Many people have heard of human trafficking in Eastern Europe, Latin America and South America. But what surprises a lot of people is that an estimated 15,000 people are trafficked into the United States each year. Not only that, but trafficking or enslavement occurs in every state.

On this page you will learn several things: 1. the definition of human trafficking in normal language, 2. activities are victims forced to be involved with, and 3. U.S. and international legal definitions of human trafficking. Please post any questions here so we can ensure this information makes sense to those who are new to the subject!

1. What is the definition of human trafficking in normal language?

Human trafficking is a legal term, defined mainly by intent of the perpetrator – if a perpetrator intends to make money off of a person for the perpetrators gain, not for the gain of the victim, this MAY constitute human trafficking. There are specific legal requirements which I will attempt to explain. The most common type of human trafficking that probably occurs in the U.S. is in relation to prostitution, and is called sex trafficking. In this U.S., people under the age of 18 who are prostituted are considered victims of human trafficking, regardless of whether they were obviously coerced or not. If a person over the age of 18 has been forced, coerced, or defrauded (if they have been deliberately deceived), to induce them to perform commercial sex acts, those individuals are victims of human trafficking under U.S. law. The victims could be U.S. citizens, documented immigrants, or undocumented immigrants. (to learn more about this specific type of trafficking, look at Domestic Sex Trafficking and Prostitution in the United States).

Victims of human trafficking, whether sex trafficking or human trafficking in general, may be moved over national borders, or they may be victims in the town in which they have grown up and live. Remember, the crime is defined mostly by the intent of the perpetrator to exploit the victim for financial gain, not  the act of moving the victim. Sometimes victims believe they are going to be given a good job. For example, there are stories of women from Eastern European countries who agree to come to the U.S. for a job in an office, and end up being dancers in a strip club, and eventually be prostituted. Some people are simply taken, kidnapped, and are forced to be a maid or house keeper. Or, others may owe money and be forced to work off their debt, which never shrinks but only continues to grow. All of this is considered slavery, much like we would have seen in the past. Each of these situations constitutes human trafficking, and the individuals involved are victims of the crime of human trafficking.

The other aspect of this crime is, of course, the perpetrator. The crime is defined by the intent, but there are several different activities which contribute to the intent of eventually exploiting the victim. There are several different activities that people participate in that are considered human trafficking, that may not be directly making money off of the individuals being exploited. A fictional example might help here. If a woman in Romania, for example, finds an ad in a newspaper for jobs in the U.S. as an office assistance, but she will actually be taken and forced to be a prostitute in New York City, the person responsible for placing that ad and for recruiting victims is guilty of the crime of human trafficking. Even if the recruiter does not make money off of her once in the U.S., they are part of the human trafficking ring (similar to the idea of a drug trafficking ring). Next, as this person is travelling, they may not even know yet they are being trafficking, but anyone along the way who knowingly harbors or helps to transport a person who is going to be exploited once they arrive in the U.S., they are also perpetrators of the crime of human trafficking. If the victim lands at an airport in the U.S. and is brought to a person who is going to sell her to another person for the purpose of exploitation, or who provides her to another person, they are also perpetrators. And finally, the person who purchases, or obtains, the victim, who will make money off of her, is also guilty of the crime of human trafficking.

2. What activities are victims forced to be involved with?

There are a number of known activities that victims are forced to be involved with, but we find out every once in a while that there are new things people are enslaved to do. We know that people are forced to be domestic servants, are forced to marry (“mail order brides” or brokered marriages), are forced to give up organs (known as organ harvesting), and are forced to be prostitutes. These crimes are particularly heinous when they involve children, as in child prostitution (the commercial sexual exploitation of children, or child sex trafficking), or in child soldiering (where children are forced to be part of a military group in some way).

Another very broad category of activities is forced labor. This could involve people being forced to perform labor for no money, or for hardly any money. In the U.S., migrants, both document and undocumented, are sometimes used for their labor. There have been cases in Florida  (and other states) where migrants have had their documents taken away, including their passports, forced to all live in one apartment or home in wretched conditions, and received very little money in return. Issues of forced labor are disconcerting in the production of goods that we purchase. Without meaning to, we may purchase goods, such as clothing, food, or other textiles, that have been made by forced labor. Groups such as the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (http://www.ciw-online.org/slavery.html) fight the enslavement of migrant workers (among other issues related to migrant workers) here in the U.S.

(found in the Trafficking in Persons Report, 2007)

3. What are U.S. and international the legal definitions of human trafficking? (in progress)

Severe forms of trafficking as defined by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (2000) (go here to see the Fact Sheet from 2000 about this act):

a. Sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such an act has not attained 18 years of age;

or

b. 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 (Trafficking in Persons Report, 2007).

The number of people enslaved throughout the world is estimated to be 12.3 million by the International Labor Organization (Trafficking in persons Report, 2007), though the most common number cited is 27 million. Annually, according to U.S. Government-sponsored research completed in 2006, approximately 800,000 people are trafficked across national borders, which does not include millions trafficked within their own countries. Approximately 80 percent of transnational victims are women and girls and up to 50 percent are minors. The majority of transnational victims are females trafficked into commercial sexual exploitation (Trafficking in Persons Report, 2007).

Please leave any comments about other information you would like to know or questions you have!

(updated 13 May 2009)