Myths, Facts, and Statistics
Human Trafficking Myths
Myth
Only women and girls can be victims and survivors of sex trafficking.
Facts
Men and boys are also victimized by sex traffickers. LGBTQ boys and young men are seen as particularly vulnerable to trafficking.
Myth
Human trafficking only happens in illegal or underground industries.
Facts
Human trafficking cases have been reported and prosecuted in industries including restaurants, cleaning services, construction, factories and more.
Myth
Traffickers target victims they don’t know.
Facts
Many survivors have been trafficked by romantic partners, including spouses, and by family members, including parents.
Myth
All human trafficking involves sex.
Facts
Human trafficking is the use of force, fraud or coercion to get another person to provide labor or commercial sex. Worldwide, experts believe there are more situations of labor trafficking than of sex trafficking, but there is much wider awareness of sex trafficking in the U.S. than of labor trafficking.
Myth
Human trafficking is always or usually a violent crime.
Facts
The most pervasive myth about human trafficking is that it often involves kidnapping or physically forcing someone into a situation. In reality, most traffickers use psychological means such as, tricking, defrauding, manipulating or threatening victims into providing commercial sex or exploitative labor.
Myth
Human trafficking involves moving, traveling or transporting a person across state or national borders.
Facts
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.
Myth
If the trafficked person consented to be in their initial situation, then it cannot be human trafficking or against their will because they “knew better.”
Facts
Initial consent to commercial sex or a labor setting prior to acts of force, fraud, or coercion (or if the victim is a minor in a sex trafficking situation) is not relevant to the crime, nor is payment.
Myth
People being trafficked are physically unable to leave their situations/locked in/held against their will.
Facts
That is sometimes the case. More often, however, people in trafficking situations stay for reasons that are more complicated. Some lack the basic necessities to physically get out – such as transportation or a safe place to live. Some are afraid for their safety. Some have been so effectively manipulated that they do not identify at that point as being under the control of another person.
Myth
Only undocumented foreign nationals get trafficked in the United States.
Facts
We have worked on thousands of cases of trafficking involving foreign national survivors who are legally living and/or working in the United States. These include survivors of both sex and labor trafficking.
Myth
All commercial sex is human trafficking.
Facts
All commercial sex involving a minor is legally considered human trafficking. Commercial sex involving an adult is human trafficking if the person providing commercial sex is doing so against his or her will as a result of force, fraud or coercion.
Myth
People in active trafficking situations always want help getting out.
Facts
Every trafficking situation is unique and self-identification as a trafficking victim or survivor happens along a continuum. Fear, isolation, guilt, shame, misplaced loyalty and expert manipulation are among the many factors that may keep a person from seeking help or identifying as a victim even if they are, in fact, being actively trafficked.
Myth
Only undocumented foreign nationals get trafficked in the United States.
Facts
Labor trafficking occurs in the United States and in other developed countries but is reported at lower rates than sex trafficking.
Additional Information
Child Sex Trafficking
In complex and frightening times, it’s natural that the world seems like a more dangerous place for our children than ever before. Understanding the realities of child sex trafficking will help you to not only keep your own children safe, but to become an effective advocate for the safety of all children and families in your community.
