Where Does Sex Trafficking Happen?
Do you know where sex trafficking is happening in the United States? Because of what’s often portrayed in the media, you may think sex trafficking only takes place in developing countries, or on street corners in crowded cities, or through kidnappings by strangers.
The truth? Sex trafficking isn’t just happening overseas. It’s not just taking place in big cities, and in most cases, it doesn’t happen through unlikely kidnappings as it appears in the movies.
The reality is, sex trafficking is much more common than you might think, and it’s happening all around us - in your town, down the street from your house, and in every zip code in America.
Where exactly does it take place? Because sex trafficking happens in many forms, it can happen in many places. According to Polaris*, the top three types of sex trafficking are escort services, pornography, and illicit massage business - all parts of the sex industry that can be found in any city in the country.
Escort Services: Though it’s easy to believe the lie that most women in escort services are in that industry by choice, the truth is that on average, 84%** of adults in prostitution are under the control of a pimp or trafficker. This means they may not want to be there, they may not get to keep most or any of the money they make, or they are there through force, fraud or coercion.
Pornography: While many people think participants in pornography are there by choice, the opposite is often true. Even if someone did initially consent, many actors in porn are coerced into doing things they did not sign up for or agree to. It’s also important to acknowledge that the porn industry makes a profit off of sex trafficking, and sex traffickers profit off of pornography.
Traffickers often use force, fraud or coercion to trap their victims into performing sex acts on film, which porn sites can then profit from. Because many porn sites have no system in place to verify consent, it is extremely easy for videos of trafficked victims to be uploaded to those platforms. In fact, Pornhub and its parent company MindGeek are currently being sued by 191 victims for over $1 billion for hosting videos of their trafficking, rape, and sexual assault.
Illicit Massage Businesses (IMBs): You’ve seen them before - in the middle of a strip center, open late at night, windows covered with only male clientele - these sex trafficking fronts are located all throughout our cities. Operating under the guise of a legitimate massage business, IMBs make it easy for traffickers to sell their victims to any buyer who walks through the door.
In addition to these three places, sex trafficking happens in strip clubs, cantinas, hotels, homes, on the street, online and more. As more and more sex trafficking victims are being targeted and exploited online, sex trafficking really can happen anywhere. The introverted girl who lives next door with her parents could be sex trafficked, the student at school who suddenly stopped hanging out with their friends could be sex trafficked, the woman you sat next to on the bus today could be sex trafficked.
Anywhere the demand for commercial sex exists, sex trafficking will exist, and demand exists anywhere from small towns to big cities. Traffickers meet this demand by targeting anyone with a vulnerability they can exploit, whether that be a financial need, family issues, loneliness, a longing for love, and more. They’ll meet that need, build trust with their victims, and then use them for their own gain.
The good news?
There is hope for rescue, no matter where a survivor is located.
Rescue America exists to rescue, revive and empower the sexually exploited through a 24/7 Rescue hotline and emergency response, and we believe there is a redemptive solution for every survivor who desires to exit the life of commercial sexual exploitation.
We’ve had survivors call our Rescue hotline anywhere from Orange City, Iowa to Los Angeles, California - from hospitals and hotel rooms to a stranger’s house in the middle of nowhere after hiding under a truck for days. No matter where they are or where they’ve come from, freedom and a fresh start are possible.
Since 2014, we have seen hundreds of brave survivors walk out of the darkness of sex trafficking and begin their journeys to healing and new life. Their freedom is worth fighting for, and the more people who know about the issue of sex trafficking, the more can fight for the solution! Freedom happens when people like you fight for it - and we believe the first step in awareness.
*Polaris, ANALYSIS OF 2020 NATIONAL HUMAN TRAFFICKING HOTLINE DATA https://polarisproject.org/2020-us-national-human-trafficking-hotline-statistics/
** Melissa Farley, 2016 PRE. https://prostitutionresearch.com/melissa-farleys-response-to-un-women/
