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Home / Reporting / Recognizing Signs of Human Trafficking & Sexually Exploited Children/Youth
The term Human Trafficking is used by Department of Children and Families (DCF) as an umbrella term used to include two specific allegations of abuse: Human Trafficking – Sexually Exploited Child, and Human Trafficking – Labor. Victims of human trafficking include male and female children/youth involved in the sex trade who are coerced or deceived into commercial sex acts, and those forced into different forms of labor or services, such as domestic workers held in a home, or farm-workers forced to labor in exchange for shelter or threats of deportation (see Glossary for definitions).
An estimated 14,500-17,500 people are trafficked into the U.S. from around the world each year.
Approximately 244,000 American children and youth are estimated to be at risk of child sexual exploitation, including commercial sexual exploitation.*
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children estimates that there are 100,000 youths under the age of 18 already in the commercial sex trade in the U.S.*
When we talk about Human Trafficking-Sexually Exploited Child, children/youth can be sexually exploited in various places. Specific examples include:
Similarly, labor trafficking involving children/youth can occur in these industries:
Traffickers may target and groom minor victims through social media, websites, online gaming phone chatlines, after-school programs, at shopping malls and bus depots, in clubs, or through friends or acquaintances. As with child abuse and neglect, there are certain signs and vulnerabilities that children/youth exhibit when they are victims of human trafficking (these experiences are similar for male, female, and LGBTQ+ victims):
For male, female and LGBTQ+ victims these behavioral indicators are similar:
Children who exhibit these physical and behavioral indicators, and any suspicion that they are being exploited, must be brought to the immediate attention of DCF. There is no need to know who is exploiting the child/youth – only that there is reasonable cause to believe that they are being exploited. Mandatory reporters are required to file a 51A for Human Trafficking.
Human Trafficking Hotline: https://humantraffickinghotline.org/
U.S. Department of Justice, Report to Congress from Attorney General John Ashcroft on U.S. Government Efforts to Combat Trafficking in Persons in Fiscal Year 2003: 2004
U.S. Department of Education, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, Office of Safe and Healthy Students, Fact Sheet (2013) Human Trafficking of Children in the United States. (www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oese/oshs/factsheet.html).
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