Human trafficking is the buying and selling of a person to provide forced labor, prostitution, slavery, servitude or organ removal using force, fraud or coercion.
Trafficked children are hard to identify because they don't understand or they don't want to talk about what's happening to them.
Who trafficks children?
Family Members
The most common form of trafficking in Alabama. Family members sell and prostitute their children to pay for drugs or rent.
Guerilla Traffickers
A pimp who controls his victims almost entirely through physical violence and force.
Buyer-Perpetrated Trafficking
Someone who directly exploits the child’s vulnerabilities by offering money, food, and/or shelter in exchange for the sex.
Debt Captor
Someone who uses debt as a form of coercion to compel a person to work for them to pay off what they owe.
Romeo Traffickers
Traffickers trying to make young girls or boys fall in love with them.
How to Identify a Potential Trafficked Child
Child Human Trafficking Facts
57%
Victims Are Children
One study conducted in Alabama estimated that as many as 57% of victims in our state are children.
82%
Cases Not Reported
According to NIJ-supported research, the number of identified human trafficking cases are under reported by as much as 82%.
80%
Run Away
Survivors run away and return to their traffickers because the standard group homes are unequipped to handle trafficking victims.