Anyone can be a victim of human trafficking, though some populations of individuals, given their positions in society, are more vulnerable to trafficking. These populations include:

In the 2020 Global Report on Trafficking in Persons, the United Nations provided demographic statistics of trafficking victims as found in 2018 UNODC national data collection. From this data, the UN reports that about 46% of trafficking victims were identified as women and 19% as girls. Victims identified as children compromised 1 out of 3 victims of human trafficking. Though women and girls make up the majority of trafficking victims, men accounted for 20% of victims.

Men and women often are subjected to different types of exploitation. Generally, women and girls are more likely to be trafficked for sexually exploitative reasons while men and boys are more likely to be trafficked for forced labor. However, men and boys can and are still victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation and women and girls can and are trafficked for forced labor purposes as well. 

Minimal data is available regarding the trafficking of transgender individuals and those who are of a gender minority. The limited data that is available indicates that these individuals face particular vulnerability to trafficking, especially sex trafficking of transgender women and girls.

For additional information on vulnerable populations, please see the following articles and fact sheets:

– Sex Trafficking of LGBT Individuals: A Call for Service Provision, Research, and Action

– Vulnerability of LGBT individuals to Human Trafficking

– Vulnerability of Indigenous Persons to Human Trafficking

– Vulnerability of Persons with Disabilities to Human Trafficking

– The Intersection Between Environmental Degradation and Human Trafficking

– Human Trafficking and Minorities: Vulnerability Compounded by Discrimination

–The Connection Between Foster Care and Human Trafficking

A trafficker may work alone, in a small criminal group, or in a large-scale organized crime network.   Their scale of operation can range from victimizing one individual to large groups. Frequently a trafficker is someone whom the victim knows on a personal basis, such as a family member, friend, romantic partner, or community member. Traffickers often have the same nationality as their victims.

Contrary to the common conception that men are the primary traffickers, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has found that in some parts of the world women play a more prominent role in human trafficking. This may be because former victims become perpetrators as a means of escaping their own enslavement, or because women are more successful as recruiters and traffickers, as they are more likely to be trusted and less likely to be suspected of the crime.

Human Traffickers who have been prosecuted around the world have included:

Each case of human trafficking is unique. Whether the human trafficker is an individual acting alone or part of a larger organization, they reap financial gain from their victim through force, fraud, or coercion.

While it is true that traffickers sometimes forcibly kidnap their victims, this is not the most common way in which an individual becomes a victim of human trafficking. More frequently, traffickers manipulate and take advantage of an individual’s particular vulnerability in order to establish coercive control. For example, they may influence their victim with the false incentive of a job or better living conditions. In manipulating individuals’ vulnerabilities, traffickers will often also use physical force to establish dominance and control.

Traffickers use a variety of tactics to intimidate and control their victims, including:

*Image created by Human Trafficking Search. Content Credit: NHTH.

Human trafficking can happen anywhere, both domestically and across international borders. Countries are commonly categorized as origin, transit, and destination countries, and a specific country can fall into one, two, or all three of these categories.  India, for example, is an origin, transit, and destination country.  For more detailed country profiles, check out the U.S. State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report.

While they often overlap, there are several differences between human trafficking and migrant smuggling. Migrant smuggling involves aiding an individual to cross international borders illegally. Human trafficking is controlling and exploiting a human being for profit. Some important differences include: