Findings

Congress finds the following: (1) According to the National Human Trafficking Hotline, operated by the National Human Trafficking Resource Center, there is no single profile for trafficking survivors—trafficking survivors include adults and minors from rural, suburban, and urban communities across the country. Survivors of human trafficking have diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, varied levels of education, and may be documented or undocumented. According to the 2018 Trafficking In Persons Report produced by the Department of State, the Department of Justice, the National Human Trafficking Resource Center, and Youth.gov, vulnerable populations and risk factors for human trafficking include— (A) children in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems; (B) runaway youth; (C) homeless youth; (D) youth forced to leave home by parents or caregivers with no alternate care arranged; (E) unaccompanied children; (F) American Indians and Alaska Natives; (G) migrant laborers, including undocumented workers and individuals with temporary visas; (H) recent migration or relocation; (I) persons with disabilities; (J) LGBTI individuals; (K) people of color; (L) those with limited-English proficiency; (M) low literacy; (N) substance abuse; (O) mental health issues; (P) past trauma or violence; (Q) stigma or discrimination; (R) family conflict, disruption, or dysfunction; (S) community-level risk factors such as peer pressure, social norms, social isolation, gang involvement, and living in an under-resourced school, neighborhood, or community; and (T) society-level risk factors such as lack of awareness of commercial exploitation and human trafficking, sexualization of children, and lack of resources. (2) According to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center, human trafficking survivors have been identified in cities, suburbs, and rural areas in all 50 States, and in Washington, DC. The 3 States with the highest incidents of human trafficking cases reported via phone calls, emails, and online tips to the National Human Trafficking Hotline in 2018 were California, Texas, and Florida, respectively. (3) According to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center, the top recruitment methods used by sex traffickers based on self-reported data from survivors involve an intimate partner or marriage proposition, family members, individuals posing as a benefactor, offers of employment, or individuals perpetrating fraud or offering false promises. (4) According to the National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments, traffickers may systematically target vulnerable children by frequenting locations where children congregate—malls, schools, bus and train stations, and group homes, among other locations. Traffickers also use peers or classmates who befriend the target and slowly groom the child for the trafficker by bringing the child along to parties and other activities. According to Common Sense Media, nearly all children age 8 and under live in a home with some type of mobile device and use it every day. This is especially concerning given that traffickers often recruit through social media platforms and other websites. (5) Those within vulnerable populations are often exploited or groomed for entry into human trafficking at a very young age. According to a 2005 clinical report, The Evaluation of Sexual Abuse in Children, published by the American Academy of Pediatrics, studies have suggested that each year approximately 739,000 children experience some form of sexual abuse, resulting in the sexual victimization of 12 percent to 25 percent of girls and 8 percent to 10 percent of boys before the age of 18. (6) Sex trafficking and exploitation can take many harmful forms, including a lesser-known but just as damaging form of uncoerced exploitation referred to as survival sex, meaning the exchange of sex for basic needs including clothing, food, shelter, or other basic necessities. Survival sex does not involve a third-party trafficker or exploiter, and often affects youth, including those who are homeless, runaways, or housing-insecure, who lack the financial resources, job readiness, support system, or opportunity to afford or access these basic necessities. (7) Training students, teachers, and school personnel to understand, recognize, and respond to signs of human trafficking and exploitation in children and youth is invaluable in the effort to identify and prevent human trafficking and exploitation before it occurs. According to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center, the widespread lack of awareness and understanding of human trafficking leads to low levels of survivor identification by the people who most often encounter them. Survivors of human trafficking are often forced to work or provide commercial sex against their will in legal and legitimate business settings or underground markets. It is often the case that those who are being exploited or trafficked are in plain view and may interact with community members, underscoring the urgent need for the expansion of training programs to increase awareness and prevention activities in communities across the United States.