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

Content: 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. There are two primary factors that drive human traffickers: high profits and low risk. This powerful combination is driving the explosive spread of human trafficking, making it one of the most profitable criminal industries in the world. Human trafficking operations often intersect or exist alongside legitimate businesses and require a number of other actors and specific conditions in order to operate without detection. Certain industries are commonly used by traffickers to enable, support, or facilitate their human trafficking operations.