About Human Trafficking

Counting money

What is Human Trafficking?

Human trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery. It involves the use of force, fraud, or coercion to obtain labor services or commercial sex acts against a person’s will. Human trafficking is legally defined in two ways:

  • Sex trafficking is the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purposes of a commercial sex act, in which the commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such an act has not attained 18 years of age (Trafficking Victims Protection Act, 22 USC §7102).
  • Labor trafficking is the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purposes of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery (Trafficking Victims Protection Act, 22 USC §7102).

What does "force, fraud, or coercion" mean?

Force

Fraud

Coercion

Physical restraint or abuse Illegal contracts Spoken or implied threats
Kidnapping False promises Control over loved ones
Sexual Assault Fake businesses Manipulation
  False marriage Climate of fear
    Confiscation of documents
    Abuse of legal system
    Fear-inducing threats to share information or pictures with others or report to authorities

See something, say something

Educating yourself is the best way to know when and how to respond to a suspected trafficking situation. Please explore the links below to learn more.