WHERE DOES TRAFFICKING HAPPEN?

TRAFFICKING IN THE US

The US Department of Justice Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section reports that age 12 is the average age of entry into pornography and prostitution in the U.S. 1
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), in 2016 71% of the victims detected “were trafficked for sexual exploitation” in North America. 2
In 2018, 10,949 human trafficking cases were reported to the Human Trafficking Hotline in the United States. 3
Polaris has identified 25 types of human trafficking business models within the United States like hotels, health and beauty services, and more. 4
“Human trafficking victims have been identified in cities, suburbs, and rural areas in all 50 states, and in Washington, D.C. They are made to work or provide commercial sex against their will in legal and legitimate business settings as well as underground markets.” 5

TRAFFICKING IN TEXAS

There are approximately 313,000 victims of human trafficking in Texas. Of these, approximately 79,000 are minor and youth victims of sex trafficking. 6
In 2018, Texas identified 1,000 trafficking cases and 719 cases were sex trafficking; 118 cases were labor trafficking; 89 cases were sex and labor cases; and 74 cases were not specified. 7
20% of all human trafficking in the United States comes through Texas at some point. 8
Texas currently has the second highest rate of calls to national human trafficking hotlines in the United States. 7
From 2013 to 2015, the regions with the highest numbers of human trafficking cases are Greater Houston 41.6% and DFW 23.6%. 7

Trafficking in DFW

In Dallas alone, trafficking is a $99 million/year business. 9
Texas is the second-largest state for human trafficking, and Dallas is the second-largest city, only behind Houston. 10
“There are Google listings for 26 strip clubs in Dallas alone. Add porn shops, massage parlors, modeling studios, spas and other categories, and the number skyrockets.” 11
Watch our video, “Sex Trafficking in Our City: Rescue Her’s Experience and Response” to learn more about what trafficking looks like in DFW, how to identify trafficking in your city, and what you can do to help.

1 Sex Trafficking | Washington State. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.atg.wa.gov/sex-trafficking

2 UNODC, Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2018 (United Nations publication, Sales No.E.19.IV.2).

3 National Human Trafficking Hotline. (2019, June 30). Hotline Statistics. Retrieved from https://humantraffickinghotline.org/states

4 Polaris. (2020, January 13). The Typology of Modern Slavery. Retrieved from https://polarisproject.org/the-typology-of-modern-slavery/

6 Busch-Armendariz, N., Nale, N., Kammer-Kerwick, M., Kellison, B., Torres, M. I. M., Heffron, L. C., & Nehme, J. (2016, December). Human Trafficking by the Numbers: The Initial Benchmark of Prevalence and Economic Impact for Texas. Retrieved from https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/bitstream/handle/2152/44597/idvsa-2016-human-trafficking-by-the-numbers.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y

7 National Human Trafficking Hotline. (n.d.). Texas. Retrieved from https://humantraffickinghotline.org/state/texas

8 Immigration and the State Court Initiative, & Center of Public Policy Studies. (2013, January). Texas Human Trafficking Fact Sheet. Retrieved from http://www.htcourts.org/wp-content/uploads/TX-HT-Fact-Sheet-2.13.13.pdf?Factsheet=HT-TX

10 Busch-Armendariz, N., Nale, N., Kammer-Kerwick, M., Kellison, B., Torres, M. I. M., Heffron, L. C., & Nehme, J. (2016, December). Human Trafficking by the Numbers: The Initial Benchmark of Prevalence and Economic Impact for Texas. Retrieved from https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/bitstream/handle/2152/44597/idvsa-2016-human-trafficking-by-the-numbers.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y

11 Sanders|Contributor, R. (2019, August 23). How a regular girl from Keller became a victim of sex trafficking and managed to escape. Retrieved from https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2019/02/24/how-a-regular-girl-from-keller-became-a-victim-of-sex-trafficking-and-managed-to-escape/