Important terms: Victim or Survivor The terms victim and survivor can both be used to refer to individuals who were trafficked. The term victim has legal implications within the criminal justice process and generally refers to an individual who suffered harm because of criminal conduct (Department of Justice [DOJ], 2014). Much of the current body of literature uses this term to denote a patient/individual who is actively being trafficked (Combs & Arnold, 2021). Human trafficking in Texas In 2009, the Texas legislature created the Texas Human Trafficking Prevention Task Force to respond to the growing human trafficking crisis and designated the attorney general as the presiding officer (Texas Attorney General, 2024). The goals of the Task Force are to serve as a collaborative and multidisciplinary body that strives to coordinate anti– human trafficking efforts at the local, state, and federal levels (Texas Attorney General, 2024). It serves as a communication hub that brings together coalitions from across the state to provide direction, consistent messaging, and sharing of best practices (Texas Attorney General, 2024). A report released by the National Human Trafficking Hotline for the state of Texas indicated the organization received a total of 3,534 substantive signals that originated from a Texas location, which was the second highest signal volume among all 50 states and Washington, D.C. (NHTH Data Report–Texas, 2023). Each request submitted to the Hotline is evaluated for potential human trafficking. Of the 3,534 signals received, 917 were determined to be unique instances of human trafficking (NHTH Data Report–Texas, 2023). Over 70 percent of the incidents were determined to be sexual in nature and included venues such as illicit massage/spa businesses, hotel/motel-based or residential- based commercial sex, pornography, escort/delivery services strip club– and bar-based, truck stop-based, and online or unknown venues (NHTH Data Report–Texas, 2023). Fourteen percent of incidents were labor related and included incidents such as domestic work, construction,
Survivor is a term used by many in the health services field to recognize the strength it takes to continue a journey toward healing in the aftermath of a traumatic experience. This term is also used to refer to a patient/individual who has been rescued and is no longer being trafficked (Combs & Arnold, 2021).
agriculture, restaurant/food services, health and beauty services, illicit activity, and retail/other small businesses. Six percent of incidents were both sex and labor related, and in 8% of incidents, the type trafficking was not specified (NHTH Data Report– Texas, 2023). This same 2023 report indicated 67% of victims were adults and 26% were minors; 83% of victims identified as female, 15% identified as male, and 1% identified as another gender; and 7% of victims were U.S. citizens/legal permanent residents and 17% were foreign nationals (NHTH Data Report–Texas, 2023). An important caveat to all statistics about human trafficking is the difficulty of obtaining accurate data, which is a limitation of research into this issue that has been pointed out in the reports of the Texas Human Trafficking Prevention Task Force and other organizations working to reduce human trafficking (Texas Human Trafficking Prevention Task Force, 2020). Barriers to acquiring accurate data include victims avoiding the criminal justice system due to fears of reprisal, deportation, or incarceration; the failure of healthcare workers or emergency responders to ask about human trafficking or to probe causes of apparent violence; and a lack of coordination and data integration between the various levels of governmental agencies (local, state, federal) and other organizations (e.g., nonprofits, hospitals) that may have data on human trafficking. These barriers and the limitations of existing data suggest that the true scope of human trafficking is larger than can be reliably estimated at any given time (Alpert et al., 2014).
WHAT IS HUMAN TRAFFICKING?
Human trafficking became a federal crime when the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) was enacted in 2000; it was the first comprehensive federal law to address human trafficking and offered protections through immigration relief for foreign national victims of human trafficking while also focusing on prevention through public awareness programs (Federal Bureau of Investigations, 2024). The TVPA was later revised and updated in 2015, and reauthorized in 2017 (DOJ, 2023). The goals of the TVPA are to prevent severe forms of human trafficking, both in the U.S. and overseas; to protect victims and help them rebuild their lives in the U.S.; and to prosecute traffickers and impose federal penalties. The Texas legislature created the Texas Human Trafficking Prevention Task Force in 2009 (House Bill 4009) to respond to the growing human trafficking crisis; the Texas attorney general was designated as the presiding officer (Texas Attorney General, 2024). The Texas Human Trafficking Prevention Task Force consists of more than fifty member organizations, including non- governmental organizations, state agencies, local law enforcement agencies, and district attorney’s offices (Texas Attorney General, 2024). The Task Force has expanded a network of local and regional educational efforts that strive to educate the public to recognize human trafficking, identify victims and directing them to services, and ensure traffickers are investigated and prosecuted effectively (Texas Attorney General, 2024).
Human trafficking is “the recruitment, harboring, transporting, provisioning, obtaining, patronizing, or soliciting of a person for the purpose of involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, slavery, or sexual exploitation, induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform a commercial sex act is under 18 years of age” (Texas Health and Human Services, 2024). Many victims are lured with false promises of well- paying jobs or manipulated by people they trust (DOJ, 2014). The phrase human smuggling is often confused with human trafficking , but they are two quite different crimes. Human smuggling involves the provision of a service— typically transportation or fraudulent documents—to an individual who voluntarily seeks illegal entry into a foreign country (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE], 2017. While transportation is often a component of human trafficking, victims of human trafficking are still held against their will while being transported, and transportation does not need to be across state or international borders to meet the criteria for trafficking. Human trafficking commonly involves three components: An act (referring to the role the trafficker is playing by exploiting the victim), means (use of force, fraud, or coercion to exploit the victim), and a purpose (referring to the type of labor the victim is exploited for (Stoklosa & Beals, 2022).
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