THE ISSUE
Human Trafficking
Human trafficking is a crime involving the exploitation of someone for the purposes of compelled labor or a commercial sex act through the use of force, fraud, or coercion.
Human trafficking affects individuals across the world, including here in the United States, and is commonly regarded as one of the most pressing human rights issues of our time.
Human trafficking affects every community in the United States across age, gender, ethnicity, and socio-economic backgrounds.
(Source: National Human Trafficking Hotline, operated by Polaris)
THE ELEMENTS OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING
The Action-Means-Purpose Model can be used to describe the elements of human trafficking. Cases that are considered severe forms of trafficking in persons involve three elements:
(What is done)
ACTION
Recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing, or obtaining of an individual
MEANS
(How it is done)
Force, fraud, coercion,
or confinement
PURPOSE
(Why it is done)
Forced labor or services
or commercial sex act(s)
Sex Trafficking
Sex trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery in which individuals perform commercial sex through the use of force, fraud, or coercion.
Minors under the age of 18 engaging in commercial sex are considered to be victims of human trafficking, regardless of the use of force, fraud, or coercion.
Sex trafficking has been found in a wide variety of venues within the sex industry, including residential brothels, escort services, fake massage businesses, strip clubs, and street prostitution.
Labor Trafficking
Labor trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery in which individuals perform labor or services through the use of force, fraud, or coercion.
Labor trafficking includes situations of debt bondage, forced labor, and involuntary child labor. Labor traffickers use violence, threats, lies, and other forms of coercion to force people to work against their will in many industries.
Common types of labor trafficking include people forced to work in homes as domestic servants, farmworkers coerced through violence as they harvest crops, or factory workers held in inhumane conditions with little to no pay.
Resources
Documents (Click to read full document PDF)
Videos
San Antonio Police Department Video for Human Trafficking Awareness Month (January 2018)
https://www.facebook.com/SanAntonioPD/videos/1702768039743522/
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton statement on human trafficking www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/cj/human-trafficking
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton digital training tool to improve victim identification. https://vimeo.com/244718411
TEDxSanAntonio Shannon Sedgwick Davis
End Human Trafficking https://youtu.be/L68PtJ0f7w8
Online Training
PUBLISHED: June 2013 UPDATED: December 2016
BY: National Human Trafficking Hotline
Watch this training to receive an overview of human trafficking and the current anti-trafficking response in the United States.
This presentation will go over the federal definition of human trafficking and descriptions of sex and labor trafficking. The presentation will also teach participants how to identify and understand victims and about the anti-trafficking response network in the U.S.
