Human Trafficking 101

We know that while Human Trafficking has gained more coverage and attention in recent years, that there are still MANY people out there who don't really understand what Human Trafficking is, what it involves, and how many people both around the world and in our own backyards are either effected by this epidemic or at risk for being trafficked. And while we don't hold all the answers, we hope that the information provided for you in this post and throughout our blog will be helpful in raising more awareness on this issue and helping each of you out there to be a light in your communities and around the world as we all join forces to combat this issue both locally and abroad.

Human Trafficking Defined:

   HUMAN TRAFFICKING is a form of MODERN DAY SLAVERY characterized by the EXPLOITATION of men, women, and children for commercial sex or labor purposes.

Three Elements of Human Trafficking:  

    This issue can be explained as a funnel that adds the ACT (what is done) + the MEANS (how it is done)  + the PURPOSE (why it is done) together = HUMAN TRAFFICKING.
 
   In other words, human trafficking is characterized by the [act] recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of persons, by means of threat or use of force, fraud, or coercion, for the purpose of exploiting individuals through commercial sex or labor trafficking.

Two Broad Categories of Human Trafficking:

1) Labor Trafficking
     a. Domestic Service

     b. Sweat Shops/ Factories

     c. Begging

     d. Agricultural Work

     e. Mining

     f. Brick Kilns

     g. Child Soldiers

2) Sex Trafficking
     a. Prostitution

     b. Pornography

     c. Stripping

     d. Lap Dancing

     e. Live-Sex Shows

     f. Mail-Order Brides

     g. Child Brides

Statistics on Human Trafficking:

• It is believed that there are roughly 27 million people living in slavery across the globe today. 

• International statistics estimate that nearly 800,000 men, women, and children are trafficked

across international borders each year. 

• Annually up to 17,000 individuals are trafficked into the U.S. from other countries.

• Approximately 80% of transnational victims are women and girls; and up to 50% are minors.

• According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, at least 100,000 U.S. children

are at risk for into the sex industry.   

• Average age of entry into prostitution is 12 to 14 (continuum of abuse that begins in adolescence

and carries into adulthood). 

• Victims of trafficking are often recruited on the streets, in the malls, at the corner stores, over a

friends house, in their own homes, and over the internet. 

• Venues where children are most often trafficked for sex include: truck stops, motels, casinos,

brothels, homes, apartments, condos, and over the internet. 

• Many human trafficking victims and survivors suffer from harmful physical, emotional, and psychological trauma. 

So now that you have a little bit better understanding of what Human Trafficking is, I hope you take that knowledge and as Theresa Flores author of The Slave Across the Street once shared with me, "Find your voice, GO CHANGE YOUR WORLD!" 

Peace,

Aubrie, Amanda and Ashlea