Human Trafficking By the Numbers

From the Bureau of Justice Statistics:

• Federally funded task forces opened 2,515 suspected incidents of human trafficking for investigation between January 2008 and June 2010.

• Federal agencies were more likely to lead labor trafficking investigations (29%) than sex trafficking investigations (7%).

• Among the 389 incidents confirmed to be human trafficking by high data quality task forces.

• There were 488 suspects and 527 victims.

• More than half (62%) of the confirmed labor trafficking victims were age 25 or older, compared to 13% of confirmed sex trafficking victims.

• Confirmed sex trafficking victims were more likely to be white (26%) or black (40%), compared to labor trafficking victims, who were more likely to be Hispanic (63%) or Asian (17%).

• Four-fifths of victims (83%) in confirmed sex trafficking incidents were identified as U.S. citizens, while most confirmed labor trafficking victims were identified as undocumented aliens (67%) or qualified aliens (28%).

• Most confirmed human trafficking suspects were male (81%). More than half (62%) of confirmed sex trafficking suspects were identified as black, while confirmed labor trafficking suspects were more likely to be identified as Hispanic (48%).

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