Abstract:
The National Human Trafficking Resource Center (NHTRC) helps build and institutionalize an effective and coordinated response to human trafficking and increases awareness of this crime across the United States. Our regional specialists have built relationships state by state and community by community in order to provide a safe crisis response and access to services for all survivor populations, anywhere in the United States…As a result of these calls, the NHTRC maintains one of the most extensive data sets on the issue of human trafficking in the United States. From December 7, 2007, through December 31, 2012, the NHTRC answered 65,557 calls, 1,735 online tip forms, and 5,251 emails— totaling more than 72,000 interactions. This report is based on the information learned from these interactions during the first five years of the hotline’s operation by Polaris Project. Human trafficking cases have been reported in every state and U.S. territory. Although the data do not define the totality of human trafficking or of a trafficking network in any given area, the information exposes that this crime is rampant in our communities. This report highlights the most common forms of human trafficking that are reported to the NHTRC and provides a revealing snapshot of human trafficking across the United States. (Author text)