“There is no single profile of a trafficking victim. Victims of human trafficking can be anyone—regardless of race, color, national origin, disability, religion, age, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, socioeconomic status, education level, or citizenship status.”
- U.S. Department of Justice
Most Vulnerable Populations
Anyone can be trafficked. However, although there are no defining characteristics that all trafficking victims/survivors share, there are more vulnerable groups of people. This includes:
People of Color
LGBTQ+
Immigrants
Indigenous communities
People who face discrimination and oppression and the resulting financial and social consequences are the majority of trafficking victims/survivors.
People living in poverty and foster care, as well as with addiction, abuse, and/or housing insecurity are also at a higher risk of being targeted by traffickers.
Traffickers often target people by filling or insinuating that they can fill the needs of vulnerable individuals, whether those needs are material or emotional.
“Preventing human trafficking at the scale of the problem means changing the underlying systems… that make people vulnerable and therefore make trafficking possible. It requires moving beyond solutions that rely entirely on law enforcement. Prosecuting traffickers and seeking justice for survivors is vital, but it is not enough in and of itself to end trafficking.”
- Polaris Project
Change is not just through laws directly regarding trafficking. What needs to be changed are the foster care system to better protect youth, housing protection laws, laws related to labor, and other systems in our society.
There needs to be more support and services for vulnerable populations to help end trafficking.
References
Kelly, M. V., Chen, C. (2021, January 11). Human Trafficking Does Not Happen in a Vacuum. Polaris Project. https://polarisproject.org/blog/2021/01/human-trafficking-does-not-happen-in-a-vacuum/
U.S. Department of Justice. What is Human Trafficking? https://www.justice.gov/humantrafficking/what-is-human-trafficking
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