Severe forms of trafficking in persons: ● Sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age; or ○ Sex trafficking: the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, obtaining, patronizing, or soliciting of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act. ▪ Commercial sex act: Any sex act on account of which anything of value is given to or received by any person. ● The recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion, for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery. ○ Peonage: paying off debt through work. ○ Debt Bondage: debt slavery, bonded labor, or services for a debt or other obligation. ○ Slavery: a condition compared to that of a slave in respect of exhausting labor or restricted freedom. As of December 2020, the National Human Trafficking Hotline (NHTH) had received a total of 328,255 contacts, with a total of 51,667 in 2020 alone (National Human Types of human trafficking Human trafficking in the U.S. cuts across a variety of labor sectors, including commercial sex work as well as domestic, personal service, factory, restaurant, farm, and agricultural labor. However, there may be other labor sectors that have yet to be identified. Labor or services trafficking may include recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing, or obtaining a person for labor or services (Human Trafficking Hotline, n.d.b). There may be use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjecting the individual to involuntary servitude, peonage (paying off a debt through work), debt bondage (debt slavery, which is bonded labor or services for a debt or other obligation), or slavery (a condition compared to that of a slave in respect of exhausting labor or restricted freedom; Human Trafficking Hotline, n.d.b). When a child under 18 years of age is recruited and harbored for the purposes of sex, prostitution, pornography, or exotic dancing and is forced to work for little or no pay, it is considered sex trafficking (Human Trafficking Hotline, n.d.a). The victim is often threatened with serious harm, physical restraint, or abuse of legal process if they do not comply with the wishes of the perpetrator (Human Trafficking Hotline, n.d.a). Commercial sex trafficking may include recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing, or obtaining a person for sexual services (Human Trafficking Hotline, n.d.a). This type of trafficking involves a commercial sex act that is induced by force, fraud, or coercion or in which a person under the age of 18 years is induced to perform such an act (Human Trafficking Hotline, n.d.a). A commercial sex act is any sex act when anything of value is given to or received by any person (Human Trafficking Hotline, n.d.a). Victim identification Identifying victims of human trafficking is a complex and difficult task. There is often fear for victim safety and/or loyalty to the perpetrator (Keep Kids Safe, n.d.b). This may result in little cooperation from the victim when trying to validate or verify clinical findings (Keep Kids Safe, n.d.b). There are also problems with identification by the U.S. law enforcement personnel who are typically trained to focus on perpetrators of crimes. When the trafficked person is
Trafficking Hotline, 2020). Between 2007 and 2020, the NHTH received 6,588 contacts (calls, texts, online chats, webforms, emails; NHTH, 2020). Of those, 1,705 contacts were reported cases of human trafficking (Human Trafficking Hotline, 2020). In 2020 alone, there were 909 total contacts from Pennsylvania, of which 221 human trafficking cases were reported (Human Trafficking Hotline, 2020). In 2014, Pennsylvania passed Act 105, Pennsylvania’s anti– human trafficking law, which defined human trafficking to include both sex trafficking and labor trafficking (PCAR, 2018a). The Pennsylvania Legislature then enacted Act 115 of 2016, which amended Title 23 (Domestic Relations) and 42 (Judiciary and Judicial Procedure) of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes to include human trafficking (PCAR, 2018a). Labor trafficking is labor obtained by use of threat of serious harm, physical restraint, or abuse of legal process. Examples of labor trafficking include: ● Being forced to work for little or no pay (frequently in factories and farms). ● Domestic servitude: providing services within a household for 10-16 hours per day, such as, but not limited to: childcare, cooking, cleaning, yard work, gardening, etc. Many victims are forced to commit criminal acts themselves (e.g., involvement in prostitution), are involved in illegal activities such as using drugs or false documents, or are undocumented and afraid to come forward because of their status in the U.S. Their own criminal activities and/or legal status makes it difficult, if not impossible, to bring their situations to light. The victims of human trafficking are part of a covert society that is hidden to most everyone except those who use trafficked persons. The victims are walled off from society and from their families, and they are not on the books related to tax and other employment records. In a strict legal sense, they do not exist and since their activities are often illegal, they dare not become visible (Logan et al., 2009). Populations at risk Although human trafficking victims may be of any age, younger and older teens are at highest risk, including the ● Youth who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, intersex, and/or asexual (LGBTQIA). ● Youth who are homeless or runaways. ● Youth with intellectual or physical disabilities. ● Youth with mental health or substance abuse disorders. ● Youth with a history of sexual abuse. ● Youth with a history of being involved in the welfare system. ● Youth who identify as native or aboriginal. ● Youth with family dysfunction. following (Keep Kids Safe, n.d.b): ● Youth in the foster care system.
involved in illegal activities such as prostitution or is an undocumented immigrant (being undocumented is not a crime, but it is a deportable offense), it may be difficult to define them as victims rather than just as criminals. Thus, law enforcement officials often do not look past the criminal activity to see whether it is part of a larger problem such as human trafficking, leaving some victims of human trafficking identified only as criminals (Logan et al., 2009).
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