Legal Research

U.S. Gets 1,229 Human Trafficking Reports, Mostly Ujnconfirmed

By David Badertscher, PLL

Source: Crime and Justice News, January 15, 2009.

I"n its first 21 months of operation, the federal Human Trafficking Reporting System (HTRS) recorded information on more than 1,200 alleged incidents of human trafficking, says the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). Some 83 percent of the incidents involved allegations of sex trafficking. Labor trafficking accounted for 12 percent, and other or unknown forms of human trafficking made up the remaining five percent."

"About a third (32 percent) of the 1,229 alleged human trafficking incidents involved sex trafficking of children. More than a quarter of alleged sex trafficking incidents contained multiple victims, and nearly half of labor trafficking incidents had more than one victim. As of September 30, 2008, fewer than 10 percent of the 1,229 alleged incidents had been confirmed as human trafficking. To be confirmed the case must have led to an arrest and been subsequently confirmed by law enforcement, or the victims must have received a special non-immigrant Visa classification. More than 90 percent of victims in both alleged and confirmed human trafficking incidents were female. Hispanic victims comprised the largest share (37 percent) of alleged sex trafficking victims and more than half (56 percent) of alleged labor trafficking victims."

U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics

Full post as published by New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library on January 15, 2009 (boomark / email).