS HUMAN TRAFFICKING?
AND HOW DOES IT HAPPEN?
DEFINITION OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING
Human trafficking, also known as trafficking in persons or modern-day slavery, is a crime involving the exploitation of a person for the purpose of compelled labor or a commercial sex act.
​
The Department of Justice defines human trafficking as:
​
a) Sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age; or
b) The recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery. (22 U.S.C. § 7102(9)).
TOP 5 HUMAN TRAFFICKING FACTS
TOP
POINTS OF ACCESS FOR HELP
1. Friends/Family
2 Law Enforcement/Criminal Justice
3. Health Services
4. Mobile Apps/Social Media
5. Child Welfare System
TOP
VENUES/INDUSTRIES FOR
SEX TRAFFICKING
1. Illicit Massage/Spa Business
2. Hotel/Motel-Based
3. Residence-Based Commercial Sex
4. Pornography
5. Street-Based
LABOR TRAFFICKING
1. Domestic Work
2. Traveling Sales Crews
3. Peddling Rings
4. Begging Rings
5. Retail/Other Small Business
TOP
RECRUITMENT TACTICS
SEX TRAFFICKING
1. Intimate Partner/Marriage Proposition
2. Familial
3. Job Offer/Advertisement
4. Posing as a Benefactor
5. False Promises/Fraud
LABOR TRAFFICKING
1. Job Offer/Advertisement
2. False Promises/Fraud
3. Smuggling-Related
4. Familial
5. Posing as a Benefactor
TOP
RISK FACTORS/VULNERABILITIES FOR TRAFFICKING VICTIMIZATION
SEX TRAFFICKING
1. Substance Use Concern
2. Runaway Homeless Youth
3. Recent Migration/Relocation
4. Unstable Housing
5. Mental Health Concern
LABOR TRAFFICKING
1. Recent Migration/Relocation
2. Unstable Housing
3. Criminal Record/Criminal History
4. Physical Health Concern
5. Substance Use Concern
TOP
FORMS OF FORCE, FRAUD AND COERCION
SEX TRAFFICKING
1. Induces/Exploits Substance Abuse
2. Physical Abuse
3. Sexual Abuse
4. Intimidation/Threatens/Weapons
5. Emotional Abuse - Intimacy Related
LABOR TRAFFICKING
1. Withholds Pay/Earnings
2. Excessive Working Hours
3. Threat to Report to Immigration
4. Verbal Abuse
5. Withholds/Denies Needs
HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN CALIFORNIA
According to the National Human Trafficking Hotline data (NHTRC), the largest majority of the human trafficking cases reported in the U.S. each year originate in California.
​
COMMON HUMAN TRAFFICKING MYTHS
MYTH:
It’s always or usually a violent crime.
REALITY:
By far the most pervasive myth about human trafficking is that it always - or often - involves kidnapping or otherwise physically forcing someone into a situation. In reality, most human traffickers use psychological means such as tricking, defrauding, manipulating or threatening victims into providing commercial sex or exploitative labor.
MYTH:
Human trafficking only happens in illegal or underground industries.
REALITY:
Human trafficking cases have been reported and prosecuted in industries including restaurants, cleaning services, construction, factories and more.
MYTH:
Only women and girls can be victims and survivors of sex trafficking.
REALITY:
Reality: One study estimates that as many as half of sex trafficking victims and survivors are male. Some advocates believe that percentage may be even higher, but that male victims are far less likely to be identified. LGBTQ boys and young men are seen as particularly vulnerable to trafficking.
MYTH:
Traffickers target victims they don’t know.
REALITY:
Many survivors have been trafficked by romantic partners, including spouses, and by family members, including parents.
MYTH:
Human trafficking involves moving, traveling or transporting a person across state or national borders.
REALITY:
Human trafficking is often confused with human smuggling, which involves illegal border crossings. In fact, the crime of human trafficking does not require any movement whatsoever. Survivors can be recruited and trafficked in their own home towns, even their own homes.
MYTH:
People being trafficked are physically unable to leave their situations, are locked in/held against their will
REALITY:
By far the most pervasive myth about human trafficking is that it always - or often - involves kidnapping or otherwise physically forcing someone into a situation. In reality, most human traffickers use psychological means such as tricking, defrauding, manipulating or threatening victims into providing commercial sex or exploitative labor.
MYTH:
People in active trafficking situations always want help getting out.
REALITY:
Every trafficking situation is unique and self-identification as a trafficking victim or survivor happens along a continuum. Fear, isolation, guilt, shame, misplaced loyalty and expert manipulation are among the many factors that may keep a person from seeking help or identifying as a victim even if they are, in fact, being actively trafficked.
MYTH:
If the trafficked person initially consented, then it cannot be human trafficking because they “knew better”
REALITY:
Initial consent to commercial sex or a labor setting prior to acts of force, fraud, or coercion, or if the victim is a minor in a sex trafficking situation, is not relevant to the crime, even if there has been payment to the trafficked person.
MYTH:
All human trafficking involves commercial sex.
REALITY:
Human trafficking is the use of force, fraud or coercion to get another person to provide labor or commercial sex. Worldwide, experts believe there are more situations of labor trafficking than of sex trafficking. However, there is much wider awareness of sex trafficking in the United States than of labor trafficking.
(Sourced from the Polaris Project & National Human Trafficking Hotline)