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Human trafficking:

a global crime where an individual is exploited through means of labor, services, and/or a commercial sex act.

 

Labor vs sex trafficking

Labor trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery in which the trafficker uses force, fraud, or coercion to get the individual to perform labor or services. At high risk for labor trafficking are domestic workers, labor workers, and those on temporary visas.

Sex trafficking is the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, obtaining, patronizing, or soliciting of a person for the purposes of a commercial sex act in which the commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion.

The three elements of sex trafficking 

Force

  • Physical violence 
  • Sexual violence 
  • Starvation 
  • Kidnapping 
  • Confinement 
  • Restraint 

Fraud

  • False promises of:  
  • Love/relationships 
  • Employment 
  • Wages 
  • Working conditions 

Coercion

  • Threats 
  • Humiliation 
  • Defamation 
  • Slander 
  • Abusing the legal process

We offer services to survivors of sex trafficking, whether adults or children.

Commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC)

CSEC is the sexual exploitation of a child through a range of crimes involving sexual acts. CSEC includes situations where a child engages in sexual acts by direction of other people or the child themselves, in exchange for anything of value (money, food, shelter, drugs, relationship, etc.).

Recruitment and grooming

Recruitment tactics and the process of grooming can look different for every trafficker. Traffickers prey on a victim’s vulnerabilities. Anyone can be a victim, but certain risk factors make some more vulnerable than others. Often intersections of risk factors compound a person’s vulnerability.

Risk factors include:

Housing instability

  • Underage runaways
  • Homelessness
  • Current or former foster youth

External factors

  • History of sexual or physical abuse
  • Lack of stable support system
  • Low income
  • Family members or friends involved in commercial sex
  • Isolated from friends and family
  • LGBTQ+ youth
  • Difficulty in school/truancy

Internal factors

  • Substance abuse
  • Mental health issues
  • Co-dependency tendencies
  • Low self-esteem or outcast

Human trafficking facts

  • Human trafficking is the third largest illicit trade, following drugs and weapons, and is second in profitability.
  • Human trafficking is a $150 billion business.
  • Nationally, the average age at which girls first become exploited through prostitution is 12–14 years old, but direct service providers around the country report they have been encountering increasingly younger victims over the past decade.
  • More than 65 percent of national human trafficking cases reported are sex trafficking.
  • Top forms of force, fraud, and coercion include
    • induces/exploits substance abuse issues
    • physical abuse
    • sexual abuse
    • intimidation with or without weapons
    • emotional abuse
Sources:
US Department of Health and Human Services Report (https://aspe.hhs.gov/system/files/pdf/75891/index.pdf Polaris Project/ National)
Human Trafficking Hotline 2019 Report (https://polarisproject.org/)
FBI (https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/violent-crime/human-trafficking

What you can do to help

  • Be a supportperson
    • Survivors of human trafficking need a good supportperson to rely on. However, it is important that as a support person you are not putting yourself in any type of danger. Simply being there for the survivor to talk to is enough.
  • Refer the survivor to our services:
    • We have advocates available to supportour survivors and assist them in accessing our services. The best way to access these services would be through our 24-hour helpline: 1-800-575-5352.
  • Get involved!
    • We have opportunities for you to donate, volunteer, or to join our team! For more information, visit our website at standupplacer.org.

For more information on how to help our human trafficking survivors you may contact our 24-hour helpline at 1-800-575-5352.