Human Trafficking

Human Trafficking is Exploitation

Human trafficking is a form of interpersonal violence that involves exploitation. This means that the perpetrator materially benefits from the abuse.

When someone uses the term “human trafficking,” they are typically referring to either sexual exploitation or labor exploitation.

Labor exploitation: Labor exploitation is a predatory employment scheme in which individuals are compelled through force, fraud, or coercion to perform labor or services.

Sexual exploitation: According to the Women’s Fund of Omaha, sexual exploitation is the exchange of sex or sex acts for anything of value when an individual is coerced or manipulated into the arrangement through a position of vulnerability, differential power, or trust. “Anything of value” can include cash, addictive substances, food, housing, or access to social or political power.

How Traffickers Exploit Relationships

Traffickers often build a relationship with their victims or leverage an existing relationship to gain and maintain power and control. A trafficker may be a family member, intimate partner, friend, or employer of their victims.

Human trafficking intersects with domestic violence and child abuse. Trafficking and exploitation can be generational. A trafficker can be the parent, grandparent, or extended family member of the victim. A trafficking survivor may feel a sense of loyalty to their trafficker whether or not they are biologically or legally a family member.

Preventing Human Trafficking

Preventing human trafficking does not involve Hollywood-level heroics. We can keep our fellow community members safe from exploitation by ensuring their basic needs are met. We can end human trafficking by addressing factors that place a person at a higher risk of experiencing or perpetrating human trafficking and strengthening factors that make a person less likely to experience or perpetrate human trafficking.

Some of the risk and protective factors for human trafficking also serve as risk and protective factors for domestic and sexual violence. This means that taking steps to prevent human trafficking can go a long way toward reducing all forms of power-based violence.

The following are risk factors that must be addressed to prevent human trafficking:

• Abuse and neglect, including child abuse, domestic violence, and sexual violence;
• Disconnection from culture or separation from community of origin;
• Discrimination based on sex, gender identity, race, ethnicity, or sexual orientation;
• Lack of family or community support for gender identity or sexual orientation;
• Lack of resources to meet mental health needs, including for substance use disorder;
• System involvement (child welfare, juvenile justice, criminal legal);
• Economic stress (e.g., debt, extortion, unemployment, underemployment);
• Housing instability, especially during youth;
• Food insecurity;
• Lack of familiarity with U.S. systems (e.g., legal, social service, etc.);
• Lack of understanding of labor rights; and
• Lack of work authorization.

The following are protective factors that must be strengthened to prevent human trafficking:

• Community support and connectedness;
• Meaningful connection to culture and community or origin;
• Acceptance of one’s identity, including gender identity and sexual orientation;
• Safe and supportive school environments;
• Connection with safe, caring adults and friends;
• Access to mental health care support, including substance use disorder treatment;
• Basic needs, such as mental and physical health needs, being fulfilled;
• Safe housing;
• Education about the warning signs of exploitation; and
• Education about healthy relationships and consent.