Findings from the U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline

Author: Skubak Tillyer, Marie; Smith, Michael & Tillyer, Rob

Abstract: Human trafficking is a public health crisis in the United States, yet it is difficult to understand national patterns and trends as official law enforcement data often suffer from reporting and identification issues. The purpose of this study is to describe temporal, case, and geographic patterns in human trafficking help-seeking in the United States. We analyzed data collected from individuals who contacted the U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline from January 1, 2012 to July 31, 2018. Human trafficking cases identified by the hotline increased by 165.5% during the study period. Sex trafficking cases were more prevalent than labor trafficking cases, though labor trafficking cases on average involved more victims. Among cases in crisis, the most common request was for emergency shelter. Most calls to the hotline came from relatively few high-risk counties. This study highlights how help-seeking for human trafficking in U.S. is an important dimension that sheds light on victims’ needs and service demands.

Keywords: human trafficking, help-seeking, victimization