Overview:
Human trafficking is reputed to be one of the most profitable endeavors of organized crime and the fastest growing; an endeavor which enslaves thousands of people within our borders each year and perhaps millions outside those borders. It is a crime of increasing proportions, fully repugnant to American beliefs; a crime that preys on the world's most vulnerable people.

The crime of human trafficking is slavery. It is the sexual exploitation of children for commercial purposes; it is compelling people to labor or provide services through force, fraud, or coercion, whether citizens, legal residents, or persons having entered the country illegally. It is also taking from a person his or her travel documents (passports and or visas, whether authentic or forged) to compel that person's labor or services.

The United States is generally a destination for trafficking victims who are recruited in their home countries and transported through other countries. But movement is not required for human trafficking to occur. Many U.S. citizens are trafficked, usually run-away teenage girls, who are preyed upon by pimps and trafficked for prostitution. The Department of Justice has included investigating human trafficking among its top priorities.

Federal Legislation:
Congress has passed and Presidents have signed into law, "The Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000" (P.L. 106-386), which was reauthorized in 2003, 2005, and 2008 by the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) of 2003 (P.L. 108-193), the TVPRA of 2005 (P.L. 109-164), and the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 (P.L. 110-457). The TVPA and its reauthorizations seek to combat human trafficking by punishing traffickers, protecting victims, and mobilizing U.S. government agencies to wage a global anti-trafficking campaign. These Acts contain significant mandates for the U.S. Departments of State, Justice, Labor, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

The TVPA includes two forms of severe trafficking: sex trafficking and labor trafficking. TVPA defines "severe forms of trafficking" as:

• Sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such an act has not attained 18 years of age.
• The recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery.

State Legislation:
Since 2002, when the State of Washington enacted the first state human trafficking criminal statute, more than three-fourths of the states have passed legislation making human trafficking a felony offense. In addition, when the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 becomes effective later in 2009, Human Trafficking will be classified as a Part I Crime in the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) Uniform Crime Reports. Tracking human trafficking as a Part I Crime reflects the growth throughout the U.S. of this offense.

BJA Anti-Human Trafficking Efforts:
In Summer 2004 following the First National Human Trafficking Conference, the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) began building on Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) efforts to assist victims of trafficking in persons. While the TVPA provides for services to foreign victims of trafficking and prosecution of human trafficking at the federal level, it is often local law enforcement personnel who initially encounter victims of trafficking in the course of their daily operations. Local law enforcement agencies may often uncover trafficking situations when making routine service calls for aggravated assault, domestic disturbance, battery, and other crimes. Therefore, local-level policing that is informed about victim identification and the available victim services, when combined with federal investigative capacity and coordinated with the U.S. Attorney's Office, presents a formidable force for the investigation and prosecution of human trafficking.

To combat human trafficking, BJA's efforts have been two-pronged: 1) to develop training for law enforcement and communities to identify trafficking in persons and rescue victims by working with federal law enforcement and victims service providers; and 2) to support and fund task forces (in coordination with OVC and HHS) based on a sound strategy of collaboration among state and local enforcement, trafficking victim services providers, federal law enforcement, and U.S. Attorneys Offices.

Accomplishments:
By June 30, 2008, the 42 BJA/OVC-funded task forces had identified 3,336 persons as potential victims of human trafficking and had requested either continued presence or endorsed T-visa applications for 397 of those potential victims. The task forces also trained 85,685 law enforcement officers and others in identifying the signs of human trafficking and its victims. Currently BJA in coordination with OVC is funding 40 Anti-Human Trafficking Task Forces.

Ongoing Efforts and Next Steps:
BJA is now working with a variety of organizations to provide technical assistance and training to improve the abilities of task forces to: 1) identify and rescue victims; 2) proactively investigate trafficking and successfully prosecute traffickers; and 3) to raise the awareness of communities to the menace of trafficking and the plight of its victims.

Presently BJA provides immersion training to task forces conducted by leadership task forces. Leadership task forces are Clearwater, Florida; Harris County, Texas; and Seattle, Washington. These task forces have developed effective proactive investigation strategies and have agreed to share their expertise with other task forces to collectively improve identification and rescue of victims of human trafficking. In addition, a new Advanced Anti-Human Trafficking Training course is under development.

Resources in the Fight against Human Trafficking:
The Institute for Intergovernmental Research developed a train-the-trainer curriculum for law enforcement about identifying and rescuing victims of human trafficking, and is now taught by the Upper Midwestern Community Policing Institute.

Suspected incidents of trafficking can be reported to the Department of Justice Trafficking in Persons and Worker Exploitation Task Force Complaint Line at: 1-888-428-7581 or by contacting your local FBI office.

In addition, the Department of Health and Human Services maintains, through the Polaris Project, the National Human Trafficking Resource Center (NHTRC), which operates 24-hours, 7-days-a-week and can be reached at 1-888-3737-888.

Additional resources:
Department of Justice's What We Do web site: Fight Trafficking in Persons
Office for Victims of Crime: Help for Victims of Trafficking
Department of Health and Human Services: The Campaign to Rescue and Restore Victims of Human Trafficking
Department of Labor: Bureau of International Labor Affairs
Department of Defense: Combating Trafficking in Persons Awareness Training
International Association of Chiefs of Police: Police Response to Violence Against Women (supported by the Office on Violence Against Women)

Research and Publications:
National Institute of Justice Human Trafficking research projects
State Department Annual Trafficking in Persons Report (2001-2009)
Department of Justice Civil Rights Division's Trafficking In Persons Guide for Non-Governmental Organizations

BJA Anti-Human Trafficking Task Forces and Program Solicitations:
BJA has issued four competitive solicitations that have led to the funding of 40 Anti-Human Trafficking Task Forces.

• BJA 2004 Human Trafficking Task Force Initiative solicitation: 22 Task Forces funded
• BJA 2005 Joint Call for Concept Papers with OVC: 10 Task Forces funded
• BJA 2006 Joint Human Trafficking Task Force Initiative solicitatiom with OVC: 10 Task Forces funded
• BJA 2008 Human Trafficking Task Force solicitation: 3 Task Forces funded (replacing three whose grants had expired)
  To fund three additional task forces in 2008, BJA sought nominations from U.S. Attorneys Offices in jurisdictions without an existing task force. The first step in the application process was a commitment from the U.S. Attorneys Office to work with the BJA law enforcement applicant and an OVC victim services applicant to form a task force. Once BJA received letters of commitment, 12 law enforcement agencies were invited to apply. Ten applied to BJA, along with 10 victim services organizations that applied for the OVC parallel grant. Three BJA applicants and three OVC applicants were selected for funding.

Related Resources:

• Center for Women Policy Studies: BJA provides funding to support the National Institute on State Policy on Trafficking of Women and Girls, which assists states with formulating effective human trafficking policy and legislation.
• Institute for Intergovernmental Research (IIR): IIR developed a train-the-trainers human trafficking awareness and victim identification curricula for law enforcement trainers, which is delivered through Regional Community Policy Institutes, and provides technical support to the six Regional Information Sharing System (RISS) Centers.
• Shared Hope International (SHI): SHI assisted 10 Human Trafficking Task Forces funded in 2006 by assessing of their capabilities to assist domestic trafficked minors and providing training materials and recommendations to assist task forces in serving this population.
• Upper Midwest Community Policing Institute (UMCPI): UMCPI has developed a human trafficking immersion training program for BJA/OVC-funded Human Trafficking Task Forces in coordination with other Regional Community Policing Institutes, and BJA has designated three human trafficking task forces as leadership sites by BJA.
• Hispanic Communications Network (HCN): The Self Reliance Foundation in coordination with HCN is developing and delivering an outreach campaign, utilizing HCN's extensive Hispanic media, to increase the awareness of the Spanish-speaking population to the dangers of human trafficking and recognizing those persons in the community who may be victims of trafficking in persons.
• OVC Training and Technical Assistance Center (OVCTTAC): OVCTTAC provides training and technical assistance (TTA) to victim service providers and allied professionals. TTAC is assisting BJA and OVC in developing TTA resources for human trafficking task force training and in coordinating federal human trafficking training resources.

Contact Information:
David Adams, Senior Policy Advisor
202-514-5309
E-mail: david.adams@usdoj.gov

Lon McDougal, Policy Advisor
202-307-3678
E-mail: lonnie.r.mcdougal@usdoj.gov