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Human Trafficking Awareness Porterville College

PC Stay Safe - Human Trafficking Awareness

What Is Human Trafficking?

Human trafficking involves the use of force, fraud, or coercion to obtain some type of labor or commercial sex act. Every year, millions of men, women, and children are trafficked worldwide – including right here in the United States. It can happen in any community and victims can be any age, race, gender, or nationality. Traffickers might use violence, manipulation, or false promises of well-paying jobs or romantic relationships to lure victims into trafficking situations.

Anti-Human Trafficking PSA Espanol Video

Tulare County Human Trafficking Taskforce

Sex Trafficking

Sex trafficking is a type of human trafficking and is a form of modern day slavery. It is a serious public health problem that negatively affects the well-being of individuals, families, and communities. Human trafficking occurs when a trafficker exploits an individual with force, fraud, or coercion to make them perform commercial sex or work.

Sex trafficking is defined by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 as “the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, obtaining, patronizing, or soliciting of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act.” It involves the use of force, fraud, or coercion to make an adult engage in commercial sex acts. However, any commercial sexual activity with a minor, even without force, fraud, or coercion, is considered trafficking. Understanding the shared risk and protective factors for violence can help us prevent trafficking from happening in the first place.

The average age of entry in sex trafficking in the Central Valley is 13 to 16 years of age. It is happening here!

National Human Trafficking Hotline

Labor Trafficking

Labor trafficking is when individuals perform labor or services through the use of force, fraud, or coercion. Labor trafficking includes situations of debt bondage, forced labor, and involuntary child labor. Labor traffickers use violence, threats, lies, and other forms of coercion to force people to work against their will in many industries. Common types of labor trafficking include people forced to work in homes as domestic servants, farm workers coerced through violence as they harvest crops, or factory workers held in inhumane conditions with little to no pay.

The Latino population is at a particularly high risk for labor trafficking. This type of human trafficking can happen in a number of different jobs including farmworkers, landscaper, housekeepers, janitors, construction workers, food service, and factory work. This trafficking occurs to foreign and American born individuals

Who is at risk?

Perpetrators of human trafficking often target people who are poor, vulnerable, living in an unsafe situation, or searching for a better life. Victims can come from all backgrounds and become trapped in different locations and situations.

The following groups are especially vulnerable:

  • Individuals who have experienced childhood abuse or neglect
  • Children and youth involved in the foster care and juvenile justice systems
  • People experiencing homelessness
  • American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders
  • Survivors of violence
  • Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning (LGBTQ) individuals
  • Migrant workers
  • Undocumented immigrants
  • Racial and ethnic minorities
  • People with disabilities
  • People with low incomes
  • People with a history of substance abuse
Polaris Project

Where does trafficking occur?

Trafficking can happen anywhere, from illicit markets to legal industries like hospitality, construction, agriculture, or domestic services. The National Human Trafficking Hotline identified at least 25 types of human trafficking.

How can we prevent sex trafficking?

Sex trafficking is preventable. Efforts have focused on increasing community awareness of human trafficking and addressing exploitation after it occurs. To learn more about how to recognize the signs of human trafficking, visit the National Human Trafficking Hotline’s, Recognizing the Signs website.

More research is needed to evaluate programs and policies that help reduce factors that put people at risk in order to help prevent trafficking before it occurs. Strategies based on the best available evidence exist to prevent related forms of violence, and they may also reduce sex trafficking. States and communities can implement and evaluate efforts that:

  • Encourage healthy behaviors in relationships
  • Foster safe homes and neighborhoods
  • Identify and address vulnerabilities during health care visits
  • Reduce demand for commercial sex
  • End business profits from trafficking-related transactions

See Sex Trafficking Resources on the Sexual Violence Resources page for information about victim resources and response, training, and prevention strategies.

What are the risks and consequences?

This type of violence exploits women, men, and children across the United States and around the world. Trafficking victimization and perpetration share risks and consequences associated with child abuse and neglect, intimate partner violence, sexual violence, and gang violence.

CDC Sexual Violence Video in English

The consequences of sex trafficking are similar to the consequences of sexual violence. Consequences can be immediate and long term including physical and relationship problems, psychological concerns, and negative chronic health outcomes.

How do I Identify Human Trafficking?

Human trafficking is often "hidden in plain sight." There are a number of red flags which can help alert you to human trafficking. Recognizing the signs is the first step in identifying victims.

Some indicators concerning a potential victim include:

Behavior or Physical State:

  • Does the victim act fearful, anxious, depressed, submissive, tense, or nervous/paranoid?
  • Does the victim defer to another person to speak for him or her?
  • Does the victim show signs of physical and/or sexual abuse, physical restrain, confinement, or torture?
  • Has the victim been harmed or deprived of food, water, sleep, medical care, or other life necessities?
  • Does the victim have few or no personal possessions?

Social Behavior:

  • Can the victim freely contact friends or family?
  • Is the victim allowed to socialize or attend religious services?
  • Does the victim have freedom of movement?
  • Has the victim or family been threatened with harm if the victim?
  • Attempts to escape?

Work Conditions and Immigration Status:

  • Does the victim work excessively long and/or unusual hours?
  • Is the victim a juvenile engaged in commercial sex?
  • Was the victim recruited for one purpose and forced to engage in some other job?
  • Is the victim’s salary being garnished to pay off a smuggling fee?
  • Has the victim been forced to perform sexual acts?
  • Has the victim been threatened with deportation or law enforcement action?
  • Is the victim in possession of identification?
  • Travel documents; if not, who has control of the documents?
Homeland Security: Blue Campaign

Report Trafficking

If you or someone you know is in immediate danger, please call 911.

If you believe you may have information about a trafficking situation:

  • Call the National Human Trafficking Hotline toll-free hotline at 1-888-373-7888: Anti-Trafficking Hotline Advocates are available 24/7 to take reports of potential human trafficking.
  • Text the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 233733. Message and data rates may apply.
  • Chat the National Human Trafficking Hotline via www.humantraffickinghotline.org/chat

Tulare County Resources

Pc resources

Additional Resources:

Identifying Victims

By identifying victims and reporting tips, you are doing your part to help law enforcement/social workers rescue victims, and you might save a life. Law enforcement/social workers can connect victims to services such as medical and mental health care, shelter, job training, and legal assistance that restore their freedom and dignity.

The presence or absence of any of the indicators is not necessarily proof of human trafficking. It is up to law enforcement/social workers to investigate suspected cases of human trafficking.

This presentation has been brought to you by Porterville College Safety & Security. Please do not hesitate to contact our office if you have any questions 559-791-2440.

If you or someone you know is in immediate danger, please call 911.

If you see something, say something.

PC Stay Safe - Human Trafficking Awareness

Works Cited

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Created with images by Adrian Swancar - "I am blue" • Sebastian Pichler - "untitled image"

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