Title: The Traffickers | National Human Trafficking Hotline
Headings: The Traffickers
The Traffickers
Business Industries that Traffickers Commonly Exploit

Content: The Traffickers | National Human Trafficking Hotline
The Traffickers
Traffickers exploit others for the profit gained from forced labor and commercial sex. They lure and ensnare people into forced labor and sex trafficking by manipulating and exploiting their vulnerabilities. Human traffickers prey on people who are hoping for a better life, lack employment opportunities, have an unstable home life, or have a history of sexual or physical abuse. Traffickers promise a high-paying job, a loving relationship, or new and exciting opportunities and then use physical and psychological violence to control them. Traffickers can be lone individuals or part of extensive criminal networks, with the common thread of exploiting people for profit. A wide range of criminals, including individual pimps, family operations, small businesses, loose-knit decentralized criminal networks, and international organized criminal operations, can be human traffickers. Often the traffickers and their victims share the same national, ethnic, or cultural background, allowing the trafficker to better understand and exploit the vulnerabilities of their victims. Traffickers can be foreign nationals and U.S. citizens, males and females, family members, intimate partners, acquaintances, and strangers. Based on human trafficking cases that have been identified by the National Human Trafficking Resource Center, examples of traffickers may include: Brothel and fake massage business owners and managers
Employers of domestic servants
Gangs and criminal networks
Growers and crew leaders in agriculture
Intimate partners/family members
Labor brokers
Factory owners and corporations
Pimps
Small business owners and managers
Ultimately, traffickers exist because human trafficking remains highly lucrative.