Stop Human Trafficking

What Human Trafficking Is, and Isn’t: Human trafficking is the business of stealing freedom for profit. In some cases, traffickers trick, defraud or physically force victims into providing commercial sex. In others, victims are lied to, assaulted, threatened or manipulated into working under inhumane, illegal or otherwise unacceptable conditions. It is a multi-billion dollar criminal industry that denies freedom to 24.9 million people around the world. Please scroll down to learn more about what constitutes the crime of trafficking. We hope this information is useful to you. Please note that the staff of the National Hotline is focused on assisting victims and survivors and is not available to answer more general questions about their work or about human trafficking generally for research or other purposes.
Force, Fraud, or Coercion: U.S. law defines human trafficking as the use of force, fraud, or coercion to compel a person into commercial sex acts or labor or services against his or her will. The one exception involves minors and commercial sex. Inducing a minor into commercial sex is considered human trafficking regardless of the presence of force, fraud or coercion.
How Many People are Trafficked in the U.S. Yearly?: In 2017, the National Human Trafficking Hotline handled 8,759 cases of human trafficking reported through the hotline and the BeFree Textline. These cases involved 10,615 individual victims, nearly 5,000 potential traffickers, and 1,698 trafficking-related businesses. Human trafficking is notoriously underreported, and as alarming as these figures are, they likely represent only a small fraction of the true scope of the problem.
Who is At Risk?: Human trafficking can happen to anyone but some people are more at risk than others. Significant risk factors include recent migration or relocation, substance use, mental health concerns, involvement with the children welfare system and being a runaway or homeless youth. Often, traffickers identify and leverage what makes their victims at risk in order to create dependency.
Who are the Traffickers?: Perpetrators of human trafficking span all demographics. Some use their wealth and power as a means of control while others experience the same socio-economic oppression as their victims. They include individuals, business owners, members of a gang or network, parents or family members of victims, intimate partners, owners of farms or restaurants, and powerful corporate executives and government representatives.
How do Traffickers Control Victims?: Traffickers employ a variety of control tactics, the most common include physical and emotional abuse and threats, isolation from friends and family, and economic abuse. They make promises aimed at addressing the needs of their target in order to impose control. As a result, victims become trapped and fear leaving for myriad reasons, including psychological trauma, shame, emotional attachment, or physical threats to themselves or their family.

Report Trafficking

If you or someone you know is in immediate danger, please call 911

Call the National Human Trafficking Hotline toll-free hotline at 1-888-373-7888: Anti-Trafficking Hotline Advocates are available 24/7 to take reports of potential human trafficking.
Text the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 233733. Message and data rates may apply.