AN ANALYSIS ON HUMAN TRAFFICKING

Human Trafficking means people are being bought, sold, and smuggled like modern-day slaves,
often beaten, starved, and forced to work as prostitutes or to take jobs as migrant, domestic,
restaurant, or factory workers with little or no pay. Over the past decade, human trafficking has
been identified as a heinous crime which exploits the most vulnerable in society. Under the
human trafficking program, the Bureau investigates matters where a person was induced to
engage in commercial sex acts through force, fraud, or coercion, or to perform any labor or
service through force, coercion, or threat of law or legal process. Typically, human trafficking
cases fall under the following investigative areas:

 Domestic Sex Trafficking of Adults: When persons are compelled to engage in

commercial sex acts through means of force, fraud, and coercion.

 Sex Trafficking of International Adults and Children: When foreign nationals, both adult
and juveniles, are compelled to engage in commercial sex acts with a nexus to the United
States through force, fraud, and coercion

 Forced Labor: When persons, domestic or foreign nationals, are compelled to work in
some service or industry through force or coercion.

 Domestic Servitude: When persons, domestic or foreign nationals, are compelled to

engage in domestic work for families or households, through means of force or coercion.

Human trafficking is modern-day slavery and involves the use of force, fraud, or coercion to
obtain some type of labor or commercial sex act. Every year, millions of men, women, and
children are trafficked in countries around the world, including the United States. It is estimated
that human trafficking generates many billions of dollars of profit per year, second only to drug
trafficking as the most profitable form of transnational crime. Human trafficking is a hidden
crime as victims rarely come forward to seek help because of language barriers, fear of the
traffickers, and or fear of law enforcement. Traffickers use force, fraud, or coercion to decoy
their victims and force them into labor or commercial sexual exploitation. They look for people
who are susceptible for a variety of reasons, including psychological or emotional vulnerability,
economic hardship and lack of a social safety net, natural disasters, or political instability. The
trauma caused by the traffickers can be so great that many may not identify themselves as
victims or ask for help, even in highly public settings.