Get the Facts…
Human Trafficking, as defined by the United Nations, is the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of people through force, fraud, or deception, with the aim of exploiting them for profit. Sex Trafficking is one kind of human trafficking.
- Sex trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery in which individuals perform commercial sex through the use of force, fraud, or coercion.
- Sex traffickers target victims and then use violence, threats, lies, false promises, or other forms of control and manipulation to keep victims involved in the sex industry for their own profit.
- Sex trafficking exists in public on urban and rural city streets and within a range of venues and businesses including hotels, motels, truck stops, massage parlors, escort services, and residential brothels.
The Face of Sex Trafficking
- The majority of those who end up in a trafficking situation have a clear and identifiable vulnerability that a trafficker preys upon. The top five risk factors/vulnerabilities for sex trafficking victims are substance use, runaway/homeless youth, unstable housing, mental health concerns, and recent migration/relocation.
- Victims usually know and trust their traffickers. In situations of sex trafficking or sex and labor trafficking combined, of the 2,448 victims whose recruitment was known, 42% were brought into trafficking by a member of their own family and 39% were recruited via an intimate partner or marriage proposal.
- Online recruitment increased a significant 22% in 2020 with a 125% increase in reports of recruitment on Facebook and 95% increase in reports of recruitment on Instagram over the previous year.
www.humantraffickinghotline.org/type-trafficking/sex-trafficking
polarisproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Human-Trafficking-Trends-in-2020-by-Polaris.pdf
Trafficking is under-reported and under researched. The numbers are likely only a fraction of the problem:
- In 2020, 10,583 situations of human trafficking were reported to the U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline involving 16,658 individual victims. 10,836 individuals were identified as sex trafficked victims.
- According to Polaris Project, in 2019 there were 434 human trafficking victims identified in the state of Illinois. Additionally, there were 115 traffickers identified and 53 trafficking businesses.
- Human trafficking occurs all over the United States, but Chicago is one of the leading cities
- The FBI labeled Chicago as one of 13 locations of “High Intensity Child Prostitution”
https://polarisproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/2019-Illinois-State-Report.pdf
https://www.juf.org/pdf/govt_affairs/trafficking.pdf