Title: Myths, Facts, and Statistics | Polaris
Headings: Myths, Facts, and Statistics
Myths, Facts, and Statistics
Human Trafficking Facts
Who is vulnerable?
Human Trafficking Myths
Human trafficking is always or usually a violent crime.
All human trafficking involves sex.
Traffickers target victims they don’t know.
Only undocumented foreign nationals get trafficked in the United States.
Only women and girls can be victims and survivors of sex trafficking.
Human trafficking only happens in illegal or underground industries.
Human trafficking involves moving, traveling or transporting a person across state or national borders.
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.”
People being trafficked are physically unable to leave their situations/locked in/held against their will.
Labor trafficking is only or primarily a problem in developing countries.
All commercial sex is human trafficking.
People in active trafficking situations always want help getting out.
Child Sex Trafficking
Human Trafficking Rumors
#SaveTheChildren Questions and Answers
Statistics

Content: Myths, Facts, and Statistics | Polaris
Myths, Facts, and Statistics
Human Trafficking Facts
Vulnerabilities
Traffickers
Control
Survivors
Who is vulnerable? Human trafficking can happen to anyone but some people are more vulnerable than others. Significant risk factors include recent migration or relocation, substance use, mental health concerns, involvement with the child welfare system and being a runaway or homeless youth. Often, traffickers identify and leverage their victims’ vulnerabilities in order to create dependency. Learn More
Who are the traffickers? Perpetrators of human trafficking span all racial, ethnic, and gender demographics and are as diverse as survivors. Some use their privilege, wealth, and power as a means of control while others experience the same socio-economic oppression as their victims. They include individuals, business owners, members of a gang or network, parents or family members of victims, intimate partners, owners of farms or restaurants, and powerful corporate executives and government representatives. How do traffickers control victims? Traffickers employ a variety of control tactics, the most common include physical and emotional abuse and threats, isolation from friends and family, and economic abuse.