What is human trafficking and sex trafficking?
The TVPA (Trafficked Victim Protection Act) of 2000 defines “severe forms of trafficking is persons” in the following two tiered definition: Sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or which the person induced to perform such an act has not attained 18 years of age; or, recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion, for the purposes of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage or slavery.
Is child sex trafficking happening in the United States?
In Colorado? At least 100,000-300,000 American children are “at risk of being sexually exploited through pornography or prostitution every year. In Colorado, 94 minors were rescued by FBI’s Innocence Lost Task Force in 2014.
What are the ages of children sex trafficking victims in the United States?
According to Shared Hope International, the average age a child is first exploited through prostitution is 13 years old.
How do traffickers recruit girls?
Traffickers prey on those who are vulnerable in some way like runaways and at-risk youth.
What makes a child vulnerable to child sex trafficking?
Trafficking is a crime that knows no race, nationality, gender, age, or socioeconomic boundaries.
Why don’t victims just leave when they have the opportunity?
Traffickers use physical, emotional and psychological abuse that creates a trauma bond between the victim and trafficker that can be more powerful than physical chains. Many times traffickers use the threat of violence against a victim’s loved ones to secure their control.
Are girls who choose to sell their bodies victims?
Under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) sex trafficking any minor used in a commercial sex act (the exchange of any item of value for a sex act) is a victim of trafficking, regardless of their willingness or desire to engage in the sex act.
Is there a link between pornography and trafficking?
Unequivocally the answer is yes. One out of every 5 pornographic images is of a child who, under the protection of the Trafficked Victim Protection Act, has been trafficked.
What do I do if I suspect someone is being trafficked?
Contact the CoNEHT (Colorado Network to End Human Trafficking) 1-866-455-5075 and/or the National Human Trafficking Hotline 1-888-373-7888.