Familial Trafficking Statistics & Frequently Asked Questions

Familial trafficking statistics cannot be discussed without first touching on child sexual abuse in the United States.

90% of sexually abused children in the United States are abused by someone they know. 
This is because sustained perpetration of sexual abuse requires frequent access to the child.  These individuals work very hard to gain the trust of the child and to normalize the sexual abuse through game-play and gift-giving.  Think of family members, family friends, neighbors, and babysitters.  Only 10% of sexually abused children will be victimized by a stranger.

What we know about familial trafficking is limited due to the secretive nature of the crime. 
We know that approximately 200,000 American children are sexually exploited annually.  Similar to child sexual abuse, 90% of commercial sexual exploitation starts within the victims’ own homes, perpetrated by a family member or close family friend.  Most of these children will be entered into commercial sexual exploitation around 5 years old, but for some it will begin as early as infancy. ¹ ⁶

33% of commercially exploited children are under the age of 12 years.² We refer to this group of children as young children, in contrast to their older peers, who are referred to as adolescents. We refer to exploited children under the age of 5 years as very young children.  Infants refers to children under the age of 1 year.  It is important to differentiate exploitation by age group, as the typology of the crime changes after children reach middle and high school.

When we look at exploitation of adults, only 9% are trafficked by family members.²  Exploitation of young children, however, is highly likely to be committed by the hands of a family member because it requires sustained access to the child.  Approximately 90% of exploited young children are being trafficked by an adult family member.  These children are most likely to report being coerced through psychological means, as opposed to physical abuse.  Approximately 10% of these children report being drugged as a means to facilitate the abuse.    

These young children typically attend school, church, and participate in extracurricular activities, as perpetrators strive to maintain a shroud of normalcy in order to continue the exploitation. Due to the fact that the children are neither missing nor kidnapped, they are likely to remain unidentified as needing assistance throughout their formative years. In fact, most will continue contact with their trafficker well into adulthood.

Typology of a Perpetrator
Typical familial exploiters are not criminal in their appearance.  Often they are highly respected members of their communities.  They seek positions of authority, respect, and power.  They are often friendly, gregarious, and extroverted.  They love to be loved.¹  They are the definition of sociopaths and narcissists.  And they are mothers, fathers, and grandparents.

What do traffickers look like?  
Traffickers look like regular people.  Look at your community.  The traffickers in your community will fit in and be well liked.    

Why is it so hard to find these children?
Even after explicit abuse ends, approximately 60% of familial exploitation victims continue to have contact with their trafficker into adulthood.  For these individuals, untangling themselves from their original abuser is often a tricky and dangerous situation.  The trafficker has taken advantage of an inherent power imbalance by controlling, manipulating, and grooming their victims through extensive psychological and physical abuse since they were very young children.  The victims believe keeping the abuse a secret is in their own best interest and oftentimes they believe they are protecting other loved ones from abuse.  It is typical for a trafficker to only choose one of their children to abuse and threaten the safety of the non-abused sibling in order to ensure silence and compliance from the victim. 

The trafficker goes to great lengths to let the victim know that little can be done to escape their wrath, should the victim decide to cease contact or report to authorities. In fact, it is common for the victims to be so traumatized that they develop a type of dissociative disorder, keeping the abuse a secret from even themselves until the safety of adulthood.

Traffickers commonly tell children that telling will cause them to be separated from the rest of the family.  The children are told that the family cannot survive without the trafficker.  That the children will not survive in foster care.  That they will end up homeless, or, worse, placed in jail themselves.  The children end up being more afraid of the system that is setup to protect them, than of their own abusive caregivers.  The devil you know is much less scary than the devil you do not know.

Most exploited children are confused by another form of abuse - gaslighting.  Gaslighting is a particularly heinous form of mental abuse where the truth is twisted, causing the children to doubt their own memories and sanity.  Being told they were dreaming and suffering from mental or physical illness are very common lies traffickers use to control children through confusion.

These forms of mental abuse continue into adulthood.  Survivors grow up feeling like the family outcast.  If they do tell, they will be essentially shunned by the rest of the family.  The family will work hard so that the adult survivor is alienated and not believed by the community by perpetuating rumors about mental health issues, problems with substance abuse, and issues with telling the truth.  Family members often do this because they have internalized the lies of the trafficker.  Like the rest of the community, they are often blind to these crimes, even though they are occurring under their own roof.

Why do families exploit their children?
While children in third-world countries are often exploited for financial reasons due to impoverished conditions, it is much more difficult to understand why children would be trafficked by families here in the United States.  These caregivers are motivated by power, control, and admiration, not finances.  A small amount may have ties to gang or mafia control, but that seems rare.  More so, they are tied to well respected leaders in the community.  They do what they do because they like it, because they choose to do it, and not because they are out of options.  In fact, in about 20% of cases, it can actually become a family business, a culture that ends up being passed down from generation to generation.  In 50% of cases, one of the parents, if not the trafficker themselves, have a history of childhood sexual abuse, which can lead to the belief that this sort of behavior is normal.

Who is buying the children?
From what is known about individuals who purchase sex from children or consume child pornography, 96% are male.¹  They are approximately 40-years-old, married with their own children, and have an average annual income of $78,000.¹

How can we find these children?
Due to manipulation, strong ties with respected community members, and parental efforts to appear normal, child victims of familial trafficking are very difficult to identify.³  Educating yourself to the subtle signs of childhood sexual abuse, extreme trauma, and ACE scores will go a long way in opening your eyes.  Pay attention to the child with attention and learning difficulties, who complains of difficulty sleeping, stomach aches, throat aches, and has a subtle aversion to one of their caregivers.  Pay attention to the caregiver who insists on being present during therapy or medical appointments.  Make the call to social services and get the child the help that they need.  Breaking the myth that nice parents and grandparents do not traffic children, goes a long way  to opening eyes to potential problems.  One person can make a huge difference in an abused child’s life. 

What about the non-abusive family members?
While not all family members may be explicitly abusing the child, we do see a spectrum of complicity and enabling that occurs within the family unit.  Sometimes members are fully aware of the abuse that the child is experiencing, sometimes they are partially aware, other times not at all.  This spectrum causes the adult survivor much angst and confusion.  They struggle with the questions, Who knew? How much did they know? Who could have helped and looked the other way instead? Are the enablers just as guilty as the perpetrator?

Where does the exploitation occur?
While the media likes to promote the idea that there are trafficking hotspots, realistically, trafficking occurs wherever there are people. Trafficking hotspots usually represent a spike in reporting following training and education for first responders or other community members.  To demonstrate the insidiousness of child trafficking venues, here is a list of locations given by survivors. This, combined with the fact that traffickers try very hard to appear normal, is why human trafficking is referred to as a crime hidden in plain sight.

How do we help these children?
Identifying the children who are being victimized by sexual exploitation is only the first step.  The children have an extensive process ahead of them before they are actually free of the abuse.  Indeed, healing can be a lifelong commitment.  Education on familial trafficking is needed for those who come into frequent contact with children.  Teachers, counselors, coaches, pediatricians, pastors, and school nurses are extremely likely to come across child trafficking victims on a frequent basis and not realize it.  Targeted training is suggested for day care providers, preschools, elementary schools, and special education settings, as well as social service, dental, and pediatric medical providers.  

https://www.elijahrising.org/blog/familialtraffickingfbclid=IwAR0dXcb3yJ8YsXbcMDRBbO1lnthtuAaUHVKj#8230
https://www.iom.int/sites/default/files/our_work/DMM/MAD/Counter-trafficking%20Data%20Brief%20081 217.pdf
https://www.exploitnomore.org/blog/typologies-familial-trafficking
https://www.dressember.org/blog/breaking-down-the-myth-why-familial-human-trafficking-goes-unnoticed