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: 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. They make promises aimed at addressing the needs of their target in order to impose control. As a result, victims become trapped and fear leaving for myriad reasons, including psychological trauma, shame, emotional attachment, or physical threats to themselves or their family. Learn More
Who are the survivors? Victims and survivors of human trafficking represent every race and ethnicity but some forms of trafficking are more likely to affect specific ethnic groups. Learn More
Human Trafficking Myths
Myth
Human trafficking is always or usually a violent crime.