Trafficking is the coercion, recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of a person for the purpose of using them. For children it can involve forced labour, drug smuggling, coerced marriage, benefit fraud, domestic servitude and abuse. It happens in every country, including the United States, and is estimated to be a $150 billion a year industry worldwide: the fastest-growing and second-largest criminal enterprise on the planet.
Modern-day slavery, in every state
The United States is one of the main destinations and sources. Trafficking has been reported in every state and major city, and every year hundreds of thousands of children are recruited from, transported to, or moved through the country. It can happen to any child, regardless of race, gender, education, citizenship or income.
Most people picture children bound in hidden rooms overseas. That is a reality for many, but it leaves people blind to how common trafficking is at home, where victims and offenders are often part of ordinary daily life.
How it happens
Trust-building manipulation
Offenders use a gradual process to bring a child into compliance: promises of a better life, money, protection, fame or other attractive offers. The offender takes a position of power and authority to win trust and unsupervised access. Sometimes it is a stranger, but far more often it is someone the child knows: a teacher, counsellor, coach, religious leader, scout leader, family member or friend. Offenders target vulnerable children from troubled homes who are often unsupervised, and once trust is won they use pressure, threats and control to keep the child compliant. How offenders build trust.
Parents and family
For money, survival, under threat, or through false promises, some parents hand over or sell their own child. In many more cases parents are simply negligent and oblivious to what is happening, and in some, families are drawn into a group or cult that requires them to give up a child. How to safeguard children.
Family members and friends
Most reported trafficking cases were started by a family member or a friend of the family. As the Vermont Department for Children and Families puts it, more than 90 percent of juvenile victims know the person who harmed them.
Kidnapping and the system
Children taken from their homes, living on the streets, or lost inside the foster-care and child-protection systems are prime targets.
How many children are affected?
No one knows the real number, because most of it goes unreported. It is estimated that hundreds of thousands of children go missing in the United States every year, and that trafficking is a $38 to $50 billion a year criminal enterprise in the United States alone.
When a child is reported missing, federal law requires the report to be entered into the FBI's National Crime Information Center. Because many children are never reported missing, there is no reliable way to know the true total. Source: NCMEC.
Why some call it a conspiracy theory
The truth about trafficking is often suppressed, and there are reasons for that:
- Customers in positions of power work to keep their behaviour secret.
- As the second most profitable criminal enterprise in the world, there is big money protecting its secrecy.
- Large online platforms suppress information about abuse and trafficking awareness, and limit the reach of organizations working against it.
- Some political and religious groups mixed truth with exaggeration, and the resulting misinformation let people file the whole subject under conspiracy theory or political opinion.
- There is a massive lack of public education. Most people do not know what to look for or how to help, so many situations are overlooked.
- The reality is simply too harsh for many people to face. Accepting it means choosing to do something or nothing, and pretending it does not exist is easier.
- Victims are threatened, coerced, slandered or shamed into silence, and abuse is hard to prove and harder to prosecute.
- Most offenders are never convicted. Despite solid evidence, many go unpunished or serve light sentences.
What we can do
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Raise awareness
Awareness reduces an offender's ability to operate. Learn the signs, how to safeguard children, internet safety, how to recognise offenders, and how to report. Then watch and share Contraland.
Watch Contraland - 02
Get involved in your community
Attend local events, school-board meetings and elections; know who runs your town. Write your elected officials to demand stronger sentences, laws that protect children and support for survivors. Volunteer at shelters, after-school programs and community events.
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Refer us
Connect V4CR with donors, district attorneys, elected officials, media, and businesses or groups willing to stand with the mission.
Contact V4CR - 04
Shop and support
V4CR merchandise is a guaranteed conversation starter, and every dollar supports the mission.
Shop - 05
Donate
Every gift funds investigations, operations, training and awareness.
Ways to give
How V4CR fights trafficking
- Raise awareness: Contraland, interviews and media features, training for law enforcement and nonprofits, and the #V4CR movement on social media.
- Arrest and convict offenders: joint operations with law enforcement and prosecutors. Operations and outcomes. Agencies can request support.
- Rescue and rehabilitate survivors: programs and therapy that help survivors heal and redesign their lives. What happens to survivors.
How to report
- Call 911 if a child is in danger right now, or contact your local law enforcement agency or FBI field office. Tips to the FBI: 1-800-225-5324.
- Homeland Security Investigations: 866-347-2423.
- National Human Trafficking Hotline: 1-888-373-7888, or text BeFree to 233733.
- National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC): 1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST), or report online at report.cybertip.org.
Be ready to describe what you saw, the people and vehicles involved, the location, date and time, and why it seemed suspicious. Full reporting guide.