Human Trafficking 101

     Maybe you were like me when I first learned about human trafficking. I thought it was a blight on humanity that was happening “over there”. According to International Justice Mission, more than 40 million people (a quarter of them children) are in slavery globally, and it’s a $150 billion industry. It wasn’t until 2012 that I discovered that children could be sold in the United States. In North Carolina, the “First in Freedom”. 

     Yes, North Carolina has a trafficking problem. We have a trafficking problem and it will take all of us to end it. You may have heard that our state ranks consistently in the top 10 in the country for trafficking. That number comes from number of reports to the Human Trafficking Hotline, so NC consistently ranks in the top 10 for reports of human trafficking. Other states may have the same number of victims but people may not be recognizing and reporting them. 

     Human Trafficking is any exploitation that happens because of force, fraud or coercion. And not all human trafficking is sex trafficking, it can be labor trafficking or even a combination of both labor and sex trafficking. And although it has been very difficult to collect data on labor trafficking, some think that we have more of a labor trafficking problem in NC than sex trafficking. Polaris project has also identified 25 different subcategories of human trafficking. It’s not always what you’d expect.

     Sex trafficking rarely involves stranger abductions. Sadly, most victims are trafficked by someone they know and trust. According to Shared Hope International, the common age for entering the sex industry is 14-16. These kids may get raped up to 10 times a day. In our state any child under the age of 18 is considered a victim and protected by the law—you don’t have to prove force, fraud or coercion because children under the age of 18 can’t legally give consent. There’s no such thing as a child prostitute in NC. 

    North Carolina has great interstate systems so we can ship people to NYC, Atlanta and to the coast easily which adds to our human trafficking problems. But that doesn’t mean a person must be transported to be considered a victim. Some people are trafficked right out of their homes and their traffickers may even be family members. Other victims, such as those caught in the illicit massage industry in NC (typically foreign nationals), are lured with false promises and then sent through a network of brothels throughout the country that use massage businesses as fronts; victims may get rotated to a new business every 2-6 weeks.

    However, victims are not just foreign-born.  We have a large number of vulnerable US citizens who are at an increased risk for victimization. One example population, according to the National Youth Foster Institute, is the 60% of all sex trafficking victims that came from foster care. In 2017, we had 10,500 foster children in the state of North Carolina. Traffickers prey on vulnerabilities whether that is homelessness, poverty, family conflict, legal status, substance use, or prior victimization. Victims come from all races, socioeconomic statuses, legal status, and genders!

In 2013, North Carolina created the Safe Harbor Law to lay the foundation in combatting trafficking. Since then the state has worked hard to initiate other tough policy (check out our policy page), create a Human Trafficking Commission and give the NC State Bureau of Investigation original jurisdiction of the crime. Laws were recently passed to mandate the training of both school teachers and students on the red flags of human trafficking.

   We’re waking up as a state but there’s still more to do and there’s a role for all of us to play. If we want to get serious about combatting trafficking, we must address the demand; most buyers are white, middle class, married men--maybe not who you'd expect. In 2018, NC had more than 730,000 ads for sex on the dark web. If someone’s willing to buy, there will be someone else willing to exploit and sell vulnerable individuals. We have to address demand! In addition, all across the state, North Carolina needs more beds for victims and more services to cover their needs. We also have to equip key areas where victims may present (hospitals, foster care, municipal government, substance use disorder providers, abortion clinics, tattoo parlors, LGBTQ centers, transportation hubs, hotels, convenience stores, etc.) to recognize the signs and know how to properly respond. Contact us to let us know how we can help you, your civic group, your house of worship, or business become a part of the fight.

    One day I’m going to be telling my grandchildren that there was a dark time when children were being sold in our state but that people of all races, SES, religions and political affiliations came together to end it. We needed no other reason than to know of this evil’s existence, to fight. Be the solution.

If you want to learn more, find resources here.

Shared Hope International's 2019 Report Card on Laws protecting commercially sexually exploited children.

The North Carolina Human Trafficking Commission's Reports and Related Legislation