Presented by:Duren BanksChief, Prosecution and Adjudication Statistics Unit

Bureau of Justice StatisticsWashington, DC 20531

August 4, 2009

The Work of Federally-funded Human Trafficking Task Forces

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http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/cshti08.pdf

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Human Trafficking Reporting System

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Human Trafficking in the US: A SnapshotFor the purposes of HTRS, human trafficking is defined as the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision or obtaining of a person for one of three purposes:

1. Labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purposes of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage or slavery.

2. A commercial sex act through the use of force, fraud or coercion.

3. Any commercial sex act, if the person is under 18 years of age, regardless of whether any form of coercion is involved.

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Human Trafficking in the US: A Snapshot of Incidents

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Human Trafficking in the US: A Snapshot of Alleged Victims

• 1,442 victims were involved in alleged human trafficking incidents

• Over 90% were female.

• Hispanics accounted for the largest percentage (40%) of victims. Nearly equal percentages of victims were white (23%) or black (21%)

• Approximately two-thirds of human trafficking victims were either 17 years old or younger (27%) or 18 to 24 years old (38%).

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Human Trafficking in the US: A Snapshot of Suspects

• 871 suspects identified• 8 in 10 were male• Blacks represented the

largest race/ethnicity category of suspects (36%), followed by Hispanics (31%)

• About 40% of suspects were age 35 or older

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Human Trafficking in the US: Prosecutions

• 68% arrested at the state level

• Over half of the prosecuted suspects were convicted of some offense.

• 16 of the convicted offenders (36%) were sentenced to probation, time served, or prison or jail for less than one year

• 29 (64%) were sentenced to prison or jail for one year or more.

• 5 suspects were sentenced to prison for more than 10 years.

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Human Trafficking in the US: Confirmed Cases

Of the 271 closed cases, 79% had “not been confirmed” as human trafficking.

– The task forces reported that victims refused or failed to cooperate with the investigation in 46% of these cases

– In 20% of the cases, there was an indication of criminal activity other than human trafficking.

– In 25% of the cases, the accusations were determined to be unfounded, false upon investigation, or lacking sufficient evidence.

– The remaining cases (9%) were closed for other or unknown reasons

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Human Trafficking Investigation Progress

Suspect sentenced45

Suspect convicted160

Suspect charged140

Confirmed human trafficking112

Suspect arrested216

Victims identified Suspects identified1,442 871

Investigation opened1,229

Victim requests continuing presence?

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Bureau of Justice Statistics website:

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/

Duren.Banks@usdoj.gov

Email: