Serving Trafficking Victims

According to the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA), sex trafficking is a form of modern day slavery in which traffickers recruit, harbor, and transport individuals for commercial sex acts. Criminal penalties against traffickers are enacted only if the sex acts are induced by force, fraud, or coercion (defined as severe trafficking).⁶¹

Statistics show that 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked internationally every year for sexual exploitation or forced labor. Sex traffickers lure victims from communities and countries with high rates of poverty and violence. The traffickers trick victims into believing they can help them obtain a better life. Instead, traffickers imprison, rape, beat, starve, and force victims into prostitution and house them in substandard living conditions.⁶²

Each year, 14,500 to 17,500 human trafficking victims end up in slavery in cities and rural areas throughout the United States.⁶³ These staggering figures reflect a fundamental need for SARTs to expand alliances to meet victims' multicultural needs and collaborate on local, federal, state, and international levels.

Read on for information about—

• Recognizing trafficking victims' rights.
• Identifying sex trafficking victims.
• Responding to trafficking.