Myths & Facts

(Polaris Project, National Human Trafficking Hotline, U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, DHS Blue Campaign)

    Myth: It’s always or usually a violent crime.

Fact: By far the most pervasive myth about human trafficking is that it always – or often – involves kidnapping or otherwise physically forcing someone into a situation. In reality, most human traffickers use psychological means such as tricking, defrauding, manipulating or threatening victims into providing commercial sex or exploitative labor.

    Myth: Individuals must be forced or coerced into commercial sex acts to be victims of human trafficking.

Fact: Under U.S. federal law, any minor under the age of 18 who is induced to perform commercial sex acts is a victim of human trafficking, regardless of whether he, she or they are forced or coerced.

    Myth: All human trafficking involves commercial sex.

Fact: Human trafficking is the use of force, fraud or coercion to get another person to provide labor or commercial sex. Worldwide, experts believe there are more situations of labor trafficking than of sex trafficking. However, there is much wider awareness of sex trafficking in the United States than of labor trafficking. Labor trafficking victims are found in legitimate and illegitimate labor industries, including sweatshops, massage parlors, agriculture, restaurants, hotels, and domestic service.

    Myth: Only undocumented foreign nationals get trafficked in the United States.

Fact: Polaris has worked on thousands of cases of trafficking involving foreign national survivors who are legally living and/or working in the United States. These include survivors of both sex and labor trafficking.

    Myth: Human Trafficking does not occur in the United States. It only happens in other countries.

Fact: Human trafficking exists in every country, including the United States. It exists nationwide—in cities, suburbs, and rural towns—and possibly in your own community.

    Myth: Human trafficking victims are only foreign-born individuals and those who are poor.

Fact: Human trafficking victims can be any age, race, gender, or nationality. They may come from any socioeconomic group. A socioeconomic group is the social standing or class of an individual or group. It is often measured as a combination of education, income and occupation.

    Myth: Human trafficking only happens in illegal or underground industries.

Fact: Human trafficking cases have been reported and prosecuted in industries including restaurants, cleaning services, construction, factories and more.

    Myth: Only women and girls can be victims and survivors of sex trafficking.

Fact: One study estimates that as many as half of sex trafficking victims and survivors are male. Advocates believe that percentage may be even higher, but that male victims are far less likely to be identified. LGBTQ2S+ boys and young men are seen as particularly vulnerable to trafficking.

    Myth: Human trafficking involves moving, traveling or transporting a person across state or national borders.

Fact: Human trafficking is often confused with human smuggling, which involves illegal border crossings. In fact, the crime of human trafficking does not require any movement whatsoever. Survivors can be recruited and trafficked in their own hometowns, even their own homes.

    Myth: All commercial sex is human trafficking.

Fact: All commercial sex involving a minor is legally considered human trafficking. Commercial sex involving an adult is human trafficking if the person providing commercial sex is doing so against his/her/their will as a result of force, fraud or coercion.

    Myth: If the trafficked person consented to be in their initial situation, then it cannot be human trafficking or against their will because they “knew better”.

Fact: Initial consent to commercial sex or a labor setting prior to acts of force, fraud, or coercion (or if the victim is a minor in a sex trafficking situation) is not relevant to the crime, nor is payment.

    Myth: People being trafficked are physically unable to leave their situations/locked in/held against their will.

Fact: That is sometimes the case. More often, however, people in trafficking situations stay for reasons that are more complicated. Some lack the necessities to physically get out – such as transportation or a safe place to live. Some are afraid for their safety. Some have been so effectively manipulated that they do not identify at that point as being under the control of another person.

    Myth: Labor trafficking is only or primarily a problem in developing countries.

Fact: Labor trafficking occurs in the United States and in other developed countries but is reported at lower rates than sex trafficking.

    Myth: Traffickers target victims they don’t know.

Fact: Many survivors have been trafficked by romantic partners, including spouses, and by family members, including parents.

    Myth: People in active trafficking situations always want help getting out

Fact: Every trafficking situation is unique and self-identification as a trafficking victim or survivor happens along a continuum. Fear, isolation, guilt, shame, misplaced loyalty and expert manipulation are among the many factors that may keep a person from seeking help or identifying as a victim even if they are, in fact, being actively trafficked. They may be forced or coerced through threats or violence; they may fear retribution from traffickers, including danger to their families; and they may not be in possession of or have control of their identification documents.

    Myth: Human trafficking and human smuggling are the same.

Fact: Human trafficking is not the same as smuggling. “Trafficking” is based on exploitation and does not require movement across borders. “Smuggling” is based on movement and involves moving a person across a country’s border with that person’s consent in violation of immigration laws. Although human smuggling is very different from human trafficking, human smuggling can turn into trafficking if the smuggler uses force, fraud, or coercion to hold people against their will for the purposes of labor or sexual exploitation. Under federal law, every minor induced to engage in commercial sex is a victim of human trafficking.

    Myth: Human trafficking is only a criminal issue, not a human rights issue.

Fact: Human trafficking is a violation of human rights. It involves the exploitation and abuse of individuals, depriving them of their freedom and dignity. Addressing human trafficking requires both legal measures and a human rights perspective.