Although anyone can be at risk for being a victim of human trafficking, most are women and girls. 7 Risk factors for being vulnerable to human trafficking include: 8 • Extreme poverty • Minimal education • A history of abuse or family instability • Being disabled • Belonging to a marginalized or stigmatized gender, ethnic, or cultural group Traffickers use various techniques to control their victims and keep them enslaved. Some traffickers hold their victims under lock and key. More frequently, however, more subtle techniques
Introduction
“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 means an individual who suffered harm as a result of criminal conduct. 1 “Survivor” is a term used by many in the health services field to recognize the strength it takes to continue on a journey toward healing in the aftermath of a traumatic experience.
Human trafficking has been called a form of modern-day slavery. 1 , 2 It is a crime involving the exploitation of someone for the purpose of compelled labor or a commercial sex act through the use of force, fraud, or coercion . 1 Victims can be women or men, adults or children, citizens or noncitizens and occurs across the United States and throughout the world. Human trafficking does not require crossing of international or state borders. For clinicians and health care workers, human trafficking can be viewed as a serious health risk associated with significant physical and psychological harms. 3 The abuses suffered by people who are trafficked include many forms of physical violence or abuse (e.g., beating, burning, rape, confinement) as well as many psychologically damaging tactics such as threats to themselves or their family members, blackmail, extortion, lies about the person’s rights, and confiscation of vital identity documents. 3
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. 11 The Task Force develops legislative recommendations to attack the crime and policies to protect victims. A 2016 report by the University of Texas at Austin, School of Social Work estimated that there are approximately 79,000 minor and youth victims of sex trafficking and 234,000 workers who are victims of labor trafficking. 12 Minor and youth sex trafficking has an estimated economic impact to the state of nearly $6.6 billion while labor trafficking victims are exploited at an annual cost of almost $600 million. 12 In 2020, the latest year for which data are available, there were 987 human trafficking cases reported in Texas, 185 arrests for human trafficking, and 28 convictions. 11 , 13 There were also 97 arrests for compelled prostitution with 18 convictions. 11 Of the 1,080 cases of human trafficking in 2019, most were for sex trafficking (739 cases), with labor trafficking being the next-most common (116 cases). 13 Most victims were female (824 cases vs. 131 for men), and adult (659 cases vs. 216 cases involving minors). [Note: statistics are non-cumulative because cases may involve multiple victims.] 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. 11 Barriers to acquiring accurate data include the avoidance by victims of the criminal justice system due to fears of reprisal, deportation, or incarceration; failure of health care 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., non-profits, 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 the present time. 8
are used such as: 9 • Isolation from: °
The public by limiting contact with outsiders and making sure that any contact is monitored or superficial in nature Confiscation or control of passports or other identification documents Debt bondage through enormous financial obligations or an undefined or increasing debt Family members and friends Use or threat of violence toward victims or their family members Shaming victims by exposing humiliating circumstances to their families Telling victims they will be imprisoned or deported for immigration violations if they contact authorities Control of the victims’ money
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• Control: °
What Is Human Trafficking?
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Human trafficking is defined as “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.” 4 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. 5 Also sometimes confused is the difference between sex trafficking and consensual commercial sex (sex work). Sex trafficking is when an adult takes part in the sale of sex through threat, abduction, or other means of coercion, whereas sex work involves the willing and consensual exchange of money for sex and does not infringe on the human rights of the participants. 6 (Note: children cannot technically be prostitutes or sex workers because they cannot legally consent to commercial sex.) Many victims of human trafficking are forced to engage in sexual practices through threats or other types of coercion, but trafficking also occurs as labor exploitation in urban, suburban, and rural areas. Many victims are lured with false promises of well-paying jobs or manipulated by people they trust. 1 They are forced or coerced into prostitution, domestic servitude, or other types of forced labor (e.g., agriculture, construction, fisheries, mining industries). Victims can be found in legitimate and illegitimate labor industries, including sweatshops, massage parlors, agriculture, restaurants, hotels, street peddling, door to door sales, begging, and domestic service. 1
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• Intimidation/threat: °
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The life situations of people who are trafficked are almost always complicated, whether they are under a trafficker’s control, trying to leave, or are already out of a trafficking environment. In addition, trafficked people may not self-identify as trafficked. Rather they may feel that these are merely the restrictions of their circumstance. They are usually beset with physical, psychological, social, legal, and financial circumstances that can be overwhelming. 3 Human trafficking became a federal crime with passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA) revised and updated in 2015. 10 The goals of the TVPA were to prevent severe forms of human trafficking, both in the United States and overseas; to protect victims and help them rebuild their lives in the United States; and to prosecute traffickers and impose federal penalties. Prior to enactment of the TVPA, no comprehensive federal law existed to protect victims of trafficking in the United States or to prosecute their traffickers. Congress has reauthorized and amended the TVPA several times, but its fundamental purpose and legal authorities remain the same.
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