Public Management Bulletin #16

The Basic Information about Human Trafficking

Human trafficking involves the use of force, fraud, or coercion by one person to compel another person to perform a profitable labor or sex act. Victims can be adults or children, foreign or domestic born. The trafficking can involve purely labor, purely commercial sex, or a blend of both. 

To employ a common description, human trafficking is something that often is “hidden in plain sight” in our communities. Whereas Hollywood regularly employs imagery of physical restraints and kidnapping, the reality is that the indicators of trafficking can be much more subtle and situational. Appendix A shares some indicators that might be visible to outsiders. Given that trafficking takes many different forms, the indicators will vary depending on the situations and people involved.