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FAMILY TRAFFICKING

FAMILY VS STRANGER TRAFFICKING

  • 16-17% of traffickers are family members 1,3

  • 50-65% of traffickers are strangers 1,2,3

  • 33% of traffickers are someone in victim’s social network 1

  1. Bouché, V. "Survivor Insights: The Role of Technology in Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking." 2018. A report for Thorn [Survey of 260 DMST survivors in helped at agencies across U.S., victims were asked “how they met their trafficker.” 50% said trafficker was a stranger to them; 33% said trafficker was part of their social network; 17% said trafficker was a family member]

  2. Kennedy, M., et al. “Routes of Recruitment: Pimps’ techniques and other circumstances that lead to street prostitution.” 2007. Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma. 15:2, 1-19 [Researchers conducted interviews of 32 women controlled currently or in the past by a pimp sex trafficker in British Columbia, Canada. 65% of the victims said their trafficker was initially a stranger]

  3. Gragg, F., Petta, I., Bernstein, H., Eisen, K., & Quinn, L. “New York Prevalence Study of Commercially Sexually Exploited Children.” 2007. A WESTAT Report prepared for the New York State Office of Children and Family Services. [In a survey of seven upstate counties and four New York City boroughs’ law enforcement agencies, researchers looked at surveyed a sample of 2,652 law-enforcement records from two months in 2006]

STRANGER VS FAMILY TRAFFICKING IN URBAN VS RURAL AREAS

There is some limited evidence that family trafficking is much more common in rural or moderately condensed population areas than in urban centers.

In one survey of four boroughs in New York City and seven counties in New York state, researchers examined 2,652 law-enforcement records from two months in 2006. As you can see, what they found was that family trafficking in ultra-condensed NYC was 1% compared to 16% in the rural/moderately condensed area of upstate New York:

FAMILY TRAFFICKING 2.jpg

  1. Gragg, F., Petta, I., Bernstein, H., Eisen, K., & Quinn, L. “New York Prevalence Study of Commercially Sexually Exploited Children.” 2007. A WESTAT Report prepared for the New York State Office of Children and Family Services. [In a survey of seven upstate counties and four New York City boroughs’ law enforcement agencies, researchers looked at surveyed a sample of 2,652 law-enforcement records from two months in 2006]

ABOUT FAMILY TRAFFICKING

Indicators in familial trafficking

  • 48% of victims reported having attempted suicide 1

  • 94% had child services involvement with a primary finding of neglect 1​

  • 86% had truancy problems or excessive absence from school 1

 

Who was the trafficker

  • 65-67% of cases the mother was the trafficker 1,2

  • 65% of cases when the mother was the trafficker, a second trafficker was involved such as mother’s boyfriend/girlfriend, acquaintance or stranger 1

  • 32% father was the trafficker 1

  • 3% other family member was the trafficker 1

 

Where the family lived 1

  • 45% in rural areas

  • 16% in micropolitan areas (Urban area with population of at least 10,000 but less than 50,000)

  • 39% in metropolitan areas (Urban area with a population of more than 50,000)

 

How were victims trafficked 1

  • 86% were forced into prostitution

  • 50% were forced into pornography

  • 18% were forced to work at strip club

 

Other information

  • 13 — Average age of those trafficked by family member 2

  • 80% of victims who were 10 years old or younger when first trafficked were forced into trafficking by a family member 3

  • 82% of parent traffickers were selling their children for drugs 1

  1. Sprang, G., and Cole, J. “Familial Sex Trafficking of Minors: Trafficking Conditions, Clinical Presentation, and System Involvement.” 2018. Journal Family Violence. 33:185–195 [Survey of 31 in a rural state who were trafficked by their families]

  2. Reid, J. “Entrapment and Enmeshment Schemes Used by Sex Traffickers.” 2016. Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment. Vol. 28(6) 491–511 [Study looked at 43 DMST females who received social services from 2007- 2012 in two Florida cities and found mothers were most commonly the traffickers in family trafficking. Also they found most victims first met non-relative trafficker at age 15]

  3. Bouché, V. "Survivor Insights: The Role of Technology in Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking." 2018. A report for Thorn [Survey of 260 DMST survivors in helped at agencies across U.S., victims were asked “how they met their trafficker.” 50% said trafficker was a stranger to them; 33% said trafficker was part of their social network; 17% said trafficker was a family member]

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