Human trafficking is a real issue in the United States today. With technology and social media, modern-day human trafficking, globally, has an estimated 71% of enslaved women and girls.
Didn’t know this was still going on? Here are some facts you should know:
1. Human Trafficking Is A Billion Dollar Industry
Human trafficking earns global profits of roughly $150 billion a year for traffickers, $99 billion of which comes from commercial sexual exploitation.
2. Traffickers Prey Vastly On Children
In 2018, over half (51.6%) of the criminal human trafficking cases active in the U.S. were
sex trafficking cases involving only children. Reports indicate that a large number of child sex trafficking survivors in the U.S. were at one time in the foster care system. The average age a teen enters the sex trade in the U.S. is 12 to 14 years old and many victims are runaway girls who were sexually abused as children.
3. There Is No One Consistent Face Of A Trafficker
Traffickers include a wide range of criminal operators. Many survivors have been trafficked by romantic partners (including spouses), family members (including parents), individual pimps appearing as friends, small families or businesses, loose-knit decentralized criminal networks, international organized criminal syndicates, or gang members.
4. It Isn’t Always A Violent Crime
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.
5. Human trafficking is often confused with human smuggling
Unlike human trafficking, human smuggling involves illegal border crossings. 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.
6. You can take precautions
Children can be made more or less vulnerable by the adults in their lives. If a child is loved, cared for, and taken care of, they are much less likely to get lured into sex trafficking. It’s important to educate yourself on the risks of sex trafficking in your area and to do your part to protect the children you love from becoming a statistic.
Tia Muhammad, BS, is an award-winning freelance content & media creative, copywriter, blogger, digital designer, and marketing consultant. She owns the boutique content and digital media company, jackieGLDN|studio.
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