What is human trafficking?

Human trafficking is the use of force, fraud, or coercion to compel a person into commercial sex or labor.

Globally, human trafficking generates $150 billion in illegal profit. That’s more profit than McDonalds, PepsiCo, and Disney combined.

Like any other multi-billion-dollar business, supply and demand is everything. When the demand for cheap labor or commercial sex is higher than the supply, traffickers use force, fraud, and coercion to lure new victims.

Who is being impacted?

Data shows us that traffickers don’t target people – they target vulnerabilities. Communities most impacted by racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and classism disproportionately experience trafficking. In order to end human trafficking, we first need to know who it’s impacting.

of sex trafficking victims are women

of sex trafficking victims are Black or Latina women

of sex-trafficked youth have been in foster care at some point in their lives

of victims are experiencing homelessness when recruited into a trafficking situation

of survivors at Restore name “immigration status” as the reason they feel unsafe in the US

of homeless youth are LGBTQ+, putting them at significantly higher risk of experiencing trafficking

An estimated 403,000 people are being trafficked in the United States.

New York City is a gateway and one of the largest destinations for trafficked women in the country. Right now in every borough, women are being forced into prostitution.

To learn more about human trafficking, request a Trafficking 101 training for your organization.