The Real Face of Child Trafficking in the United States:

Understanding how all states are impacted by trafficking and coercion tactics

Date of Event: Thursday, October 17th 2024

Time of Event: 9:30 AM — 1:00 PM PST

Place of Event: Webinar

Key Speakers

Overview

All 50 states in the nation have reported cases of human trafficking, as UNICEF USA details. Trafficking does not just affect people of a certain race, socioeconomic status, education, or even gender. While certain populations are more vulnerable to trafficking, it is a phenomenon that affects anyone. According to Saved in America, an estimated 50,000 people in the country are victims of human trafficking, including sex trafficking. “There are more than 365,000 missing children in our country each year. 30% of those missing are being trafficked (approximately 109,000 children). An average of 3,000-8,000 children trafficked each year are in San Diego County.” (Saved in America) To add to these statistics, about 60% of trafficked youth are in the foster care system, with California, Texas and Florida reporting the most human trafficking cases in the United States, followed by Las Vegas as a city hotspot. The Polaris Project, an anti-human trafficking organization working to debunk myths around this topic, state that “perpetrators of human trafficking span all racial, ethnic, and gender demographics and are as diverse as survivors. Some use their privilege, 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.” (The Polaris Project) This means that traffickers are hard to pick out in a crowd and could be closely related to the victim even. Additionally, “human trafficking is often confused with human smuggling, which involves illegal border crossings. In fact, the crime of human trafficking does not require any movement whatsoever. Survivors can be recruited and trafficked in their own home towns, even their own homes.” (The Polaris Project) While accurate statistics are hard to obtain due to the amount of cases that go unresolved or unreported, in 2021 the U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline reported 10,359 cases of human trafficking, which involved 16,554 individual victims. (U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline)

This is an important issue to tackle because child trafficking can affect any community, making certain populations and neighborhoods vulnerable to this phenomenon and perpetuating unsafe societies. The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 is a federal legislation that was released in 2000 which would “equip the U.S. Government with new tools and resources to mount a comprehensive and coordinated campaign to eliminate modern forms of slavery domestically and internationally.” (The U.S. Department of Justice) Individual states are also making progress in preventing trafficking of children and helping victims, such as California’s policy SB 14, which is a “bipartisan measure co-authored by 64 members of the Legislature. The legislation is supported by over a hundred local, national and international organizations, including a coalition of human trafficking survivors and advocates.” (California Governor) Additionally, the “Prevention of and Remedies for Human Trafficking, drafted by the National Conference of Commissions on Uniform State Laws, provides a comprehensive model law against human trafficking to help ensure effective action by the fifty states, District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The model law was approved by the American Bar Association House of Delegates at the annual meeting in 2013.” (American Bar Association)

Neal Davis Law Firm says that “The issue of human trafficking has received more widespread media attention and public concern in recent years, particularly in light of high profile individuals who have been charged with child sex trafficking and human exploitation—such as Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, ex-USA Gymnastics coach John Geddert, as well as Canadian clothing designer Peter Nygard.” (Neal Davis Law Firm) As trafficking continues to be brought into the light, there are many gaps that still need to be addressed. Policy does not always ensure that those committing the crime will stay imprisoned. In New York, sex trafficking and sex trafficking of a child are considered Class B Felonies, meaning that the perpetrator can not be punished for more than 20 years. In other states, ruling declares life felon for sex trafficking of children. Furthermore, many victims are unprotected by policy, keeping them in the shadows as they don't feel safe enough to report their abuse. This symposium seeks to discuss the statistics of child trafficking cases throughout the past years, and how COVID-19 and post-pandemic time have affected these numbers. This event will discuss ways that legislation is moving forward in helping victims feel comfortable to speak up about their cases, while also looking towards how policy can better prevent this phenomenon from occurring.

Program

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