What is Human Trafficking?
Human trafficking is the recruitment, transportation, harboring, or receipt of people for the purposes of a commercial sex act, involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage or slavery. It currently exists in every state of the United States and across the world. It can be found in many industries: agriculture, spas and massage parlors, hotel work, and domestic service, as well as prostitution. In 2000, the federal government, responding to the inadequacy of the current laws and to the scale and gravity of the problem, enacted the first comprehensive human trafficking law: the
Trafficking Victims Protection Act. The Act defines human trafficking and establishes penalties for human traffickers. Some states and localities have followed the lead of the federal government and have enacted their own laws, giving law enforcement more tools in their fight against human trafficking in the United States.
Useful Resources on Human TraffickinG
Human Trafficking Data
Michigan Attorney General Initiative on Human Trafficking
National Human Trafficking Hotline
NEXUS Institute
Polaris Project
U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime Human Trafficking Knowledge Portal and Database
U.S. Department of State Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons
U.S. Department of Justice: Human Trafficking
U.S. Office for Victims of Crime: Human Trafficking